How to do great work

The gist

• Paul Graham's July 2023 essay compiles techniques for great work across many fields, looking for what their intersection looks like.
• He argues the work you choose needs three qualities: natural aptitude, deep interest, and scope to do great work, though ambitious people rarely need to worry about the third.
• His core recipe is four steps: "choose a field, learn enough to get to the frontier, notice gaps, explore promising ones," which he says is how practically everyone from painters to physicists has done it.
• Graham names curiosity, delight, and the desire to do something impressive as the three most powerful motives, and says their combination is strongest of all.
• He advises making what you yourself want, "Write the story you want to read; build the tool you want to use," since your friends will then be your first audience.
• He describes tricking himself past the activation energy of starting: "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.'"

Discussion