If you're in a hurry, just read the conclusion. It's all summed up there. Overall, nice reading. Though I'm not sold to these pseudo-scientific books about career and growth, they have a specific purpose for me: the more and more I read these books, the more I discover I've been doing well.
Some solid and practical advice for career building. In an age where everybody 'follows passion' without properly understanding it, Newport provides some opposite insights. This book is worth reading.
The writing style is more of the same, though.
Find this review - and some more - on my website here.
---------------------------------------------
This book falls into the category of books that I like to call "Fast-food books". They won't necessarily make you healthier or your mind sounder, but it'll feel really good while you're eating them. There's only so many anecdotes you can digest. The most common criticism that people have with these kind of books are that they could've been summarized in a much shorter format - probably a blog post or two. The same applies here - only the irony is that it is BECAUSE of those blog posts and the reaction it generated that prompted the author to write a whole book about it.
Probably should have let the blogs say it all.
Well, now that my rant is over, I'd like to list some of the positive things that I got out of this …
Find this review - and some more - on my website here.
---------------------------------------------
This book falls into the category of books that I like to call "Fast-food books". They won't necessarily make you healthier or your mind sounder, but it'll feel really good while you're eating them. There's only so many anecdotes you can digest. The most common criticism that people have with these kind of books are that they could've been summarized in a much shorter format - probably a blog post or two. The same applies here - only the irony is that it is BECAUSE of those blog posts and the reaction it generated that prompted the author to write a whole book about it.
Probably should have let the blogs say it all.
Well, now that my rant is over, I'd like to list some of the positive things that I got out of this book. While tiring at times, reading through the different stories and the paths ordinary people take to become successful made me appreciate the importance of THINKING about your career. For people in my field (software developers), it can be a daunting task to get ourselves out of the autopilot and start questioning things - which includes the choices that we've made for our own careers. But doing exactly that is an important and necessary step towards achieving a fulfilling career.
Give this one a read if you haven't obsessively read all those countless Quora and Medium posts. Otherwise, skip it.
I'm between jobs right now so I figured I might as well read this. I came into it having heard that it was the book about how it's more important to be good at what you do than to like what you do.
I came into it with the following mindset:
- It makes sense that, to have a job that is good, you should yourself be good at doing stuff. So getting good at doing stuff should be your top priority!
- However, it seems important to believe in the mission of your work. Shouldn't this be your top priority, too?
So one big question for me was how to reconcile those two points. I think Cal Newport does it fairly nicely. The basic argument is that desirable job traits such as mission alignment and creative control are things you need to buy with "career capital" i.e. being good …
I'm between jobs right now so I figured I might as well read this. I came into it having heard that it was the book about how it's more important to be good at what you do than to like what you do.
I came into it with the following mindset:
- It makes sense that, to have a job that is good, you should yourself be good at doing stuff. So getting good at doing stuff should be your top priority!
- However, it seems important to believe in the mission of your work. Shouldn't this be your top priority, too?
So one big question for me was how to reconcile those two points. I think Cal Newport does it fairly nicely. The basic argument is that desirable job traits such as mission alignment and creative control are things you need to buy with "career capital" i.e. being good at something useful. I buy it. The rest of the book has a bunch of examples and tips, as well as various stories about people who've succeeded or failed. They flesh out the argument, but also are easily skimmable - part of the reason this is such a quick read :)
Another question I had while reading this book was: is this idea, that all you need to do to succeed is to build skills, appealing because it seems simple? As I read, my answer to this is two-fold:
- Yes, it is appealing because it seems simple. The alternative that I can think of, that introspection is the key, seems very difficult. Especially introspection from a relatively unskilled perspective.
- The idea put forth in the book is a little more nuanced than how I just framed the question; I think the point is that skill-building is the foundational work for all the other stuff you might want out of your working life.
Lastly, this book is full of advice on how to actually put the ideas in it into practice. I don't think the advice is easy to take, but it's there, for what it's worth.
Good advice, but as with most of these, if you scratch below the surface of the examples even slightly you see some inherent advantages they have (lots of advanced degrees, for example).
This book makes an interesting argument: "Don't follow your passion!". It's much better to master skills first and then that will lead you to a passionate career or life.
It explores this question thoroughly using case studies of real people's lives: a writer, a musician, a biologist, a venture capitalist, an archaeologist and entrepreneurs.
I liked the idea of differentiating between a "passion mindset" and a "craftsman mindset". The author argues that you have to offer the world something (craftsman) and not wait for the revelation of perfect a predestined passion. It's essentially the difference between being active and passive.
The structure of the book is very academic because the author summarizes a lot: the concepts written earlier (within a chapter), the whole chapter after you finish reading it and the final chapter of the book summarizes pretty much everything.
It's not a long book but the summarizing structure tired …
This book makes an interesting argument: "Don't follow your passion!". It's much better to master skills first and then that will lead you to a passionate career or life.
It explores this question thoroughly using case studies of real people's lives: a writer, a musician, a biologist, a venture capitalist, an archaeologist and entrepreneurs.
I liked the idea of differentiating between a "passion mindset" and a "craftsman mindset". The author argues that you have to offer the world something (craftsman) and not wait for the revelation of perfect a predestined passion. It's essentially the difference between being active and passive.
The structure of the book is very academic because the author summarizes a lot: the concepts written earlier (within a chapter), the whole chapter after you finish reading it and the final chapter of the book summarizes pretty much everything.
It's not a long book but the summarizing structure tired me a little when I was reading it.
The book brings valuable advice, like: the importance of honing your skills and engaging in deep work in order to build what the calls your "career capital". This will lead you to "being so good they can't ignore you".
