Short Answer
Money flows toward value creation (clarity, reduced friction, and certainty) and away from effort. It rewards systems that remove risk, save time, and provide predictable outcomes, regardless of the labor intensity required to build them.
Why This Matters
Effort is invisible to the market; only outcomes are legible. When you remove friction—whether cognitive (confusion), temporal (time-wasting), or risk-based—you create a natural slope for resources to move toward you. This mechanism explains why "working harder" often yields diminishing returns while "working smarter" (increasing leverage) compounds wealth. Money is not a reward for virtue; it is a signal of resolved tension.
Where This Changes
However, this does not mean effort is unnecessary. Effort must be applied to building leverage (code, media, capital, systems), not just performing linear labor. Without a mechanism to capture value—like a product, a brand, or a system—creating value alone generates goodwill but not personal wealth. Additionally, in highly regulated or distorted markets, money may temporarily flow toward opacity or coercion, but this is unstable compared to value-driven flow.