Deep Work
“Men of genius themselves were great only by bringing all their power to bear on the point on which they had decided to show their full measure.”
Deep Work
I picked up this book after reflecting on my overuse of technology and exploring ways to live a fuller life. Reading the book was largely meant to reconfirm my reflections. Newport makes the distinction between “deep” and “shallow work” as one of cognitive demands.
Deep work is work that requires distraction-free environments and is rather “difficult.” He relates it to the idea of flow, if you are familiar with that. Shallow work is a type of work that requires minimal effort, similar to the concept of busy work.
Part 1 of the book details more of the pragmatic arguments for deep work on how it is beneficial and hard to come by. I don’t think I need to restate that argument, so for Part 1, I will focus on the interesting part, which is why deep work is meaningful.
Part 2 of the book discusses the rules for achieving deep work and provides evidence to support these rules. What I highlight in Part 2 is the discussion of what Newport calls “Bimodal Philosophy” (Basically Work-Life Balance) and quitting social media.
Part 1: The Ideas
CH1 and CH2 cover the topics of why deep work is rare and why it is valuable. In CH3, Newport discusses the benefits of “deep work” with a neurological concept of “fire together, wire together” and a psychological concept of “flow.”
The interesting discussion for me was about self-meaning. Newport makes an argument similar to Nietzsche’s “God is dead!” proclamation. The modern loss of meaning and narrative has cast humanity into a state of existential anxiety, which we must now cope with.
Newport quotes someone to illustrate that people can find a self-detached purpose of creation for the sake of a craft. There is beauty in that because it offers an alternative to the egotistical focus of work to “only” further your own ends.
“Beautiful code is short and concise, so if you were to give that code to another programmer, they would say, “Oh, that’s well-written code.” It’s much like as if you were writing a poem.”
Deep Work
Reflecting on the quote, I see why there is a sense of craftsmanship to it. I think of software design very much as an abstraction-capturing process similar to math in defining mathematical representations of the world.
It is the same when determining the aesthetic qualities of software. The point is that “deep work” is not merely about productivity but about engaging with tasks in a way that transcends mere functionality, touching on the essence of creativity and mastery.
Part 2: The Rules
Part 2 is sectioned off into 4 rules:
- Work Deeply
- Embrace Boredom
- Quit Social Media
- Drain the Shallows
Work Deeply and Embrace Boredom
These two sections can be conceptually seen as an inquiry into the question: “What is good work-life balance?”
Newport outlines two forms of work philosophy: “monastic and bimodal.” He illustrates two different approaches to working deeply: one where you try to separate yourself from the world and isolate yourself as much as possible, or one where you find time to work deeply while “living” as well.
Safe to say, the author argues for Jung’s philosophy of work over Knuth’s, but there is definitely merit to both, and leaves it up to the reader to decide which they would like to go towards.
Quit Social Media and Drain the Shallows
A key side-point Newport tries to make is that deep work is largely a practice of intentionality and effort. “Social Media” and the internet as a whole steal that intentionality from the user as it is inherently fragmented or unstructured.
“If you give your mind something meaningful to do throughout all your waking hours, you’ll end the day more fulfilled, and begin the next one more relaxed, than if you instead allow your mind to bathe for hours in semiconscious and unstructured Web surfing.”
Deep Work
Citations
Attneave, F., B., M., & Hebb, D.O. (1949). The Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory.
Csíkszentmihályi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
Newport, C.C. (2016). Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.
Kelly, H. D. a. S. D. (2011). All Things Shining: Reading the western classics to find meaning in a secular age.