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  pdftitle={Summary and Analysis: So Good They Can't Ignore You},
  pdfauthor={Tyler Neylon},
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\title{Summary and Analysis: So Good They Can't Ignore You}
\author{Tyler Neylon}
\date{\href{https://tylerneylon.com/a/7date/}{563.2023}}

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{[} Formats:
\href{http://tylerneylon.com/b/newport_book/newport_book.html}{html}
\textbar{}
\href{http://tylerneylon.com/b/newport_book/newport_book.pdf}{pdf}
\(\,\){]}

I recently enjoyed reading \emph{So Good They Can't Ignore You} by Cal
Newport, a thought-provoking book that argues in favor of a specific
perspective on your big-picture career mindset. This post summarizes and
provides some analysis of it. Since I like to be kind to authors, I also
encourage you to
\href{https://www.amazon.com/So-Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You-audiobook/dp/B009CMO8JQ/}{buy
the book} if it appeals to you.

\hypertarget{summary}{%
\section{Summary}\label{summary}}

Cal's goal is essentially to answer the question:

\begin{quote}
\textbf{How should I plan my career?}
\end{quote}

\emph{(It's strange that we call authors by their last name in writing
when we address people by first name in person. So I'm trying out
referring to Cal as Cal instead of as ``Newport,'' which would sound
overly-formal if I were speaking out loud.)}

He suggests these ideas as a framework for thinking about your career:

\begin{itemize}
\tightlist
\item
  Don't fall into the trap of following your passion as a first
  priority. \newline\color{gray}{\emph{(Ch 1--2)}}\color{black}
\item
  Build up career capital in the form of rare and valuable skills.
  \newline\color{gray} {\emph{(Ch 4--7)}}\color{black}
\item
  It's nice to have control over what you do in your work.

  \begin{itemize}
  \tightlist
  \item
    Don't opt for control until you have rare and valuable skills.
    \newline\color{gray} {\emph{(Ch 9--10)}}\color{black}
  \item
    Do opt for control despite others wanting to be in charge of you.
    \newline\color{gray} {\emph{(Ch 11)}}\color{black}
  \end{itemize}
\item
  It's nice to have a career mission.

  \begin{itemize}
  \tightlist
  \item
    Don't look for a mission before you have rare and valuable skills.
    \newline\color{gray} {\emph{(Ch 13)}}\color{black}
  \item
    Once you have a mission, move toward it with bite-sized projects;
    ``little bets.'' \newline\color{gray} {\emph{(Ch 14)}}\color{black}
  \item
    Once you have a mission, share your work in a way that makes people
    want to talk about it, and in a place that's conducive to sharing
    and discussion. \newline\color{gray} {\emph{(Ch 15)}}\color{black}
  \end{itemize}
\end{itemize}

That's the book in a nutshell.

\hypertarget{book-origins}{%
\subsection{Book Origins}\label{book-origins}}

The book was published in 2012, just as Cal was about to begin his
tenure-track position as a computer science professor at Georgetown.
(Below I'll go into more thoughts along the line of: It seems a bit
early in his career for him to be giving career-length advice; for now
I'll focus on a more objective summary.) He had written a series of blog
posts refuting the passion hypothesis --- the mandate to follow your
dreams --- and they received a strong reception. He expanded on those
ideas into this book. Along the way, he interviewed a number of
interesting personalities, building his hypotheses on what worked or
didn't work for them.

\hypertarget{cals-writing-since-2012}{%
\subsection{Cal's Writing Since 2012}\label{cals-writing-since-2012}}

I was curious if Cal had evolved his thinking since publishing this
book. He was early in his career, and the book lands to me a little as a
hypothesis, rather than as a tested theory, for Cal himself. I would
have found value in Cal saying either ``yep, this has worked out great
for me,'' or perhaps ``golly, I think I should revise some of those
hypotheses.'' However, I didn't find evidence either way. (If you're a
skeptical person, you might read as subtle evidence the hypotheses could
use some revision).

