Newport: Deleting this App will also Delete its Data. Continue?
By page 8 I had deleted Facebook and Twitter from my phone.
By the end of an evening’s read (with my sons’ video games as background accompaniment), I’d resolved the following:
- silence, not news or music on my drive to work, and walking to work once I move;
- removing the Facebook tab on my work computer and checking it only twice a day;
- spending my idle time (walking, waiting, etc.) not browsing through social media, click bait, or Google news, but thinking or being content with boredom;
- shutting down other programs on my computer when concentrating on my writing.
While these may seem like small steps to some, according to Cal Newport’s work, Deep Work: Rules for a Focused Success in a Distracted World, they are vital to the discipline of deep, focused work; work that is prolific in both quantity and quality. Newport argues that, as a culture, we have idolized (my term) technology to the point of allowing our addiction of it to change the way we process and create. In other words, shallow, mindless (or even thoughtful) scrolling through the “Internet”, coupled with frequent shifts between important and insignificant tasks leads to an inability to focus well and productively create.
His argument is challenging, convicting, and has compelled me to implement new routines and structures to change my behavior.
And yet…
There’s been a small naggly feeling troubling me throughout this text. Attempting to put a word to it, I would suggest motive. Why do we need to do “Deep Work”? According to Newport, deep work is essential for a knowledge worker[1] to be a viable commodity in today’s job sector. In order to “become a winner in the new economy”[2], we must become “more valued… than before.”[3] He writes, “talent is not a commodity you can buy in bulk and combine to reach the needed levels: There’s a premium to being the best. Therefore, if you’re in a marketplace where the consumer has access to all performers, and everyone’s q value is clear, the consumer will choose the very best.”[4]. And “the very best,” according the Newport, is someone who can master hard things and “produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.”[5] This sought-after person has within their reach economic gain, professional gain (say, advancement or promotion), and even public image gain (“sixty peer-reviewed journals”[6] or blog hits).
Throughout this past semester, I’ve been watching for signs of the commodification of labor, first introduced to our cohort in our reading of Polanyi’s The Great Transformation. On a visceral level, I stubbornly want to resist the concept of consuming others for the work they/we do. And yet… I wrestle with that as well, because, truthfully, don’t we all want to hire the best candidate we can for a certain position? (having just hired new students in my current job and proceeding through a very different type of hiring process for myself, this is very relevant for me right now). How can we respond to the “value” of deep work in a way that identifies us, not as commodities to be “bought and sold”, but as craftsmen who take great pleasure in a job well done?
Newport himself recognizes there is more “reward” for doing deep work than being “just economically lucrative,”[7] namely, a “life well lived,” or, flourishing. [8] He suggests that, rather than happiness occurring through relaxing, “human beings… are at their best when immersed deeply in something challenging,”[9] and that, rather than searching arbitrarily for what is meaningful, deep work (especially evidenced in craftsmanship), involves “an intimate relationship” of creating, cultivating, and caring for something outside of ourselves.[10] Wendell Berry, likewise, suggests that “real work” can provide great joy and meaning:
It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.[11]
While much of Newport’s argument for disciplined, intense and focused work is compelling, his primary motivation should be reexamined and rearranged to allow for those reasons which he considers secondary to lead.
[1] versus a craftsperson, where deep work is essential for the very creation of the craft
[2] Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, (New York: Grand Central, 2016), 28.
[3] Ibid., 23.
[4] Ibid., 25-26.
[5] Ibid., 29. Almost as an afterthought, Newport suggests another effect of this type of work: intense work which then fully disconnects, “allows me to be present with my wife and two sons in the evenings” (p17). This motive (he calls it “nonprofessional benefits”) should, in my mind, be a primary driver, rather than an “unintended postscript.”
[6] Ibid., 38.
[7] Ibid., 76.
[8] Though I would argue that flourishing involves the well being of more than simply an individual (or an individual’s family unit), but a community. But that’s a post for another time.
