Study Hacks

The Overwork Ethic

I recently received an e-mail from a freshman at the Illinois Institute of Technology. It began: “I’m trying to follow your advice and avoid killer semesters, but it seems kind of hard.”

He then detailed his crowded course schedule, which included electrical engineering, physics, computer science, and an organic chemistry class, the last of which he described as “hellish,” because it included a time-consuming lab in addition to regular problem sets.

“I know that on your site and stuff it says avoid doing shit like this,” he admitted, “but I’m not really sure what to do.”

This last line confused me.

If a student says he “doesn’t know what to do” about a tough course schedule, you might expect he needs the courses to complete his major and graduate on time, or perhaps to meet the requirements of a graduate program. Clearly, however, physics, computer science, and organic chemistry can’t all be part of the same major or program prerequisites. Furthermore, this student was in the first semester of his freshman year: how could he possibly be feeling credit pressure already?

When I dug deeper, it turned out that he had no particular reason to be taking those classes. In fact, as he later admitted, he arrived at college with a ton of AP credits, and could, if he so decided, coast to graduation early without ever taking a hard semester.

The real reason for his killer course load was that he was considering transferring schools, and felt, with an unquestioned certainty, that doing more was important for standing out. “I guess that having a schedule like this looks more impressive on my transfer apps,” he said

The idea that killer schedules are necessary to be impressive was so deeply ingrained in this student that the idea of simplifying his course load never crossed his mind as an option.

This mindset is a problem that we must solve before we can make progress with the Romantic Scholar approach to student life, as it’s near impossible to find fulfillment in your school work when you’re constantly struggling to keep up with an overwhelming load.

To convince you to do less, however, I must first convince you that doing more is not a reasonable alternative…

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The Age of Wonder

Around midnight, on March 13, 1781, William Herschel, an amateur astronomer from the West Country of England, was surveying the northern sky with a custom-built reflector telescope. As the Gemini constellation slid into view he noticed a new object moving slowly across the foreground. On a lesser telescope, the object would probably be dismissed as a new comet — one of the hundreds being discovered at the time.  But the precision of Herschel’s five-inch, hand-polished reflector mirror was unmatched in England, if not the world, allowing him to note the absence of a comet’s distinctive tail.

This was something different.

If you review Herschel’s journal entries from this period you’ll notice that he’s no stranger to hard work. On most nights, during the good winter observation months, his notes begin around 7 pm and end near dawn. He repeated this laborious work, night after night, year after year, systematically mapping the northern sky. As Richard Holmes details in The Age of Wonder, his epic survey of the Romantic Era of science, Herschel enjoyed these labors. In a letter written to the Royal Astronomer, Nivel Maskelyne, for example, Herschel excuses his sometimes unrestrained excitement, saying it “may perhaps be ascribed to a certain Enthusiasm which an observer…can hardly divest himself of when he sees such Wonders before him.”

The attraction of these “Wonders” is made clear by the events that followed that long March night. Though it required another nine nights of careful observation before Herschel made his first “tentative communications” regarding the new object, and several months to receive confirmation from other astronomers,  its importance had long before become obvious. Herschel had discovered Uranus — the first new planet since the age of Ptolemy; an event, as Holmes puts it, that would “[change] not only the solar system, but [revolutionize] the way men of science thought about its stability and creation.”

The Romantic in the Classroom

Herschel was a man of the Romantic Era, a period spanning from the mid 18th century into the early decades of the 19th. The scientists of this era recast their work from an exercise in cold rationality to an aesthetic experience. They reveled in the difficult work of teasing truth out of a reclusive Nature, and experienced frequent moments of awe.

As a young scientist myself, this era is appealing for obvious reasons. More surprising, however, is its relevance to my role as writer of student advice. I claim that we can draw from the ethos of these Romantic Scholars a new approach to student life: one that can transform your education experience — high school through graduate school — from a trial to survive into the foundation of a life well-lived.

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Quick Note…

I just spoke with a reporter from a major national newspaper. She needs interview subjects for an article she’s writing on college. Specifically, she’s looking for…

• students at selective colleges who have had a hard time getting into a popular course (or found an innovative way to get in);
• parents of students who are frustrated that their tuition money does not necessarily gain their student access to all of a university’s resources; and
• professors with a strong stance on whether this is good or bad.

If you’re willing to be interviewed, send me a short e-mail explaining who you are and where you go to school (or where your child goes to school, or where you teach). If possible, put “[Interview Request]” in the subject so I can notice your message. I’ll forward them on to the reporter.

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In other news…

I published an interesting guest post over on Ramit Sethi’s blog; it discusses the danger of “getting started.” It fits in well with our recent discussion on rethinking passion.

You can expect my next post on Friday (God willing): it has to do with specific advice for transforming your student life from a trial to survice into the foundation for a life well lived.

Stay tuned…

Two quick notes before we return to our regularly scheduled posts…

Come Meet Me and Chris Guillebeau at the Harvard Coop Bookstore at 7 PM on Monday, Sept. 13.
Chris is giving a talk about his provocative new book, The Art of Non-Conformity. Come hear his challenges to live a life that’s both engaging and useful to the world. After the talk, Chris and I will be hanging out in the Coop Cafe until closing to talk shop about remarkable living, writing, and whatever else interests you. We hope to see you there!

