I wonder what the relationship is between the seemingly negative results you cite from praising hard work and the popular claim lately (and one backed by some studies, e.g. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130212075109.ht...) that children who are praised for effort rather than skill are , in fact, more likely to be successful.
Praising children for effort rather than skill encourages them to work towards goals rather than attempting to rely on some sort of innate ability that adults have convinced them that they have (i.e. never putting effort towards learning good study habits because you're 'smart').
In the case of 'the Japanese,' putting in long hours at the office is the only metric that they use to measure effort. This also affects sleeping patterns, which affects performance. Children aren't working 80+ hour weeks that could be mostly unproductive and losing valuable sleep.
[ Also, you have to be cognisant of the fact that adults are different than children. If a 4-year-old worked for hours on a project unproductively, you acknowledge that they put in a lot of effort, but you accept that they are still a child. If a 40-year-old is beating their head against a wall unproductively for hours, and continues to do so, you may look on their problem-solving skills poorly. ]
Exactly my reaction. I think what it boils down to is that the effort has to be real effort [whatever that actually means...]. From what teek delineates it seems to me that "the Japanese" see long hours equal to effort and thus do not pay any further attention concerning what they're actually doing.
