Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Cal Newport

Last read August 31, 2019

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Highlights

9 highlights.

In this new economy, three groups will have a particular advantage: those who can work well and creatively with intelligent machines, those who are the best at what they do, and those with access to capital.

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If you can’t learn, you can’t thrive.

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If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are.

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To learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction. To learn, in other words, is an act of deep work.

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why cultures of connectivity persist, the answer, according to our principle, is because it’s easier.

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If you’re using busyness as a proxy for productivity, then these behaviors can seem crucial for convincing yourself and others that you’re doing your job well.

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To build your working life around the experience of flow produced by deep work is a proven path to deep satisfaction.

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A deep life is a good life, any way you look at it.

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The key to this strategy is not the specifics, but instead the motivating idea that your ability to concentrate is only as strong as your commitment to train it.

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