How to Do Great Work (2023)

When Paul Graham uses a phrase like "great work" I can't help but only consider it as being synonymous to "work that generates a big return for the investor" in his context of Y Combinator

Genuine question, what work has Paul Graham done that can be classified as 'great'?

It's a nice post, with a lot of valuable insights. There is one that I disagree with though: "Never abandon the root node".

There are plenty of instances that show that in reality this is not what happens, and in fact this is often a necessary step of reinventing yourself if things really aren't working for you. The mid-life crisis is a famous example of this, or even the quarter-life crisis. In some specific psychological circles this is referred to as "disintegration". Sometimes carefully backtracking is simply not enough, and growth needs this kind large shock to the system.

> At 7 it may seem excitingly ambitious to build huge things out of Lego, then at 14 to teach yourself calculus, till at 21 you're starting to explore unanswered questions in physics.

Is this supposed to be relatable?

In work, once you remove all that is unnecessary, wrong, and bad. Then what you are left with must be greatness.

good related read: You and Your Research (Hamming)

https://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html

PG could really work on style to shorten those walls of text (yes he refers to it near the end)

That's actually my own problem too - I often use AI to summarize / shorten my own texts. (Opposite of what most who seem to use it for generation?)

The people qualified to do great work probably don't need the advice. They most likely lack resources (like money or free time), not guidance.

The people who would benefit from the advice (resourceful people full of free time that are doing nothing meaningful) will likely ignore it anyway.

There’s something cringey about having a zillion dollars and then using your cash soapbox to bloviate to everyone about how to be great-like-me.

You can listen to this on youtube with pg's own voice which I find a pretty neat use of AI.