So Good They Can't Ignore You - by Cal Newport

Date finished 07 Aug 2020

An alternative to the famous “follow your passion” advice. It’s well argued and I can relate personally. I’ve found work I’m passionate about, but as a student I’d not even heard of my industry. Following your passion sounds great, but that assumes you know your passion, and that following it will provide you with a successful and meaningful career (there are examples in the book to illustrate how it can lead you astray). For me the work, skills and purpose came over time. There are definitely exceptions (sports being one), but for many it’s great advice; get out there and start working to discover your passion and earn options to pursue it. One of the best career advice books I’ve read.

The big idea. What, so what, now what?

• To get work you love, following your passion is bad advice. First, you need to develop rare skills and experience. This gives you control. It makes you valuable. With control you can get more autonomy. You can negotiate. You have options. This allows you to pursue a mission. Providing you with purpose. Working at the cutting edge of a field is where you usually find it - to get there you must build skills, experience and value. A compelling mission should be remarkable.
• This means rather than dreaming up a passion and pursuing it (except in some situations, like sports), you should focus on developing valuable skills and following the route I’ve described. These can be in an areas you’re interested in. But as the examples show, you may be surprised and find out it’s not so great. Developing skills and experience will take you on a journey that will lead you to your passion.
• Pick a field that appeals. Work hard, develop rare skills. Pursue the options that interest you as they begin to emerge. You’ll start to arrive at the cutting edge, where the interesting work is. This will take you to your purpose and true fulfilment.

My notes

Don’t follow your passion

• Steve jobs didn’t follow his passion. He got a lucky break from a small time scheme that eventually paid off. His passion was Buddhism, natural retreats and spiritualism. Electronics was a way to make money.
• Career passions are rare - top 5 identified passions for students were dance, hockey, skiing, reading and swimming. These don’t have much to offer when it comes to choosing a job.
  • Passion takes time
    • in studies of collage administrative assistants, the more experience an assistant had, the more likely she was to love her work.
    • if you’ve had many year’s experience then you’ve had time to get better at what you do and develop a feeling of efficacy. It gives you more time to build relationships and see your work benefit others.
  • Passion is a side effect of mastery
    • Self determination theory (SDT). Three basic needs to feel intrinsically motivated at work.
      • Autonomy; the feeling that you have control over your day, and that your actions are important
      • Competence; the feeling that you are good at what you do. (mastery in Daniel Pink’s book Drive)
      • Relatedness; the feeling of connection to other people.
      • The assistants build the three of these areas over time
      • Working right trumps finding the right work.
  • Following your passion is chasing an elusive dream.
    • Following your passion doesn’t make you happy. Keeping options open, taking opportunities, doing great work - you build passion in what you do.
  • Replace the passion mindset (what value your jobs gives you) with the craftsman mindset (what value you’re producing in your job)
    • “Be so good they can’t ignore you” - Steve Martin’s philosophy for success. Develop so much experience that you can’t help but succeed. You get confidence in pushing the envelope.

• The importance of skill

  • The traits that make a great job are rare and valuable. Therefore, if you want a great job you have to build up rare and valuable skills.
    • Cal calls these skills your “career capital”.
    • Examples include Steve Martin, Steve Jobs, Ira Glass (radio), Merrick (surfboard). All worked hard building skills and ended up in dream jobs because of that.
    • This means a craftsman’s mindset. But there are 3 disqualifiers:
      • The job presents few opportunities to distinguish yourself by developing relevant skills that are rare and valuable.
      • The job focuses on something you think is useless or bad for the work (ie tax consultant).
      • The job forces you to work with people you really dislike.
    • Examples of people building career capital;
      • a debater becomes assistant, becomes staff writer, becomes producer. Honing craft, writing in the evening, seeking frequent feedback.
      • a biologist works on an energy project for his professor, becomes energy entrepreneur, meets vc and gets clean energy role from introduction, ending up as the clean energy vc.
    • Deliberate practice is needed
      • 10,000 hour rule. If you just show up and work hard, you’ll plateu.
        • Deliberate practice is “activity designed, typically by a teacher, for the sole purpose of effectively improving specific aspects of an individual’s performance”.
    • 5 habits to a craftsman
      • Identify the market you’re in (2 types)
        • Winner takes all markets (blogging, script writing) are all about one specific skill you have to optimise relentlessly.
        • Auction markets are less structured. A collection of various skills can help you succeed. (venture capitalist). There is more flexibility. If doors open, you can take the opportunity and build capital.
      • Identify your capital type
        • As above. For auction you can go for open doors. For Winner, you know what it must be.
      • Define good
        • You need clear goals
      • Stretch and destroy
        • Get uncomfortable.
          • “Deliberate practice is often the opposite of enjoyable.” It takes focus and concentration. If you’re not uncomfortable then you’re probably stuck at an acceptable level.
        • Embrace honest feedback.
          • Even if it destroys what you thought was good.
        • Be patient.
          • Steve Martin thought, when taking up the banjo, that if he stuck to it then one day he’ll have been playing for 40 years. And someone whose been playing for 40 years will be pretty good at it.

