I recently found the space to dive into another essay from Paul Graham: The Top Idea in Your Mind.
“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, The Top Idea in Your Mind, is about the importance of your thoughts. If you want to know what is currently your top idea, “just take a shower!”
Some key takeaways:
- Sometimes the top idea in our minds is the wrong idea and this can be dangerous.
- For example, when fundraising for a startup that becomes the top idea, and you lose focus on the actual business idea.
- 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? (See below 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.
- Getting money is the definition of an attention sink.
- Avoid disputes if you want to get real work done!
“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.
