📚 node [[so good they can t ignore you]]
📓 garden/bbchase/book notes/So Good They Can't Ignore You.md by @bbchase
  • Author:: [[Cal Newport]]
  • Full Title:: So Good They Can't Ignore You
  • Category:: [[books]]

  • Highlights first synced by [[readwise]] [[September 2nd, 2020]]

    • Soon after, your research efforts are expected to release themselves from your advisor’s orbit and follow a self-directed trajectory. It’s here that if you’re not careful to keep pushing forward, your improvement can taper off to what the performance scientist Anders Ericsson called an “acceptable level,” where you then remain stuck
    • if you’re not putting in the effort to become, as Steve Martin put it, “so good they can’t ignore you,” you’re not likely to end up loving your work—regardless of whether or not you believe it’s your true calling.
    • For them, something as basic as choosing a major became weighted with cosmic significance
    • The things that make great work great, it argued, are rare and valuable. If you want them in your career, you need rare and valuable skills to offer in return
    • 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?
    • deliberate practice
    • the fact that I had already spent time on easier tasks in the paper built up enough momentum to help push me forward.
    • It took, on average, ten minutes for the waves of resistance to die down
    • the vast majority of people don’t have pre-existing passions
    • career capital
    • More important than these small successes, however, was the new mindset this test case introduced. Strain, I now accepted, was good. Instead of seeing this discomfort as a sensation to avoid, I began to understand it the same way that a body builder understands muscle burn: a sign that you’re doing something right
    • It was as if my mind realized the effort I was about to ask it to expend, and in response it unleashed a wave of neuronal protest, distant at first, but then as I persisted increasingly tremendous, crashing over my concentration with mounting intensity
    • time structure
    • This type of skill development is hard
    • I chose a paper that was well cited in my research niche, but that was also considered obtuse and hard to follow
    • follow your passion” is bad advice
    • information structure
    • My Hour-Tally Routine
    • The traits that can make your life interesting, I learned, had very little to do with intensive soul-searching
    • My Research Bible Routine
    • while my classmates contemplated their true calling, I went seeking opportunities to master rare skills that would yield big rewards
    • Once a week I require myself to summarize in my “bible” a paper I think might be relevant to my research
    • I would conclude by writing a detailed summary in my own words
    • My Theory-Notebook Routine
    • I am going to work on this for one hour

  • Highlights first synced by [[readwise]] [[September 2nd, 2020]]

    • I would conclude by writing a detailed summary in my own words
    • time structure
    • My Theory-Notebook Routine
    • The traits that can make your life interesting, I learned, had very little to do with intensive soul-searching
    • Soon after, your research efforts are expected to release themselves from your advisor’s orbit and follow a self-directed trajectory. It’s here that if you’re not careful to keep pushing forward, your improvement can taper off to what the performance scientist Anders Ericsson called an “acceptable level,” where you then remain stuck
    • Once a week I require myself to summarize in my “bible” a paper I think might be relevant to my research
    • This type of skill development is hard
    • career capital
    • follow your passion” is bad advice
    • More important than these small successes, however, was the new mindset this test case introduced. Strain, I now accepted, was good. Instead of seeing this discomfort as a sensation to avoid, I began to understand it the same way that a body builder understands muscle burn: a sign that you’re doing something right
    • the vast majority of people don’t have pre-existing passions
    • the fact that I had already spent time on easier tasks in the paper built up enough momentum to help push me forward.
    • The things that make great work great, it argued, are rare and valuable. If you want them in your career, you need rare and valuable skills to offer in return
    • 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?
    • It took, on average, ten minutes for the waves of resistance to die down
    • I am going to work on this for one hour
    • I chose a paper that was well cited in my research niche, but that was also considered obtuse and hard to follow
    • It was as if my mind realized the effort I was about to ask it to expend, and in response it unleashed a wave of neuronal protest, distant at first, but then as I persisted increasingly tremendous, crashing over my concentration with mounting intensity
    • while my classmates contemplated their true calling, I went seeking opportunities to master rare skills that would yield big rewards
    • My Research Bible Routine
    • For them, something as basic as choosing a major became weighted with cosmic significance
    • information structure
    • deliberate practice
    • if you’re not putting in the effort to become, as Steve Martin put it, “so good they can’t ignore you,” you’re not likely to end up loving your work—regardless of whether or not you believe it’s your true calling.
    • My Hour-Tally Routine
📖 stoas
⼹ context
← back
(none)
↑ pushing here
(none)

↓ pulling this
(none)
→ forward
2020 09 02
books
cal newport
readwise

⥅ related node [[cal newport "so good they can t ignore you"]]
🔎 full text search for 'so good they can t ignore you'