How to Do Great Work

"Luck by definition you can't do anything about, so we can ignore that."

Is there value in differentiating Luck from Chance? Perhaps Luck only pertains to attributes of you and your life you cannot change. Such as your DNA and your life before you can leave home.

Chance can apply to the life path you determine for yourself. Perhaps, unknown to you, doing great work depends on a Chance encounter with a potential mentor in the field you are pursuing. You can increase your Chance of meeting that mentor by living in an area that has a high concentration of people in your field of interest. That Chance encounter is still a matter of Luck, but requires 'less' Luck than if you lived on a different continent.

You could perhaps pivot someday into your own original IP (i.e. create a word/letter based game that doesn't infringe a corporations IP).

As I've gotten older, I believe more and more that having a desire for great work has more negatives than it does positives. This post really demonstrates why I believe this – mainly because PG doesn't touch at all on why someone would want to do great work while romanticizing how great it is to have that desire.

I don't think the question that ambitious people should be asking themselves is "what is work that I can do that will be great?" but something more akin to "what is work that I will find fulfilling?" Why do you want your work to be great? Do you think that the work being perceived as "great" is fulfilling in and of itself? What are you trying to prove through this work, and whom are you trying to prove it to? These are important questions to ask yourself because, otherwise, you're going to end up getting burnt out and wondering what all of your effort was really for.

A personal anecdote: when I was younger, I wanted to be great at piano. I played it since I was very young and I spent many hours playing it through my teens. I competed against others at music festivals with moderate success, and I wanted to continue doing great work with it. But this environment put me in a terrible headspace. I would frequently have angry outbursts when I made minor mistakes while practicing. If not anger, I'd chastise myself to the point of crying (I firmly believe this is what gave me low self-esteem through my college years). When someone would tell me to take a break given my emotional state, I'd firmly say no and go back to practicing because... why would I stop? The best piano players practice for hours a day non-stop. I'd spent so many hours practicing and I was actually pretty good. I wouldn't be able to do great work if I were to take a break.

It made me a competitive asshole, a sore loser, and a depressed individual.

Ambition is still an admirable trait to have because, among other things, it demonstrates that you have curiosity and a love for life. But point I'm trying to make is that being ambitious for great work simply because you want to do great work is not a healthy way to do your work. You need to have a deeper reason for why you've chosen the work that you do, and you shouldn't fall for the romanticism that these sorts of essays put forth.

The work that you do will be great work if you have a reason for doing it other than "I want to do something great."

Completely agreed. Media excessively romanticizes compulsive workers.

> When you're young you don't know what you're good at or what different kinds of work are like. Some kinds of work you end up doing may not even exist yet. So while some people know what they want to do at 14, most have to figure it out.

That just gave me an idea for a phone app: Something that helps teenagers explore their interests and aptitudes (but not skills of course)

Thoughts?