# How to Do Great Work - Paul Graham: Essays Synced: [[2023_11_30]] 6:03 AM Last Highlighted: [[2023_07_28]] Tags: [[advice]] [[business]] ![rw-book-cover](http://www.paulgraham.com/favicon.ico) ## Highlights [[2023_07_28]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6f3g9sa9cz0nfyknzk9phgf) [[favorite]] > The first step is to decide what to work on. The work you choose needs to have three qualities: it has to be something you have a natural aptitude for, that you have a deep interest in, and that offers scope to do great work. [[2023_07_28]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6f3ht4rh4124nb0jdwr4h6h) > It's good to know about multiple things; some of the biggest discoveries come from noticing connections between different fields. [[The intersection of two things is where great ideas lie]] [[2023_07_28]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6f3p22gt1e35gnv0q3q0xze) > 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. [[2023_07_28]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6f44kfnw7fsg6d59fny0bq3) > But while you need boldness, you don't usually need much planning. In most cases the recipe for doing great work is simply: work hard on excitingly ambitious projects, and something good will come of it. Instead of making a plan and then executing it, you just try to preserve certain invariants. [[2023_07_28]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6f4ernqwrvbxrs9ncebg3ms) > The reason we're surprised is that we underestimate the cumulative effect of work. Writing a page a day doesn't sound like much, but if you do it every day you'll write a book a year. That's the key: consistency. People who do great things don't get a lot done every day. They get something done, rather than nothing. [[2023_07_28]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6f4fpe301dye8jvtrzv16wg) > If you do work that compounds, you'll get exponential growth. Most people who do this do it unconsciously, but it's worth stopping to think about. Learning, for example, is an instance of this phenomenon: the more you learn about something, the easier it is to learn more. Growing an audience is another: the more fans you have, the more new fans they'll bring you. [[80 - 20 Rule]]