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I enjoyed this article very much. I'd add that if you truly want the freedom to be creative, you may have to opt out of being an employee and choose the founder
by compumike 6y ago
I enjoyed this article very much. I'd add that if you truly want the freedom to be creative, you may have to opt out of being an employee and choose the founder path instead. This nicely compliments pg's "You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss" essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html
- zomglings 6y agoI opted out of being an employee and chose the founder path. I have very little time to be creative (the way I was, for example, when I was in graduate school or at Google). For me, a large part of thinking creatively is about exposing myself to ideas outside of what I am actively supposed to be doing and then letting those ideas permeate through my thinking when I am working on what I am actively supposed to be doing. Between talking to users, talking to customers, talking to investors, and perpetual catch-up on my product, I rarely find the space to think about things other than my business. That said, we have definitely had dark moments that we came out of because of very creative ideas. It's just that creativity is nowhere near the top virtue required of a founder.
- jimbokun 6y agoI know Bill Gates had his "think week", where he would block off an entire week every year to just read books and think. Maybe you could do something similar? I'm sure you are very busy, but so was he.
- zomglings 6y agoThanks for the suggestion, didn't know about think weeks. Love the idea, and reading is the thing that I miss most - used to read a LOT before moving to the Bay Area. These days, not so much. At the very least, a think weekend. :)