Cal Newport - So good they can't ignore you

[rush]

Hi all,

What are you're thoughts on this book as the advice is very different from follow your passion etc. Its more about being a craftsman and becoming great at anything which eventually turns into a passion

 

[aurum]

@rush

It's a good book with a lot of valid points. General synopsis is no one is going to pay you just because you are passionate about something. You have to actually have skills that people consider valuable. And often the more we commit to something, the more passionate we become about it. So instead of getting stuck in this never-ending search for what you're passionate about, commit to a craft and as you invest you'll come to love it.

It's not bad advice overall. My biggest nitpick with his book though is that he doesn't seem to fundamentally understand why "follow your passion" is important advice. "Passion", from a spiritual perspective, is literal communication from your higher self. That feeling, that intuition, is how spirit nudges you in certain directions. And if you're not attuned to that, big problems.

Cal Newport strikes me as a guy who is highly rational / analytical. He's more or less a materialist as far as I can tell. So his perspective, while valuable, I still find limiting.

[Terell Kirby]

Awesome book. Learned a lot of practical advice that I currently use in my career in the tech role.

A book that's equally good: Linchpin - by Seth Godin (one of my favorites of all time).

[rush]

@aurum How would you reconcile the information in that book with more general advice such as follow your calling, etc ? It seems like he is not in favour of people doing what they find interesting in life, but more just grinding through any Job/Role until they become passionate about it. I'm sure there are many people that regardless of how well skilled they become in a certain field, they would still have their eye on something more suited to their natural personality and interests ?

[rush]

@Terell Kirby Were you already quite interested in you're tech role ? Or is this something you managed to cultivate over time ?

[itachi uchiha]

I contains some wisdom.but cal is a materialisy,rationalist.he preaches deliberate practice which is a flawed scientific method.

If u want success u do not need cal newport

 

U need

Mastery by george leonar

Mastery by robert green

Tiny habit by bj fogg

 

These 3 books are everything u need to get success

[hyruga]

12 minutes ago, itachi uchiha said:

I contains some wisdom.but cal is a materialisy,rationalist.he preaches deliberate practice which is a flawed scientific method.

If u want success u do not need cal newport

 

U need

Mastery by george leonar

Mastery by robert green

Tiny habit by bj fogg

 

These 3 books are everything u need to get success

Lol you sounded like @asifarahim.

 

[Terell Kirby]

5 hours ago, rush said:

@Terell Kirby Were you already quite interested in you're tech role ? Or is this something you managed to cultivate over time ?

I kind of stumbled into tech. I did a very generic degree in Business Management at university. Luckily, I got professional experience through getting an internship shortly after my second year.

Key is choosing one or two things you want pour a lot time in to gain mastery. You can do this at any age, but the earlier the better.

[aurum]

12 hours ago, rush said:

@aurum How would you reconcile the information in that book with more general advice such as follow your calling, etc ? It seems like he is not in favour of people doing what they find interesting in life, but more just grinding through any Job/Role until they become passionate about it. I'm sure there are many people that regardless of how well skilled they become in a certain field, they would still have their eye on something more suited to their natural personality and interests ?

Well first off, I don’t think Cal is pushing people to just grind through a job / career they hate. The whole point of the book is based on the question of “how can I get the most satisfaction out of my career? How can I find truly fulfilling work”?

He just takes a bit of a different approach.

I reconcile the differences by realizing that his perspective is partial. I do think there are things I tend to be more naturally passionate about and intuitively guided towards. But I also recognize that you need skills. You want to be very, very good at what you do. And what I put into my career tends to be what I get out.

[Danioover9000]

   The main issue is not that 'follow your passion' is wrong, but that Cal Newport is hitting the zone of excellence/zone of genius fallacy, in that he believes that passion is firstly developed only after through taking many actions in that field, making mistakes, learning from mistakes, practice a lot correctly, and gaining some success in that field of interest, and not that passion is innate to each unique individual and that passion firstly is the driving force of the craftsmanship in the first place. I think his main gripe is on people who follow their passion without enough infrastructure in facilitating that change of job/career, and not enough training.