![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/people-glued-to-their-phones-300x161.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBy page 8 I had deleted Facebook and Twitter from my phone.<\/p>\n
By the end of an evening\u2019s read (with my sons\u2019 video games as background accompaniment), I\u2019d resolved the following:<\/p>\n
While these may seem like small steps to some, according to Cal Newport\u2019s work, Deep Work: Rules for a Focused Success in a Distracted World<\/em>, 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 \u201cInternet\u201d, coupled with frequent shifts between important and insignificant tasks leads to an inability to focus well and productively create.<\/p>\n His argument is challenging, convicting, and has compelled me to implement new routines and structures to change my behavior.<\/p>\n And yet\u2026<\/p>\n There\u2019s been a small naggly feeling troubling me throughout this text. Attempting to put a word to it, I would suggest motive<\/em>. Why do we need to do \u201cDeep Work\u201d? According to Newport, deep work is essential for a knowledge worker[1]<\/a> to be a viable commodity in today\u2019s job sector. In order to \u201cbecome a winner in the new economy\u201d[2]<\/a>, we must become \u201cmore valued\u2026 than before.\u201d[3]<\/a> He writes, \u201ctalent is not a commodity you can buy in bulk and combine to reach the needed levels: There\u2019s a premium to being the best. Therefore, if you\u2019re in a marketplace where the consumer has access to all performers, and everyone\u2019s q<\/em> value is clear, the consumer will choose the very best.\u201d[4]<\/a>. And \u201cthe very best,\u201d according the Newport, is someone who can master hard things and \u201cproduce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.\u201d[5]<\/a> This sought-after person has within their reach economic gain, professional gain (say, advancement or promotion), and even public image gain (\u201csixty peer-reviewed journals\u201d[6]<\/a> or blog hits).<\/p>\n Throughout this past semester, I\u2019ve been watching for signs of the commodification of labor, first introduced to our cohort in our reading of Polanyi\u2019s The Great Transformation<\/em>. On a visceral level, I stubbornly want to resist the concept of consuming others for the work they\/we do. And yet\u2026 I wrestle with that as well, because, truthfully, don\u2019t 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 \u201cvalue\u201d of deep work in a way that identifies us, not as commodities to be \u201cbought and sold\u201d, but as craftsmen who take great pleasure in a job well done?<\/p>\n Newport himself recognizes there is more \u201creward\u201d for doing deep work than being \u201cjust economically lucrative,\u201d[7]<\/a> namely, a \u201clife well lived,\u201d or, flourishing. [8]<\/a> He suggests that, rather than happiness occurring through relaxing, \u201chuman beings\u2026 are at their best when immersed deeply in something challenging,\u201d[9]<\/a> and that, rather than searching arbitrarily for what is meaningful, deep work (especially evidenced in craftsmanship), involves \u201can intimate relationship\u201d of creating, cultivating, and caring for something outside of ourselves.[10]<\/a> Wendell Berry, likewise, suggests that \u201creal work\u201d can provide great joy and meaning:<\/p>\n It may be that when we no longer know what to do While much of Newport\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> versus a craftsperson, where deep work is essential for the very creation of the craft<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World<\/em>, (New York: Grand Central, 2016), 28.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid., 23.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Ibid., 25-26.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Ibid., 29. Almost as an afterthought, Newport suggests another effect of this type of work: intense work which then fully disconnects, \u201callows me to be present with my wife and two sons in the evenings\u201d (p17). This motive (he calls it \u201cnonprofessional benefits\u201d) should, in my mind, be a primary driver, rather than an \u201cunintended postscript.\u201d<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Ibid., 38.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Ibid., 76.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Though I would argue that flourishing<\/em> involves the well being of more than simply an individual (or an individual\u2019s family unit), but a community. But that\u2019s a post for another time.<\/p>\n
\nwe have come to our real work,
\nand that when we no longer know which way to go
\nwe have come to our real journey.
\nThe mind that is not baffled is not employed.
\nThe impeded stream is the one that sing<\/strong><\/em>s<\/strong>.[11]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n