2023-07 How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham，另有一版优秀翻译
花了约一个月时间断断续续读完这篇鸿篇巨著。Paul Graham 不论是作为程序员、投资者还是作家，都称得上一位真正的大佬。他的《黑客与画家》（本书中文版由阮一峰翻译）已经是传世经典，后期博客出的几篇大作都有巨大的价值（除了这篇还有 How To Work Hard，两篇文章有不少相似的地方）。
原文内容极其丰富，虽有分段但 Paul 并没有给出每一段的小标题，译者则给出适宜的小标题。对我有帮助的内容很多，截取部分以作回读。
想要做什么
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
- that offers scope to do great work
总而言之，兴趣和天赋是最关键的两点。下文基本围绕这两点叙述，并从内部和外部两个方面找寻能够影响最终能否 do great work 的条件，以及利用这些条件和规避风险的方案。
当不知道自己的兴趣是什么时，只要去工作就可以了。但是不要失去求知欲或丢掉能让自己兴奋的事物。
Do great work 会经历的过程通常是：
- 选择一个领域；
- 深耕这个领域（学习足够的知识并进入领域前沿）；
- 找到缺口；
- 探索其中有兴趣的领域。
I think for most people who want to do great work, the right strategy is not to plan too much.
如何做好
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（努力保持特定因素）.
当不想工作的时候可以这样做：
- 安排好生活，给工作留出持续时间
- 不想开始干活时，给过去的工作找找茬儿/看看项目做到哪了
- 有时可以骗自己正在进行的工作/项目并不难 (How hard could it be? … in this case ignorance can sometimes beat knowledge)
- 避免项目级拖延，因为它比每日拖延危害更大 (per-project procrastination doesn’t set off the alarms that per-day procrastination does)
持续做
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.
学习便是一个例子，在某一个领域了解越多，学习下去就更容易。当工作的内容能产生复利，就越能获得指数级增长。人们通常在早期低估了这一点。
时不时从工作中走神，可以获得意想不到的效果。前提是真的有在努力工作，让 工作 - 走神 成为一个良性循环。同时不论在工作还是在走神都要避免分心。
可能的误区
应该把“最佳”作为目标，而不是“做得更好”
Consciously cultivate your taste in the work done in your field. Until you know which is the best and what makes it so, you don’t know what you’re aiming for.
And that is what you’re aiming for, because if you don’t try to be the best, you won’t even be good.
不要做作/追求特立独行。只要持续去做就好，最终自然会成为与众不同之人。做作只是披着一件虚伪的/学习他人的外衣。
If you’re earnest you avoid not just affectation but a whole set of similar vices.
The core of being earnest is being intellectually honest.
为了避免做作（做到诚挚），最重要的一点就是诚实。
One way to avoid intellectual dishonesty is to maintain a slight positive pressure in the opposite direction. Be aggressively willing to admit that you’re mistaken. Once you’ve admitted you were mistaken about something, you’re free. Till then you have to carry it.
在外表（formality）上花费时间精力，意味着在事上花费的更少了。用写博客或者笔记举例，如果写博客或做笔记的重点总是在软件、样式、格式或者方法论上，那么用在实际写博客/记笔记上的精力一定更少。排除所有的 formality，剩下就完全符合一个 nerd 的定义。
Be the one who puts things out there rather than the one who sits back and offers sophisticated-sounding criticisms of them. “It’s easy to criticize” is true in the most literal sense, and the route to great work is never easy.
关于决策
做决策的标准：一致性 consistent 不论是对创作者的特性还是对大事本身都是如此
对于决策的判断方法：如果我已经做出了改变，我还愿意回到现在这样吗？
有信心做删减。 删减多余的东西直到只剩下本质。不要保留不合适的东西，仅仅因为为它感到自豪或者在上面花费了时间和精力（忽略沉没成本）。
这样做的好处是：
- 结果更加集中
- 我能更好地理解它
- 我不能通过欺骗自己来否认其中的实质 you won’t be able to lie to yourself about whether there’s anything real there
在创作 creation 和发现 discovery 之间，尽量倾向于发现。
关于原创和新想法
发现会带来原创的想法，原创的想法一定是基于现有的事物，例如钻研、构建理解艰难的东西。想法会像火花一样不受控制地蹦出。
产生原创想法的方式：
- 讨论或写下感兴趣的事物
- 换个环境 Changing your context
- 参观主题 travel in topic space
Talking or writing about the things you’re interested in is a good way to generate new ideas. When you try to put ideas into words, a missing idea creates a sort of vacuum that draws it out of you. Indeed, there’s a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing.
不要平均分布精力在不同兴趣上。
Be professionally curious about a few topics and idly curious about many more.
求知欲即原创性本身。
Curiosity feeds originality by giving it new things to work on. But the relationship is closer than that. Curiosity is itself a kind of originality; it’s roughly to questions what originality is to answers.
打破旧模型
（世界上的）模型既帮助我们，也约束我们。看到明显又新颖的想法通常是个好想法。然而看到明显的新想法，需要改变我们看待事物的方式，意味着需要打破模型。线索藏在世界模型与现实冲突之处。
Broken models of the world leave a trail of clues where they bash against reality.
To break rules and find new ideas you need to:
- seize on signs of breakage instead of looking away
- have willingness to break rules
Two ways to be comfortable breaking rules:
- to enjoy breaking them 享受打破模型（积极独立思维）
- to be indifferent to them / not to care about them 漠不关心（消极独立思维）
对于消极独立思维，一种解释是新手或外行人通常能够发现发现新东西，因为他们没有对一个领域的初始假设。
Notes on 2023-09-25