By any reckoning, Paul Graham has had a pretty successful life. He’s recognized as an expert on Lisp and has written a couple of books on the subject. In addition to his accomplishments in computer science, he also trained as a painter, founded and ran Y Combinator, a very successful early stage venture capital fund, and is currently enjoying a career as an essayist.
His latest essay, What I worked On, is the story of how it all happened. It’s a bit over 14,000 words so it’s a long read but definitely worth your time. The essay traces his life from high school to the current time. He learned a lot of lessons along the way and shares some of them in his story.
To my mind, the most compelling was to work on whatever you want. He doesn’t put it that way; he says to not be afraid to work on non-prestigious projects. He says that, mostly by happenstance, that’s what he’s done and that it’s worked out well for him.
One amusing anecdote was that one day while he was struggling as an artist he heard a radio report about a fund manager who was “super rich” and asked himself, “Why don’t I become rich?” That question led him to form Viaweb, which he later sold to Yahoo! and which, did indeed, make him rich.
His whole life seems like that. He followed what he wanted to do and managed to turn it into a success. Of course, Graham is an exceptional intellect but there is, I think, a lesson in his story for all of us.