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If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

calnewport.com

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Re: If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

#131

Post by wufufufu »

Can't see any confounding variables here! /s

> Hard work is deliberate practice. It’s not fun while you’re doing it, but you don’t have to do too much of it in any one day (the elite players spent, on average, 3.5 hours per day engaged in deliberate practice, broken into two sessions)

Let's not pretend like 3.5 hours a day of practice is not a lot. I completely agree that this is what it takes to be good, but try doing anything for 3.5 hours a day and then say that you "didn't have to do too much of it".

Re: If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

#132

Post by j45 »

qzx_pierri wrote: post #120

This article spoke directly to me! I’m in college right now completing a fairly difficult class, or so I was told.. A lot of my classmates tell me the class is so hard, but I think it’s easy so far. I asked most of them how they study, and they all tell me the same thing: They skim through the textbook AFTER hearing the lecture, and cram hard before the test. I do the opposite. As soon as I wake up in the morning I r…

Spaced repetition is something that should be taught in every school.

Re: If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

#133

Post by dghughes »

This feels familiar.

I went back to school at age 48 and it amazed me how younger people could do so much and so well. I'm amazed at how people can be so efficient. Those same people some just 10 years younger than me worked full-time jobs and went to a full schedule of classes.

I'm terrible at time management. At school I tried to start every assignment the minute it was assigned. Yet I was still working on it five minutes before it was due.

Eventually I figured I needed time to relax so I created a block of time only for school. I do better when it's evening or night so I blocked off 7pm to 9pm. That also allowed me to eat first I found eating later didn't work since my mind didn't work without food younger me could have plowed through the hunger (I'd often go days without eating as a 20-something).

From the article the two practice-time peaks make sense. Maybe I may do just as well in the early morning as I do in the evening. That would free up a large part of my day. At school I found things like laundry, grocery shopping, any small task was sacrificed to make up study time.

Re: If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

#134

Post by 3minus1 »

ianmcgowan wrote: post #37
war1025 wrote: post #3

I think this might be somewhat tangential to what the article has to say, but I think there is a fair amount of mindset to the "busyness" thing. Some people seem to think that "busyness is next to godliness", so they make sure never to let anyone see them idle. They don't so much focus on what they are doing, just that they are doing something . I've always taken the opposite approach. I go out of my way to make it l…

You are the embodiment of one of my favorite words. Sprezzatura "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it" and also more briefly "studied carelessness". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprezzatura

> Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.

--Michael Caine

Re: If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

#136

Post by 3minus1 »

hanoz wrote: post #30

Good job the violinist works in the music industry not the software industry, or he might find after all his sessions of focused deliberate practice that now no-one wants to hear the violin anymore, and he must in future focus his efforts on the upcoming disciplines of both xylophone and clarinet.

I appreciate the humor but I also think working in tech is much easier. Like you can be 25th percentile programmer and have comfortable salary/job security vs 99th percentile violinist.

Re: If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

#137

Post by [deleted] »

qzx_pierri wrote: post #120

This article spoke directly to me! I’m in college right now completing a fairly difficult class, or so I was told.. A lot of my classmates tell me the class is so hard, but I think it’s easy so far. I asked most of them how they study, and they all tell me the same thing: They skim through the textbook AFTER hearing the lecture, and cram hard before the test. I do the opposite. As soon as I wake up in the morning I r…

[deleted]

Re: If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

#138

Post by bvinc »

qzx_pierri wrote: post #120

This article spoke directly to me! I’m in college right now completing a fairly difficult class, or so I was told.. A lot of my classmates tell me the class is so hard, but I think it’s easy so far. I asked most of them how they study, and they all tell me the same thing: They skim through the textbook AFTER hearing the lecture, and cram hard before the test. I do the opposite. As soon as I wake up in the morning I r…

I did this for a few classes because my teachers had such a thick accent that I could barely understand them. I figured out that if I read the book beforehand, I basically knew what they were going to say and I could follow along much easier.

Re: If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

#139

Post by amw »

mikojan wrote: post #117
scythe wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The myths are promoted as means to raise hope in the "little man" and to attract new blood (workers) to the specific industries, thinking they can also become as big as the stars of that industry, starting with very little. Why invoke conspiracy when mere venality will suffice? Optimism sells. Hollywood has warmed its benches with a never-ending stream of would-be stars and filmmakers despite the fact that the image…

You are making this out to be a conspiracy. It's perfectly possible people are just unconsciously working together towards this end. Let's say I grow up in a poor working-class environment. Years later I find myself CEO of a multi-national corporation and the people working for me are poor working-class people. - And most companies are set up like this. There's very few people at the top and they have all the power w…

There's a difference between "conspiracy" and "class solidarity among the wealthy". You're totally right that it's probably silly to attribute this to all management/ownership explicitly collaborating together on a scheme they're keeping secret from the workers, but I'd argue that the comment you're responding to is also totally right to point out that things can structurally support each other in a way that ultimately ends up being a small group of rich people working to keep a larger group of poor people poor, simply because all the small incentives for the individual decisions can support the larger structural whole. We can still attribute that as "wealthy people promulgate a narrative to inspire false hope" in a meaningful way, as long as we don't take it from an individualist frame.

Re: If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)

#140

Post by arve0 »

bvinc wrote: post #138
qzx_pierri wrote: post #120

This article spoke directly to me! I’m in college right now completing a fairly difficult class, or so I was told.. A lot of my classmates tell me the class is so hard, but I think it’s easy so far. I asked most of them how they study, and they all tell me the same thing: They skim through the textbook AFTER hearing the lecture, and cram hard before the test. I do the opposite. As soon as I wake up in the morning I r…

I did this for a few classes because my teachers had such a thick accent that I could barely understand them. I figured out that if I read the book beforehand, I basically knew what they were going to say and I could follow along much easier.

Same experience. I use to joke about it; “The more crappy lecturer you have, the more you perform.” Understanding that you don’t understand is powerful.
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