Review of Cal Newport’s “Deep Work”

Cal Newport’s “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” starts with a problem most everybody has encountered: we are not making the best use of the time we have available to us. It analyzes the causes and consequences of this and includes advice on habits and practices to correct this.

The book takes the form of vignettes of the working habits of (mostly) recent scientists, psychiatrists, businessmen, and authors who practice their profession deliberately. Newport calls “deep work,” by which he means the habits “necessary to wring every last drop of value out of your current intellectual capacity.” He uses these accounts to demonstrate how these habits allowed their practitioners become masters of their fields.

The book’s overall thesis is what Newport calls the Deep Work Hypothesis (DWH) which reads:

The ability perform deep work is increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.

The first part of the text attempts to prove the DWH, whereas the second part shows how to adjust one’s work habits to follow the DWH.

Part I: Defending the DWH

Newport takes three approaches to defending the Deep Work Hypothesis: that it is valuable, rare, and meaningful.

The first chapter is devoted to showing that deep work is valuable. The author begins with a description of the economic situation as of around the time of the book’s publication. He calls this period of time “the Great Restructuring,” in which intelligent machines will replace workers and where remote work allows for easier outsourcing. The author was writing in 2016, long before working from home was common and before OpenAI's ChatGPT came on the scene. Three types of workers will come out on top of this Great Restructuring: the owners (those with access to large amounts of capital), high skilled workers, and the superstars (those who are the best at what they do).

All three types must have the ability to perform deep work, and his definition of high skilled workers involves those who can use emerging technology and automation to their advantage. The author notes that the tools used by the experts are not the consumer-facing devices and software packages. In other words, basic computer literacy as taught in public school is not sufficient.

The value of deep work is that it helps one learn and maintain two important skills: the ability to quickly master new skills, and the ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.

Chapter 2 notes that while deep work is valuable, it is exceedingly rare in part because it is not facilitated by many corporations, either large or small. This is proven by such things as open floor plans, adoption of instant messaging platforms, and the requirement to maintain a social media presence. In each case, the ability to perform extended periods of concentration is impeded.

Why do corporations insist on this? The author gives several explanations. First is what he calls the "metric black hole" - meaning the lack of measurements showing the impact that these ways of impeding deep work have on profitability. The second is what the author calls "busyness as a proxy of productivity." The meaning of this phrase is obvious, and the implication is that busy work takes time away from one being productive.

While both are true, Newport misses three aspects of corporate culture that particularly impacts knowledge workers, including software developers, but is applicable to any individual wishing to do deep work in a business setting.

The first is that software developers are primarily not managed by other software developers, but rather by project managers (PMs). PMs are essentially businessmen, they equate management with leadership, and usually have no coding experience and lack a deep work orientation. Busy work is all they understand about the craft of software development.

The second point Newport misses is that quite frequently, corporations do not want deep workers. From the shallow worker’s standpoint, deep workers are hard to understand, they have unnecessarily high standards, and they will object to being forced into the shallows.

The final point is that managers believe that quality can be replaced by enough shallow work – which is easily enabled by outsourcing. Warren Buffet made the flaw in this line of thinking very clear in his quote: “No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time: you can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

The thesis of Chapter 3 is that "a deep life is not just economically lucrative, but also a life well lived," in other words, deep work is meaningful. The author begins describing the work habits of a blacksmith that specializes in ancient and medieval metalworking practices. The pride displayed by this blacksmith is obvious: "...it’s the challenge that drives me. I don't need a sword. But I have to make them." The connection between deep work and meaning comes through pride, and this is displayed in the outcome.

Newport takes three approaches to proving that deep work is meaningful. The first argument given involves neurology. The second argument is from psychology: the idea is that deep work is well suited to generate a "flow state.” The phrase “flow state” isn’t exactly defined, but we can take it to mean being “in the zone.” This argument isn’t particularly convincing since it is basically replacing “deep working” with being in a “flow state.”

The most compelling argument that deep work is meaningful comes through philosophy. Newport references Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly's “All Things Shining," which examines how western literature can generate a purposeful life even in a post-Enlightenment age. Those authors argue that “craftsmanship doesn't generate meaning, but rather cultivates within oneself of discerning the meanings that are already there."

Part II: Implementing the DWH

The second part provides practical strategies for fostering deep work habits, through four rules.

Rule #1: Work Deeply – which means simply to extricate oneself from the distractions that prevent one from working deeply, or at least minimize the distractions. The idea is to add routines and rituals that allows one to enter and maintain a state of unbroken concentration. The author provides four philosophies for scheduling deep work into one’s routine, which he calls monastic, bimodal, rhythmic, and journalistic, the latter meaning it is best to fit deep work into one’s schedule whenever possible. All four of these scheduling philosophies depend on the realization that shallow obligations and deep work are mutually exclusive options.

Whatever scheduling method is used, it allows one to build rituals (habits) that emulate the rigor of great thinkers.

The remainder of Rule #1 provides additional guidelines for deep working, such as to collaborate only when it makes sense to do so, to execute as would a business, to use idleness to one’s advantage, etc.

Rule #2: Embrace Boredom – this means we shouldn't take breaks from distraction; instead take breaks from focus. Either use the internet or not, but schedule (time box) that usage.

One guideline for embracing boredom is to “meditate productively.” By this the author means to “take a period of time in which you're occupied physically but not mentally – walking, jogging, driving, showering - and focus your attention on a single well-defined professional problem.”

Rule #3: Quit Social Media – this is the most obvious way to reclaim one’s life. Social media should be used only if there’s a concrete benefit and that benefit outweighs the cost. About any social media service Newport asks the following question: “did people care that I wasn’t using this service?” Looking at it that way, the true value of social media sites becomes clear.

Rule #4: Drain the Shallows – eliminate shallow work whenever possible. This means that one should schedule every minute of the day. It also means becoming hard to reach, which is a natural consequence of quitting social media. One way of draining the swallows is to schedule every minute of one’s day. From this follows the most important lesson: “treat your time with respect.”

Additional Productivity Tips

Here are some missing ideas for maximizing one’s ability to do deep work.

The most important one is to keep various psychological conditions in check. Conditions such as depression and PTSD devour one’s time, and it is crucial for any person who has these conditions to manage them. How this is done varies from man to man, of course, but the three most successful means seems to be counseling/therapy, medications, and strenuous physical activity. As described in the “Embrace Boredom” rule, physical activity can be a time to focus on a problem related to one’s deep work, but in a curious “detached” manner.

Another problem is to keep one’s addictive habits in check. Cal Newport recounts the working and thinking habits of deep workers, and there are numerous examples of individuals who have struggled with addiction but have been extremely successful over their lives, none of whom make it into the text. Examples of this include jazz musicians such as Miles Davis and Bud Powell who were heroin users; numerous 19th Century literary giants were opium addicts, including Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, John Keats, and Percy Shelly. The people listed here certainly performed deep work, despite their addictions.

Conclusion

Cal Newport’s “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” makes a good case for working deep. It uses descriptions of the work habits of famous scientists and businessmen, encouraging readers to emulate their habits. The advice for maximizing deep work and avoiding or minimizing shallow work (and the people who insist we do shallow work) given in the second half is extremely practical.

As mentioned above, the best advice is given in Rule #4 – the last chapter – where Newport writes “treat your time with respect.” Given the importance of minimizing shallow work, this sentence really should read: “treat your time with respect, and do not permit others to do otherwise.”