ARTICLE · JULY 4, 2026
How to Do Great Work
Paul Graham's attempt to distill the common substrate of great work across all fields — and what he finds isn't discipline or talent, but the kind of curiosity you can't fake.
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There's a kind of excited curiosity that's both the engine and the rudder of great work.
early section on choosing what to work on
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When an idea seems simultaneously novel and obvious, it's probably a good one.
section on originality and new ideas
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Style is doing things in a distinctive way without trying to. Trying to is affectation.
section on style and earnestness
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Per-project procrastination camouflages itself as work — you're not sitting around doing nothing, you're industriously working on something else, which is why it never sets off the alarm.
section on procrastination
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A good new idea has to seem bad to most people, or someone would have already explored it.
section on rule-breaking and originality