Deep Work
Cal Newport
First published 2016Grand Central first edition, 5 January 2016 (Hachette Book Group)
What it is.
What the reclaimed attention is actually for.
Newport's split is between work that is hard to replicate and work that is not, and his claim is that knowledge jobs pay for the second while believing they bought the first. Deep work is the concentrated kind. It needs distraction removed, a routine that does not depend on how you feel, and structure decided in advance. What landed for me was lead against lag measures. I set goals like reading more and then track nothing that would tell me whether it is happening.
Working summary · based on Toward's reading notes
The strongest objection
Not everyone can do this. Jung had a tower and Gates has think weeks, and most people have a job that emails them. Take the shape of it and fit it to a life with obligations in it.
Working summary · based on Toward's reading notes
Why it is here.
Friction is the effort between you and an action. Apps spend billions engineering it away. Add a little back on purpose, and you choose where your hours go instead of the feed choosing for you.
The friction principle cites three books and this one answers the obvious objection. Clearing your attention is not the goal, because nobody wants an empty evening. The reason to put friction back on the feed is the concentrated work on the other side of it, which is a claim about meaning rather than output.
Working summary · based on Toward's records
Where it sits.
Goals it serves.
Read it after Digital Minimalism, which clears the space this one asks you to fill. Flow sits beside it and describes the same state from the inside, without the work ethic attached.
Working summary · based on Toward's records