Study Hacks

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. 

Deliberate Practice in Unconventional Places

I’m not the only one with deliberate practice on my mind. A variety of bloggers have been exploring this powerful idea…

• Justine Musk published a fascinating two-part series on deliberate practice and the art of fiction writing. (If you’re one of the millions who dream of writing a novel one day, you must subscribe to Justine’s Tribal Writer blog.)
• Penelope Trunk posted on the role of deliberate practice in entrepreneurship. As a former professional athlete, she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to hard practice.
• Jonah Lehrer discusses Magnus Carlsen, who, at the age of 15, is the youngest chess player to reach a number one world ranking. Does Carlsen debunk our assumption that practice trumps innate ability? Not so, responds Lehrer. Carlsen uses computer chess programs to increase the rate at which he accumulates deliberate practice.
• Scott Young describes an interesting philosophy for keeping deliberate practice central to your daily experience: live on the edge of incompetence.
• Dan Pink points out Harrison Ford’s surprising obsession with mastery.

Do You Love What You Do? If So, I Want to Talk with You.

You may have noticed by now my infatuation with the science of career satisfaction. I want to temper all this fancy lab learning with some good ‘ole fashioned on the ground reporting.

With this in mind, if you’re someone who loves what you do — the type of person people point to and say “that’s what I want my life to be like” — please consider sending me an e-mail at author [at] calnewport.com.

I want to hear your story.

Use the Comment Thread of this Post to Ask Me Anything!

Speaking of e-mail, if you have a question, comment, or devastating insult to hurl my direction, and you don’t want to wait the 1 - 2 weeks it can sometimes take me to get through my blog e-mails, leave it as a comment on this post. For the next few days I’ll check and respond to these comments regularly.

(Photo by envios)

An Innovative Scholarship

Earlier in December, my friend Ramit, who runs the wildly popular I Will Teach You to Be Rich blog, announced the I Will Teach You To Be Rich Scholarship for Social Innovation. The concept is simple. You pitch him an entrepreneurial idea you have for making the world better. It can be something you’ve already started or something you’ve dreamed of doing. He’ll choose the best idea and give its originator $2500 as well as advice and access to his considerable contact network.

Let me put this another way: if you have a cool idea for helping the world, and you win this contest, Ramit can provide exactly what you need to make it a success. If you’re in high school, the result will be the type of innovative pursuit that lets you breeze into your dream school. If you’re in college, it will put you in a completely different league when seeking post-grad opportunities.

In other words: This is a chance to transform your student life.

Let’s Show ‘Em What We’re Made Of…

I want a Study Hacks reader to win this scholarship. This type of project fits perfectly with our Zen Valedictorian Philosophy (specifically: The Law of Innovation), and you’re some of the brightest, most motivated students on the planet. So let’s show Ramit what we’re made of…

Here are two items to sweeten the deal:

1. Ramit always complains about how few people apply for his scholarships. This means that if you have a good idea and actually take the time to enter, you have a great shot.
2. I will help you win. If you want to enter, send me a draft of your idea and I’ll give you feedback to help make it irresistible.

The full rules for entry can be found here. The deadline is January 15th. Send me a draft of your entry by January 10th and I’ll give you my feedback. If you’re looking to become a standout, this is a perfect opportunity to start down that path.

Popularity Contest

I’m introducing a new feature here on Study Hacks — a recap of each month’s most popular posts. I hope this will help readers keep up with the content and sift the best from the rest. Below are the five most well-received articles of August, as determined by a combination of page views and user comments.

• Five Pieces of Unexpected Back to School Advice (Posted 8/25/08)
  Party hard. Quit activities. Buy a fancy planner. It’s not advice you’ve heard before, but it’s all surprisingly effective.
• How Many Hours Do You Have to Work to Feel Productive? (Posted 8/21/08)
  Posted remotely from a conference in Toronto, this article reflects on important question: how many hours do you need to spend to be good at what you do? Without an answer, you’ll never be happy with your productivity.
• Does Where You Go to School Matter? (Posted 8/15/08)
  This articles dives into the myth that your school does not affect your salary, and shows how reporters often get this wrong.
• The Biggest Source of Stress Most Students Ignore (posted 8/4/2008)
  Forget fancy time management or sophisticated note-taking systems: the easiest way to make a major reduction in stress is to pick a more manageable course load. It seems obvious, but overlooking this advice is at the core of most of the complaints I hear from students.
• Beware of Those Who Tell You Traditional Career Paths are Bad (posted 8/1/2008)
  This articles tackles one of the most insidious myths of the self-help blogging community: traditional jobs are for losers, the best path is to start some sort of vague online money-making venture. Study Hack readers had a lot of thoughts on this provocative analysis.

