effort might mean going against the flow, so if you go where the resistance is the smallest that is likely your niche

of course this might need some tweaking, because if someone is really good at pickpocketing maybe some effort would put them on a much better long-term trajectory?

If so, what does it mean that "nature makes no effort" but humans do? Is the claim then that non-humans are literally incapable of "going against the flow"? Is it a religious argument, about us having some mental/metaphysical capacity that nothing else in nature has?