Paul Graham on Focus Quotes

"You need long, uninterrupted blocks of time to do anything hard."

"To do great work, you need a certain kind of isolation."

"The cost of a context switch is much higher than most people think."

"Focus on the product, not the competition."

"Smart people should build things."

"The best protection against copycats is to ignore them and just make the best product."

"Startups don't win by being better, they win by being faster and more focused."

"The key to productivity is to have a long-term goal and a short-term focus."

"You can't do great work if you're always busy."

"The most successful startups are those that create wealth for everyone involved."

"A visionary isn't someone who sees the future, but someone who sees the present more clearly than others."

"You can't do great work if you're constantly being interrupted."

"One meeting can blow a whole afternoon."

"The most important thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

"The most productive people are those who can spend hours in a state of flow."

"Money is not wealth. Wealth is what you want."

"The top of your todo list is whatever you're thinking about in the shower."

"The most dangerous form of procrastination is 'perilous procrastination'—the kind that doesn't look like procrastination."

"If you want to be a successful founder, you have to be able to focus on one thing for a long time."

"The way to get big things done is to make them the only thing you do."

"The most dangerous way to lose your time is not to spend it having fun, but to spend it doing fake work."

"Make something people want."

"The most successful founders are the ones who are most obsessed with their product."

"It's hard to do a really good job on anything you don't think about in the shower."

"The most important thing is to be able to think."

"The best way to increase your focus is to decrease your options."

"Work hard on things that matter."

"The problem with distractions is not that they take time, but that they take over the top of your mind."

"Managers' schedules are like the command line... Makers' schedules are like a text editor."

"Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have."

"The best way to get rich is to create value that didn't exist before."

"The most important work is often the work you do when you're not working."

"A lot of the best startup ideas seem like bad ideas at first."