At one point or another, most of us have been accused of not trying our hardest, and most of us have leveled similar accusations at others. The disputes that result are often intractable and raise difficult questions about effort, ability, and will. This essay addresses some of these questions by examining six representative cases in which the accusation is leveled. The questions discussed include (1) what trying one's hardest involves, and (2) the conditions under which complaints about lack of effort are true, and (3) how much their truth matters. One conclusion that emerges is that both the relevant form of effort and the impediments to making it can vary greatly, while another is that trying one's hardest is less important than trying as hard as one could reasonably be expected to try.

中文翻译：

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你没有尝试

在某一时刻，我们中的大多数人都被指责没有尽最大努力，我们中的大多数人也对其他人提出了类似的指责。由此产生的争议往往是棘手的，并提出有关努力、能力和意志的难题。本文通过研究六个具有代表性的指控被提出的案例来解决其中的一些问题。讨论的问题包括 (1) 最努力的尝试包括什么，以及 (2) 抱怨缺乏努力的条件是真实的，以及 (3) 他们的真实有多重要。出现的一个结论是，相关的努力形式和实现努力的障碍都可能有很大差异，而另一个结论是，尽最大努力努力不如尽合理预期努力那么重要。