Study Hacks

Passion and Minimalism

For those interested in the deep contentment of a minimalist lifestyle, few strategies work better than using a passionate pursuit to focus your attention beyond the clutter and distraction of modern life. But where do such pursuits come from? This is the topic of my recent guest post on Zen Habits, one of my favorite blogs (and the original inspiration behind my Zen Valedictorian philosophy).

The post is based off Part 1 of my new book about finding a Zen path through the college admissions process. Specifically, it details the research I discovered about how deep interests are formed. (Preview: you can’t forcefully identify them with self reflection or personality tests; you must instead expose yourself to bulk positive randomness and see what sticks.)

For Zen Habits Readers: This blog is dedicated to strategies for building a remarkable life, which I define to be one that is both remarkably accomplished and remarkably enjoyable to live. Though the site started out focused on achieving this goal as a student, I have since broadened its scope to cover all walks of life.

Here are a few highlighted articles to give you a taste of what Study Hacks has to offer. If you like what you see, consider subscribing to my feed.

Articles on Building a Remarkable Life

• Corrupted Callings: The Subtle Difference Between Finding Your Life’s Work and Loving Your Life
• Beyond Passion: The Science of Loving What You Do
• Treat Your Mind as You Would a Private Garden
• Is Allowing Your Child to Study While on Facebook Morally Irresponsible?
• The Grandmaster in the Corner Office: What the Study of Chess Experts Teaches Us About Building a Remarkable Life
• Does Living a Remarkable Life Require Courage or Effort?
• How to Become a Star Screenwrite: A Case Study of Modern Craftsmanship

Articles for Students

• The Study Hacks Philosophy on College
• The Radical Simplicity Manifesto
• How to Become a Zen Valedictorian: Decrease Stress Without Decreasing Your Ambition
• Want to Get into Harvard? Spend More Time Starting at the Clouds
• How to Get Into Stanford with B’s on Your Transcript: Failed Simulation and the Surprising Psychology of Impressiveness
• How to Become a Star Grad Student: James McLurkin and the Power of Stretch Churn

Dear Students,

In an innocuous office complex, three blocks south of Northwestern University, and a short walk from Lake Michigan, you can find the Yellowbrick psychiatric treatment center. Though Yellowbrick treats the expected spectrum of mental disorders, from anxiety to schizophrenia, its mission is unique: it’s the country’s only psychiatric center dedicated exclusively to emerging adults — young people in the ever-expanding gap between adolescence and the stability of family, a mortgage, and a settled career.

Unfortunately for you, my dear student reader, business at Yellowbrick is booming.

In a recent New York Times Magazine article, journalist Robin Marantz Henig provides a haunting portrait of a typical Yellowbrick patient: he’s a young man “who had done well at a top Ivy League college until the last class of the last semester of his last year, when he finished his final paper and could not bring himself to turn it in.” This brief moment of existential despair spiraled out of control.

“The demands of imminent independence can worsen mental-health problems or create new ones for people who have managed up to that point to perform all the expected roles,” explains Henig. “[They] get lost when schooling ends and expected roles disappear.”

In other words, when you go through life thinking “if I can make it through this, things will be better later,” you eventually forget what “better” means.

This doesn’t mean that every student who sees school as a trial to survive will end up at Yellowbrick, but the despair that accompanies the perpetual postponement of an enjoyable life has a way of making its presence known. It is seen, for example, in the regular e-mails I receive from college students suffering from deep procrastination — an advanced stage of burnout where, as with the Yellowbrick patient mentioned above, completing work becomes impossible — or the quiet desperation of the overworked law associate who strains to remember why, exactly, law school had once evinced such certainty.

I didn’t write this letter to chastise. In fact, I’m dismayed by the growing number of (often Ivy League educated) voices in the student stress debate who cry out “there’s more to life than Harvard!”, but provide little guidance to what such a life should entail.

I write instead to suggest an alternative.

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UPDATE (4:17 pm): Attack Repelled?

After a day spent counter-hacking, Study Hacks should once again be back in business. That being said, please help me keep a wary eye for anything else amiss — it’s always possible a backdoor was left open.

I apologize for the few hours this afternoon when the site was down as I scrubbed it clean and updated it. For those who are interested in this type of thing, the attack I suffered is called the Online Pharma Hack. It’s a clever beast that presents the normal site to every user…except Google’s index spider, to which it presents spam. The idea is to hijack the site’s reputation in Google’s eyes to increase the ranking of certain keywords. The effect of the attack will still be seen for a while in Google search results (search for study hacks cialas to see what I mean), but hopefully, with re-indexing, they will eventually return to normal.

