Quote: (04-30-2019 12:14 PM)ArloDash Wrote:
What are your thoughts on the idea of Deep Work?
Let's get this thread away from Iconoclast's overswolen balls.
I read a third of Newport's book this morning (The theory, not the implementation). I'm already pretty familiar with the concepts from my reading about concentration, but it's a good introduction to the topic as it goes into decent detail, and shows you where you can read more.
Deep Work is his way of branding continuous periods of distraction-free work. It makes a lot of sense to me, as I've been most productive on days where I've locked away my phone and blocked away most of the internet. Single-tasking is key, and task switching wastes time and loses insightful trains of thoughts. Batching Batching Batching similar tasks together makes a 'uge impact.
He goes into deep biological detail about how the brain can only strengthen a certain amount of neurons at a time, so if you train more than one thing at once then it's hard for the "oligodendrocytes" to find what's important.
The question of why companies wage war on their employee's attention is answered by saying in the absence of individually accurate metrics on individual performance, looking busy (attention-slaying emailing/IM/meetings) are seen as a substitute for it. This is especially true when the internet/connectivity is idolised as a universal panecea to all business woes.
I could go on, but I want to finish the book and quickly reskim Csikszentmihalyi's flow for a better comparison.