Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes • Hacker News Board

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#51

Post by hackermailman » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

Numberwang wrote: post #14

chrisweekly wrote: post #3

Related tangent: Newport's book "Deep Work" is excellent. It makes a strong case that deep work is increasingly rare, valuable, and meaningful. But it goes way beyond the "what" and the "why", providing the "how", in the form of specific, pragmatic, actionable guidance for achieving just that. Anecdotally, it's been very helpful for me.

Didnt someone do a summary of that book in like a single page somewhere? As in, there were good ideas but it could be summed up to a short paper. I can't find the link now.

Three sentences: https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/book-summaries/business/d... I think the author himself has a one page blog post summarizing it as well.

I agree with him about the smartphone cancer that has crept into all our lives though I imagine there will be much worse distractions in the near future like deep learning phones that can tell us everything going on in a room the moment we enter it (since everybody else also has the same device). Permanent HUD like a James Cameron scifi

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#52

Post by ChrisLTD » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:00 PM UTC

checker659 wrote: post #11

I think we'll look at headphones / earphones like cigarettes as well.

Can you expand on that?

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#53

Post by peruvian » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:03 PM UTC

chrisweekly wrote: post #3

Related tangent: Newport's book "Deep Work" is excellent. It makes a strong case that deep work is increasingly rare, valuable, and meaningful. But it goes way beyond the "what" and the "why", providing the "how", in the form of specific, pragmatic, actionable guidance for achieving just that. Anecdotally, it's been very helpful for me.

The book is good, but could've been one long blog post. It also sadly is not very relevant for many workers. Dr Newport is a tenured, famous professor. He sets his own schedule and probably works by himself.

I'm an average tech worker in an open office. My office is quieter and more peaceful than most, but I can rarely get much "deep work" in. Meetings, Slack, etc. I have no door I can close and isolate myself with. I assume this is the case with most engineering roles so the usual HN advice of "find another job" doesn't apply.

That said, I still get things done fairly well, so I'm not complaining. I've used his techniques and ideas in my free time when I read, program, etc.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#54

Post by mrfusion » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:05 PM UTC

leetcrew wrote: post #43

mrfusion wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always liked the idea of simply banning distracted driving. Why have the law play cat and mouse with new technologies.

unfortunately the law has to balance principle with practicality. it's hard to imagine a way of detecting a wide range of distracting behaviors without some sort of pervasive surveillance. would you be willing to accept a camera in your car than an LEO can tap into at any time?

That’s definitely true but why should it be any harder than detecting someone texting?

From a practical standpoint, how about if your car is weaving back and forth they Get checked out.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#55

Post by nullproblemo » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:09 PM UTC

HiroshiSan wrote: post #48

keiferski wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This book follows the recent trend of: find obvious slightly un-talked-about idea, create a fancy sounding term to describe it (preferably with as few words as possible - one is best, like Blink or Outliers .) These words should be vague and have hundreds of meanings - 'work', 'deep', or 'source', for example. Then, while you could summarize the idea in a single page, write 100+ pages framing the issue as a fundament…

Though I completely agree with your sentiment, Cal explicitly defines the meaning of Deep Work, and I think it's an important thing society should think about as technology progresses. It helps to have the terminology to describe the state of our lives. From page 3 of the book, Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limi…

Seems like the state of flow, redefined in a professional context.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#56

Post by lm28469 » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC

skohan wrote: post #31

deweller wrote: post #5

Cigarettes are a flawed analogy. There is no such thing as a "healthy" use of cigarettes. But I would argue that smart phones can be used in a healthy way. And I would also argue that the phone itself is not the problem. The problem is the reliance on the endorphin hit that comes from a new IM, like, post, etc. Some app makers have optimized their platform for engagement and have consequently made this highly addicti…

Actually there are a lot of therapeutic applications for Nicotine. Nicotine can be beneficial for a wide range of psychiatric disorders, and there's evidence it might help with Parkinson's symptoms as well.

afaik nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes but it's not the most dangerous.

+ Inhaling any burned matter / fumes will have an impact the lungs.

"Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemical compounds, including arsenic, formaldehyde, cyanide, lead, nicotine, carbon monoxide, acrolein, and other poisonous substances. Over 70 of these are carcinogenic." [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#57

Post by emiliobumachar » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC

owens99 wrote: post #30

keiferski wrote: post #9

Not a great analogy. A better one would be the automobile, IMO. Incredibly freeing and powerful, but pushed by actors for ethically dubious reasons and capable of massive negative societal effects if left unchecked.

Yes, but automobiles aren’t addicting. I believe a better title would be about “today’s smart phone” assuming we will still have smart phones in the future but they won’t be designed to be addicting anymore.

Automobiles are not addictive in the medical sense, but consider that, all else being equal, heavy car users will, much faster than others, lose the capacity to walk long distances.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#58

Post by yata01 » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

dayglo wrote: post #33

Something1234 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats the site?

There’s a good site that does this called Blinkist. https://www.blinkist.com/en/about/

You’ll need a subscription or trial to Blinkist if you want to view anything other than their daily freebie.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#59

Post by walterbell » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

hackermailman wrote: post #51

Numberwang wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didnt someone do a summary of that book in like a single page somewhere? As in, there were good ideas but it could be summed up to a short paper. I can't find the link now.

Three sentences: https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/book-summaries/business/d... I think the author himself has a one page blog post summarizing it as well. I agree with him about the smartphone cancer that has crept into all our lives though I imagine there will be much worse distractions in the near future like deep learning phones that can tell us everything going on in a room the moment we enter it (since everybo…

> deep learning phones that can tell us everything going on in a room

What information would be on this HUD? Do you mean real-time voice analysis?

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#60

Post by titanomachy » Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

peruvian wrote: post #53

chrisweekly wrote: post #3

Related tangent: Newport's book "Deep Work" is excellent. It makes a strong case that deep work is increasingly rare, valuable, and meaningful. But it goes way beyond the "what" and the "why", providing the "how", in the form of specific, pragmatic, actionable guidance for achieving just that. Anecdotally, it's been very helpful for me.

The book is good, but could've been one long blog post. It also sadly is not very relevant for many workers. Dr Newport is a tenured, famous professor. He sets his own schedule and probably works by himself. I'm an average tech worker in an open office. My office is quieter and more peaceful than most, but I can rarely get much "deep work" in. Meetings, Slack, etc. I have no door I can close and isolate myself with.…

I have a similar office but I've made efforts over the years to engineer my environment to support deep work. I'd started doing this before I read that book but increased my efforts after. If you really believe it's important you can usually make it happen. I have good buy-in from my teams.

Details: desk facing a wall or window. Failing that, a 3-sided divider. Earplugs plus headphones. Skim my emails once every hour or so and leave notifications off otherwise. When I'm not trying to do deep work, headphones off so people know they can approach me. Nuclear option: work from home one or two days a week.

If you really think you can't get away with these things, then maybe you do need to find a new job where you're less micromanaged and more evaluated on results.