Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born (2023)
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Solitude and inner attention, not coworking, are essential for generating new ideas.
The essay argues that great ideas are fragile and require a state of mind that is solitary and free from social pressure. It draws on Sam Altman's view that Y Combinator avoids coworking spaces to protect larval ideas. Using mathematician Alexander Grothendieck and filmmaker Ingmar Bergman as examples, it claims that early, self-directed solitary work builds the capacity to be alone and notice personal curiosity, which is key to surfacing original questions rather than merely solving fashionable ones.
What commenters are saying
Commenters debated the role of solitude versus academic environments. One camp cited history's fertile periods and personal success in graduate school as counterexamples to the article's anti-collaboration stance. Another supported the article, noting that Grothendieck's solitary practice helped him fold community input into his own framework. One user distinguished between failure from competition vs. failure from coworking itself, while another lamented modern pressure to constantly produce rather than just be.