How to Do Great Work
P
Paul Graham 8
High resonance Write Soon
This article strongly resonates and has clear angles for your perspective
Quick Take
This is classic PG distilling decades of startup/creator wisdom into practical advice about finding meaningful work and executing consistently. For Brian, it validates his side project approach and offers frameworks for thinking about career trajectory and project selection that could help him level up both his fintech work and independent ventures.
Relevant Domains
Engineering craft/architecture/productivity - Deep focus on work quality, iteration, consistency Side projects/automation/earning from skills - Project selection, starting small, following interests AI/agents/future of software work - Discussion of finding frontier problems, tool-building Personal finance/risk/long-term planning - Risk-taking advice, compound growth thinking Family/time management/tradeoffs - Work-life integration, energy management
Key Quotes
Work doesn't just happen when you're trying to. There's a kind of undirected thinking you do when walking or taking a shower...
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.
The trouble with exponential growth is that the curve feels flat in the beginning.
Make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious. Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions.
Am I working on what I most want to work on?
Tags
#great-work
#side-projects
#compound-growth
#engineering-career
#consistency
#deep-work
#project-selection