你脑海里的首要想法
我最近意识到，当一个人早晨洗澡的时候想到的一些东西，其实比我想象的要重要的多。我知道，人在这个时候很容易产生好的想法或灵感。现在，我要更进一步：我想说的更绝一点，任何事情如果你在洗澡的时候不去想它，那么你也很难真正做好它。每个处理过困难问题的人可能都遇到过这种情况，你很努力地想把事情搞定，但还是失败了，然后当你去做些其他事情的时候，突然间答案豁然开朗了。而这种思考并非你本身刻意为之。我现在越来越相信，这种思考不仅仅是有助于解决困难问题，而是解决困难问题所必须的。不过棘手的是，你只能间接地去控制这种思维。我相信，绝大多数人在任何给定的时间里，脑海里都一个最首要(Top)的想法。也就是说，如果允许他们的思想自由漂流的话，思想就会朝着那个想法漂流而去。并且这个想法，也将因此占据思考的全部精力，尽管其他次要的想法事实上也很需要去思考。也就是说，如果一个错误的想法成为了你脑海里最首要的想法，那么将是一场灾难。让我明白这一点的是，有一个并非我想要的想法成了我脑海里的首要想法，并且持续的时间太长了。我之前曾注意到，当创业公司开始融资的时候他们的动作会变慢，但直到我自己去融资的时候我才明白这是为什么。问题并非见投资者要花很多实际的时间，而是，一旦你开始准备融资的时候，「融资」就成为你脑海里的首要想法。它成了你早上洗澡的时候脑海里会出现的想法。这也意味着，其他的问题都「不存在」了。我在创办 Viaweb 的时候，确实非常讨厌融资，但我不记得我为什么这么讨厌。但当我在为 Y Combinator 融资的时候，我记得。因为关于钱的问题，很容易成为你脑海里的首要问题。原因很简单，它们必须是。获得资金并不容易，它不是那种你不作为就会发生的事情。除非你在洗澡的时候都会去想它，否则它是不会发生的。然后你会发现，那些你更想去做事情却只取得了很少的进展。（我也听到过一些类似的抱怨，是来自我的教授朋友们。如今，教授们似乎已经成为职业的筹资人，只业余时间做些研究工作。或许是时候该改变了。）这个问题让我很受冲击的原因在于，过去 10 年的大多数时候我都能够自由地去思考「我想要的是什么」。因此，当我无法自由控制自己的思考的时候，反差就变得非常尖锐。但我不认为，这个问题只有我才会遇到，因为我看到的几乎每一个创业公司，当他们开始融资或考虑收购的时候，其他的事情就会慢慢停滞。你无法直接控制你的思维漂流的方向。如果你控制住了它们，事实上它们已经停止漂流了。不过，你可以间接地控制它们，方法是控制你将要进入的情况和局面。这对我来说是重要一课：要小心那些会将你带入险境的事情；要努力让自己置身于「最紧迫的问题正好就是你最想要做的事情」的状况或局面。当然，你不可能百分之百地控制。一个紧急情况可能会挤出其他的思考，占据你的大脑。但除了紧急情况之外，你有很多办法来间接地控制「让什么成为你脑海里的首要想法」。我发现，有两种类型的思考尤其应该避免——一种思考就好比尼罗河巨鲈(Nile Perch)，它们会把其他更多有趣的想法都赶跑。比如，我前面提到的一点：对于钱的思考，就是如此。「想获得钱」几乎是最典型的注意力黑洞。另一种是争议。它们以同样错误的方式吸引注意：作为真诚有趣的想法，它们就像尼龙塔扣(velcro)一样抓住人们，但却缺乏实质的东西。所以，如果要把真正的事情做好，就应避开争议。即便是牛顿也掉进过这个圈套。1672 年，在他发表了关于色彩的理论之后，他发现自己因为争议而无法专心工作好几年。最终，结束这一切的办法是停止发表论文：
Want to start a startup? Get funded by Y Combinator.
July 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
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.
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.
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.
我发现，我已经把自己变成了哲学的奴隶，但是如果我们能够摆脱莱纳斯先生（注：牛顿理论的反对者），那么，除去我为了自己的私人兴趣或留待身后发表的东西，我将坚决地永远告别哲学。因为我知道，一个人必须，要么下定决心不再做出什么新的东西，要么就成为一个奴隶拼死去保护它。莱纳斯和他在列日（Liege , 英国地名）学生越来越执着于这场吹毛求疵的批评。牛顿传记的作者韦斯特福尔似乎也感觉到了他的反应过度：回忆起那段时间他写道，牛顿的「奴役」是由 5 次对列日的回应构成，在一年多的时间里，他的回复总共用了 14 页打印纸。我非常同情牛顿。问题不是那 14 页纸的回复，而是这愚蠢的争议持续地占据他脑海里首要想法的位置——他本来可以去思考自己更渴望的其他事情——所带来的痛苦。宽容会给你带来一些特别的好处。假如一个人伤害了你，你实际上受伤了两次：第一次是伤害本身；第二次是，你事后花时间来回想这件事。如果你能够学会忽视伤害，你至少可以避免第二次伤害。我发现，通过告诉自己「这不值得占用我脑海里的空间」，某种程度上我可以避免去想那些别人对我做过的不愉快的事情。我总是很高兴地发现，我能够忘记那些争议的细节，这意味着我根本没想过它们。我的妻子还觉得我比她更宽容，但我的动机，其实是很自私的。我猜，很多人都不确定在任何给定的时间里，他们脑海里的首要想法到底什么。我也经常搞错。但我更倾向于是「我希望把它放在第一位」的那个想法，而不是「已经占据脑海第一位」的那个想法。其实要找出来也很容易：去洗个澡把。看看哪个想**跑出来？如果跑出来的那个不是「你想要把它放在第一位」的想法，或许你也想去改变一些事情了。-注： 毫无疑问，这种类型的思考已经有其名称了，不过我叫它「外围思考」。 这一点在我们的例子中非常明显，尽管我们的两次融资其实都非常顺利，但两次融资的过程都还是拖延了几个月的时间。面对大量资金的转移，没有人会随意对待。并且所需的注意力，往往与资金的量成正比——或许并非完全呈线性，但肯定是单调递增的。 推论：避免成为管理人员，否则你的工作将会由「处理钱和争议」构成。 至奥登伯格(Oldenburg)的信，引自理查德·韦斯特福尔著《艾萨克·牛顿传》(Life of Isaac Newton)，P. 107 页。
【本文作者：保罗·格雷厄姆 ，原文链接
July 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
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.
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.
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.
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