Why I Dislike “Deep Work” ?
I want to talk about the book written by Cal Newport, Deep Work. It is a big hit and many people I know vouch by this and are planning to adopt this. Well, I was a convert to Deep Work too but realised the repercussions of it and changed my ways.
Deep Work is the meaningful or essential work that you have to do in a day, with very less or zero distractions. The deeper you think or immerse into the work, you get the compounding effects in the quality of your work.
So far it is good. But the means to do the deep work suggested by the author is problematic. Cal says that you need to quit social media, if possible. If not, limit social media. He goes into the romanticisation of his non-usage of social media, like listening to baseball games only on radio and not reachable after work in mobile or email. Here are my arguments:
Social Media Is Not Bad - Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t wake up every day and plots with Sheryl Sandberg and team on how to distract us and sell more ads. No. Ad-supported businesses like newspapers or magazines are probably more than a hundred years old. I have seen many older members of my family connect with their schoolmates and collegemates after getting on to Facebook, which wouldn’t be easily possible before the social media era. The satisfaction and joy in the eyes when they discover their old mates is so good.
We shape our tools and then our tools shape us - Yes, addiction to social media is a problem. But as a human species, we are still learning to deal with the abundance of information flow and how to moderate our media consumption. Soon, in a few years, we all will be skilled and equipped on handling the barrage of feeds from Instagram to Facebook to WhatsApp. I also think the tools will also become better in helping us to spend time well because it is in their vested interest that we don’t quit.
Master the media and leverage it - Recently, I had a reunion with my school friends after 15 years. (I was very active on Facebook before I took a sabbatical after reading Deep Work). Every friend I met in the reunion was very familiar with what I have been doing, reading and sharing. Many even came asked why I am not part of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) like before. I used to think; nobody gave a damn on the things that I write and share. Even though people don’t click on Like or Comment, they do read to be in touch or know what’s going on. (Very similar to @haideralmosawi post here)
Better ways to do Deep Work exist - This is the most important revelation for me. I came across very well-read and incredibly talented people like Tiago Forte and Venkatesh Rao, who like the concept of deep work, but detest the approach preached and more importantly has suggestions on how to do it better.
I will try to write in detail in the next posts on how to do Deep Work by leveraging social media. I want to part with this quote from the legendary investor, Bill Gurley:
Twitter is the most amazing networking and learning network ever built. In any given field, 50-80% of the top experts are on Twitter and they’re sharing ideas. If you’re not using Twitter, you’re missing out.