"Slowness is underrated..." Spot on. Few people have the wisdom or the courage to speak this truth. It's better to work diligently, methodically, with great focus, than to rush. Too many people think the opposite of rushing is wasting time. Nothing could be further from the truth. Working slowly is working wisely. It doesn't mean dragging your feet. It means measure twice, cut once. This has always served me well.
Hey Cal, you changed my life back in university years ago when I discovered your active recall strategy leading me to go from being a B/C student to an A student! Even now as a tech company founder you’re still helping me learn to detach from conventional productivity beliefs and implement more effect strategies for business! Thank you so much man! 🙏
I discovered McPhee in college. I was an English major, but it wasn't one of my English professors who recommend his work. It was a geology professor. I took geology/earth science for my science requirement. McPhee is an awesome writer. He puts the most complex subjects within easy grasp. I enjoyed his books on geology, hydrological engineering, aeronautics, and everything else. A solid, disciplined thinker. Some writers are scatterbrains, and you can tell this by the way they write. McPhee always knows where he's going. He's a steady hand on the rudder.
Absolutely. I think this is a missing puzzle piece for me. I have computer software that can speed up certain parts of my work, but sometimes I think my brain can't keep up. Some of these processes need to be slowed back down to allow our brains to tune into and wrap around what's going on.
i've been diagnosed with ADHD multiple times, but imo ADHD is indiscernible from the results of years of a "cheap dopamine" lifestyle of processed sugar + processed media on demand. if you still do things like check your phone while working, or doomscroll social media more often than you read/play sports/socialize irl, i wouldn't blame ADHD. i think in reality what we call ADHD is just a bigger sensitivity to the swings of dopamine -- so this is why hyperstimulating stuff like video games is so appealing to people "with ADHD." but on the flip side, I think this is why ADHD people excel when they find something that they love, because then their love for deep stimulation gets channeled into something society deems productive (ex: michael phelps, who imo not coincidentally decided to cease medications)
I am on the lookout for the same thing. From what I saw, same as with "normal" people, there are just bunch of styles. I do not want to leave you haging with generic answer, so for example check out TED talk from this gantleman - Stephen Duneier. Second one is recommend is some video from Healthy Gamer on topic of personalities. One of them is "Vata" (Wind like personality). He gives amazing tips on how to structure your life and work if you have this braintype. From my personal experience, while inspiration is important, it is important for you to build your system up bottom up (test what works step by step). I went through many systems and with each new step they are better and better for my needs. Itterative improvment.
I have an issue where I just try to finish work as fast as I can when someone asks for it from me. They don’t even say it’s urgent, but I just want to complete it so I can get just be done. Right now, I’m 3 months in to my new job and one of my jobs is writing reports for people. I only know only the surface of the operations of this company, so when I get a new request, I get frustrated bc I can’t get this report done quickly. This clip helped remind me that I need to take the time to understand every part of the report because I shouldn’t be expected to quickly make a report with information I don’t even understand.
Brill. When we recognize how slowly good work comes along, we realize it’s irrational to both seek to do great work AND keep up with the many other trains whizzing by out the window. Just dig in and do.
"Slowness is underrated..." Spot on. Few people have the wisdom or the courage to speak this truth. It's better to work diligently, methodically, with great focus, than to rush. Too many people think the opposite of rushing is wasting time. Nothing could be further from the truth. Working slowly is working wisely. It doesn't mean dragging your feet. It means measure twice, cut once. This has always served me well.
Measure twice. Cut once. Nice…
Hey Cal, you changed my life back in university years ago when I discovered your active recall strategy leading me to go from being a B/C student to an A student!
Even now as a tech company founder you’re still helping me learn to detach from conventional productivity beliefs and implement more effect strategies for business!
Thank you so much man! 🙏
I discovered McPhee in college. I was an English major, but it wasn't one of my English professors who recommend his work. It was a geology professor. I took geology/earth science for my science requirement. McPhee is an awesome writer. He puts the most complex subjects within easy grasp. I enjoyed his books on geology, hydrological engineering, aeronautics, and everything else. A solid, disciplined thinker. Some writers are scatterbrains, and you can tell this by the way they write. McPhee always knows where he's going. He's a steady hand on the rudder.
How did I not know Cal Newport had a podcast?! This is great
Absolutely. I think this is a missing puzzle piece for me. I have computer software that can speed up certain parts of my work, but sometimes I think my brain can't keep up. Some of these processes need to be slowed back down to allow our brains to tune into and wrap around what's going on.
Annals of the Former World. quite possibly the most exquisite piece of nonfiction ever written.
I loved his curve of binding energy book
It would be interesting to hear about any research on deep workers who have ADHD, ADD or dyslexia compared to a normal deep worker.
i've been diagnosed with ADHD multiple times, but imo ADHD is indiscernible from the results of years of a "cheap dopamine" lifestyle of processed sugar + processed media on demand. if you still do things like check your phone while working, or doomscroll social media more often than you read/play sports/socialize irl, i wouldn't blame ADHD.
i think in reality what we call ADHD is just a bigger sensitivity to the swings of dopamine -- so this is why hyperstimulating stuff like video games is so appealing to people "with ADHD." but on the flip side, I think this is why ADHD people excel when they find something that they love, because then their love for deep stimulation gets channeled into something society deems productive (ex: michael phelps, who imo not coincidentally decided to cease medications)
I am on the lookout for the same thing. From what I saw, same as with "normal" people, there are just bunch of styles. I do not want to leave you haging with generic answer, so for example check out TED talk from this gantleman - Stephen Duneier.
Second one is recommend is some video from Healthy Gamer on topic of personalities. One of them is "Vata" (Wind like personality). He gives amazing tips on how to structure your life and work if you have this braintype.
From my personal experience, while inspiration is important, it is important for you to build your system up bottom up (test what works step by step). I went through many systems and with each new step they are better and better for my needs. Itterative improvment.
I have an issue where I just try to finish work as fast as I can when someone asks for it from me. They don’t even say it’s urgent, but I just want to complete it so I can get just be done. Right now, I’m 3 months in to my new job and one of my jobs is writing reports for people. I only know only the surface of the operations of this company, so when I get a new request, I get frustrated bc I can’t get this report done quickly. This clip helped remind me that I need to take the time to understand every part of the report because I shouldn’t be expected to quickly make a report with information I don’t even understand.
This is why you learn more from debugging code than copy paste programming.
John McPhee was something called "CUT AND PASTE" physically LoL. That's where the phrase came from Mr Newport!!
Sound level is low, please fix it!
Brilliant.
Brill. When we recognize how slowly good work comes along, we realize it’s irrational to both seek to do great work AND keep up with the many other trains whizzing by out the window. Just dig in and do.
capitalism wont let us slow down at anything. and thats the problem.
🤣🤣😂
He’s right.
The sound level is too low. I can’t listen to your podcast, please fix it.