deep work
The “gift of listening” is based on the ability to grant deep, contemplative attention—which remains inaccessible to the hyperactive ego.
from The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han
deep work
“So often, reading is seen as important because of its social value. It is tied to education and the economy and so on. But that misses the whole point of reading.
“Reading isn’t important because it helps to get you a job. It's important because it gives you room to exist beyond the reality you're given.”
—Matt Haig, Notes on a Nervous Planet
“Reading isn’t important because it helps to get you a job. It's important because it gives you room to exist beyond the reality you're given.”
—Matt Haig, Notes on a Nervous Planet
substack.com • Home | Substack
It's important because it gives you room to exist beyond the reality you're given 🤍
Reading across a genres, subjects, and perspectives has the power to pop the filter bubbles that many of us increasingly find ourselves in, both online and off. It’s how we develop a healthy intellectual humility, where no single ideology or belief system monopolises truth.
The Reader’s Manifesto
The way I beat intellectual obesity was by trying to become the best writer I can be. Writing requires you to filter out bad information because you have a duty to your readers to not be full of shit. Writing also forces you to periodically shut out information altogether so you can be alone with your thoughts. This regular confrontation with... See more
The Intellectual Obesity Crisis
The key to developing a deep work habit is to move beyond good intentions and add routines and rituals to your working life designed to minimize the amount of your limited willpower necessary to transition into and maintain a state of unbroken concentration.
Cal Newport • Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
I read pretty slowly. I take notes, I underline, I highlight, I jot my thoughts in the margins, I pause if I encounter an especially interesting passage or idea.
Busyness as Proxy for Productivity: In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.
Cal Newport • Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
‘visible activity’ heuristic
Looking closely is valuable at every scale. From looking closely at a sentence, a photograph, a building, a government. It scales and it cascades — one cognizant detail begets another and then another. Suddenly you’ve traveled very far from that first little: Huh.
I’d say that that huh is the foundational block of curiosity. To get good at the huh... See more
I’d say that that huh is the foundational block of curiosity. To get good at the huh... See more