François Chollet says breakthroughs come from people obsessed with the process

François Chollet says almost everyone wants to have solved a hard problem, but few want to endure the work of solving it.

In a post on X dated October 15, 2026, he argues that breakthroughs come from the few who are obsessed with the process rather than with the idea of the outcome. The post is a general claim about how breakthroughs happen and does not cite a specific project, result or dataset.