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How to Do Great Work

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Do Great Work

#381

Post by yoble »

sheepscreek wrote: post #318
movedx wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been studying a lot of Buddhism as of late. One thing it has taught me in the Middle Way. In short, it means do nothing in excess, which includes doing nothing at all. This balanced view leads to me to believe you, Paul, and "hustle culture" that's all over YouTube are both right and wrong. I've come to live by a simple system... Try to do fulfilling work that's meaningful to future generations, whilst also putt…

Reading this, I had an epiphany just now. What you’ve shared is essentially Dharma. Or giving back from a sense of duty, or as a matter of principle. Interestingly, Karma preaches: if you give to those in need, you will receive in return when you’re in need. Although the motivations are different in both teachings (Buddhism vs. Hinduism, with carrot vs. stick if you will), they have the same effect - to reach an equi…

I see this simple version of Karma talked about quite often in the general public and it's pretty far from my understanding of Karma in Buddhism.

Karma is a consequence of Dependent Origination - basically that things arise dependent on other things, and there is nothing that's outside of the law of cause and effet (hence no eternal, unchanging, eternally happy Self, which is the type of Self, or soul/atta(pali)/atman(sanskrit) the Buddha was talking about).

Karma means your intentional thoughts and actions all have consequences.

If you give to those in need, that ripples through the world and yeah, you're more likely to get good things because you're building a good life. There's no need for a "cosmic justice" that will weigh what you did and give you the exact same amount when you're in a similar situation. You have more probability of receiving help (cause you've got friends now), but you might still be unlucky and don't receive any help.

That's on the material level but it goes further than that - by acting and thinking wholesomely, less based on your own craving and delusion, you're cultivating a mind that's less likely to act based on craving and delusion. It's simple cause and effect again, and it depends much less on external conditions since it's internal.

(Now the word Karma is used differently in different tradition, so the general idea of "cosmic retribution" might be what it refers too in some of those. When I understood more this version of Karma it made a whole lot more sense, so I'm sharing that here.)

I found this article by Culadasa really enlightening on the topic: https://s3.amazonaws.com/dharmatreasure/20130322--what-the-b...

Re: How to Do Great Work

#382

Post by jebarker »

yowlingcat wrote: post #304
phforms wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think that great work and financial success are necessarily related; in fact, in many historical cases they were not. For me personally, I always have special and long-term projects on the side (that may or may not lead to “great work”), while doing more boring work in my bread-and-butter job. I guess I need some sort of independence from financial or social pressure when I want to do what I am passionate abo…

I think they're related, but it doesn't go both ways. Self-made financial success almost always takes great work, although great work does not necessarily lead to financial success even when the work is clearly great.

Maybe we disagree on what constitutes self-made financial success, but it seems to me that most wealthy people have not done great work at all. It's entirely possible, and fairly common, to become financially independent by grinding away at mediocrity or even actively being shitty.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#383

Post by jebarker »

phforms wrote: post #265
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 don’t think that great work and financial success are necessarily related; in fact, in many historical cases they were not. For me personally, I always have special and long-term projects on the side (that may or may not lead to “great work”), while doing more boring work in my bread-and-butter job. I guess I need some sort of independence from financial or social pressure when I want to do what I am passionate abo…

> I don’t think that great work and financial success are necessarily related

This is an important thing to know. An even broader point is that no matter what you do you can't control how the world will receive your work. You may do work that's considered great long after you're dead. You may do work that is tragically overlooked because something bigger happens to be going on right now.

That's why I think the advice to follow your interests is solid. At least that way you'll guarantee doing something interesting even if you can't guarantee doing something great.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#384

Post by jlokier »

nullandvoid wrote: post #14
wackget wrote: post #10

It's 2023. Why do many websites featured here still not use HTTPS?

I mean it's a blog, with no ability to sign in / risk leaking any PI. Adding HTTPS would only waste CPU cycles serving the page.

Some telecoms carriers inject their own Javascript into every HTTP page.

I've seen some of that break my pages for some users. It went unnoticed for months until someone complained that "my" Javascript was badly written and breaking something. After a difficult round of conversations where each of us assumed the other was seeing the same page contents, we compared source and found the culprit was injected by the carrier.

So we changed to HTTPS to fix that problem.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#385

Post by jebarker »

JohnCurran wrote: post #372
matwood wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am frustrated that the USA’s money advice largely comes from billionaires. One of my big issues with the 'follow your passion' advice is it almost always comes from people who are already rich. And, those people are often trying to leverage worker passion to staff their companies. As a young person, don't follow your passion. Instead, figure out the fastest way to economic security and once there, then figure out…

> Instead, figure out the fastest way to economic security and once there, then figure out a passion This is good advice and I agree with it. I just wish it wasn’t the advice we had to give

Do you say that because you think the work required to achieve economic security is too much? I ask because it's hard to imagine an alternative that would enable more people to follow their passions without securing the essentials first.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#386

Post by javajosh »

There's so little great work done that the path is bound to be idiosyncratic. I suspect that a lot of a great work sneaks up on people. Sort of like great love. It's that jolt of inspiration where you see something new. Like really new. If you're lucky, the vision is very very clear. If you're unlucky, you might have to spend an enormous amount of time clarifying it such that it can be communicated to others. This implies there's a lot of great work that dies along with the person who did it. I find that very easy to believe.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#387

Post by mkoubaa »

xapata wrote: post #351
mkoubaa wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If great people didn't exist we are all doomed

Not all people who do great work are great people. In fact, I suspect a negative correlation.

Great person does not imply good person. My comment was about great people

Re: How to Do Great Work

#388

Post by yowlingcat »

jebarker wrote: post #382
yowlingcat wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're related, but it doesn't go both ways. Self-made financial success almost always takes great work, although great work does not necessarily lead to financial success even when the work is clearly great.

Maybe we disagree on what constitutes self-made financial success, but it seems to me that most wealthy people have not done great work at all. It's entirely possible, and fairly common, to become financially independent by grinding away at mediocrity or even actively being shitty.

Oh no, I agree with you there. Most wealthy people are not self-made, which supports your point. Maybe that's where the sleight of hand occurs -- many if not all wealthy people will pass it off as being self-made, when only a small fraction of those instances are the case. But I do think you will see hard work playing a large role in that fraction of cases.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#389

Post by andzuck »

Is pg factoring uncertainty and unpredictability into this argument on per-project procrastination? He brought in the idea of natural selection earlier in the essay, yet may be ignoring that the best project to work on may not be known a priori.

“One reason per-project procrastination is so dangerous is that it usually camouflages itself as work. You're not just sitting around doing nothing; you're working industriously on something else. So per-project procrastination doesn't set off the alarms that per-day procrastination does.”

Re: How to Do Great Work

#390

Post by andzuck »

artisanspam wrote: post #255

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…

Thanks for zooming out and sharing these questions that challenge pg’s assumption from the beginning. I felt caught in the essay’s ethos and throngs the moment I started reading. This helps me pause
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