Guru Bhat

On December 11, 2021, I picked Robert Greene up from the airport, and we drove forty-five minutes to Bastrop, TX. At one point, Robert told me he’s had more than 20 research assistants since Ryan Holiday and none have been any good. Why weren’t they any good? I asked. He said, “Some didn’t grasp the spirit of the material I look for. Some couldn’t discern what's interesting from what isn't. Some melted like an ice cube in the sun at the first piece of constructive criticism. Some...” He paused here and thought. As he was thinking, I understood the implication was that those first three reasons didn't really cut to the core of his troubles with research assistants. “Without exception,” Robert realized, “they weren’t interested in boredom. It’s a dividing line between people who are successful and people who are not.” Takeaway 1: Mastery, Robert said, requires boredom and tedium. It requires doing the same things over and over and over. It requires sitting with the frustration of putting in work that doesn't immediately pay off. It requires sitting with the uncertainty of, am I going to spend sixteen hours reading this biography only to discover there’s nothing in it I can use? You have to be able to sit with boredom, Robert said. Takeaway 2: In another conversation, Robert told me he believes one of the reasons people struggle to sit with boredom is that they have a false idea about the word “creativity.” “People have all sorts of illusions about the word that aren’t the reality,” he said. “The reality is that creativity is a function of the previous work you put in. If you put a lot of hours into thinking and researching and reading, hour after hour—a very tedious process—creativity will come to you…It comes to you, but only after hours and hours of tedious work.” I like this definition because it means creativity is not some mysterious form of magic. It’s something that is rewarded to those who put in hours and hours of boring, tedious work. - - - “One sign that you're suited for some kind of work is when you like even the parts that other people find tedious.” — Paul Graham Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!