Learn More, Study Less
If you’re among the many readers who enjoy Scott Young’s blog in addition to Study Hacks, then you should give some serious consideration to his new video course, Learn More, Study Less. I spent an interesting morning earlier this week watching Scott’s lessons. Some of his approaches will sound familiar to fans of my books, and some I wish I had thought up first (his lesson on procrastination and time management, for example, are worth the price of the whole course); others clash with my philosophy: I’m not a fan of mind mapping style notes — too inefficient, in my opinion.

For the advanced student who is serious about optimizing habits, it’s worth taking a look at more details on the course — Scott offers an original point of view on these topics.

The Ivy League Farmer

Earlier this summer, Julie and I attended a dinner at Red Fire Farm, a 110 acre organic farm in rural Granby, Massachusetts. The dinner celebrated the strawberry harvest and the farmhands had setup tables under a tent overlooking the fruit fields. As we poured our wine, the farm’s owner, Ryan Voiland, stood up to say a few words about this year’s harvest.

Ryan is young, only in his early thirties, a fact he tries to hide with a grizzled black beard. As he spoke, his few words stretched into an enthusiastic dissertation on rain fall and cabbage yields. Eventually, Ryan’s wife, Sarah, took over, leading the group in a prayer to the “earth goddess.” As we sipped strawberry gazpacho, a group of college-aged farm interns formed a song circle in a patch of grass near the chicken coop.

In the comfort of cynical Boston, the event would have felt over the top, but in the shaded fields of Granby, it made sense. When I looked over to the main table, I saw Ryan take in the scene. He was smiling.

What makes Ryan’s story canonical is its start. Ten years earlier, he walked out of Cornell University with an Ivy League diploma in his hand and headed straight into the offices of the Farm Service Agency, where he secured a loan to buy his first farm property. A decade later, Red Fire is a success: it sells organic produce straight to the consumers through farmers markets and a sold-out CSA. When I last visited the farm, in mid-August, they were installing a $200,000 solar array. Ryan loves what he does and does it well.

The Dream Job Trope

Ryan has a dream job — which I define to be an occupation built around a hobby or casual side interest that you enjoy.  (Growing up, Ryan loved to garden, so, naturally, he started a farm.)

The dream job is a powerful trope in the job satisfaction literature. For example, here’s the opening paragraph from a popular career advice guide:

“[A] New York investment banker becomes a small-town college chef. A college professor becomes a chocolatier. An entrenched corporate exec…converts to the ministry.”

These are all dream jobs. When Tim Ferriss tells his famous story of an attorney who drops everything to open a Brazilian surf shop, that’s also a dream job, as are most of the examples touted in the perennially popular quit your terrible cubicle job to start a business advice guide niche.

You like to cook? Become a chef! Love chocolate? Open a chocolate shop! Like surfing on exotic beaches? Open a surf shop! And so on.

We’re entranced by dream jobs. When we hear stories like the one that opened this post, we feel a rush of aspiration. Hundreds make a living writing books and blogs about mustering the courage to pursue dream jobs, and millions dedicate their day dreaming to the topic. In this post, however, I want to argue that this is a problem.

The dream job trope isn’t the path to job satisfaction, and it’s not just harmless wistful thinking: it’s instead downright dangerous.

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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

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…

The Book Arrives

Over the weekend, I received a large box from Random House containing copies of my brand new book, How to Be a High School Superstar, which is coming out next week.  (Click here to pre-order.)

• Here’s what the book jacket says it’s about: applying the philosophies of sustainable success I preach here at Study Hacks to high school — teaching students how to build interesting, engaging, and low-stress lives, yet still do well during the college admissions process.
• Here’s what it’s secretly also about: my general philosophy on how anyone — be they a student or CEO — can build an interesting life. I combine a diverse collection of scientific results — from signaling theory to the economics of superstars — with in-depth case studies to deconstruct exactly how people become fascinating.
  

I Want Your Help

I tend to feel guilty about my abysmal book promotion skills. My lack of a Facebook fan page, for example, has been cast as a mortal sin. But as I explained to my publisher, I do have one secret weapon: the smartest, most engaged readers in the world of advice blogging.

Here’s my request: if you’re a serious fan of my philosophy, and believe this book deserves an audience, send me a proposal for how you can help spread the word. It can be something local, such as organizing a reading group with parents at your local church, or something epic, like convincing your good friend Oprah that it’s worth a read.

• I’ll send a signed copy of the book — and my eternal gratitude — to the best (implemented) idea.
• If there are lots of great ideas, I’ll send out lots of signed copies. (I have a bunch.)
• If the idea is particularly epic, I’ll throw in a free phone consultation on admissions, interestingness, or whatever else you want to chat about.

If you’re interested, e-mail me: author [at] calnewport.com

What to Expect Over the Next Few Weeks

The book launches next week on Tuesday, July 27th, so you’re going to see a lot more post traffic over the next month or so.

As part of the promotion efforts, I’ve arranged fascinating guest posts with a series of high quality advice blogs.  I’ll announce and summarize these posts as they go live in late July and early August. The result: expect a large amount of original content in the near future. 

These are exciting times. I hope you like the book, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts…