Paul Graham：The Right Kind of Stubborn, Excerpt 4

You don't have to consider complicated tradeoffs; you just dig in your heels. It even works, up to a point. The fact that obstinacy works for simple problems is an important clue. Persistence and obstinacy aren't opposites. The relationship between them is more like the relationship between the two kinds of respiration we can do: aerobic respiration, and the anaerobic respiration we inherited from our most distant ancestors. Anaerobic respiration is a more primitive process, but it has its uses. When you leap suddenly away from a threat, that's what you're using. The optimal amount of obstinacy is not zero. It can be good if your initial reaction to a setback is an unthinking "I won't give up," because this helps prevent panic. But unthinking only gets you so far.

Source： https://paulgraham.com/persistence.html
Locator：Essay, additional excerpt 4 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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