{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Craftsmith","title":"Letter to Paul Graham: Learning to See","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1073,"description":"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 GrahamThis 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 abstractionsThe \"garage sale test\" - strip away prestige to find what's realHow Paul applied the garage sale test to everything he worked onWhy interest is more unevenly distributed than abilityThe traps that steer you away from following your authentic curiosity\"Always produce\" as a heuristic that finds your life's workWhy most great work starts as a projectWhat it actually feels like to do work you loveChapters:References:\"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 GrahamOn Lisp — Paul Graham (book)Help deliver this letter:Paul is @paulg on X. Send him this episode and help it reach him.Follow Craftsmith:Apple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeCraftsmith is a podcast by Bill Allred about people doing work they love, so you can too.","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/mnil4TEdy5rGEUo6IuvhxUEr4GSXz8Qm-4imQkoJ9ho/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9jNjgy/MzFmZGZjNWE5NjQy/ZjYwNjU3ZTNjOTJj/MTdhMy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}