This guy is really channeling PG (see also http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1374008)

"I disagree here with Yoda, who said there is no try. There is try." http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html

Update: Wait, the two were published around the same time. Never mind.

"It takes a lot of hard work to understand the universe well enough to be able to be properly productive in the zone."

Does he really mean "the universe" or the "space" of the task at hand?