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paulg's profile
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
Verified account
@paulg

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Paul GrahamVerified account

@paulg

paulgraham.com
Joined August 2010

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    Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 26 Dec 2019

    It would be convenient if you could do great work by working only moderately hard. Maybe there are some people who can. But I can't think of any.

    5:33 AM - 26 Dec 2019
    • 213 Retweets
    • 1,556 Likes
    • Aaqil Aziz Bryan Murphy Prashant Sudeep Yan G. Theo Lee Taylor 💜 Howard Muhammad Rizwan Rana Đăng Nguyên
    82 replies 213 retweets 1,556 likes
      1. Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 26 Dec 2019

        Empirically, it seems the way to "avoid" work is to do kinds of work that don't feel like work to you. The prevalence of this strategy, from Bradman to Ramanujan, is evidence that you can't change the number of hours you need to put in, only what you call them.

        28 replies 104 retweets 1,047 likes
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      2. ㅤ‏ @ateng_forever 26 Dec 2019

        to be more accurate, longer relative to others

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Abhi Sharma‏ @abhisharma_b 26 Dec 2019
        Replying to @paulg

        I used to think this was possible & tried it for 2.5 yrs after undergrad but it din’t work & wasn’t that satisfying either. Then post graduate degree worked extremely hard, followed my research project in school into a real startup - FogHorn, overall so much more satisfied.

        1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes
      3. Abhi Sharma‏ @abhisharma_b 26 Dec 2019
        Replying to @abhisharma_b @paulg

        In-fact everytime I choose a project with my heart/genuine interest instead of what had better recognition - at the end those were my most successful projects both in terms of internal satisfaction & external recognition.

        0 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
      4. End of conversation
      1. Amer Grgic‏ @ActuallyAmer 26 Dec 2019
        Replying to @paulg

        Depends on what you define as hard work? Is that effort, quality or whatever. Because some people can make things seem effortless, even though other need a lot of effort to get the same thing done

        0 replies 1 retweet 2 likes
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      2. Federico Vaggi‏ @F_Vaggi 26 Dec 2019
        Replying to @paulg

        I can think of several example - for example, Poincare famously only worked a few hours every day. Same for GH Hardy. They were both obviously brilliant men and I don't think their experience necessarily generalizes, but, there you go.

        5 replies 0 retweets 26 likes
      3. Michael Nielsen‏ @michael_nielsen 26 Dec 2019
        Replying to @F_Vaggi @paulg

        Michael Nielsen Retweeted Michael Nielsen

        Both worked about 4 hours. Keynes too: https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/869799183196336129 … There's a nice how-I-work style book about well known artists and writers that shows a huge variance, but a distinct peak around 4-ish hrs / day, often 6 or 7 days per week.

        Michael Nielsen added,

        Michael Nielsen @michael_nielsen
        Replying to @michael_nielsen @patrickc @rabois
        There's a letter (?) where Keynes remarks on his difficulty working more than 5 hours per day. He did sustain much longer hours later...
        4 replies 3 retweets 53 likes
      4. Show replies
      1. pbizzy‏ @pbizzy 26 Dec 2019
        Replying to @paulg

        Sean Parker?

        0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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      1. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯‏ @ilikeprivacy 26 Dec 2019
        Replying to @paulg

        If you believe in 80:20 rule then it should be possible. I've yet to figure it out 😅

        0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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