Cal Newport
Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University & Author of 'So Good They Can't Ignore You'
Discussion
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Cal Newport
@studyhacksblog · Study Hacks
Hi - I'm Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University, and the author of Deep Work, which agues that focus is the new I.Q. Ask me anything...
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Haowen Chan
@purpleturtle
Have you thought about setting up a community where deep work enthusiasts can support each other with Q&A about what worked for them during their training, and share their progress?
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Cal Newport
@studyhacksblog · Study Hacks
@purpleturtle That would be great. If anyone has a suggestion for the right tool for this purpose, I'm all ears.
Darshan Desai
@darshan_desai
@studyhacksblog @purpleturtle That's a great suggestion! I'd love to be a part of that!
Erik van Mechelen
@decision_ · Novelist
@studyhacksblog @purpleturtle I believe I've done a decent amount of deep work in writing a novel and preparing for the 2014 USA memory championship...and I love community-building and management, would love to set up that community on Slack, for instance. May I contact you about it?
Haowen Chan
@purpleturtle
@studyhacksblog @purpleturtle I've found that traditional forum/bbs formats work well for this due to their threaded nature. There are some free options listed here: https://www.quora.com/What-is-th...
Kelly P King
@kkbranddesign · Owner, Kelly King Creative
@studyhacksblog @purpleturtle I would suggest a Facebook Private Group. I have been a member of another group with a consultant and we shared our thoughts and work for one month. It was very helpful, motivating and fun.
Preet
@preetnation · BlueLight, also enjoy QS and Parkour
@studyhacksblog @purpleturtle reddit could be a simple, good start. r/deepwork exists
Junius
@juniusfree
What is your opinion on this research (http://pss.sagepub.com/content/e...) which dismisses the importance of deliberate practice particularly for professions (1% variance for professions)?
Thanks!
Haowen Chan
@purpleturtle
@juniusfree For those of us without access to the article, can someone explain what is meant by "professions"? Does it cover everything from surgery to grocery cashier?
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Cal Newport
@studyhacksblog · Study Hacks
@juniusfree Be wary of the anti-deliberate practice research. Such papers began to peak after outliers mainly because academics don't like Malcolm Gladwell (my theory). Anders Ericsson wrote a rebuttal recently (cited in DEEP WORK) about why a lot of this anti-deliberate practice research is not that good.
Paolo Usero
@paolo · Graduate Student
@purpleturtle @juniusfree A quick glance through and it seems that professions is woefully under represented in their statistics for such a large category.
Katie
@deadacct3000 · Blowhard
I'm interested to know what you see are the supports in your life that are vital for you to be able to work at the intensity that you do, and what you do to create/maintain/renew those supports. For example, lack of any meaningful human contact in a day coupled with working in front of a screen rather than with physical objects can feel quite lonely and isolating. A couple days of this in a row becomes distressing for many of us. During the workday, we may use social media to seek out the company of others in a frictionless way that we can exit anytime as an efficient, though inadequate, solution to this.
I think when we are trying to address very deep and possibly unacknowledged needs with quick fixes that break our focus and drain our cognitive reserves - social media for loneliness, meeting others' shallow work requests quickly to gain a sense of urgency to work that seems depressingly unnecessary - removing those quick fixes won't be sufficient to get us to a place where we can gather our focus and do deep work long-term. We must move towards having those very human needs met in an authentic and lasting way, along with building more mature work habits. Or, perhaps we just need to build our tolerance to negative emotions, I don't know. What's your take?
Nicolay Worren
@nicolayworren · Nicolay Worren, business school prof.
@deadacct3000 Well said. I would guess personality differences play a role here, some people get their energy from interacting with other people. I would add that I also need to interact with a broad set up of people to get ideas; despite being a professor I get more ideas from talking to people in organizations, than I do from reading academic papers.
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Cal Newport
@studyhacksblog · Study Hacks
@deadacct3000 It's a good question. I do a lot of my work on foot or in locations other than my offices because I too get drained if I spend too much time in the same room looking at the same screen. I also try to keep my life simple. I work during the normal work day and work real hard (no web surfing, no loafing, etc.) But then my evenings and weekends I can really relax, connect with people, etc.
