The Top Idea in Your Mind
Paul Graham argues that at any given time, everyone has a single 'top idea' in their mind that their thoughts naturally drift toward when left idle. This idea gets the full benefit of unconscious thinking, while others starve. If the top idea is something undesirable (e.g., fundraising, disputes), it hijacks your creativity and productivity. The solution is to indirectly control what becomes critical to you, avoiding money matters and disputes. He illustrates with personal startup fundraising experiences and Newton's distraction by criticism. Practical advice for knowledge workers.
July 2010
2010年7月
I realized recently that what one thinks about in the shower in the morning is more important than I'd thought. I knew it was a good time to have ideas. Now I'd go further: now I'd say it's hard to do a really good job on anything you don't think about in the shower.
我最近意识到，早上淋浴时在想什么，比我想象的更重要。我一直知道那是产生好主意的好时机。现在我更进一步：我认为，如果你不在淋浴时思考某件事，就很难把它真正做好。
Everyone who's worked on difficult problems is probably familiar with the phenomenon of working hard to figure something out, failing, and then suddenly seeing the answer a bit later while doing something else. 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.
[1]
I think most people have one top idea in their mind at any given time. That's the idea their thoughts will drift toward when they're allowed to drift freely. And this idea will thus tend to get all the benefit of that type of thinking, while others are starved of it. Which means it's a disaster to let the wrong idea become the top one in your mind.
每个解决过难题的人可能都熟悉这种现象：努力思考却失败，然后过了一会做别的事情时突然看到了答案。这是一种不需要刻意进行的思考。我越来越确信，这种思考不仅有助于解决难题，而且是必要的。棘手之处在于，你只能间接控制它。
[1]
我认为大多数人在任何时刻脑海中都有一个首要想法。那是当思维自由漂移时，思绪会不断飘回的想法。而这个想法会获得那种无意思考的全部好处，其他想法则被剥夺了机会。这意味着，让错误的想法成为你脑海中的首要想法是一场灾难。
What made this clear to me was having an idea I didn't want as the top one in my mind for two long stretches.
I'd noticed startups got way less done when they started raising money, but it was not till we ourselves raised money that I understood why. The problem is not the actual time it takes to meet with investors. The problem is that once you start raising money, raising money becomes the top idea in your mind. That becomes what you think about when you take a shower in the morning. And that means other questions aren't.
I'd hated raising money when I was running Viaweb, but I'd forgotten why I hated it so much. When we raised money for Y Combinator, I remembered. Money matters are particularly likely to become the top idea in your mind. The reason is that they have to be. It's hard to get money. It's not the sort of thing that happens by default. It's not going to happen unless you let it become the thing you think about in the shower. And then you'll make little progress on anything else you'd rather be working on.
[2]
(I hear similar complaints from friends who are professors. Professors nowadays seem to have become professional fundraisers who do a little research on the side. It may be time to fix that.)
The reason this struck me so forcibly is that for most of the preceding 10 years I'd been able to think about what I wanted. So the contrast when I couldn't was sharp. But I don't think this problem is unique to me, because just about every startup I've seen grinds to a halt when they start raising money — or
talking to acquirers.
让我清楚认识到这一点的是，我有过两次长时间不想让某个想法占据脑海的经历。
我注意到，初创公司开始融资时，进展就会慢很多，但直到我们自己融资时，我才明白原因。问题不在于与投资人会面所花费的实际时间。问题在于，一旦你开始融资，融资就成了你脑海中的首要想法。那是你早上淋浴时思考的东西，而这意味着其他问题就不被考虑了。
当年我运营 Viaweb 时就讨厌融资，但我忘了为什么那么讨厌。当我们为 Y Combinator 融资时，我想起来了。金钱事务特别容易成为你脑海中的首要想法。原因是它们必须如此。赚钱很难，它不会自动发生。除非你让它成为你淋浴时思考的事情，否则它不会发生。而一旦如此，你在其他更愿意做的事情上就几乎不会有进展。
[2]
（我从教授朋友那里也听到类似的抱怨。如今的教授似乎变成了职业筹款人，只做一点研究作为副业。也许是时候改变这种情况了。）
这件事给我如此强烈的冲击，是因为在此前十年的大部分时间里，我都能自由思考我想思考的事情。所以当不能时，对比就格外鲜明。但我认为这个问题并非我独有，因为我见过的几乎每家初创公司，一旦开始融资或与收购方洽谈，就会停滞不前。
You can't directly control where your thoughts drift. If you're controlling them, they're not drifting. But you can control them indirectly, by controlling what situations you let yourself get into. That has been the lesson for me: be careful what you let become critical to you. Try to get yourself into situations where the most urgent problems are ones you want to think about.
You don't have complete control, of course. An emergency could push other thoughts out of your head. But barring emergencies you have a good deal of indirect control over what becomes the top idea in your mind.