After 2012, Cal has written several books focusing on productivity and
reducing distractions. For example, he doesn't like that email is used
as a default means of communication where we expect quick replies.
Instead, he advocates seeing email as asynchronous --- no quick replies
are expected --- and promotes ideas such as office hours as designated
times when someone \emph{is} expected to respond right away. I think
he's seeing the need for daily tactics after having deeply considered
life-scale strategy.

\hypertarget{analysis}{%
\section{Analysis}\label{analysis}}

I take basically everything with a grain of salt, and this book is no
exception. I'm going to agree with ideas when they make sense to me and
match my experience. While I'm about to include criticism, note that I
found the book good enough to both read and write about.

To some degree, the ideas presented here make intuitive sense. Nothing
Cal says seems to be overtly mistaken. For example, I have often noticed
a feeling of boredom or even unhappiness when I'm about to begin certain
work projects, only to be surprised at how many interesting ideas could
arise in the course of working on the project. I've often seen
excitement show up as the \emph{result} of hard work, not as the
precursor.

At the same time, this book follows a common formula. Cal presents an
abstract idea up front, tells one or two stories that support this idea,
and then summarizes the idea again. Each chapter feels like this, and
the book as a whole follows a similar arc. I have to admit that I was
satisfied when Cal returned to the same story he opened with, of a man
who followed his passion to become a monk, but was miserable as a
result. That man left his life of disconnection and returned to the rat
race, and was happier.

I have a few problems with this formula, which is common among advice
books:

\begin{itemize}
\tightlist
\item
  \textbf{It's one-sided.} Cal presents his ideas as in an opinion
  piece, trying to convince us the ideas are rock-solid. This is quite
  different from the tone of an impartial expository writer showing us
  multiple perspectives.
\item
  \textbf{It presents anecdotes as strong evidence.} I'm skeptical about
  the reliability of anecdotes as arguments. While Cal lands as
  credible, this genre is rife with writing that I suspect embelishes or
  creates supporting stories.
\item
  \textbf{It's redundant.} I was sometimes bored re-reading the same
  ideas repeatedly.
\end{itemize}

Ok, that's somewhat harsh --- apologies to Cal if you read this. I aim
to be more critical of the genre than of this particular author. I love
to read math books, which tend to be the polar opposite in terms of
information density.

Having complained about the genre, let's get into the content: Are the
ideas themselves useful?

\hypertarget{idea-passion-is-not-a-first-priority}{%
\subsection{Idea: Passion is not a first
priority}\label{idea-passion-is-not-a-first-priority}}

This one is easy for me to agree with. I appreciate that Cal later
clarifies that passion is not \emph{bad} so much as it should not be
your \emph{primary} motivation. I agree with this because I have many
interests, and I could just as easily enjoy solving KenKen puzzles as I
do researching consciousness-achieving algorithms, and one of those has
more career value than the other. This idea also resonates with some
well-respected career advice from Richard Hamming, who always wants
people to work on the most important problem they can make progress on;
this is another example of passion being subserviant to the value of
your work.

\hypertarget{idea-first-create-rare-and-valuable-skills}{%
\subsection{Idea: First create rare and valuable
skills}\label{idea-first-create-rare-and-valuable-skills}}

There's not much to disagree with here. I tried to think of careers in
which the primary measure of job skill was simply how long you've been
in the job. Any job like that would not be a good match for this advice.
All I can think of, however, are unexciting government or unionized
positions. And in both cases, I'm not sure how externally impressive
such a career would be. In other words, I have trouble thinking of any
counterexamples at all to the premise that a fulfilling career is built
on rare and valuable skills.

\hypertarget{idea-carefully-bid-for-control-over-your-work}{%
\subsection{Idea: Carefully bid for control over your
work}\label{idea-carefully-bid-for-control-over-your-work}}

I mostly agree with this premise, although Cal positioned his stories to
suggest that you'll always have to fight for control in your job. That's
not always true. I've worked for people who have trusted me not because
I insisted on autonomy but because I deliver good work, and giving me
autonomy was better for them than micromanaging me. I've felt similarly
about people I've managed --- people who thrive with more control ---
and voluntarily gave them more independence rather than waiting for them
to request it. Friction against autonomy might tell you more about your
employer's mindset than about whether you're seen as valuable.

