How to Do Great Work (1, #39)
On Dancing with Curiosity — Estimated Read Time: 50 seconds.
What does it take to do great work? Painter, startup investor, and (for me) writing role model Paul Graham recently explored this question in a wide-ranging, 12,000+ word essay. His writing is normally extremely efficient, but this piece covers so much ground that it’s impossible to summarize succinctly.
Still, I believe this is the heart of it:
Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what's worth paying attention to.
Notice how often that word has come up. If you asked an oracle the secret to doing great work and the oracle replied with a single word, my bet would be on "curiosity."
That doesn't translate directly to advice. It's not enough just to be curious, and you can't command curiosity anyway. But you can nurture it and let it drive you.
Curiosity is the key to all four steps in doing great work: it will choose the field for you, get you to the frontier, cause you to notice the gaps in it, and drive you to explore them. The whole process is a kind of dance with curiosity.
Whether you’re writing code or a novel, creating art or impact, he’s right: Be curious.
Insight inspired by Paul Graham. You can read the full essay—How to Do Great Work—or, you’re welcome to skim my highlights and notes, here.