Deep Work - Cal Newport - 2016
Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
By: Cal Newport
Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms
Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 01-05-16
Language: English
Categories: Business & Careers
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Format: mp3 64/48 stereo
Publisher's Summary
One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If
you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results.
Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding
task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and
produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do
and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short,
deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive 21st-century
economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep - spending their
days instead in a frantic blur of email and social media, not even realizing
there's a better way.
In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a
connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the
power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case
that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive
benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of
four "rules", for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.
A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the listener on
a journey through memorable stories - from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the
woods to focus his mind to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business-
class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air - and no-
nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit
social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an
indispensable guide for anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.
�2016 Cal Newport (P)2016 Hachette Audio
Critic Reviews
"This book changed my mind. It has moved me from 'find your passion, so that you
can be useful' to 'be useful so that you can find your passion.' That is a big
flip, but it's more honest, and that is why I am giving each of my three young
adult children a copy of this unorthodox guide." (Kevin Kelly, senior maverick,
WIRED magazine)
"'Do what you love and the money will follow' sounds like great advice - until it's
time to get a job and disillusionment quickly sets in. Cal Newport ably
demonstrates how the quest for 'passion' can corrode job satisfaction. If all he
accomplished with this book was to turn conventional wisdom on its head, that would
be interesting enough. But he goes further - offering advice and examples that will
help you bypass the disillusionment and get right to work building skills that
matter." (Daniel H. Pink, best-selling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind)
"Entrepreneurial professionals must develop a competitive advantage by building
valuable skills. This book offers advice based on research and reality - not
meaningless platitudes - on how to invest in yourself in order to stand out from
the crowd. An important guide to starting up a remarkable career." (Reid Hoffman,
cofounder and chairman of LinkedIn and coauthor of the best-selling The Start-Up of
You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career)