But it's worth pointing out, as Nicolay does below, that for an extrovert the intense workday might be much harder than it is for an introvert like me.
Junius
@juniusfree
What should a generalist (jack of all trades) need to do to advance his/her career?
Thanks!
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Cal Newport
@studyhacksblog · Study Hacks
@juniusfree If you're not comfortable with the idea of choosing a single thing to excel at, consider instead selecting a unique collection of skills that are rare in combination and have some high value areas of application (what i called the "auction market" of skills in SO GOOD THEY CAN'T IGNORE YOU)
Fraz Ahmed Ismat
@fismat · Medical Director
@juniusfree No such thing as a "generalist". If you cannot identify what you are good at, that may be part of the problem.
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Cal Newport
@studyhacksblog · Study Hacks
@cisum_listen Read THE RISE OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT. His intensity was legendary.
Thodoris Grigorakos
@phast123
How can a college student integrate deep work into his life ?
Jacob Lindberg
@jacob_lindberg · Student in Math Stats Finance
@phast123 It is the content of his first three books. I like "Straight A student" the most.
Chris Lines
@chris_lines · Music Composer
@studyhacksblog With all the careful planning, scheduling and organisation we do in order to make better use of our time, what are some useful practices or mindsets you use to actually buckle down and WORK? Thanks.
Erik van Mechelen
@decision_ · Novelist
@studyhacksblog Adding on to @chris_lines, how do you get in and stay in flow? Are there in-between states in your experience? Can you see yourself losing concentration but adjust your position in your chair and keep going? Cheers Cal. Been following for years.
Erik van Mechelen
@decision_ · Novelist
PS "So Good They Can't Ignore You" was a gem. So thanks for that.
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Cal Newport
@studyhacksblog · Study Hacks
@chris_lines When conducting deep work: (1) have clarity about exactly what you are trying to accomplish and for how long you'll be working on it; (2) have some sort of ritual you do to initiate such depth sessions (signaling your brain it's time to concentrate); (3) get up and move as needed to rest your mind, but do not expose yourself to unrelated work or obligations (e.g., inbox glances)
Michael Eads
@themikeeads · Founder
Hey Cal – what is your take on traditional/mindfulness meditation practices?
I ask because your new book has excellent advice about "productive meditation" – and mentions that it is similar in nature to "mindfulness meditation" – but other than that, other types of meditation are not discussed.
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Cal Newport
@studyhacksblog · Study Hacks
@themikeeads Productive meditation is good for increasing the intensity of your ability to concentrate. Mindfulness meditation (which I have practiced off an on) is good for helping to decrease your dependence on distraction. Both are useful. I don't know much about other meditation types, but generally, the more activities you can do that require undistracted attention (whether it be playing a sport or meditating or stamp collecting), the better.
Nicolay Worren
@nicolayworren · Nicolay Worren, business school prof.
@studyhacksblog @themikeeads I have enjoyed practicing the Alexander Technique for years, it's simple and really works (should be learned from a teacher initially)
Hawkar Mahmod
@hrm2014 · Graduate, Hawkar
@studyhacksblog Hi Cal, in your new book Deep Work you say, "Spend enough time in a state of frenetic shallowness and you permanently reduce your capacity to perform deep work." This got me thinking because I feel sometimes that this describes me quite well, I recently graduated and felt like I spent most of time at university avoiding deep work, opting for the more shallow approach when working and so my question is to someone like me (I haven't yet completed the book) what would you recommend to reverse the condition of continually working in a shallow way, be that practical steps to take or changing my approach more generally I'd welcome any answers. Thank you.
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Cal Newport
@studyhacksblog · Study Hacks
@hrm2014 You need "Rule #2: Embrace Boredom." At a high-level, there are two types of exercises that can help you rewire your brain. First, you need to start giving yourself many more chances to be bored. That is, instead of having Internet use (phone or computer) be a default activity, make a planned activity -- at work and home -- with everything in between free from that stimuli. Two, you need to start pushing your ability to concentrate. It is important to realize that concentration is something that needs to be trained. In the book, I talk about productive meditation and Teddy Roosevelt days as good exercises for this purpose.