work.htm

Notes on Work

Paul Graham (How to Do Great Work)

Formulas for meaningful work:

• Reading + People + Writing = New Ideas
• Trying + Time = Interests (Multiplier if you're younger)
• Interest + Hard Work + Luck = Results

Main Ideas:

• The way to figure out what to work on is by working. It's okay to guess wrong. In fact, it's better to know multiple things and make connections
• To know what to work on, you need to ask yourself what are you curious to a degree that would bore most other people
  • Once you find that thing, learn enough to get to the frontiers of knowledge
  • These frontiers of knowledge look abstract from afar; but once you learn enough about a subject you'll find many gaps in research; areas ripe for you to explore
  • The four steps are: choose a field, learn enough to get to the frontier, notice gaps, explore promising ones
  • Interest will drive you to do something impressive
• Ambition can come before you learn something, or can come as you learn more about it
• If you don't know what to work on; take chance meetings, make yourself a big target for luck. Try lots of things, meet people, read books, ask questions
• A field should become increasingly interesting to you as you learn more about it
  • If you like areas that are deemed as tedious then its a good sign
• When working, you should do the things you'd want to consume, read, or use; don't write for a seemingly abstract audience
• Beware of pretentiousness, fashion, fear, money, politices, other people's wishes, and eminent frauds. Stick to what you find interesting
• The key recipe is: work hard on excitingly ambitious projects and something good will come out of it
  • Don't plan too much; naiveté can be good, specially when you're younger
  • At each stage, do whatever seems more interesting and gives you options for the future
• Try to arrange your life so that you have contiguous blocks of time to work in; otherwise you can shy away from hard tasks
• Work has some activation energy; when you want to get started, do the least amount of work possible and let the compounding energy drive you. Its okay to lie to get you going
• Try to finish what you start ; even if it turns out to be more work than expected. The last bits of a project can include the best work
• Ask yourself: am I working on what I most want to work on? Ok if not when young, dangerous when older
• Great work happens by focusing consistently on something you're interested in
  • It compounds over time
  • You can learn more easily as you learn more about a subject
• Cultivate your taste in work done in your field.
  • What makes great work? What makes it so?
  • This is what you're aiming for
• If you don't try to be the best, you won't even be good
  • Errors in ambition happen in one direction - miss by falling short
  • Being "good" can be too vague of a standard
  • It can be easier to be the best than only to be good
• Aim to do something people will care about in 100 years
  • If something still seems good it's worth doing
• Be earnest; avoid affectation
  • Affectation = pretending someone other than you is doing the work; adopting a fake persona
  • Earnestness = being intellectually honest, have a sharp eye for the truth; admit when you make a mistake
• Preserve the nerd
  • Keep the innocent boldness from childhood
  • Put things out there instead of criticizing others
  • Be informal, spend little effort seeming anything other than what you are. Basically a nerd.
• Originality isn't a process, but a habit of mind
  • Original ideas come from trying to build or understand something slightly too difficult
  • Writing about ideas helps you create a sort of vacuum that drives more ideas out of you
  • Changing your context can help; visiting new places or going for a walk
• Don't divide your attention too thinly; be professionally curious about a few topics and idly curious about many more

28 Letters from John D. Rockerfeller to His Son

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