{"id":3333,"date":"2024-03-20T22:42:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T05:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meandyouis.us\/charles\/how-to-do-great-work\/"},"modified":"2024-03-20T23:11:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T06:11:46","slug":"how-to-do-great-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meandyouis.us\/charles\/how-to-do-great-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask great questions, and Paul Graham\u2019s How to Do Great Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine sitting at a dinner table.<\/p>\n

Time is frozen.<\/p>\n

Your friends or family surround you. This is where conversation happens.<\/p>\n

What do you say?<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I would have said something like “what book are you enjoying? Or “what have you learned recently?”.<\/p>\n

I love learning- especially about people.<\/p>\n

But today, I would say something very different.<\/p>\n

I would say something similar to: “what is a good question you have been asking lately?”<\/p>\n

Paul Graham has probably created more questions in my mind than anything else past 30 days.<\/p>\n

His writing reminds me a lot of Derek Sivers. Reading their words feels like a longtime curious expert has paused in their work to explain something they thought was important. Like an expert chef has been creating some absurd levitating cheese foam, and then stops and turns — frothy cheese gently floating off their spoon — and starts talking about some important thing that changed how they worked with water when they cooked.<\/p>\n

Here is a great example from How to Do Great Work paulgraham.com\/greatwork.html: <\/a><\/p>\n

“Once you’ve found something you’re excessively interested in, the next step is to learn enough about it to get you to one of the frontiers of knowledge. 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<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve experienced a little bit of this already. Get close to the customer to find the real problems, ask them to show you. Ask why they do things, what they need and expect.<\/p>\n

But Graham is talking about finding a way to follow other learners, learn what they found, and get close to the edge.<\/p>\n

When I think about diving deep into something, learning to get close to the edge, where the gaps are…I sense fear and worry suddenly appear.<\/p>\n

But what if it takes a long time<\/em>?<\/p>\n

What if I do all the work and get there, and I don’t find anything of use beyond the learning?<\/em><\/p>\n

What if I don’t find valuable gaps?<\/em><\/p>\n

How does the fear and anxiety “help” me? What protection does it serve?<\/p>\n

Part of me feels drawn to doing things the same way- repeating the same instructions that others did to get the same result. A safe choice. A known outcome. The same painting, different colors. My life the result of a borrowed franchise manual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine sitting at a dinner table. Time is frozen. Your friends or family surround you. This is where conversation happens. What do you say? Yesterday, I would have said something like “what book are you enjoying? Or “what have you learned recently?”. I love learning- especially about people. But today, I would say something very … Continue reading “Ask great questions, and Paul Graham\u2019s How to Do Great Work”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[450,5,7,299,287,1],"tags":[480,478,479],"class_list":["post-3333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-communicate-relate","category-ideas","category-parenting","category-personal-development","category-uncategorized","tag-introspection","tag-paul-graham","tag-questions"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nAsk great questions, and Paul Graham\u2019s How to Do Great Work - LearningMore<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meandyouis.us\/charles\/how-to-do-great-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ask great questions, and Paul Graham\u2019s How to Do Great Work - LearningMore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imagine sitting at a dinner table. 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