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Talent, hard work and Dutch Disease

10 October 2025|

“Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.” This is one of my favorite aphorisms, and that’s because I’ve seen examples of it in action in so many different areas of life. Across the sports we love, I’m sure we can all think of a player who took the world by storm but eventually faded away. Or even peers in school who were brilliant at understanding what was taught in class but never got around to doing the assignments. Just like these examples, there are ‘talented’ countries that, for various reasons or a series of unfortunate circumstances, fall short of their potential despite or even because of their significant natural gifts. In economics we call this phenomenon ‘Dutch Disease’ or the

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