Book: So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

This is the kind of book you read and think: “I would love to have read this when I was starting my career”, as you have seen a lot of what he describes during the past 10 years.

I’m glad that I did most of what he mentions here, and I can say it works. It’s great to look to your career in retrospect and see that you did a big bunch of what this book mentions but without any preparation, just because “it seems the right thing to do”.

The book is a bit repetitive and could be much smaller. The ending looks like a filler to make the book bigger. If you’re thinking about what to do with your career, this book may be a great fit for you.

Here are my notes:

Follow your passion is not very good advice when looking for a career The importance of ability. You need to be good at something to expect a good job. There are many examples of well respected but miserable workaholics to support this argument Life is to short to do what “you think you have to do.” Steve Jobs was not passionate about technology or entrepreneurship before Apple. He was seeking for illumination one year before. His work did not come from passion, but from a break of other things he was doing – hm, that’s weird. For me, this is when he found his passion A Canadian research shows that most of the passions people have are not related to work and most likely couldn’t be (dance, hockey, etc.) Passion may be a side effect of mastery – hm, that’s an interesting argument, and I tend to agree Working right trumps finding the right work “Follow your passion” works for some people, if course. It’s not just good advice for the majority because of that. Passion mindset: what value your job offers you Craftsman mindset: focus on what value you’re producing in your job A craftsman often doesn’t care much about business, but for their craft. The Craftsman mindset is crucial in building a career you love Adapt the Craftsman mindset to something you do, and the passion may follow it What makes great work great? Creativity, impact, control (over what you do) If you want something rare and valuable (a great job) you have to have something rare and valuable to give in return (awesome work) Consider these rare and valuable skills as career capital Career capital brings you more options and lets you “buy” the changes you want ( career changes in this case) A guy receives emails from time to time asking about his path. “Everyone wants my job” he says. – it’s interesting because I received some contacts from people who like Doist and wants to know how is it to work there and how to apply The deliberate practice provides the key to excellence in a big range of fields. The difference between experts and intermediate is not just the number of hours practicing, but how deliberate they practiced Reading and replying to emails (or any other communication app TBH) shouldn’t take too much time on your day. Avoid doing it whenever possible What kind of market you’re competing in? Is it a winners take all or auction? Winners take all markets are the ones that have just one thing to do, and you have to be very good at it (writing scripts for TV is the only way to get to this career). An auction market is where you can do many things to contribute to your career. There are many options to choose on what to be good

  1. Find the market you’re competing for 2. Define what capital you need to invest (winners take all will have just one) 3. Define a “goal to succeed” 4. Practice deliberately and ask for feedback Deliberate practice is found when you’re learning something new and feels uncomfortable about it Control is the dream job Elixir. If you have enough control over what you do, there’s a big chance you’re going to like it ROW, Results of work. Everything else (time, email checking, etc.) is irrelevant Control requires capital – that’s the whole point of financial independence for me Control is important, but you need to have a rare and valuable skill to give in return If you want to change careers, start building career capital now The first trap of control is not to have something stable to make your ends meet The second trap is when you’re valuable enough that it’s hard to take your control back from your employers The irony of control is that when nobody cares about you, you probably don’t have enough career capital to do anything interesting. When you do have career capital, you will be valuable enough that your employer will resist it. Hobbies are different from your main career. Do things that people are willing to pay for as your main career. How did you grow your business?" Sold one CD, which gave me money to sell two" by Derek Sivers Missions require career capital If you want to identify a mission for your job, you must first get to the cutting edge of innovation To get to the cutting edge, you have to focus on a narrow collection of subjects for a long time Once you get to the cutting edge and find your mission, you have to act big and go for it using the career capital you already have Career capital is needed to identify a good mission Instead of wanting to “have a TV show”, start small, build career capital, do something yourself that goes on the direction you want. Deploy small bets that generate useful feedback and succeed step by step Misson is one of the most important traits you can get with career capital You should do something remarkable that people want to spread the word about it. Open source projects are good for that. Sometimes we do things that are not our “true calling” but it helps us to build career capital to find our mission Discomfort when trying to learn things is just like muscle pain after training for bodybuilders: it’s a sign that you’re doing something right. When you feel uncomfortable, keep concentration and keep studying Having an expensive (or great, doesn’t have to be expensive) notebook helps you to be mindful of what you are going to write there. Control over WHAT you do and HOW you do it is the Elixir of the dream job If you go for more control over your work without rare and valuable career capital, you are probably pursuing a mirage A pyramid of career for Cal Newport: mission (of his research) at the top. Field research at the bottom (reading and summarizing always), Exploratory projects (or little bets) at the middle