\hypertarget{idea-carefully-choose-a-mission-for-your-work}{%
\subsection{Idea: Carefully choose a mission for your
work}\label{idea-carefully-choose-a-mission-for-your-work}}

This is the most nebulous of Cal's ideas in the books, and was the least
satisfying for me to think about. Should I feel bad if I don't have a
mission and I'm far into my career? What if I chose a mission but later
changed direction? What if I'm already happy without a mission?

I suspect this part of Cal's thinking is likely influenced by his
pursuit of an academic career. If you're a musician, for example, you
may simply want to make good music. Perhaps there's an analogue of a
mission for musicians, such as nudging a musical trend in a direction
you like, or perhaps raising awareness of a cause you care about. But it
would be a lie to pretend that you write music \emph{because} of an
external cause, such as world hunger.

A mission can augment a sense of meaning in your career. It's not
critical to have one. If you care about something and want to make a
difference in the world, go for it --- but you can be happy without
heroism.

\hypertarget{a-point-of-comparison}{%
\subsection{A point of comparison}\label{a-point-of-comparison}}

In 2006, Paul Graham published an essay called
\href{http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html}{\emph{How to do what you
love}}.

Paul is a compelling writer. So compelling, in fact, that I put more
than my usual effort into thinking critically about what he writes.
Paul's essay on doing what you love presents ideas similar to the
passion hypothesis --- the idea that you should follow your passions.

It's more nuanced than that, however. What Paul really expresses is that
society imposes on us a false dichotomy between work and play. He also
argues that, if you want to be happy, loving what you do has to be part
of it. The difference between this and the passion hypothesis is that
Paul (I believe) agrees with Cal that it's difficult to find something
fulfilling that you love to do, and that it's worth dedicated, up-front
effort to find that match.

Paul points out, for example, that if a person strays from the beaten
path, that might indicate either that they're lazy (bad), or that
they're working to be productive in an independent way (good). But it's
hard to tell the difference. On diagnosing your own path-straying
behavior, he says:

\begin{quote}
Is there some test you can use to keep yourself honest? One is to try to
do a good job at whatever you're doing, even if you don't like it. Then
at least you'll know you're not using dissatisfaction as an excuse for
being lazy. Perhaps more importantly, you'll get into the habit of doing
things well.
\end{quote}

I recommend reading the full essay to have another perspective on career
questions that overlap with Cal's book. Where the ideas don't quite line
up, it's educational to perform a merge conflict in your mind.

\hypertarget{whats-left-out}{%
\subsection{What's left out?}\label{whats-left-out}}

Although Cal does not explicitly say this, the tone of the book presents
itself as a guide to happiness in terms of making large-scale career
decisions. Yet the book is more a reaction to a few common mistakes than
it is a full playbook. Or, if I'm being pessimistic, the writing comes
across as someone who's good at publicity taking advantage of a couple
sticky ideas to sell a book (it's not purely that, but the mood feels
salesy at times).

There are many factors that contribute to career happiness. Here are few
important ones that Cal doesn't talk much about:

\begin{itemize}
\tightlist
\item
  Positive impact on the world.
\item
  Work-life balance.
\item
  Compensation.
\item
  Good relationships with your colleagues.
\item
  Learning and feeling challenged.
\item
  Safety.
\end{itemize}

Cal does briefly mention the value of career \emph{impact} and
\emph{relatedness} --- work relationships --- but doesn't say much about
them.

Here's an example of something not covered by the book: I've worked for
a number of startups, and it's quite common to feel a great deal of
pressure to work nights and weekends for startups. This can easily cause
burnout, lack of sleep, and other kinds of unhappiness. There seem to be
various resource metrics (think: sleep tank, energy tank, social tank)
that need to be maintained for happiness. These resources are not going
to be fully addressed even if we have a great framework for thinking
about passion, mission, and career capital.

To be fair, Cal doesn't explicitly say he'll address all aspects of
finding happiness in your job. At the same time, the book's tone lands
as if it has everything figured out. I'd love to read more books that
present interesting ideas a style that reads as succinct and inquistive
without overconfidence.

\end{document}