• Control is important (or turn down the promotion)

  • Control over what you do and how you do it is one of the most powerful traits you can acquire when creating the work you love.
  • You gain control by investing your career capital. It’s a great investment.
    • Example of a guy that built a lot of capital in farming. He invested it in setting up a farm.
  • ROWE (results only work environment) - reportedly highly rewarding.
  • Giving people more control over what they do and how they do it increases their happiness, engagement and sense of fulfilment.
  • Control that’s acquired without career capital isn’t sustainable.
    • In other words, if you don’t have the skills and experience that makes you valuable, and can be exchanged for control, you don’t have any real leverage for the control.
  • When you have the career capital to get control over your working life, you’ll be so valuable that your current employer will seek to prevent you making the change.
    • Example of a software developer, Lulu. She build strong skills, used it to take time off etc. Had to deal with aggressive counter offers and show courage choosing other options (eg freelance.)
    • The key is knowing when it’s right to be courageous in your career decisions. Calculated, rather than the “follow your passion” kind.
  • Avoid the traps with the law of financial viability
    • Do what people are willing to pay for - Derek Sivers
    • When deciding to pursue something that will give more control over your work life, seek evidence that people are willing to pay for it. If you find this evidence, continue. If not, move on.

• The importance of mission

  • To have a mission is to have a unifying focus for your career.
  • A mission chosen before you have relevant career capital is not likely to be sustainable. Missions emerge.
  • Good career missions are found in the Adjacent possible - you have to get to the cutting edge in order to find your mission, this take time and requires you to develop skill first.
    • "”Term from science writer Steven Johnson, who took it from Stuart Kauffman, that helps explain the origin of innovation. Johnson notes that the next big ideas in any field are typically found right beyond the cutting edge, in the adjacent space that contains the possible new combinations of existing ideas. The key observation is that you have to get to the cutting edge of a field before it’s adjacent possible - and the innovations it contains -becomes visible.” -from So good they can’t ignore you p236 #innovation #creativity”
  • Advancing to the cutting edge in a field means you have to focus on a narrow collection of subjects for a potentially long time.
    • Example of a biologist with a great mission, using computational genetics to understand and fight ancient diseases. First focussed for years on a narrow niche - the genetics of diseases in Africa.
  • Great missions are transformed into great successes through small, achievable projects - little bets - to explore the concrete possibilities surrounding an idea.
    • References a book - Little Bets by Peter Sims
  • Missions require marketing; they must be remarkable
    • Law of remarkability: A mission driven project should compel people who encounter it to remark about it to others. Second, it must be launched in a venue that supports such remarking.
    • References Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow. “The world is full of boring stuff - brown cows - which is why so few people pay attention…A purple cow… now that would stand out. Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing.”

• Cal’s routines

  • Research bible
    • Once a week he summarises in his “bible” a paper he thinks might be relevant to his research. Description of the result, how it compares to previous work, main strategies to obtain it.
    • Introduces the strain of deliberate practice.
  • Hour tally routine
    • Tallies the total number of hours he’s spent each month in deliberate practice.
  • Theory notebook routine
    • Fancy notebook, to remind him it’s important. Brainstorming of new theory results. Formally recorded on a dated page. More deliberate practice.
• Working right trumps finding the right work.