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Cal Newport Books

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“The things that make a great job great...are rare and valuable. If you want them in your working life, you need something rare and valuable to offer in return In other words, you need to be good at something before you can expect to get a good job.”

SuccessPassionGreatnessSkillsValueJob
Book:So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
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“For many, there’s a comfort in the artificial busyness of rapid e-mail messaging and social media posturing, while the deep life demands that you leave much of that behind. There’s also an uneasiness that surrounds any effort to produce the best things you’re capable of producing, as this forces you to confront the possibility that your best is not (yet) that good. It’s safer to comment on our culture than to step into the Rooseveltian ring and attempt to wrestle it into something better.”

Work
Book:Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
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“First things first: Always go to class! The importance of this rule cannot be overmphasized. It doesn't matter if your class meets at 6:00 A.M., at the top of the steepest hill on campus, on saturday mornings—wake up, get dressed, and go to the lecture on time. As Lydia, a straight-A student from Dartmouth, explains, if you skip class, "it'll take twice as long studying to make up for what you missed." This is why class attendance is so important. Not because learning is power, or it's what your parents would want you do, but because it saves you time. if you attend class regularly, you will significantly cut down on the amount of studying required to score high grades. Don't make this negotiable. Even if you're tired, hung over, or extremely busy, find a way to make it there.”

LearningCollegeStudying
Book:How to Become a Straight-A Student
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“As Virginia Woolf argues in her 1929 feminist manifesto, A Room of One’s Own, this imbalance should not come as a surprise. Woolf would agree that solitude is a prerequisite for original and creative thought, but she would then add that women had been systematically denied both the literal and figurative room of their own in which to cultivate this state. To Woolf, in other words, solitude is not a pleasant diversion, but instead a form of liberation from the cognitive oppression that results in its absence.”

FeminismSolitudeVirginia Woolf
Book:Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
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“What's making us uncomfortable...is this feeling of losing control - a feeling that instantiates itself in a dozen different ways each day, such as when we tune out with our phone during our child's bath time, or lose our ability to enjoy a nice moment without a frantic urge to document it for a virtual audience.”

ParentingSocial MediaParenting ChildrenSocial Media AddictionCell Phones
Book:Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
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“The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, . . . was all about: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever.”

AddictionSocial MediaHabitsDopamineSocial Media AddictionAttention EngineeringBehavior Addiction
Book:Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
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“A reality of personal productivity is that humans are not great at estimating the time required for cognitive endeavors. We’re wired to understand the demands of tangible efforts, like crafting a hand ax, or gathering edible plants. When it comes to planning pursuits for which we lack physical intuition, however, we’re guessing more than we realize, leading us to gravitate toward best-case scenarios for how long things might take. We seem to seek the thrill that comes from imagining a wildly ambitious timeline during our planning: “Wow, if I could finish four chapters this fall, I’d really be ahead of schedule!” It feels good in the moment but sets us up for scrambling and disappointment in the days that follow. By deploying a blanket policy of doubling these initial estimates, you can counter this instinct toward unjustified optimism. The result: plans that can be completed at a more leisurely pace. The fear here, of course, is that by doubling these timelines, you’ll drastically reduce what you accomplish. But your original plans were never realistic or sustainable in the first place.”

ProductivityPlanningOptimistTimelinesBusiness PlanningCognitive BiasesEstimatesCognitive Fallacy
Book:Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
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“با اینکه بسیاری از ما رئیس یا مشتریانی داریم و هر کدام خرده‌فرمایش‌هایی دارند، آن‌ها همچنان قادر نیستند برنامه‌های جزئی روزانه‌ی ما را تعیین کنند؛ نگرانی‌های درونی خودمان عموماً خشن‌ترین کارفرمایانمان هستند. جدول‌های زمانی بیش از حد جاه‌طلبانه و مدیریت نادرست مشغله‌هایمان باعث ایجاد بی‌قراری عمیق و فرسودگی ناتوان کننده خواهد شد.”

CreativityProductivityBurnoutKnowledge Workفرسودگی شغلیمشغلهذهنروان
Book:Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
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“راهبرد کلی خوبی برای متعادل کردن وسواس و کمال‌گرایی داریم: به خودتان برای تولید یک نتیجه‌ی عالی وقت کافی بدهید، ولی دقت کنید که وقت شما نامحدود نباشد. محصول شما باید به اندازه‌ای خوب باشد که نظر افرادی با قریحه‌ی مورد قبول از نظر خودتان را جلب کند، اما خود را ملزم نکنید که حتما یک شاهکار ارائه دهید.”

CreativityProductivityPerfectionismBurnoutKnowledge Workفرسودگی شغلیمشغلهکار آهستهوسواسکمال گرایی
Book:Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
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“در واقع آهستگی برای اعتراض به کار نیست، بلکه برای پیدا کردن راهی بهتر جهت انجام دادن آن است. رویکرد سریع دست کم در هفتاد سال گذشته امتحان شده و مشخص شده است که کارآمد نیست. وقت آن رسیده است تا رویکردی آهسته‌تر را امتحان کنیم.”

CreativityBurnoutKnowledge Workفرسودگی شغلیکار آهستهSlow Productivityبهره وریکار دانش بنیان
Book:Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
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“در طول تاریخ ثبت شده‌ی بشر، زندگی حرفه‌ای بیشتر مردم با کشاورزی عجین بوده است که به معنای واقعی کلمه یک فعالیت فصلی است. کار کردن بدون استراحت در تمام سال برای بیشتر پیشینیان ما امری غیرعادی بوده و به نظر می‌رسد علاقه به فصلی بودن به رگ و خون ما نفوذ کرده است.”

CreativityProductivityBurnoutKnowledge Workفرسودگی شغلیمشغلهذهنروان
Book:Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
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“As a computer scientist, I make a living helping to advance the cutting edge of the digital world. Like many in my field, I’m enthralled by the possibilities of our techno-future. But I’m also convinced that we cannot unlock this potential until we put in the effort required to take control of our own digital lives—to confidently decide for ourselves what tools we want to use, for what reasons, and under what conditions. This isn't reactionary, it’s common sense.”

TechnologyTechnology AddictionTechnology Existential RisksTechnological Evolution
Book:Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
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