#314 Paul Graham (How To Do Great Work)

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Jul 31, 2023

Discover the secrets to doing great work by aligning your passions and skills. Paul Graham discusses how excitement and genuine interest can guide you towards impactful projects. The journey of self-discovery is highlighted, emphasizing that true fulfillment often arises from years of exploration and hard work. With examples from Mark Twain and Steve Jobs, the conversation encourages embracing change and curiosity. Surrounding yourself with inspired peers can also elevate your creative endeavors, proving that innovation comes from collaboration and playing to your strengths.

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ADVICE

Choosing Work

Choose work based on aptitude and deep interest, not perceived importance.
Focus on creating amazing work and let future generations judge its significance.

ADVICE

Learning by Doing

Figure out what to work on by working on things.
Don't let work mean something that other people tell you to do.

INSIGHT

Discovering Passion

Few people discover work they love due to societal pressures and misconceptions.
Most people accept "work equals pain" or chase prestige/money instead of passion.

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Against the Odds: An Autobiography

Sir James Dyson

This book details Dyson's journey from his early life to the development of his revolutionary bagless vacuum cleaner. It includes his struggles, legal battles, and eventual success after finding support in Japan. The book also critiques various aspects of the British education system and industry.

A mathematician's apology

G. H. Hardy

In 'A Mathematician's Apology,' G.H. Hardy presents a justification for the study of mathematics as an end in itself, rather than for its practical applications. Written in 1940, the book is part autobiography and part philosophical treatise, where Hardy argues that the beauty and elegance of pure mathematics, particularly in number theory, justify its pursuit. He contrasts pure mathematics with applied mathematics, which he sees as less elegant and often trivial. Hardy also reflects on his own career, acknowledging that his creative mathematical abilities were waning at the time of writing. The book is a passionate defense of the value of mathematics as a creative and intellectual endeavor[2][4][5].

Lighting out for the territory

How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain

Roy Morris, Jr.

This book chronicles the nearly six-year odyssey of Samuel Clemens from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Hawaii, including his time in Nevada Territory and San Francisco. It details his adventures, self-discovery, and the events that led him to become America's most beloved writer. With a blend of humor and critical authority, Roy Morris Jr. separates fact from fiction to tell the story of Twain's early career and personal growth during the Civil War era.

How To Do Great Work

Paul Graham

In 'How To Do Great Work,' Paul Graham explores the intersection of techniques for doing great work in different fields. He argues that great work happens at the intersection of what you're good at, what you care about, and what the world needs. The essay emphasizes the role of curiosity, delight, and the desire to do something impressive as key motives. Graham advises readers to choose fields they are deeply interested in, learn enough to reach the frontier of knowledge, notice gaps, and explore promising areas. He also stresses the importance of consistency, intellectual honesty, and a willingness to take risks and admit mistakes.

What I learned from reading How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham.

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(2:00) All you need to do is find something you have an aptitude for and great interest in.

(2:10) Doing great work means doing something important so well that you expand people's ideas of what's possible.

(4:15) How many even discover something they love to work on? A few hundred thousand, perhaps, out of billions. —How to Do What You Love by Paul Graham

(5:10) Always preserve excitingness. (Let what you are excited about guide you)

(8:15) If you're excited about some possibility that everyone else ignores, and you have enough expertise to say precisely what they're all overlooking, that's as good a bet as you'll find.

(9:15) How To Work Hard by Paul Graham

(10:05) When you follow what you are intensely interested in this strange convergence happens where you're working all the time and it feels like you're never working.

(10:20) You can't tell what most kinds of work are like except by doing them. You may have to work at something for years before you know how much you like it or how good you are at it.

(13:00) When it comes to figuring out what to work on, you're on your own.

(14:00) Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris Jr. (Founders #312)

(17:15) One sign that you're suited for some kind of work is when you like even the parts that other people find tedious or frightening.

(17:50) Make what you are most excited about.

(19:00) If you're interested, you're not astray.

(19:30) Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300)

(20:15) At each stage do whatever seems most interesting and gives you the best options for the future. I call this approach "staying upwind." This is how most people who've done great work seem to have done it.

(22:50) In many projects a lot of the best work happens in what was meant to be the final stage.

(25:00) A Mathematician’s Apology by G.H. Hardy

(26:00) Great work usually entails spending what would seem to most people an unreasonable amount of time on a problem.

(26:30) The reason we're surprised is that we underestimate the cumulative effect of work. Writing a page a day doesn't sound like much, but if you do it every day you'll write a book a year. That's the key: consistency. People who do great things don't get a lot done every day. They get something done, rather than nothing.

(27:10) Something that grows exponentially can become so valuable that it's worth making an extraordinary effort to get it started.

(27:30) Taylor Swift (Acquired’s Version)

(30:00) If you don't try to be the best, you won't even be good. This observation has been made by so many people in so many different fields that it might be worth thinking about why it's true.

(36:00) Originality isn't a process, but a habit of mind. Original thinkers throw off new ideas about whatever they focus on.

(38:00) Change breaks the brittle.

(43:45) What might seem to be merely the initial step — deciding what to work on — is in a sense the key to the whole game.

(45:00) Being prolific is underrated. + Examples of outlandishly prolific people

(48:30) Just focus on the really important things and ignore everything else.

(50:30) One of the most powerful kinds of copying is to copy something from one field into another. History is so full of chance discoveries of this type that it's probably worth giving chance a hand by deliberately learning about other kinds of work. You can take ideas from quite distant fields if you let them be metaphors.

(51:30) Seek out the best colleagues.

(54:30) Solving hard problems will always involve some backtracking.

(56:30) Don't marry someone who doesn't understand that you need to work, or sees your work as competition for your attention. If you're ambitious, you need to work; it's almost like a medical condition; so someone who won't let you work either doesn't understand you, or does and doesn't care.

(57:50) The prestige of a type of work is at best a trailing indicator and sometimes completely mistaken. If you do anything well enough, you'll make it prestigious.

(58:00) Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what's worth paying attention to.

If you asked an oracle the secret to doing great work and the oracle replied with a single word, my bet would be on "curiosity."

The whole process is a kind of dance with curiosity.

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work. Get access to Founders Notes here.

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Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast