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How to Do Great Work

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Do Great Work

#241

Post by creer »

PartiallyTyped wrote: post #7
travisjungroth wrote: post #6

> Knowledge expands fractally, and from a distance its edges look smooth, but once you learn enough to get close to one, they turn out to be full of gaps. It is incredibly easy to get onto untrodden ground just by stepping off the main path a bit. You’re fighting with a lot of smart people to have a new insight about pi and e. But if you focus on application of theory, it’s very easy to do something new. Application…

It’s so incredible how deep the rabbit-hole goes when you try to solve a real world problem and you have the capacity to understand and pull information from a vast number of seemingly unrelated works. I really believe that this is the best time to be a polymath, or at least have a broad spectrum of knowledge and references to look into and pull information from; and that being a true generalist that can dive as deep…

Re. "this is the best time to be a polymath". I was noticing something like that. For a while it became impossible to know or do "science" ("philosophy", was it?) as a whole. Too broad, too deep. That was not the end of the polymath but it was the end of truly broad expertise in one individual. Then the net in general made so much info available painlessly. (Much faster to dig deep on a narrow issue and switch issues - than say, even with a large academic library.) So that now, it's still not possible to master the forefront of tech or science on a very broad front, but it is possible to dig deep as needed to address this or that problem in the pursuit of what is now just about always a multidisciplinary project.

With the very present danger that many feel that a couple youtube videos is as deep as they ever need to go.

Being able to gauge how deep and broad you have to go for each difficulty you encounter has become an important skill. But polymath seems very possible.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#242

Post by rblion »

Design checks all the boxes for me. I am naturally gifted in this field, deeply interested in how everything works, how I can increase quality of life for all beings.

> There's a kind of excited curiosity that's both the engine and the rudder of great work. It will not only drive you, but if you let it have its way, will also show you what to work on.

We are going to meet one day PG and I will thank you for encouraging me since I was 17. I am 33 now and determined as ever.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#243

Post by jacobolus »

ftxbro wrote: post #225
cdelsolar wrote: post #199

My problem is that I’ve already chosen what to work on long ago - Scrabble. I’ve built a popular (within the community) study tool, I’ve also been working on an open source AI that I believe is finally better than the state of the art one - I’m going to set up a match between them sometime soon (but need a bot interface, etc). This is without ML, too, which I fully intend to explore soon. And finally I’ve been workin…

I remember looking this up before, and game rule sets are not protected in USA. You can't make some game rules and say that other people can't make that game. The things that are protected are the things that go along with the game, like if you use any trademark name in the game or if you use any protected media like if it's a card game then you can't use the same card art. My understanding is that you can make a gam…

In theory. In practice, depends what judge you pull, and you'd better have deep pockets for legal fights.

My friends made a Tetris-like game (under a different name, with unrelated art, just broadly similar rules) and were sued out of existence by The Tetris Company. Even though they were legally in the clear according to theoretical analysis, the judge took a brief look and decided "this seems like it should be a violation" and summarily decided in the Tetris Company's favor, without even engaging with any of the issues involved. Their pro-bono lawyers decided they didn't have the resources to mount an appeal, so that was the end of that.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#245

Post by cdelsolar »

galacticaactual wrote: post #237
cdelsolar wrote: post #199

My problem is that I’ve already chosen what to work on long ago - Scrabble. I’ve built a popular (within the community) study tool, I’ve also been working on an open source AI that I believe is finally better than the state of the art one - I’m going to set up a match between them sometime soon (but need a bot interface, etc). This is without ML, too, which I fully intend to explore soon. And finally I’ve been workin…

Frankly not sure what you want. You want money but also want to keep things open source and free. I think you need to take a hard look at your wants and how they map to the real world.

I just want enough to be able to work on it as a full time thing.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#246

Post by skmurphy »

cushychicken wrote: post #11

Another thing you need: patience. I'm 34, and just in the last year reached the point where I have: - enough experience and context to do great work, and - the right people to leverage that context and experience on meaningful applications It took a lot of waiting for that ideal blend of circumstances to come around. I wish I'd have been able to tell my 26 year old self that as he slogged through an entry level EE jo…

I think people can do great work at any age. Sometimes newcomers look at a long-standing problem and discover or design a new approach that is substantially better. Other times established experts can leverage the breadth of their experience to develop a better solution or offering. For me, the key elements are the desire to create something of value or make a contribution, a willingness to collaborate to extend what you can accomplish, and the self-discipline to work hard for extended periods of time.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#247

Post by dr_dshiv »

cdelsolar wrote: post #245
galacticaactual wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly not sure what you want. You want money but also want to keep things open source and free. I think you need to take a hard look at your wants and how they map to the real world.

I just want enough to be able to work on it as a full time thing.

Maybe hasbro wants to hire you?

Re: How to Do Great Work

#248

Post by isc_lover »

cdelsolar wrote: post #199

My problem is that I’ve already chosen what to work on long ago - Scrabble. I’ve built a popular (within the community) study tool, I’ve also been working on an open source AI that I believe is finally better than the state of the art one - I’m going to set up a match between them sometime soon (but need a bot interface, etc). This is without ML, too, which I fully intend to explore soon. And finally I’ve been workin…

Good effort, but ISC is still better. Sorry not sorry.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#249

Post by mikewarot »

iamwil wrote: post #235

PG tends to revisit the same topics from different angles in multiple essays as he's figuring something out. You can hear resonances of this essay in a previous essay he had a long time ago about cultivating taste for makers. http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html

Ansel Adams tended to visit the same sites and take slightly different photographs over time, refining his vision of a place. I think it's a modality of most work, refinement and improvement over time as new perspectives are incorporated.
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