[9] Ibid., 84.
[10] Ibid., 87-88.
[11] Wendell Berry, “The Real Work,” in Standing by Words, Counterpoint, 1983. To be honest, I had another quote of his in mind, but ALL OF MY BOOKS ARE PACKED for my move! Still, I think this conveys my point well enough.
About the Author
Katy Drage Lines
In God’s good Kingdom, some minister like trees, long-standing, rooted in a community. They embody words of Wendell Berry, “stay years if you would know the genius of the place.” Others, however, are called to go. Katy is one of those pilgrims. A global nomad, Katy grew up as a fifth generation Colorado native, attended college & seminary and was ordained in Tennessee, married a guy from Pennsylvania, ministered for ten years in Kenya, worked as a children’s pastor in a small church in Kentucky, and served college students in a university library in Orange County, California. She recently moved to the heart of America, Indianapolis, and has joined the Englewood Christian Church community, serving with them as Pastor of Spiritual Formation. She & her husband Kip, have two delightful boys, a college junior and high school junior.7 responses to “Newport: Deleting this App will also Delete its Data. Continue?”
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Great post Katy! You ask valid question: Why do we need to do “Deep Work”? When I thought about it in a critical light—even though Newport suggests that some of the reward of those who do “deep work” is the edge it gives them over others and thus there are financial and career rewards—I do think there there is a missional/theological link to the “deep work” concept. Namely, there are a million things that get can distract us from doing our part. The author of Hebrews alludes to it: “lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…” This, in essence, is “deep work” but on a spiritual level. I think that deep work on that level has more than just temporal rewards.
Katy, I kept having nagging little feelings about motive throughout the book as well. “Should my motivation as a Christian be to be better than everyone else? To be the top dog while those other rubes were wasting their time?” It just didn’t feel right.
And I agree with Jim. We should do our best if for no other reason than to bring glory to God and be good witnesses for Christ.
As you state elsewhere, the best part of the book for me was applying it to organizing my time for working on my doctoral work.
God bless you as you get ready to move.
Great question that caused me to stop and ponder: “How can we respond to the “value” of deep work in a way that identifies us, not as commodities to be “bought and sold”, but as craftsmen who take great pleasure in a job well done?” It does more for your self-esteem to be considered a craftsman than a commodity to be bought or sold, when developing deep work. Cultivating and caring for something outside of ourselves keeps us in the category of craftsmanship. Thank you for this good reminder.
Katy the first part of your post made me laugh out loud! Glad you did not delete your FB account. I do agree that the motivating factors discussed in this book are extrinsic focused. What was missing was the holistic discussion of meaningful work. The fact that meaningful work is both intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic value is just as important as the value your work produces for others.
I like some of your intentions and decisions in response to this book Katy – and your questioning of the reason why!? I also like the sense of living like a craftsman, taking joy in your work and its intrinsic goodness and producing the best that you can in a way that glorifies God.
“Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.” (Proverbs 18:9)
Yes, Katy! Motivation is something that I questioned in this book. I laughed when I read the first part of your post because I felt some conviction at letting myself “wander” through social media rather than taking time to let silence fill me. But if I am motivated by some external definition of “success,” it doesn’t really make much difference. I have chosen to study something that doesn’t necessarily make me a “valuable commodity,” to the business world so I have to stay focused on my motivation. I learned this semester that, while I get deep satisfaction from the hard, deep work of research and writing, true happiness comes from balance. It doesn’t matter how well I do on a project if it burns me out and leaves me disconnected from my family. Knowing some incredible craftspeople, I know that they know when to walk away from their projects and let life recharge them.
Katy! Great insight to simply ask the question, ‘Why”?
I think you can easily argue something along the lines of fulfilling your potential or living into the mission and ministry that God has called us to.
At the same time, that why question of motivation is an important one for us to consider at the outset, not just as we seek justification after the fact.