I’ve gone from amused/apathetic to deep work, to actively hostile to the idea. It’s a performative part of hustle theater. Nobody using the phrase “deep work” appears to have actually done work comparable to what they claim to aspire to.
Conversation
The stuff we’re supposed to think deep work is like — soaring leaps of Great Work production by Great Men, on the order of Einstein or Mozart — actually happens via very different patterns of genetics/context/resources/work patterns/play patterns/recovery patterns.
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Ditto Waldenponding. “Social media detox,” etc etc. Yeah, just the “good cop” side of performative hustle theater. Social media addiction isn’t the problem, your solution isn’t a solution. Just an aestheticized, intellectualized version of “a bad work an blames his tools”
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This sounds harsh, but a lot of bullshit analysis and theatrical intervention into misframed non-problems is just ordinary, mediocre people refusing to question the conceit that the only thing standing between them and Greatness is some environmental factor.
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A solution to a problem found by someone who actually thinks they’re average and ordinary tends to look less generalizable than it is. A bunch of janky-looking life hacks that look specific to the peculiar circumstances of their life. But you can usually borrow a trick or two.
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A solution found by a person who thinks they’re special typically looks more universal than it is: “just adopt this manifesto and do xyz.”
Usually delivered with unconvincing false humility ie “if I can do it you can” and a throwaway remark about personalizing to your needs.
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There’s more than fundamental attribution error going on with people who think they’re special. They misunderstand the very mechanics of problem solving. They think their solution is 80% of anyone else’s and their specialness lies in seeing what nobody else has.
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It’s more like they have 20%, and the part that’s new is not good and the part that’s good is not new and probably rediscovered routinely by half the population every generation.
But a person who thinks they’re ordinary instinctively starts with these assumptions.
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I shouldn’t be so mean to waldenponders and deepworkers. They’re more wrong for reasons they can’t control than malicious. Navigating life with a persistent and perhaps repressed sense of your own current specialness and future significance must be really hard.
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While I’m taking curmudgeonly potshots at people who probably don’t deserve it, physical health and fitness has its own version of this. Instead of optimizing time and work it’s nutritions and health, especially looks. There’s an “I am special” way and an “I’m ordinary” way.
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There’s less confusion here though. People are rarely truly confused about being especially attractive or fit or healthy. It’s harder to fool yourself on those fronts. Attractive vs unattractive people for eg solve for “how to dress” very differently.

