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"Deep Work" by Cal Newport: Some Takeaways

This summer, while I was on holidays, I read “Deep Work” by Cal Newport.

This book fits well with some thoughts I had lately about handling stuff in my life, so in this post I’ll list some takeaways I’d like to apply in my everyday life, and then my 2 cents on this book, keeping in mind that I’m not really well-versed in this kind of genre.

Deep and Superficial

The main idea of this book is that there are 2 kinds of “works”:

  • the Deep Work, which is the one that we do in a state of maximum focus, without any distractions, and that takes our cognitive abilities at their limit
  • Superficial Activities, logistics-like tasks that do not require a significative cognitive effort, done in a state of distraction

Other than the effort that you need to give between the two, the main difference lies in the output: Deep Work brings to a significant added value, and it’s the kind of activity that has a significant impact on the society as a whole, while the other is easily replicable.

Cal wrote this book in 2016 but I think he would agree that superficial tasks are those that AI has no problem performing.

These 2 kind of activities are, in the modern era, in a constant fight between eachother: the resolution of problems that require a great effort (deep work) is constantly interrupted and divided into short, distracted fragments resulting in a mediocre output to say the least.

An interesting and challenging concept, though, is that because of this shift of the industry towards a superficial attitude, the ones who oppose against this trend that are able to work in a in-depth way can benefit of a big financial and personal opportunity. This goes in the same way of a really interesting video that I recently saw on YouTube by the great Salvatore Sanfilippo, Programmare fuori dal gregge: temi sparsi sulla cariera dello sviluppatore.

Attention Residue

Another really interesting concept explained by Cal Newport is the attention residue. This effect, explained also in this blog post on Cal’s website, lies in the fact that when we switch from an activity A to an activity B, our focus doesn’t shift immediately on the second activity: a portion of our attention remains “allocated” to what we were doing earlier. The obvious consequence is that our cognitive performances in the second activity will be weaker.

This interesting concept, linked to the “productivity formula”, which states that

High-Quality Work Produced = Time Spent * Intensity of Focus

means that in order to accomplish great stuff and do the deep work, is really important to assign our attention to a single activity for a continuous period of time without distractions.

The Rules

The second part of the book provides more practical suggestion and rules to accomplish the “Deep Work”. Here’s a summary of the ones I found most interesting or applicable to everyday life.

The Ritual

The author says that creating a “ritual for the deep work” can be useful to set the right mindset before doing something at the maximum concentration. He talks about deciding a fixed physical place and time to do the hard work, but more interestingly he says that making a set of rules and procedures is fundamental to frame high efforts in a sort of structure.

Having a list of short rules to follow during deep work is something I like and I’m trying to implement in my everyday work. Additionally this section reminded me how Kanye West, while recording one of his best albums, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, had hung some sheets on the wall with rules to follow, which could also be applied to the lives of us, mere mortals.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’s Studio Rules

Open Spaces are Shit

This is something I personally will die on, open spaces are shit. Cal agrees with me, and provides various examples of that. Open spaces can be great for collaboration, but are absolutely detrimental when you are trying to do stuff that requires a certain level of focus and concentration.

The book suggests to implement an “Hub-and-Spoke” solution, where each member can expose himself to new ideas from colleagues in hub spaces, but work deeply in isolated places, without distractions.

The Closing Sequence

That’s something I started to implement the moment I read it. Basically it says that it’s really important that work does not have “incursion” into your free time.

I admit that I dont really think much about work when I’m off, and when I do it’s because I really like what I’m working on. But, to make it easier, Cal suggest to build a “closing sequence”, that consist of reviewing every uncompleted task and making sure that

  • we got a reliable plan to complete it

or

  • we managed to “frame” the problem in a way that makes it easier to resume it at the right time

He also says that we should complete this sequence by saying out loud something like “Shutdown completed” but this shit is the most hilarously cringe stuff I read in this book. No Cal, I’m sorry, I will not do that.

Roosvelt’s Intensity

There’s a whole paragraph about Theodore Roosvelt. If you want to know what he says about him in detail, well, read the book. The bottom line is that he was an absolute monster of productivity, he had a lots of passions and interests and he was good at everything not because he spent a lot of time on each thing, but because the little time he spent on something was absolutely intense.

The book suggests to put a bit of roosvelt’s intensity in our lives by

  1. finding an important task (that requires deep work)
  2. estimate the time needed to complete it
  3. drastically reduce the time estimation
  4. set a deadline that is really difficult to comply with, but feasible
  5. put a timer besides the screen that costantly tells you how little time you got left

The only way you have to meet the deadline, is to focus at the maximum level. It can be a bit harsh and exhausting, so it’s important to start slowly and to this just once a week. After some months of this thing, the word “focus” will have a whole new meaning.

Productive Meditation

Another really interesting concept: choose a time when you are physically focused, but mentally free. For me, this could be running, driving or showering.

Use this time to think deeply about a problem. It’s really important to always redirect our attention to the problem we’re fighting against.

In order to think deeply, you have to follow this algorithm:

  1. Think generally about the problem subject
  2. List all the variables meaningful for the problem solution
  3. Find the “next question” that you can answer using the found variables, that will push you forward to the solution of the problem
  • at this point, you got the goal you need to focus on: answering the single question using the available variables. If you find the answer to your question,
  1. consolidate the results of your thought, by examining the details of the answer you found
  2. with this “newfound” depth, start from the beginning.

This requires practice, but could be a great way to increase focus and the ability to direct the attention to a single stuff.

While doing this, be aware of

  • distractions: your mind will offer stuff to think about that seem much more interesting, but you must always bring your attention back to the problem
  • loops: the mind wants to avoid an excessive “energy consumption”, so it will prefer to loop again and again over what we already know about what we’re thinking. If you notice that you’re looping, focus on the algorithm explained earlier.

Don’t use social networks

In the italian version of Deep Work, 34 pages are spent explaining that in most cases, the disadvantages of social media outweigh the advantages, and he talks about a method for determining wheter using a specific social network can be beneficial.

Honestly, I skipped that. The answer is no and I already know that. Except, maybe, YouTube, because it’s really useful to learn, and reddit, because people are better than all the shitty, AI made and SEO optimized websites that make up 99% of the internet.

A few sentences I underlined

“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is pushed beyond its limits, in a voluntary effort to accomplish something hard, difficult and worthwhile”. From “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“A life lived deeply is a life of value, from any point of view”

Conclusion

I liked the book, I liked the reasoning behind and I found some of the concepts explained really fascinating. Some practical suggestions are good, some are not really applicable, and some are shit (like the “Shutdown completed” thing, lol).

I began to understand and embrace the value of depth in everything in life, and this book certainly contributed to that.

I also enjoyed writing this summary/review post. I’m not saying I’ll try to make more, because every other time I said that, I never did. But I liked it.

Bye.