Re-Thinking Productivity

There’s nothing more satisfying when reading than that magic moment when something flips a switch deep within the neuronal recesses of your brain, and completely transforms your world view. I wanted to share with you a collection of productivity-related articles that, for me, generated this feeling. They have helped challenge my own beliefs about what it means to be “productive.” Indeed, you’ve likely seen their influence ricocheting throughout many of the recent posts here on Study Hacks. These are the the type of articles that keep me excited to check my RSS feed in the morning.

I hope they have the same effect on you…

#1. The Alternative Productivity Manifesto

This attention-catching tirade on the counter-cultural The Growing Life blog, is motivated by a simple question: if our productivity has doubled since WWII, why aren’t we working 20-hour weeks?

This article is one of the first I’ve seen to note that many of the most popular productivity gurus — ahem, Mr. Allen — are not working in the interest of the people; their goal, instead, is to help companies squeeze as much work as possible out of us poor worker drones.

#2. Rethinking Life Hacks

Writing with the trademark tone of academic sophistication that separates the Academic Productivity blog from so many others, Jose investigates a damning question: when it comes to productivity advice, where’s the evidence?

Of particular juicy goodness, is his list of some of the top internet productivity gurus — Steve Pavlina, David Allen, etc — annotated with what, exactly, these people have achieved to justify their guru status. The result, as you might imagine, is not too kind to the gurus. Like any good academic, Jose concludes with some suggestions for a more systematic approach validating life hacks.

#3. The Planning Fallacy

The always thought-provoking Eliezer Yudkowsky, in a guest post on the I Will Teach You to Be Rich blog, describes a common cognitive shortcoming: we are terrible at planning. Again and again, research has revealed that our attempts to estimate how long things will take are really no different than our prediction of the best case scenario. In other words, we are hopelessly optimistic.

Understanding this ingrained flaw can transform the way you think about project planning, leading you to take on less and schedule more time for completion.

#4. How to Act Productive

The mysterious grad hacker lampoons hyper-stress work cultures in this hilarious, and often biting, 12-part satiric series. Each entry, from #8 Skip Meals to #2 Talk About How Much You Haven’t Slept, helps pick away at the shell of social convention that conceals our worst work instincts. It also draws attention to just how much of the stress and unhappiness in our work lives (especially student work lives) is invented; a show we put on to prove to others that we belong where we are.

The series is a must-read for anyone who: (a) owns a blackberry; (b) uses the phrase “how you holding up” as a standard greeting; or (c) thinks productivity advice is for other people, you know, those with much easier jobs.

#5. The Only Guide to Happiness You’ll Ever Need

The incredible success of Leo’s Zen Habits blog baffles many people. On the surface, he peddles the same life hacking-style advice as countless others, and his format, including inspirational quotes, long tip lists, and, of course, the ubiquitous pictures of generic people jumping or watching sunsets, reeks of cliche. But something about Leo stands him above the crowd.

At its core, Zen Habits tells the story of a real man, living on an isolated island with six kids and real problems, struggling — and more often than not, succeeding — to construct a life that is engaging, but also happy and, above all, peaceful. We see us in him, and his experiences give us hope.

This recent article is an example of Leo at his best. He summarizes the core components to living a good life. Though simple, this advice resonates strongly. Something about it just seems right. It sweeps away the gunk that builds up when you spend too much time down in the proverbial dirt of the life hacking world, trying to figure out how to make the little things slightly better, and provides, instead, a big picture target. If you set down a path to satisfying the advice given here, the rest seems like it will all just click into place.

My Goals for Life | Scott Young
A great case study for the lifestyle-centric career planning concept we’ve been discussing: Scott Young lays out the key pieces for his post-college ideal lifestyle.

Offer Summer Classes to Yourself — Then Attend Them | Grad Hacker
The good folks over at Grad Hacker lay out a case — and a strategy — for taking advantage of the summer to bone up on the random subjects you’ve always wanted to know about, but never thought you had the time to master.

