Productivity Lab
One way to do it is to study the histories of people who've done great work.
Paul Graham • Early Work
If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work. It's perfectly obvious. Great scientists have thought through, in a careful way, a number of important problems in their field, and they keep an eye on wondering how to attack them.
paulgraham.com • Richard Hamming: You and Your Research
Develop a habit of working on your own projects. Don't let "work" mean something other people tell you to do. If you do manage to do great work one day, it will probably be on a project of your own. It may be within some bigger project, but you'll be driving your part of it.
How to Do Great Work
My notes from Hackers & Painters by Paul Graham:
The way to create something beautiful is often to make subtle tweaks to something that already exists, or to combine existing ideas in a slightly new way.
There are only two things you have to know about business: build something users love, and make more than you spend. If you get these two ri... See more
Develop a habit of working on your own projects. Don't let "work" mean something other people tell you to do. If you do manage to do great work one day, it will probably be on a project of your own. It may be within some bigger project, but you'll be driving your part of it.
How to Do Great Work
So I'm going to pull a sneaky trick on you. Do you want to do great work, or not? Now you have to decide consciously. Sorry about that. I wouldn't have done it to a general audience. But we already know you're interested.
Don't worry about being presumptuous. You don't have to tell anyone. And if it's too hard and you fail, so what? Lots of people h
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