A Project of Your Own

Paul Graham wrote this in “How to Do Great Work” (July 2023), in the section on how to figure out what to work on. A beat earlier he tells you to “Develop a habit of working on your own projects,” and the quote here is what he promises in return.

Graham’s worry is that “work” quietly comes to mean “something other people tell you to do.” Assigned tasks have their place, but he argues they are rarely where the great stuff happens; the work that turns out to matter is usually work you chose. The habit is a hedge against that drift: if you only ever do what you are handed, you may never be standing where great work occurs.

An “own project” need not be solo work. Graham allows it can sit inside a bigger one, as long as “you’ll be driving your part of it”; what you own is the direction, not the isolation. And he frames the payoff as rare and unpromised rather than as a formula. Owning your work does not guarantee great work; it is just where great work tends to land when it lands.