Some Careers are Better to Do Young | Ben Casnocha
Ben discusses how some jobs are better to do young, while others are not.

Dr. Stewart Friedman on “Time Bind” vs. Psychological Interference and More | Time Ferriss
Tim interviews business guru Stewart Friedman about his hot theories regarding forming a happy life. Among other insights: balancing work and play is out, integrating the two is in. You may hear more about these ideas here in some upcoming posts.

Gone for the Weekend

I’m leaving this afternoon for a three day trip. This means no Friday post and I might be a little slow moderating comments. In the meantime, I wanted to leave you with a few interesting articles that I found in some unexpected sources.

(I might also suggest that you go back over Dan Pink’s interview from Wednesday and review what he said about “fundamental” versus “instrumental” interests. I’m increasingly impressed by the idea, and I think there is a lot of wisdom packed into those few sentences.)

See you Monday!

Unexpected Wisdom

Interesting articles from unexpected sources (at least, “unexpected” for a student advice blog):

• Can you become a creature of new habits? | The New York Times
  The gray lady tackles the biology of habits and how to form new ones.
• Want to remember everything you’ve ever learned? | Wired
  A fascinating article about a scientist who figured out how to make humans into master memorizing machines — and was then, ironically, forgotten. I’ll probably deal with the specifics of this research in a later post, but definitely worth a read. (Hat Tip: Ramit).
• Getting to the point of “I can do this!” | Ben Casnocha
  Ben recently posted some ideas from a conversation he and I have been waging over the past few weeks. I’m interested in your thoughts. More details will probably be forthcoming in later posts.
• The new learning that failed | The New Criterion
  I have my issues with the New Criterion crowd, but their writing is always quality and their ideas always, at the very least, provocative. This is an interesting essay from their recent education issue. It tackles the role of the classics in a liberal arts education. Food for thought when considering your own course of study.
• My brain on booze | Technology Review
  Speaking of liberal arts education: what’s really going on in your mind during your Saturday night buzz? Researchers uncover surprising answers…

In search of a few good writers…

One my favorite student life hack bloggers, Gideon from Mindful Ink, has recently decided to move his blog into a collaborative format. He’s looking for a few good writers to join the cause.

I’ve always been a fan of Gideon. He brings a needed dash of literate intelligence and introspection into a topic area that’s often too quick to wax triumphantly over the latest improvements to our to-do list font size (I think Martin over at the University Blog also fits this intelligent productivity guru profile.)

Anyway, if you’re looking to do some smart writing at a great venue, check out Gideon’s invitation.

(I should also mention, for the graduate students among you, that the always quality Academic Productivity blog has also recently opened their doors to guest writers.)

Interesting links from around the web to help you through your weekend Study Hacks withdrawal…

Links that I like better than UCLA because they didn’t lose to Memphis and destroy my bracket:

• The Centenarian Strategy: Life / Career Issues When You Will Live to 100 | Ben Casnocha
  Ben digs up a fascinating Rutgers commencement speech from 1996. The setup: it’s likely that those of us in our 20’s today will live active lives until we are 100. The question: how does this change the way we should plan our life and career?
• Job Series — That About Wraps it Up | Hack College
  The guys (plus gal) over at Hack College just wrapped up a multi-part series on how to get a job. If you figure this is something you might have to do sometime (the horror!), the series is worth checking out. (Though I still have a hard time imagining Kelly and friends as productive citizens in the working world…)
• Beat anxiety before it beats you | The University Blog
  Martin tackles a topic that afflicts all students, even though most think they are the only one facing it: anxiety. As usual for Martin: effective, well thought-out advice.
• The Incredible Power of Contement | Zen Habits
  Every time I read an article by Leo and imagine him, playing with his six kids, living by the beach in Guam, blogging full-time, running marathons, and, I assume, sipping tropical drinks in a hammock and just generally enjoying life — I can’t help but feel optimistic. This recent article is a dead-on match to a lot of the Radical Simplicity-infused dogma I’ve been pitching your way recently. It talks about balancing ambition with relaxation. I couldn’t agree more with his conclusions.
• One Project: One Project Log | Getting Things Done in Academia
  The crew over at GTDA discusses how to take the staple of the science laboratory — the project log — and use it help manage all the projects in your life. I’m fascinated. You might be hearing about my own log-based system in the near future…