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So Good They Can't Ignore You
So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love | Cal Newport
In this eye-opening account, Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice. Not only is the clich flawed-preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work-but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping. After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport uncovers the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their compelling careers. Matching your job to a preexisting passion does not matter, he reveals. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it. With a title taken from the comedian Steve Martin, who once said his advice for aspiring entertainers was to "be so good they can't ignore you," Cal Newport's clearly written manifesto is mandatory reading for anyone fretting about what to do with their life, or frustrated by their current job situation and eager to find a fresh new way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work you love. SO GOOD THEY CAN'T IGNORE YOU will change the way we think about our careers, happiness, and the crafting of a remarkable life.
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ShaaM
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Pickpick

It's the best book if you are looking for guidelines to make great career in corporate world

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Squidonland

The dream of leaving the rat race to start a farm, or otherwise live in harmony with the land, is the perennial fantasy of the cubicle-bound.

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Squidonland

(2/2) As any mathematician will admit, this stretching feels much different than applying a technique you‘ve already mastered, which can be quite enjoyable. But this stretching, as any mathematician will also admit, is the precondition to getting better. This is what you should experience in your own pursuit of “good”. If you‘re not uncomfortable, then you‘re probably stuck in an “acceptable level”.

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Squidonland

(1/2) I like the term “stretch” for describing what deliberate practice feels like, as it matches my own experience with the activity. When I‘m learning a new mathematical technique - a classic case of deliberate practice - the uncomfortable sensation in my head is best approximated as a physical strain, as if my neurons are physically re-forming into new configurations.

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CRR
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Pickpick

Finished up this morning. I enjoyed this book. I liked “deep work” even more. There was a lot of good things to think about and there was also a good bit of review and redundancy. Overall enjoyable.

FormalFitGuy I felt the same way that there was a lot to think about. Though at times I found it difficult to follow. I think it is good to realize that which we grow to love might not have been what we thought was our dream job 4y
43 likes1 stack add1 comment
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sallymerza
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Enjoying this book so far. My manager gave a copy to everyone on the team.

Wan.der.love Welcome to Litsy!! 🤗📚✨ 6y
sallymerza Thank you and so nice to meet you 😄⭐️📙🖋 6y
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Lizzi
Pickpick

Inhaltlich definitiv lesenswert. Die Grundidee ist gut und hat meine Sichtweise bzgl. meines Jobs und eines potentiellen Traumjobs zum positiven verändert.
Wer immernoch verzweifelt auf der Suche nach einem Traumjob ist, sollte dieses Buch lesen!
Sprachlich leider kein Meisterwerk (jedenfalls in der deutschen Übersetzung).

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keithmalek
Panpan

Great message. Boring book. If you want to read a book with a similar message, read Scott Adams's "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big." It says the same thing as Newport's book without being boring and repetitive.

JanuarieTimewalker13 That's so weird!!! I just read an NYT article by Newport about 2 months ago for class. It was about quitting social media! 7y
keithmalek @JanuarieTimewalker13 He wrote a book about that that I read recently. It's called Deep Work. Same thing--I agreed with the message, but was bored with the writing. 7y
JanuarieTimewalker13 Yeah, this was just an article, I think back in early 2016 or 2017 7y
17 likes3 comments
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keithmalek

I'm really enjoying this so far, but I'm disappointed to see that Newport quotes Malcolm Gladwell's famous "10,000 hours of practice" rule. This, along with just about everything else that Gladwell has ever written, has been proven wrong. I take great joy in badmouthing Malcolm Gladwell. It's one of my favorite hobbies.

Suet624 I️ didn‘t know that idea was disproved. 7y
keithmalek @Suet624 It's true in that it takes thousands of hours to achieve mastery, but the exact number of 10,000 hasn't been conclusively proven. It could be 10,000 for some and only, say, 6 or 7 thousand for someone else. Also, Gladwell wrote that the Beatles only made it big after practicing for 10,000 hours, but that wasn't technically true either. The Freakonomics guys wrote about this in one of their books. 7y
Suet624 Interesting! 7y
14 likes3 comments
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Expandingbookshelf
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Mehso-so

I'll take "books that should have just been long articles" for $100, Alex."
This wasn't a bad book. It brought up a lot of valuable points, but man was this book a slog. While his overall point is valid his *scientific method* was pretty scant. And I have to say, I didn't love the writing style. When it wasn't bland and dry, it was braggy and maybe a little hostile too. Not a fan ?

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Leah
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Pickpick

Read on the advice of @bookriot peeps - mostly @rebeccaschinsky & Jeff. It has solid advice, & I like Newport's style - logical & straightforward, like a mathematical proof (on brand, as he's a CS professor.) I can tell he wrote this before Deep Work - not as polished of writing. To oversimplify, the premise demolishes the adage "do what you love, & the money will follow" and substitutes "build your competence & the love (and money) will follow."

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Leah
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Reading another Cal Newport book on the advice of @bookriot Insiders channel!

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chlobee
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Pickpick

My #recentnonfictionread from February.

This one is a lightning fast read with some really solid advice. It's a 🤘for me, even if I found the author a liiiiiittle bit pretentious. 🤔
#marchintoreading

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CuriousG
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Pickpick

Love the whole message and most of the way it was written. Did get a bit repetitive at times. For a book that has a glossary at the back, he really didn't need to keep repeating the definition of a term over and over. Otherwise, fantastic! #litsyreadingchallenge2017 #recommendedby #SoGoodTheyCantIgnoreYou

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respekt1111
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It's January, so time for a little "self-development" as the genre is optimistically called ("self-help" implies there's something wrong with you, doesn't it?) #nowreading #audible #audiobook

Desha Yes I agree...that or "personal growth"...I like self-development! ❤️?❤️ 8y
35 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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CuriousG

Starting off my #readathon with some audiobooks while I drive 3 hours for work. #listenwhileyouwork

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ElizabethAllen
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Thanks to @Amanda for the reco!