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Pardis Sabeti thought small by focusing patiently for years on a narrow niche (the genetics of diseases in Africa), but then acting big once she acquired enough capital to identify a mission (using computational genetics to help understand and fight ancient diseases). Sarah and Jane, by contrast, reversed this order. They started by thinking big, looking for a world-changing mission, but without capital they could only match this big thinki..
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Cal Newport |
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But this brings me back to my nagging question. I had notebooks filled with potential missions, yet I had resisted devoting myself to any one in particular. And I'm not alone in this reluctance to act. Many people have lots of career capital, and can therefore identify a variety of different potential missions for their work, but few actually build their career around such missions. It seems, therefore, that there's more to this career tact..
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Cal Newport |
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As I'll explain, mission is one of these desirable traits, and like any such desirable trait, it too requires that you first build career capital--a mission launched without this expertise is likely doomed to sputter and die. But capital alone is not enough to make a mission a reality. Plenty of people are good at what they do but haven't reoriented their career in a compelling direction. Accordingly, I will go on to explore a pair of advan..
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Cal Newport |
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Missions are hard. By this point in my quest, however, I had become comfortable with "hard," and I hope that if you've made it this far in the book, you have gained this comfort as well. Hardness scares off the daydreamers and the timid, leaving more opportunity for those like us who are willing to take the time to carefully work out the best path forward and then confidently take action."
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Cal Newport |
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In which I argue that a mission chosen before you have relevant career capital is not likely to be sustainable. Mission
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Cal Newport |
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Most knowledge workers avoid the uncomfortable strain of deliberate practice like the plague, a reality emphasized by the typical cubicle dweller's obsessive e-mail-checking habit--for what is this behavior if not an escape from work that's more mentally demanding? As
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Cal Newport |
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Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that's exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands.... Deliberate practice is above all an effort of focus and concentration. That is what makes it "deliberate," as distinct from the mindless playing of scales or hitting of tennis balls that most people engage in. If" --
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Cal Newport |
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Pushing past what's comfortable, however, is only one part of the deliberate-practice story; the other part is embracing honest feedback--even if it destroys what you thought was good. As Colvin explains in his Fortune article, "You may think that your rehearsal of a job interview was flawless, but your opinion isn't what counts." It's so tempting to just assume what you've done is good enough and check it off your to-do list, but it's in h..
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Cal Newport |
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Summary of Rule #2 Rule
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Cal Newport |
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You have to get good before you can expect good work. As
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Cal Newport |
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Busyness as a Proxy for Productivity
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Cal Newport |
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Whereas the craftsman mindset focuses on what you can offer the world, the passion mindset focuses instead on what the world can offer you.
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Cal Newport |
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In other words, forget why Jordan adopted this mindset and notice instead how he deploys it. In the next chapter, I will argue that regardless of how you feel about your job right now, adopting the craftsman mindset will be the foundation on which you'll build a compelling career. This is why I reject the "argument from pre-existing passion," because it gets things backward. In reality, as I'll demonstrate, you adopt the craftsman mindset f..
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Cal Newport |
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After returning from a trip to India, where he observed the practice of adding meditation rooms to homes, he expanded the complex to include a private office. "In my retiring room I am by myself," Jung said of the space."
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Cal Newport |
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He approached the task of finding good projects for his mission with the mindset of a marketer, systematically studying books on the subject to help identify why some ideas catch on while others fall flat. His marketing-centric approach is useful for anyone looking to wield mission as part of their quest for work they love. Purple
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Cal Newport |
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A good career mission is similar to a scientific breakthrough--it's an innovation waiting to be discovered in the adjacent possible of your field. If you want to identify a mission for your working life, therefore, you must first get to the cutting edge--the only place where these missions become visible. This
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Cal Newport |
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What Giles discovered, I decided, is that a good mission-driven project must be remarkable in two different ways. First, it should be remarkable in the literal sense of compelling people to remark about it. To
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Cal Newport |
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Take book writing: If I published a book of solid advice for helping recent graduates transition to the job market, you might find this a useful contribution, but probably wouldn't find yourself whipping out your iPhone and Tweeting its praises. On the other hand, if I publish a book that says "follow your passion" is bad advice, (hopefully) this would compel you to spread the word."
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Cal Newport |
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If you want a mission, you need to first acquire capital. If you skip this step, you might end up like Sarah and Jane: with lots of enthusiasm but very little to show for it. Not
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Cal Newport |
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Most individuals who start as active professionals... change their behavior and increase their performance for a limited time until they reach an acceptable level. Beyond this point, however, further improvements appear to be unpredictable and the number of years of work... is a poor predictor of attained performance." Put another way, if you just show up and work hard, you'll soon hit a performance plateau beyond which you fail to get any ..