Finally, someone in the comments was worried about their e-mail information from subscribing to my feed. The e-mail subscription is handled by FeedBurner and all of your information is safe.

Study Hacks, Perhaps Ironically, Has Been Hacked

It appears that hackers have gained access to Study Hacks and have been inserting spam ads, among other intrusions, throughout the site. (Search for “Study Hacks” on Google to see the attacker’s “brilliance” in action.)

I’m working with my host company to re-secure and sanitize the site, and it should still continue to work fine in the interim, but there may be some weirdness in the near future as I update my software, etc., so be warned.

Two Notes:

• If you notice any hacked pages, please e-mail them to my attention to aid my efforts in cleaning things up (author@calnewport.com).
• If you know anything about WordPress hacking/securing and want to help, I would appreciate any assistance.

I’m crossing my fingers that any inconvenience will be minimal…

Update (8/17/2010): I forgot to mention that a loyal reader has set up a Facebook fan page for Study Hacks. I’m not on Facebook, but I can still view this page and the comments you leave, and I really appreciate the support. If you’re a fan, consider joining (liking? friending?) the page as a way to spread the word to your own network of friends.

Quick hits is an occasional feature where I take a breather between my epic big idea posts to share ideas, ask questions, and in general provide a catch-all place for me to catch up with you.

Tales of Disconnection

Rough Type, the blog of Nicholas Carr (my favorite commentator on digital distraction; c.f., The Shallows), recently pointed me toward two fascinating articles…

Outdoors and Out of Reach. This latest entry in the New York Times’ meme-spawning series on how data overload affects our brain, follows five neuroscientists on an offline wilderness rafting trip. My favorite quote comes near the end of the article, when a hyper-connected lab director realizes:

“I have a colleague who says that I’m being very impolite when I pull out a computer during meetings. I say: ‘I can listen.’ … Maybe I’m not listening so well. Maybe I can work at being more engaged.”

Off-Line, I Reconnect. This article, from the Montreal Gazette, follows a freelance writer who works from home with no Internet service. He makes do by going online once a day, for about an hour, at a local Internet cafe, where he checks his e-mail and looks up any needed information. My favorite quote:

“Once I eliminated the Internet from my apartment, I rediscovered the joys of reading books (not blogs). It’s a feeling I haven’t experienced this intensely since my adolescence, when I devoured books, like a human sponge with a lust for everything.”

Book Update

The launch of How to Be a High School Superstar is underway. (As always, if you like my philosophy and either know someone in high school, or are curious about how to build an interesting and engaging life — at any age — please consider buying a copy.)

You may have seen my guest post on Tim Ferriss’ blog. I have three more blockbuster guest posts lined up, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out this fantastic series on interestingness (a key concept from High School Superstar) at Justine Musk’s blog, Tribal Writer.

Last Friday, I sent out my first batch of signed books to readers who helped me spread the word about High School Superstar. Their book-earning actions included calling members of their school board to recommend my book, adding the title to a class reading list, and designing me an an excellent poster.

I have a couple more copies to give away; if you’re interested, do something cool to help spread the word, and then send me a report on what you did.

Finally, if you bought a copy of the book and enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com, as this helps other students decide whether or not the book is right for them.

Agent Obvious

Interested in publishing a book? My sharp literary agent, Laurie Abkemeier,  became Internet-famous for the “Agent Obvious Tip of the Day” feature on her twitter feed, which corrects obvious mistakes that (too) many aspiring writers make. This wisdom has now been captured in a clever new iPhone app called Agent Obvious. If you’re trying to break into the world of publishing, listen to Laurie: trust me, she knows what she’s talking about!

What Makes Great Scientists Great?

In March of 1986, an overflow audience of over 200 researchers and staff members from Bell Laboratories piled into the Morris Research and Engineering Center to hear a talk given by Dr. Richard Hamming, a pioneer in the field of communication theory. He titled his presentation “You and Your Research,” and set out to answer a fundamental question: “Why do so few scientists make significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the long run?”

Hamming, of course, knew what he was talking about, as he had made his own significant contributions — you can’t even glance at the field of digital communications without stumbling over some eponymous Hamming innovation.

But his original interest in the question came from his years spent in Los Alamos at the height of the Manhattan Project. “I saw Feynman up close. I saw Fermi and Teller. I saw Oppenheimer. I saw Hans Bethe,” Hamming notes.  “I saw that although physically I was the same, they were different. [T]o put the thing bluntly, I was envious.”

