key ideas in paul graham's how to do great work

paulgraham.com/greatwork.html, broken into a cheat sheet. this is not a substitute for reading it, it's a reason to.

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curiosity chooses the field, not passion

read the original - he's specific that passion follows curiosity, not the other way around.

learn until you hit the edge of what's known

notice the gaps everyone stepped over

half the essay is really about training yourself to see what's missing.

chase the outlier idea you can defend

work hard because it's interesting, not because you're diligent

still true, and still the hardest one to pull off.

let curiosity steer mid-project, not just at the start

optimize for interesting, not for the plan

he calls it staying upwind. i think about this weekly now.

cap hard days at 4 to 5 hours

ask constantly: am i working on what i most want to work on

this line alone is worth the essay. it's the procrastination check nobody runs.

a page a day is a book a year

build taste before you build the thing

you don't know what you're aiming for until you know what's best in your field. read the original on this one.

be earnest, not affected

original ideas come from work, not from trying to be original

the line that gets quoted out of context the most on twitter.

ship small and let it evolve

closing move of the essay. still true for basically everything i've built.

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