How to Do Great Work
paulgraham.comSaved by Omar Rizk and
How to Do Great Work
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
An overlooked idea often doesn't lose till the semifinals. You do see it, subconsciously, but then another part of your subconscious shoots it down because it would be too weird, too risky, too much work, too controversial. This suggests an exciting possibility: if you could turn off such filters, you could see more new ideas.
How to Do Great Work
Don’t limit yourself or your idea. Break the rules. Lower or remove your filters. Jump off the bridge. Lead. Do something different. Blow up the escalation of commitment of legacy thinking.
Don't try to work in a distinctive style. Just try to do the best job you can; you won't be able to help doing it in a distinctive way.
Style is doing things in a distinctive way without trying to. Trying to is affectation.
Affectation is in effect to pretend that someone other than you is doing the work. You adopt an impressive but fake persona, and... See more
Style is doing things in a distinctive way without trying to. Trying to is affectation.
Affectation is in effect to pretend that someone other than you is doing the work. You adopt an impressive but fake persona, and... See more
How to Do Great Work
Talking or writing about the things you're interested in is a good way to generate new ideas. When you try to put ideas into words, a missing idea creates a sort of vacuum that draws it out of you. Indeed, there's a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing.
How to Do Great Work
The big prize is to discover a new fractal bud. You notice a crack in the surface of knowledge, pry it open, and there's a whole world inside.