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Cal Newport |
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I might finish writing at two or three A.M., then have to leave at eight the next morning to get back to my job at NBC on time," Alex recalls. It was a busy period. After"
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Cal Newport |
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The Law of Remarkability For a mission-driven project to succeed, it should be remarkable in two different ways. First, it must compel people who encounter it to remark about it to others. Second, it must be launched in a venue that supports such remarking. Once
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Cal Newport |
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he came to realize a simple truth: Working right trumps finding the right work. He didn't need to have a perfect job to find occupational happiness--he needed instead a better approach to the work already available to him.
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Cal Newport |
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In the early 1990s, Anders Ericsson, a colleague of Neil Charness at Florida State University, coined the term "deliberate practice" to describe this style of serious study, defining it formally as an "activity designed, typically by a teacher, for the sole purpose of effectively improving specific aspects of an individual's performance."4"
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Cal Newport |
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An auction market, by contrast, is less structured: There are many different types of career capital, and each person might generate a unique collection. The cleantech space is an auction market. Mike Jackson's capital, for example, included expertise in renewable energy markets and entrepreneurship, but there are a variety of other types of relevant skills
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Cal Newport |
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adopt the craftsman mindset first and then the passion follows.
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Cal Newport |
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The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.
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Cal Newport |
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These directly measurable costs, however, were the easy part of his decision. It was instead the "opportunity costs" that required more attention. As he elaborated: "If I make hay all summer, I can't be doing something else."
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Cal Newport |
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A deep life is a good life.
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Cal Newport |
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a good process-centric message immediately "closes the loop" with respect to the project at hand. When a project is initiated by an e-mail that you send or receive, it squats in your mental landscape--becoming something that's "on your plate" in the sense that it has been brought to your attention and eventually needs to be addressed. This method closes this open loop as soon as it forms."
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Cal Newport |
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What interests me about Charness's study, however, is that it moves beyond the 10,000-hour rule by asking not just how long people worked, but also what type of work they did. In more detail, they studied players who had all spent roughly the same amount of time--around 10,000 hours--playing chess. Some of these players had become grand masters while others remained at an intermediate level. Both groups had practiced the same amount of time..
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Cal Newport |
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intelligent machines are complicated and hard to master.* To join the group of those who can work well with these machines, therefore, requires that you hone your ability to master hard things. And because these technologies change rapidly, this process of mastering hard things never ends: You must be able to do it quickly, again and again. This
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Cal Newport |
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To learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction. To
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Cal Newport |
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You don't need a rarified job; you need instead a rarified approach to your work.
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Cal Newport |
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To put this more concretely: If every moment of potential boredom in your life--say, having to wait five minutes in line or sit alone in a restaurant until a friend arrives--is relieved with a quick glance at your smartphone, then your brain has likely been rewired to a point where, like the "mental wrecks" in Nass's research, it's not ready for deep work--even if you regularly schedule time to practice this concentration."
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Cal Newport |
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afd3a5b
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The connection between deep work and flow should be clear: Deep work is an activity well suited to generate a flow state (the phrases used by Csikszentmihalyi to describe what generates flow include notions of stretching your mind to its limits, concentrating, and losing yourself in an activity--all of which also describe deep work).
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Cal Newport |
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The goal of the machine," David explained, "is to create a setting where the users can get into a state of deep human flourishing--creating work that's at the absolute extent of their personal abilities." It"
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Cal Newport |
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1) Jot down new tasks and assignments on your list during the day; (2) next morning, transfer these new items from your list onto your calendar; and (3) then take a couple of minutes to plan your day.
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Cal Newport |
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to your work, then he will close the deal. To
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Cal Newport |
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Busyness as Proxy for Productivity: In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner. This mind-set provides another explanation for the popularity of many depth-destroying behaviors. If you send and answer e-mails at all hours, if you schedule and attend meetings constantly..
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Cal Newport |
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Two Core Abilities for Thriving in the New Economy The ability to quickly master hard things. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed. Let's
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Cal Newport |
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Thurston struck up conversations with strangers. He enjoyed food without Instagramming the experience.
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Cal Newport |
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Personal Goal: To maintain close and rewarding friendships with a group of people who are important to me. Key Activities Supporting This Goal: 1. Regularly take the time for meaningful connection with those who are most important to me (e.g., a long talk, a meal, joint activity). 2. Give of myself to those who are most important to me (e.g., making nontrivial sacrifices that improve their lives). Not
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Cal Newport |
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Bad courses, with incompatible professors and unreasonable requirements, are the key to developing an ulcer.
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Cal Newport |