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I recently picked up a book I'm reading by S.J. Gould. I read a sentence with the normal level of attention I'd use to read a Reddit comment or something simila
by jhedwards 7y ago
I recently picked up a book I'm reading by S.J. Gould. I read a sentence with the normal level of attention I'd use to read a Reddit comment or something similar and it seemed like the sentence was total nonsense.
Then I slowly re-read the sentence with more focus and it made total sense. That's when I realized I have been become accustomed to reading "shallow" content, content that doesn't require any work to understand. Both Reddit and S.J. Gould are technically "consumption" but I think they're qualitatively different kinds of consumption.
- DenisM 7y agoDo you know how many hours per day do you spend doing shallow reading? I was shocked when my iPhone (screen time) told me: 4.5 hours per day on average. I was shaken so badly I actually took several measures to limit this, and experienced greatest improvement to my well-being in a decade.
- mateo411 7y agoThis is the second shallow article I've read today about deep work. I'm starting to think it's a worthwhile shallow activity to produce content about deep work. I think Deep Work makes sense if you are thinking about a hard CS problem, coming up with a strategy for a company, or doing something that requires a lot of attention. It could be something hard for you, just because you don't know how to do it, but easy for somebody that has done the same thing ten times before. I disagree with Newport that Deep Work would be a competitive advantage in the tech industry. Most of execution on a project is "shallow work" or another word that people like to use is "grinding". Deep work or uninterrupted thought is needed for people who are domain experts to come up with a strategy and vision. However, if that's correct, then it's time to grind.