People fail to notice problems whose solution would be tedious, because the mind avoids the idea before evaluating it.
Graham's claim is that the avoidance happens before deliberation: a problem requiring years of unglamorous work does not get rejected, it does not get considered. The commercial consequence is that the least contested opportunities are the ones involving the most drudgery, since everyone else has been blind in the same way.
In practice
- A market ignored for a decade turns out to require paperwork nobody wanted to do rather than insight nobody had.
- A team brainstorming ideas produces only ideas that sound enjoyable, and does not notice the filter.
- Subject
- Creativity & Work
- Essay
- What gets in the way of good work