Should startups pursue the hardest problems or easier adjacent opportunities?

Max Altman · published Nov 21, 2025

This is a far more exciting time to invest than the previous cycle because founders are swinging for the fences on hard problems rather than building on-demand dry cleaning

Companies like Anduril, Hadrian and Ceramic are genuinely interesting to think about, whereas the prior era's startups couldn't get him out of bed

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Gokul Rajaram · published Mar 16, 2026

The most ambitious entrepreneurs are finally tackling the hardest problems facing humanity, and AI has unlocked that level of ambition

There are now founder role models building against humanity-scale problems rather than small companies

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Paul Graham · published May 2004 · hedged

As a general life heuristic, when facing two choices you should pick the harder one.

When one option is harder, the only reason you're considering the other is laziness; the rule forces you to acknowledge what you already know is right.

Scope: the explanation of why it works is offered as probable

source How to Make Wealth

Paul Graham · published Jun 2021

Working hard means aiming toward the hard core at the center of problems, and at the lifetime scale toward the most ambitious problems, rather than the easier peripheral ones.

Many problems have a hard core at the center surrounded by easier stuff at the edges, and the same structure applies to the choice of what to do with your life.

Scope: some days you can only manage peripheral work; without stalling

source How to Work Hard

Carles Reina · published Apr 11, 2026

Startups and VCs should pursue the harder, more complex opportunities rather than the easy adjacent ones, and buy or partner where someone else is already good

We're not here to do easy stuff; doing what no one else is doing is the point of startups

27:34 Take the hard problems buy or partner for the rest

Paul Graham · published May 2004

Startups should deliberately choose the harder option at decision points, because difficulty penalizes bigger competitors more than it penalizes you.

Like a small man running upstairs from a fat bully, hard terrain hurts the bigger pursuer more; something hard for a startup would be impossible for its competitors.

source Choose the harder option since difficulty penalizes larger competitors more than you

Paul Graham · published Jun 2021

Difficulty is not an infallible guide to what to work on; if you find an ambitious kind of work that's unusually easy for you, you should do it.

Some of the best work is done by people who find an easy way to do something hard, whether from their particular abilities, a new approach, or greater excitement.

source Ambitious work that is unusually easy for you should be pursued since difficulty alone is not the guide