Cal Newport
Calvin Newport (born June 23, 1982), known as Cal Newport, is an associate professor of computer science (with tenure) at Georgetown University and the author of six self-improvement books. He also writes the Study Hacks blog focused on academic and career success. Newport started the Study Hacks blog, in 2007 where he writes about "how to perform productive, valuable and meaningful work in an increasingly distracted digital age". Newport coined the term "deep work," which refers to studying for focused chunks of time without distractions such as email and social media. In 2017, he began advocating "digital minimalism."
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
With a whole slew of digital communication tools at our disposal, it’s easy for life to become a never-ending stream of noise. But what if carefully selected technologies could support us instead of enslave us? What if we could converse comfortably with others rather than simply connect to them via social media? Cal Newport holds out hope that we can get our autonomy back and relearn how to live life in the real world and hold face-to-face conversations.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Cal Newport defines deep work as “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.” According to Newport, deep work is the kind of work that’s meaningful to us and to others. In other words, the kind of work that only you can do adds tremendous value to you as an individual and the company you are advancing. Our work has our stamp on it, making it unrepeatable and irreplicable. We draw out our fullest potential when we immerse ourselves in deep work experiences, but how do we get to that state of deep work? And how do we stay there? For all our potential, much of it remains latent because we habitually siphon off our limited energies to support irrelevancies. Newport tells us why deep work matters and gives us some practical tools for achieving deep work in our own lives. His basic rules are: work deeply, embrace boredom, quit social media, and drain the shallows.
Bio information sourced from Wikipedia
