Essay · about 10 min read

Schlep Blindness

Paul Graham · paulgraham.com Free Intermediate

If your idea feels unglamorous or annoyingly hard, this essay explains why that can be a good sign rather than a reason to drop it. Graham shows how founders unconsciously avoid tedious, painful problems, which is exactly why those problems stay unsolved and valuable (Stripe is his example). Read it to check whether you are dismissing a strong idea just because the work looks like a slog.

  • The hardest, most tedious problems are often the most valuable and least crowded
  • You may be blind to good ideas because your mind avoids the schlep
  • A company is defined by the difficult work it is willing to take on
Open on paulgraham.com ↗

It answers 6 questions

  1. What is founder-market fit and how do I know if I have it?
  2. How do I know if my idea is any good?
  3. How do I come up with startup ideas that aren't just 'Uber for X'?
  4. Where do I look to find emerging opportunities before they're obvious?
  5. Should I chase whatever is hot (AI, crypto) or build in a boring niche?
  6. How do I find a problem worth solving in an industry I have never worked in?

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  4. Entering an unfamiliar industry means you cannot see the walls and dead ends that veterans already know. Dixon explains that a... cdixon.org Essay · short read The Idea Maze Chris Dixon
  5. Lenny interviewed founders of Gong, Notion, Figma, Amplitude, Retool and more to trace where their idea actually came from. The... Lenny's Newsletter Article · About 15 min read How the Most Successful B2B Startups Came Up With Their Original Idea Lenny Rachitsky
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