Beginning to think that Cal Newport's Deep Work should be read with the qualifier: "written by an academic, in a field where deep work is disproportionately rewarded; may not apply if to other professions."
That isn't to say it isn't valuable. Just that you should be careful.
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Counter-examples: the entire Project Purple (iPhone) team.
The superstar Pixar 'brain trust'.
The ENTIRE Bloomberg organisation (source: Bloomberg by Bloomberg).
Private Equity (open any random page in Barbarians at the Gate).
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I think it's an excellent book.
It does require discipline to do well.
Very few people have my phone number (biz or personal). When my partner started living with me I was astonished at how intrusive her phone (calls and FB, WhatsApp, etc) was compared to mine.
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That's not to say I don't like people, or don't like talking to people. I do.
I just don't like interruptions when I'm doing stuff.
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Thanks for chiming in on it. Cal makes it sound easy to find this time somewhere, but most folks have some form of corporate surveillance, even if a colleague peeking over shoulder in an open office and asking "got a minute?". Think most academics have at least private offices.
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So Good They Can’t Ignore You has great ideas on focusing on rare and valuable skills but underestimated the importance of motivation. The Passion Economy changed the game
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IIRC, the book does somewhat qualify it at the start by saying that valuable work benefits from being done deeply.
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What is rewarded and what is worth your time and valuable to the world are too often divergent
