Paul Graham：The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius, Excerpt 6

It might be at least as useful to ask yourself: if you could take a year off to work on something that probably wouldn't be important but would be really interesting, what would it be? The bus ticket theory also suggests a way to avoid slowing down as you get older. Perhaps the reason people have fewer new ideas as they get older is not simply that they're losing their edge. It may also be because once you become established, you can no longer mess about with irresponsible side projects the way you could when you were young and no one cared what you did. The solution to that is obvious: remain irresponsible. It will be hard, though, because the apparently random projects you take up to stave off decline will read to outsiders as evidence of it.

Source： https://paulgraham.com/genius.html
Locator：Essay, additional excerpt 6 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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