Excessively Curious

The line ends a short passage in Paul Graham’s 2023 essay “How to Do Great Work,” in the part about choosing what to work on. Graham’s claim there is that the right kind of curiosity is “both the engine and the rudder”: it doesn’t only drive the work, it also tells you what the work should be.

Graham could have asked simply what excites you. Instead he asks about the excess, and makes other people’s boredom the test, because that is the part you can’t fake. An interest you follow past the point where everyone else has tuned out is one you hold for its own sake, not because it looks impressive or because you think you should. The boredom is the evidence it’s really yours.