My notes from Deep Work

by Cal Newport

If you can't learn, you can't thrive

The second core ability: producing at an elite level. Mastering relevant skills is necessary but not sufficient. You must then transform the latent potential into tangible results that people value.

The two core abilities just described depend on you ability ot perform deep work.

If you haven't mastered this foundational skill, you'll struggle to learn hard things or produce at an elite level.

Connection between deep work and economic success is impeachable.

To learn requires concentration

Core components of deliberate practice:

Deliberate practice cannot exist alongside distraction, and that instead requires uninterrupted concentration.

Myelination - improvement of neurons' signal and speed

To be great at something is to be well myelinated.

It's important to focus intensely on the task at hand while avoiding distraction is because this is the only wat to isolate the relevant neural circuit enough to trigger useful myelination.

To learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction. To learn, in other works is an act of deep work.

Batching of hard but important intellectual work into long, uninterrupted stretches.

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) * (Intensity of Focus)