July 2010I realized recently that what one thinks about in the shower in themorning is more important than I'd thought. I knew it was a goodtime to have ideas. Now I'd go further: now I'd say it's hard todo a really good job on anything you don't think about in the shower.Everyone who's worked on difficult problems is probably familiarwith the phenomenon of working hard to figure something out, failing,and then suddenly seeing the answer a bit later while doing somethingelse. There's a kind of thinking you do without trying to. I'mincreasingly convinced this type of thinking is not merely helpfulin solving hard problems, but necessary. The tricky part is, youcan only control it indirectly.[1]I think most people have one top idea in their mind at any giventime. That's the idea their thoughts will drift toward when they'reallowed to drift freely. And this idea will thus tend to get allthe benefit of that type of thinking, while others are starved ofit. Which means it's a disaster to let the wrong idea become thetop one in your mind.What made this clear to me was having an idea I didn't want as thetop one in my mind for two long stretches.I'd noticed startups got way less done when they started raisingmoney, but it was not till we ourselves raised money that I understoodwhy. The problem is not the actual time it takes to meet withinvestors. The problem is that once you start raising money, raisingmoney becomes the top idea in your mind. That becomes what youthink about when you take a shower in the morning. And that meansother questions aren't.I'd hated raising money when I was running Viaweb, but I'd forgottenwhy I hated it so much. When we raised money for Y Combinator, Iremembered. Money matters are particularly likely to become thetop idea in your mind. The reason is that they have to be. It'shard to get money. It's not the sort of thing that happens bydefault. It's not going to happen unless you let it become thething you think about in the shower. And then you'll make littleprogress on anything else you'd rather be working on.[2](I hear similar complaints from friends who are professors. Professorsnowadays seem to have become professional fundraisers who do alittle research on the side. It may be time to fix that.)The reason this struck me so forcibly is that for most of thepreceding 10 years I'd been able to think about what I wanted. Sothe contrast when I couldn't was sharp. But I don't think thisproblem is unique to me, because just about every startup I've seengrinds to a halt when they start raising money — or talkingto acquirers.You can't directly control where your thoughts drift. If you'recontrolling them, they're not drifting. But you can control themindirectly, by controlling what situations you let yourself getinto. That has been the lesson for me: be careful what you letbecome critical to you. Try to get yourself into situations wherethe most urgent problems are ones you want to think about.You don't have complete control, of course. An emergency couldpush other thoughts out of your head. But barring emergencies youhave a good deal of indirect control over what becomes the top ideain your mind.I've found there are two types of thoughts especially worthavoiding — thoughts like the Nile Perch in the way they pushout more interesting ideas. One I've already mentioned: thoughtsabout money. Getting money is almost by definition an attentionsink.The other is disputes. These too are engaging in thewrong way: they have the same velcro-like shape as genuinelyinteresting ideas, but without the substance. So avoid disputesif you want to get real work done.[3]Even Newton fell into this trap. After publishing his theory ofcolors in 1672 he found himself distracted by disputes for years,finally concluding that the only solution was to stop publishing: I see I have made myself a slave to Philosophy, but if I get free of Mr Linus's business I will resolutely bid adew to it eternally, excepting what I do for my privat satisfaction or leave to come out after me. For I see a man must either resolve to put out nothing new or become a slave to defend it.[4]Linus and his students at Liege were among the more tenaciouscritics. Newton's biographer Westfall seems to feel he wasoverreacting: Recall that at the time he wrote, Newton's "slavery" consisted of five replies to Liege, totalling fourteen printed pages, over the course of a year.I'm more sympathetic to Newton. The problem was not the 14 pages,but the pain of having this stupid controversy constantly reintroducedas the top idea in a mind that wanted so eagerly to think aboutother things.Turning the other cheek turns out to have selfish advantages.Someone who does you an injury hurts you twice: first by the injuryitself, and second by taking up your time afterward thinking aboutit. If you learn to ignore injuries you can at least avoid thesecond half. I've found I can to some extent avoid thinking aboutnasty things people have done to me by telling myself: this doesn'tdeserve space in my head. I'm always delighted to find I've forgottenthe details of disputes, because that means I hadn't been thinkingabout them. My wife thinks I'm more forgiving than she is, but mymotives are purely selfish.I suspect a lot of people aren't sure what's the top idea in theirmind at any given time. I'm often mistaken about it. I tend tothink it's the idea I'd want to be the top one, rather than the onethat is. But it's easy to figure this out: just take a shower.What topic do your thoughts keep returning to? If it's not whatyou want to be thinking about, you may want to change something.Notes[1]No doubt there are already names for this type of thinking, butI call it "ambient thought."[2]This was made particularly clear in our case, because neitherof the funds we raised was difficult, and yet in both cases theprocess dragged on for months. Moving large amounts of money aroundis never something people treat casually. The attention requiredincreases with the amount—maybe not linearly, but definitelymonotonically.[3]Corollary: Avoid becoming an administrator, or your job willconsist of dealing with money and disputes.[4]Letter to Oldenburg, quoted in Westfall, Richard, Life ofIsaac Newton, p. 107.Thanks to Sam Altman, Patrick Collison, Jessica Livingston,and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this.
