Paul Graham: The Top Idea in Your Mind (Do you have attention sinks?)

Hey girls and guys, 

I found the space to dive into another powerful essay from Paul Graham. Please find 15 minutes to read and think about this.

The Top Idea in Your Mind. YouTube narration here.

“There's a kind of thinking you do without trying to. I'm increasingly convinced this type of thinking is not merely helpful in solving hard problems but necessary. The tricky part is, you can only control it indirectly.”

In short, this essay is about the importance of the top idea in your mind. If you want to know that idea, "just take a shower!"

Some key takeaways:

• Fundraising for a startup is compared to the challenge of doing the work needed to drive the startup forward. (Been there, done that!)
• The Nile Perch reference: Have you ever been so worked up over something you can't see the forest for the trees? And while being worked up, do you harm or ignore the things that matter most? (Yep, this, too, has been me! See postscript for more on The Nile Perch.)
• The all-consuming power money can have on us, and how that is the same power we lose when we obsess over disputes or wrong-doings. (The second part of this takeaway is a powerful topic in and of itself.)

"Getting money is almost by definition an attention sink. The other is disputes. These too are engaging in the wrong way: they have the same velcro-like shape as genuinely interesting ideas, but without the substance. So avoid disputes if you want to get real work done."

How do you respond when someone has caused you harm? Are you hurt once or hurt twice?

"Someone who does you an injury hurts you twice: first by the injury itself, and second by taking up your time afterward thinking about it. If you learn to ignore injuries you can at least avoid the second half. I've found I can to some extent avoid thinking about nasty things people have done to me by telling myself: this doesn't deserve space in my head. I'm always delighted to find I've forgotten the details of disputes, because that means I hadn't been thinking about them.

Hope you get a chance to read.

Dad

P.S. "Nile perch were introduced to Lake Victoria in the 1950s to boost the fishing industry. The introduction caused an economic boom but also drove hundreds of species of native cichlids to near-extinction." [ref. Impact of an Invasive Species]