Paul Graham：The Top Idea in Your Mind, Excerpt 3

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.

Source： https://paulgraham.com/top.html
Locator：Essay, additional excerpt 3 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

公开随笔；仅摘录并链接作者官网原文，不托管全文。

This text is still in copyright. Only a short excerpt is shown; read the full text at the official link above. Copyright

← Back to the library