Forty years later, as he took the podium at the Bell Labs auditorium, he set out to describe, in plainspoken detail, everything he had learned…

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A Clarification (3:42 pm):  A few commenters both here and on Tim Ferriss’ site seemed to come away with the mistaken perception that Michael Silverman, the exceptional student profiled in my guest post, was somehow a slacker. This is definitively not true. He worked his ass off in high school. The crucial point of my article is that Michael applied this hard work somewhere smart and likely to provide big returns — his niche of sustainability projects — instead of the same old targets pursued by most students — inching up in class rank, etc. I’m sure 99% of you came away with this impression, but it never hurts to clarify.

Hacking the Superstar Effect

I just published a guest post on Tim Ferriss’ blog.  It’s titled: From CEOs to Opera Singers: How to Harness the Superstar Effect. The article, which is based off one of the major sections in my new book, details the science behind the Superstar Effect — being the best at something provides disproportionate rewards — and then describes a corollary that is often leveraged by relaxed superstars — this superstar bonus holds even if the field you conquered wasn’t prohibitively competitive.

This concept can help you stand out in a variety of settings, from college admissions to becoming CEO.

For Study Hacks Readers: This article aligns perfectly with our recent discussions of sustainable success, I recommend that you go to Tim’s site to read it.

For Tim Ferriss Readers: This blog is dedicated to strategies for building a remarkable life, which I define to be one that is both remarkably accomplished and remarkably enjoyable to live. Though the site started out focused on achieving this goal as a student, it has since broadened its scope to all walks of life.

Here are a few highlighted articles to give you a taste of what Study Hacks has to offer. If you like what you see, consider subscribing to my feed.

Articles on Building a Remarkable Life

• Beyond Passion: The Science of Loving What You Do
• The Grandmaster in the Corner Office: What the Study of Chess Experts Teaches Us About Building a Remarkable Life
• Corrupted Callings: The Subtle Difference Between Finding Your Life’s Work and Loving Your Life
• Does Living a Remarkable Life Require Courage or Effort?
• How to Become a Star Screenwrite: A Case Study of Modern Craftsmanship

Articles for Students

• The Study Hacks Philosophy on College
• How to Become a Zen Valedictorian: Decrease Stress Without Decreasing Your Ambition
• Want to Get into Harvard? Spend More Time Starting at the Clouds
• How to Get Into Stanford with B’s on Your Transcript: Failed Simulation and the Surprising Psychology of Impressiveness
• How to Become a Star Grad Student: James McLurkin and the Power of Stretch Churn

Pub Day Arrives

I don’t want to belabor the point, so I’ll be brief. My new book, How to Be a High School Superstar, comes out today. You can read more about it here and here and here, or read an excerpt here. You can buy it here or at major bookstores. (If they’re sold out, tell them, so they’ll increase their order!)

My pitch is brief:

• If you appreciate my philosophy and have a family member, friend, or relative in high school, please consider buying them a copy. 
• If you like what you read, please consider adding an Amazon review to encourage others to follow suit. I’m following a strict no-fake-review policy for this book, so I’m leaving it to real readers to give honest opinions.
• If you have a Twitter or Facebook account, perhaps tell your followers and friends it’s something worth looking into. An easy way to spread the word, for example, is to post a link titled “I’m not stressed about college admissions, why are you?” that connects back to the Amazon page for the book.

More importantly:

I can’t thank you enough for your support. This book literally wouldn’t exist without the extended and intelligent conversation I’ve had you, my Study Hacks readers, over the past three years.

Now back to writing…

(Note: The excellent artwork for this post was done by Arturas Petkevicius, an excellent freelance designer who you can contact here. If you want to help spread the word about my book, please feel free to post the image on your Facebook page or blog; send me a link if you do, so I can pass along my thanks.)

An Old Town Wander

Earlier this evening, I explored the cobbled lanes of Zurich’s old town center. Switzerland is infamous for shutting down on Sundays — a legacy of a rigid Protestant past — and tonight didn’t disappoint; I often had whole streets to myself: the fading sun lighting the Renaissance-style row houses in the same way it has for hundreds of years, stretching back to when the city was still run by the guilds.

The scene, naturally, infused me with a sense of timeliness. I imagined the craftsman and apprentices who honed their skills in this late-medieval industrial center, and this got me thinking…

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