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Productivity

Every resource in the archive tagged with productivity.

13 resources

How Things Get DoneEssay

How Things Get Done

Sam Altman

3 min read

Things get done through focus on two or three priorities and strong personal relationships.

Steve Jobs explains the importance of both thinking and doingVideo

Steve Jobs explains the importance of both thinking and doing

Steve Jobs

Mar 2026 · 1 min read

Why the people who change industries are thinkers and doers in one person.

FastEssay

Fast

Patrick Collison

7 min read

Collison's single sharpest juxtaposition of what humans used to be able to build versus what we now accept.

AdviceEssay

Advice

Patrick Collison

3 min read

Go deep on multiple things, make internet friends, read widely, and resist pressure to follow standard paths.

Happiness Is a SkillEssay

Happiness Is a Skill

Naval Ravikant

Mar 2021 · 23 min read

Happiness is a skill you can develop by understanding desire and recognizing what's within your control.

Value Is Created By DoingEssay

Value Is Created By Doing

Sam Altman

3 min read

Most work that feels busy—meetings, networking, talking—doesn't create value; only execution does.

The Days Are Long But The Decades Are ShortEssay

The Days Are Long But The Decades Are Short

Sam Altman

6 min read

Altman's closing line and title — the frame for the entire list of life lessons written on his 30th birthday.

What I Wish Someone Had Told MeEssay

What I Wish Someone Had Told Me

Sam Altman

1 min read

How to start and scale ambitious things: recruiting, focus, speed, conviction, and fighting bureaucracy.

Researchers and FoundersEssay

Researchers and Founders

Sam Altman

1 min read

The common traits that distinguish the best researchers and founders, from problem taste to persistence to an action bias.

ProductivityEssay

Productivity

Sam Altman

10 min read

Choosing what to work on matters more than how fast you work, and small gains compound into massive results over time.

Age and the EntrepreneurEssay

Age and the Entrepreneur

Marc Andreessen

Aug 2007 · 11 min read

Andreessen's gloss on Simonton's finding that the 'quality ratio' of hits to misses stays roughly constant throughout a creative career.

The Top Idea in Your MindEssay

The Top Idea in Your Mind

Paul Graham

Sep 2022 · 10 min read

Most startup problems repeat across companies, so the key to advising founders is helping them focus on what actually matters most.

Maker's Schedule, Manager's ScheduleEssay

Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule

Paul Graham

Jul 2009 · 5 min read

Two incompatible ways to use time: the maker's schedule and the manager's schedule.