“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible. - Richard Feynman

Interviews in order of appearance:

Richard Feynman
https://youtu.be/P1ww1IXRfTA

John Carmack
https://youtu.be/I845O57ZSy4

Kevin Systrom 
https://youtu.be/3pvpNKUPbIY

Andrej Karpathy
https://youtu.be/cdiD-9MMpb0

background music: 
Sid Acharya - Faliing Through the Hourglass
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i4yRbeiu6M0

You ask me if an ordinary person, by studying hard, would get to be able to imagine these things like I imagined.

Of course, I was an ordinary person who studied hard.

They got interested in this thing and they learned all this stuff.

There's no talent, a special miracle ability to understand quantum mechanics or a miracle ability to imagine electromagnetic fields that comes without practice and reading and learning and study.

So if you say you take an ordinary person who's willing to devote a great deal of time and study and work and thinking and mathematics and time and He's become a scientist.

There is a small subset of the people that can be very happy being obsessive about things.

And obsession can often get things done that just practical, prudent, pedestrian work won't, or at least won't for a very long time.

But I do think that great things require a lot of hard work.

So there's no way you can expect to change the world without working really hard.

By the way, even changing the world, you know, the folks that I respect the most have nudged the world in like a slight direction.

I think to have great outcomes, you actually do need to work at like 3 standard deviations above the mean.

But when I read about companies going to like 4 day work weeks and stuff, I just like, I chuckle because I can't get enough done with a 7 day week.

I don't know how, and people will say, oh, you're just not working smart.

And it's like, no, I work pretty smart, I think in general.

And I think the focus should be more like how much you do.

So I am kind of like believer on a high level in this 10, 000 hours kind of concept where you just kind of have to just pick the

things where you can spend time and you you care about and you're interested in you literally have to put in 10, 000 hours of work

it doesn't even like matter as much like where you put it and you'll iterate and you'll improve and you'll waste some time I don't know if there's a better way you need to put in 10, 000 hours.

But I think it's actually really nice because I feel like there's some sense of

and I think if you spend 10, 000 hours of deliberate effort and work, you actually will become an expert at it.

nice thought and so basically I would focus more on like are you spending 10, 000 hours.

is helpful for the psychology of it is many times people compare themselves to others in the area I think is very harmful.

Only compare yourself to you from some time ago, like say a year ago.

And I think this, then you can see your progress and it's very motivating.

You will waste time doing something wrong.

You will eventually figure out it's not right.

You will accumulate scar tissue and next time you'll grow stronger because next time you'll have the scar tissue and next time you'll learn from it and now next time you come to a similar situation you'll be like, oh I messed up.

I've spent a lot of time working on things that never materialized into anything And I have all that scar tissue, and I have some intuitions about what was useful, what wasn't useful, how things turned out.

So I just think you should just focus on working.


Speaker 0: You ask me if an ordinary person, by studying hard, would get to be able to imagine these things like I imagined. Of course, I was an ordinary person who studied hard. There's no miracle people. It just happens. They got interested in this thing and they learned all this stuff.

They're just people. There's no talent, a special miracle ability to understand quantum mechanics or a miracle ability to imagine electromagnetic fields that comes without practice and reading and learning and study. So if you say you take an ordinary person who's willing to devote a great deal of time and study and work and thinking and mathematics and time and He's become a scientist.

Speaker 1: There is a small subset of the people that can be very happy being obsessive about things. And obsession can often get things done that just practical, prudent, pedestrian work won't, or at least won't for a very long time.

Speaker 2: But I do think that great things require a lot of hard work. So there's no way you can expect to change the world without working really hard. By the way, even changing the world, you know, the folks that I respect the most have nudged the world in like a slight direction. Slight, very, very slight. I think to have great outcomes, you actually do need to work at like 3 standard deviations above the mean.

But when I read about companies going to like 4 day work weeks and stuff, I just like, I chuckle because I can't get enough done with a 7 day week. I don't know how, and people will say, oh, you're just not working smart. And it's like, no, I work pretty smart, I think in general.

Speaker 3: And I think the focus should be more like how much you do. So I am kind of like believer on a high level in this 10, 000 hours kind of concept where you just kind of have to just pick the

Speaker 4: things where you can spend time and you you care about and you're interested in you literally have to put in 10, 000 hours of work

Speaker 3: it doesn't even like matter as much like where you put it and you'll iterate and you'll improve and you'll waste some time I don't know if there's a better way you need to put in 10, 000 hours. But I think it's actually really nice because I feel like there's some sense of

Speaker 4: determinism about being an expert at

Speaker 3: a thing if you spend 10, 000 hours. You can literally

Speaker 4: pick an arbitrary thing

Speaker 3: and I think if you spend 10, 000 hours of deliberate effort and work, you actually will become an expert at it. And so I think it's kind of like a

Speaker 4: nice thought and so basically I would focus more on like are you spending 10, 000 hours.

Speaker 3: 1 other thing that I think

Speaker 4: is helpful for the psychology of it is many times people compare themselves to others in the area I think is very harmful. Only compare yourself to you from some time ago, like say a year ago. Are you better than you a year ago?

Speaker 3: It's the only way to think. And I think this, then you can see your progress and it's very motivating. You will waste time doing something wrong.

Speaker 4: You will eventually figure out it's not right.

Speaker 3: You will accumulate scar tissue and next time you'll grow stronger because next time you'll have the scar tissue and next time you'll learn from it and now next time you come to a similar situation you'll be like, oh I messed up. I've spent a lot of time working on things that never materialized into anything And I have all that scar tissue, and I have some intuitions about what was useful, what wasn't useful, how things turned out. So all those mistakes

Speaker 4: were not dead work.

Speaker 3: So I just think you should just focus on working. What have you done? What have you done last week?

See all Arjun Kocher transcripts on Youtube

How To Study Hard - Richard Feynman