Paul Graham is known as a programmer, essayist, and cofounder of Y Combinator. But alongside all of that, he is a painter - studying still lifes at RISD and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, learning to override his brain's shortcuts and see what was actually there.

"You feel as if you're an animal in its natural habitat. Doing what you were meant to do. Not always happy maybe, but awake and alive." Paul Graham

This Craftsmith Letter traces a single skill - the painter's eye - through everything Paul has worked on: Lisp, Viaweb, his essays, Y Combinator, and a decade of writing about how to find work you love. The letter is also an invitation; Paul, if anything here rings true, let's record an episode together.

In this letter:

• How painting still lifes in Florence taught Paul to see past abstractions
• The "garage sale test" - strip away prestige to find what's real
• How Paul applied the garage sale test to everything he worked on
• Why interest is more unevenly distributed than ability
• The traps that steer you away from following your authentic curiosity
• "Always produce" as a heuristic that finds your life's work
• Why most great work starts as a project
• What it actually feels like to do work you love

Chapters:

• (00:00) - Intro

• "What I Worked On" — Paul Graham
• "How to Do Great Work" — Paul Graham
• "How to Do What You Love" — Paul Graham
• "The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius" — Paul Graham
• "How to Get Startup Ideas" — Paul Graham
• On Lisp — Paul Graham (book)

Help deliver this letter:Paul is @paulg on X. Send him this episode and help it reach him.

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Craftsmith is a podcast by Bill Allred about people doing work they love, so you can too.