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The essential Paul Graham essays, in order

This path begins with choosing work, protecting focus, and thinking clearly. It then builds founder resourcefulness, startup wealth, idea discovery, unscalable beginnings, growth, and ends with a capstone on great work.

12 essays · in order

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✓1.
What to Do7 minStart here: choose making good new things over prestige, imitation, or default career paths.
✓2.
What Doesn't Seem Like Work?3 minUse the play-work test to find work you can sustain and eventually turn into a startup.
✓3.
Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule6 minProtect long uninterrupted maker blocks; fragmented schedules destroy the focus great work requires.
✓4.
Keep Your Identity Small4 minKeep beliefs from becoming identity so you can reason clearly about contested, important questions.
✓5.
Putting Ideas into Words6 minWrite to pressure-test vague ideas; gaps appear before you commit time or money.
✓6.
How to Think for Yourself14 minBuild independent-mindedness to resist conventional thinking and generate novel ideas worth pursuing.
✓7.
Relentlessly Resourceful4 minThe core founder trait: adapt relentlessly around obstacles rather than making excuses or quitting.
✓8.
How to Make Wealth40 minUnderstand why startups create wealth: small teams, hard problems, and measurable performance earn leverage.
✓9.
How to Get Startup Ideas31 minNotice problems you urgently need; build rough versions and follow narrow users before broad markets.
✓10.
Do Things that Don't Scale19 minRecruit first users manually, delight them intensely, and use unscalable tactics to spark growth.
✓11.
Startup = Growth22 minUse weekly growth as the compass; without it, startup decisions lose their clearest test.
✓12.
How to Do Great Work53 minCapstone: choose important problems, cultivate curiosity, and sustain effort across a career of great work.

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