Paul Graham's essay on involuntary thinking resurfaces as AI amplifies idea exploration
aminkarbasi · x · 2026-09-26
Entrepreneur aminkarbasi recommends rereading a Paul Graham essay, arguing it feels more relevant than ever now that AI gives us far more power to explore ideas and solve hard problems. He highlights a key passage: everyone who has worked on difficult problems knows the phenomenon of failing to figure something out, then suddenly seeing the answer later while doing something else. Graham argues this kind of involuntary thinking isn't merely helpful but necessary—and the tricky part is that you can only control it indirectly.
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