added by Ajinkya Wadhwa and ยท updated 8mo ago
Early Work
- One way to do it is to study the histories of people who've done great work.
from Early Work by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- Another common trick is to start by considering new work to be of a different, less exacting type. To start a painting saying that it's just a sketch, or a new piece of software saying that it's just a quick hack. Then you judge your initial results by a lower standard. Once the project is rolling you can sneakily convert it to something more.
from Early Work by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- Imagine if we could turn off the fear of making something lame. Imagine how much more we'd do.
from Early Work by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- For some it might work to rely on sheer discipline: to tell yourself that you just have to press on through the initial crap phase and not get discouraged. But like a lot of "just tell yourself" advice, this is harder than it sounds. And it gets still harder as you get older, because your standards rise. The old do have one compensating advantage t... See more
from Early Work by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- Perhaps if you study enough such cases, you can teach yourself to be a better judge of early work. Then you'll be immune both to other people's skepticism and your own fear of making something lame. You'll see early work for what it is.
from Early Work by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- The thing you're trying to trick yourself into believing is in fact the truth. A lame-looking early version of an ambitious project truly is more valuable than it seems. So the ultimate solution may be to teach yourself that.
from Early Work by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- It will be easier to try out a risky project if you think of it as a way to learn and not just as a way to make something. Then even if the project truly is a failure, you'll still have gained by it.
from Early Work by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- It can help if you focus less on where you are and more on the rate of change. You won't worry so much about doing bad work if you can see it improving. Obviously the faster it improves, the easier this is. So when you start something new, it's good if you can spend a lot of time on it. That's another advantage of being young: you tend to have bigg... See more
from Early Work by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- Another way to get through the lame phase of ambitious projects is to surround yourself with the right people โ to create an eddy in the social headwind. But it's not enough to collect people who are always encouraging. You'd learn to discount that. You need colleagues who can actually tell an ugly duckling from a baby swan.
from Early Work by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago