How to Do Great Work
paulgraham.comSaved by Omar Rizk and
How to Do Great Work
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
I don't know if it's possible to cultivate originality, but there are definitely ways to make the most of however much you have. For example, you're much more likely to have original ideas when you're working on something. Original ideas don't come from trying to have original ideas. They come from trying to build or understand something slightly t
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The thought that we never come up with an original thought or concept but expand and build on others rings true here.
Boldly chase outlier ideas, even if other people aren't interested in them — in fact, especially if they aren't. 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. [3]
How to Do Great Work
Strangeness and uniqueness are excellent! There is always a niche market.
Four steps: choose a field, learn enough to get to the frontier, notice gaps, explore promising ones. This is how practically everyone who's done great work has done it, from painters to physicists.
How to Do Great Work
It's usually a mistake to lie to yourself if you want to do great work, but this is one of the rare cases where it isn't. When I'm reluctant to start work in the morning, I often trick myself by saying "I'll just read over what I've got so far." Five minutes later I've found something that seems mistaken or incomplete, and I'm off.
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
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
Writing, writing, writing to think. Writing is so important and under utilized by most, including myself.
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.
Style is doing things in a distinctive way without trying to. Trying to is affectation.
How to Do Great Work
The temptation to be someone else is greatest for the young. They often feel like nobodies. But you never need to worry about that problem, because it's self-solving if you work on sufficiently ambitious projects. If you succeed at an ambitious project, you're not a nobody; you're the person who did it. So just do the work and your identity will ta... See more