你无法直接控制自己的思绪漂向何处。如果你在控制它们，它们就不是在漂移。但你可以通过控制自己所处的环境来间接控制它们。这就是我的教训：小心那些对你变得至关重要的事情。尽量让自己置身于最紧迫的问题恰好是那些你愿意思考的问题的处境中。
当然，你无法完全控制。紧急情况可能会把其他想法挤出去。但除非紧急情况，你在很大程度上可以间接控制什么成为你脑海中的首要想法。
I've found there are two types of thoughts especially worth avoiding — thoughts like the Nile Perch in the way they push out more interesting ideas. One I've already mentioned: thoughts about money. 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.
[3]
我发现有两种想法尤其值得避免——它们像尼罗河鲈鱼一样，会把更有趣的想法排挤出去。一种我已经提到：关于金钱的想法。赚钱本身几乎就是一个注意力黑洞。 另一种是争端。它们也同样以一种错误的方式吸引人：它们有着与真正有趣的想法类似的粘性，但缺乏实质内容。所以如果你想要完成真正的工作，就要避免争端。
[3]
Even Newton fell into this trap. After publishing his theory of colors in 1672 he found himself distracted by disputes for years, finally concluding that the only solution was to stop publishing:
I see I have made myself a slave to Philosophy, but if I get free of Mr Linus's business I will resolutely bid adew to it eternally, excepting what I do for my privat satisfaction or leave to come out after me. For I see a man must either resolve to put out nothing new or become a slave to defend it.
[4]
Linus and his students at Liege were among the more tenacious critics. Newton's biographer Westfall seems to feel he was overreacting:
Recall that at the time he wrote, Newton's "slavery" consisted of five replies to Liege, totalling fourteen printed pages, over the course of a year.
I'm more sympathetic to Newton. The problem was not the 14 pages, but the pain of having this stupid controversy constantly reintroduced as the top idea in a mind that wanted so eagerly to think about other things.Turning the other cheek turns out to have selfish advantages. 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. My wife thinks I'm more forgiving than she is, but my motives are purely selfish.
就连牛顿也落入了这个陷阱。1672年发表颜色理论后，他发现自己被争论分散了注意力，持续多年，最终得出结论：唯一的解决办法是停止发表：
我看到自己成了哲学的奴隶，但如果我能摆脱莱纳斯先生的事情，我将坚决永远告别它，除非为了自己的满足或留给后人。因为我看到一个人要么决心不发表任何新东西，要么成为辩护它的奴隶。
[4]
莱纳斯和他的列日学生是最顽固的批评者之一。牛顿的传记作者韦斯特福尔似乎觉得他反应过度：
回想一下，他写这段话时，牛顿的“奴隶”状态不过是在一年内给列日写了五次回复，总共十四页印刷品。
我更同情牛顿。问题不在于那十四页，而在于这个愚蠢的争论不断重新成为他热切渴望思考其他事情的大脑中的首要想法。转过另一边脸来其实有自私的好处。伤害你的人对你造成了双重伤害：首先是伤害本身，其次是占用了你事后思考它的时间。如果你学会忽略伤害，你至少可以避免后者。我发现自己可以通过告诉自己“这不配占据我的头脑空间”来在一定程度上避免思考别人对我做的坏事。我总是很高兴发现我已经忘记了争论的细节，因为那意味着我没有在想它们。妻子觉得我比她更宽容，但我的动机纯粹是自私的。
I suspect a lot of people aren't sure what's the top idea in their mind at any given time. I'm often mistaken about it. I tend to think it's the idea I'd want to be the top one, rather than the one that is. But it's easy to figure this out: just take a shower. What topic do your thoughts keep returning to? If it's not what you want to be thinking about, you may want to change something.
我怀疑很多人在任何时刻都不确定自己脑海中的首要想法是什么。我自己也经常搞错。我倾向于认为那是我想让它成为首要的想法，而不是实际的那个。但找出它很容易：去洗个澡就行。你的思绪不断回到哪个话题上？如果那不是你想要的，你可能需要改变一些事情。
Notes
[1] No doubt there are already names for this type of thinking, but I call it "ambient thought." [2] This was made particularly clear in our case, because neither of the funds we raised was difficult, and yet in both cases the process dragged on for months. Moving large amounts of money around is never something people treat casually. The attention required increases with the amount—maybe not linearly, but definitely monotonically. [3] Corollary: Avoid becoming an administrator, or your job will consist of dealing with money and disputes. [4] Letter to Oldenburg, quoted in Westfall, Richard, Life of Isaac Newton, p. 107. Thanks to Sam Altman, Patrick Collison, Jessica Livingston, and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this.
注释
[1] 毫无疑问，这种思考已经有了名称，但我称其为“环境思考”。 [2] 这一点在我们的情况中尤其清楚，因为我们两次募资都不困难，但两次过程都拖了几个月。大额资金流转从来不是人们会随意对待的事情。所需的注意力随金额增加——也许不是线性的，但肯定是单调的。 [3] 推论：避免成为管理者，否则你的工作将全是处理金钱和争端。 [4] 致奥登伯格的信，引自韦斯特福尔，《艾萨克·牛顿传》，第107页。 感谢 Sam Altman、Patrick Collison、Jessica Livingston 和 Robert Morris 阅读本文初稿。