Deep Work

Chapter 1

Physical Mechanisms That Drive Improvement on Hard Tasks

Myelin is a layer of fatty tissue that grows around neurons, acting as an insulator that allows cells to fire faster and more cleanly. All skills eventually reduce down to brain circuits. The better you are at a skill, the more myelin there is around the relevant neurons, allowing the circuit to fire more effortlessly and effectively. To be great at something is to be well-myelinated.

By focusing intensely on a specific skill, you force a relevant part of the brain to fire more frequently and intensely in isolation, resulting in more myelin around those neurons—cementing the skill.

Batching

Definition: Intense and uninterrupted pulses of work.
Formula:
High Quality Work = (Time Spent) × (Intensity of Focus)
Key Insight:
Everyone has the same amount of time, but intensity makes the difference.
Benefit:
Increasing intensity can reduce the time needed to finish tasks, freeing up time for other pursuits.

Attention Residue

Concept:
When switching from Task A to Task B, some attention remains on Task A for a while.
Effect:
This “residue” leads to poor performance on Task B, especially if the residue is large.
Solution:
Focus on Task A for longer, uninterrupted periods.

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” - Albert Einstein

Sticking with one problem gives you an advantage. If you apply deep work during the hours you give to that problem, you will be exponentially more effective.

Willpower is limited. The more you scatter your attention on social media, the less willpower you have left for deep work.

Any Benefit Mindset

If there is any possible benefit to using a specific networking tool, then use it. In other words, if you feel you might miss out on something by not using it, then use it.

The problem with this approach is that it ignores the negative sides of these tools: they are addictive, take your time, and distract you from your professional and personal goals. Eventually, you might reach a state of hyper-distracted connectivity.

Overall, not a good approach to take…

Craftsman Approach to Tool Selection

Example: Hay Baler vs. Buying Hay

You can do your own hay, which requires you to have a baler and maintain it, OR you can just buy hay.

Actual costs of using the tool:
- Gas
- Repairs
- Shed to keep the baler
- Taxes
Opportunity costs:
- If you make hay all summer, you can’t do something else, such as:
  - Raising chickens for meat (which generates positive cash flow)
  - Producing manure, which can enhance the soil
Secondary value of purchased hay:
- When buying hay, you trade cash for animal protein and manure, which means more nutrients for your land.
- You also avoid compacting the soil by driving heavy machinery over it all summer.

Conclusion: Every tool has pros and cons. This is just another way to pick your tools wisely.

This is a craftsman approach: tools are ultimately aids to the goals of one’s craft.

Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life.
Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impacts.

The 3 Strategies

Identify high-level goals in both professional and personal life (keep it high level):
- Job:
  - Being a productive software engineer
  - Being an irreplaceable software engineer
- Personal:
  - Achieve financial freedom
  - Create a good social network
For each goal, list the two or three most important activities that help you satisfy the goal. These activities should be specific enough to clearly picture doing them, but general enough not to be tied to a one-time outcome.
- Job:
  - Productivity:
    - Stay up to date with the latest tools
    - Stay more focused during work hours
    - Do more deep work
  - Irreplaceability:
    - Study methodologies
    - Know the code inside out
Consider the network tools you currently use. For each tool, go through the key activities you identified and ask whether the use of the tool has a substantially positive, negative, or little impact on your regular and successful participation in the activity. Now comes the important decision: keep or discard.

The Law of The Vital Few

In many settings, eighty percent of a given effect is due to just twenty percent of the possible causes.

For example:

80% of a business’s profits come from 20% of its clients.
80% of a nation’s wealth is held by its richest 20% of citizens.
80% of software crashes come from 20% of the identified bugs.

There’s a formal mathematical underpinning to this phenomenon: an 80/20 split is roughly what you would expect when describing a power law distribution over impact—a type of distribution that shows up often when measuring real-world quantities.

Key point: In many cases, contributions to an outcome are not evenly distributed. The most important 20% of activities provide the bulk of the benefit.

Assume this law holds for your important goals. Many activities can contribute to achieving these goals, but the law of the vital few reminds us that the top two or three activities make most of the difference.

Even if less important activities provide some benefit, all activities consume your limited time and attention. Servicing low-impact activities takes away time you could spend on higher-impact activities. It’s a zero-sum game.

The business world understands this math:
Companies often fire unproductive clients to redirect energy to lucrative contracts. Each hour spent on the latter returns more revenue than on the former.

The same holds true for your professional and personal goals. By taking time consumed by low-impact activities (like finding old friends on Facebook) and reinvesting it in high-impact activities (like taking a good friend out to lunch), you end up more successful in your goal.

To abandon a network tool, use this logic.