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To me, whether books like Cal Newport's cite scientific studies is beside the point. The goal of reading a book like "Deep Work" isn't to gain objective knowled
by jasperry 3y ago
To me, whether books like Cal Newport's cite scientific studies is beside the point. The goal of reading a book like "Deep Work" isn't to gain objective knowledge of results in psychology, but to get some nuggets of wisdom that help you manage your own life. Call it "self help", "wisdom literature", or whatever; it's ultimately one person's perspective on what sort of attitudes help us cope with life and how the world squeezes us. Take that for what it's worth.
- wolverine876 3y agoWhat good is a nugget of wisdom if it's false, and how do you know if it's true or false without a factual basis? Don't say intuition; our intuition sucks. Don't say the need doesn't require some scientific standard of proof; if it's false, it's a waste of time or worse, gets a negative return on the time.
- jasperry 3y agoThe issue is that most validated scientific results aren't directly applicable as life advice. It's better to be aware that applying them always involves some subjective interpretation, and that's not always better than some heuristic gained from experience.