reply to u/Mindless-Cow5458 at https://old.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/1nk55qu/did_anyone_actually_read_deep_work_i_keep_seeing/

Are you sure you're not a bot adding to the noise?!? Newport is a computer scientist who probably makes more from book sales than his day job, so wouldn't you expect he's controlling an AI bot or two that stirs the pot in Reddit and other online locations to garner interest in selling more books?

And do you think these topics are really new and intriguing? Has Newport noticed something genuinely new about the human condition? Has he got some innovative new tonic, elixir, patent medicine, or magic bean that is going to solve all your problems?

You'll probably get more out of reading the classics... the greats... the poets... For example try Geoffrey Chaucer in House of Flame (c. 1375)

For when thy labour doon al ys, And hast mad alle thy rekenynges, In stede of reste and newe thynges Thou goost hom to thy hous anoon, And also domb as any stoon, Thou sittest at another book Tyl fully daswed ys thy look.

Or translated into modern English:

For when your labour’s all done And you’ve made all the accounts Instead of rest and other things You go straight home And as dumb as any stone Sit at another book Till your eyes are fully dazed

Chaucer complains in the 14th century of "looking at screens all day" as if he were an office worker in 2025. "Making all the accounts" here is akin to staring at an accounting spreadsheet all day.

But who can productively make money on Chaucer's poetry any more, so you write your own version and reinterpret the greats to make a buck. If only Chaucer had a bot...

https://recovery.lacounty.gov/eaton-fire/

https://calfire-forestry.maps.arcgis.com/home/webscene/viewer.html?webscene=0a7381c8b46b4e26a057383424f32c06

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/7/eaton-fire

Cal Newport vs Zettelkasten – SAD! (Clickbait) by [[Sascha Fast]] on 2024-11-28

02:33 Pseudo productivity as visible and busy work. "The bussier, the better" More mails, text messaging back and forth, meetings. In essence, work is done for the sake of doing, but it lacks substance and effectiveness.

This can also be likened to work optimisation (3:43) "Fit as much as possible"

According to Nishant, what I agree with, the truly successful people are MASTERS in their craft. They have committed to lifelong learning.

"Your learning capability decides your earning capacity."

See also: Ultralearning, Scott H. Young, and Deep Work, Cal Newport... The argument is the same: your ability to adapt in a complex rapidly changing information economy, and to master material determines how much you can earn.

This seems to be overkill and kinda goes against GTD? You could do your (reverse) goal setting and have weekly and daily goals which are independent of your next-actions.

Use systems in parallel? I am reminded of Cal Newport who does multi-scale planning besides a more GTD-esque approach in his Trello.

The video shows the productivity books which Sheldon used to help design his system including 99u's Manage Your Day-To-Day, Unsubscribe by Jocelyn K. Glei, The One Thing by Gary Keller, Getting Things Done by David Allen, Deep Work by Cal Newport, and Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Zhao briefly describes Cal Newport's Questions, Evidence, Conclusions (QEC) framework which she uses as a framework for quickly annotating books and then making notes from those annotations later.

How does QEC differ from strategies in Adler/Van Doren?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FipKTzkTD4

A lot of this sounds similar to some of Benjamin Franklin's old planning system and values...

This article was found on InstructionalDesign.org. This article is about the Characteristics of Adults as Learners model. This model is designed as a guide in adult learning. The website also has sections on concepts, theories, and models.

9/10

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

Computer Information Systems