Deep Work by Cal Newport

Part 1: Why Is Deep Work Important

In the Swiss canton of St. Gallen, near the northern bank of Lake Zurich, is a village named Bollingen. In 1922, the psychiatrist Carl Jung chose this spot to begin building a retreat. A house he was inspired to build after a spiritually enlightening trip to India, where he observed the practice of adding meditation rooms to homes. Here he would rise at 7am, have a big breakfast and then spend two hours of undistracted writing time in his private office. His afternoons would often consist of meditation or long walks in the surrounding countryside. At the Tower there was no electricity and the Jung relied on fireplaces and oil lamps to keep the room well-lit and warm. Over his career, he left a lasting impact on the way of understanding the human psyche and its functioning. He even disagreed with Sigmund Freud, his onetime friend and mentor, which was a bold move in the 1920s.

The 16^th Century essayist Michel de Montaigne similarly worked in a private library he built in the southern tower guarding the stone walls of his French château. The 19^th Century American writer Mark Twain wrote much of his famous book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, in a shed on the property of the Quarry Farm in New York.

Between 1969 and 2013, Woody Allen wrote and directed 44 films and received 23 Academy Awards nominations. This remarkable feat was most likely achieved because he never owned a computer and completed all his writing on a German Olympia SM3 manual typewriter. Peter Higgs, a theoretical physicist who worked in such isolation that journalists couldn’t find him after it was announced he won his Nobel Prize in 2013, shared Allen’s rejection of computers. Though sadly, Peter Higgs died quite recently, on the 8^th of April 2024, at the age of 94 years old. It is very sad that the world lost such a bright mind, and he will be remembered for his groundbreaking work and reserved personality that captured the hearts of the journalists that were lucky enough to interview him.

On the other hand, J.K. Rowling does use a computer but was famously absent from social media during the writing period of her famous Harry Potter novels. Even though this period coincided with the popularisation of social media and rise of technology, she decided to focus on what was more important to her. Finally, Rowling’s staff finally started a Twitter account in her name in the fall of 2009 and for the first year and half her only tweet read: ”This is the real me, but you won’t be hearing from me often I am afraid, as pen and paper is my priority at the moment”. Lastly, Bill Gates is famous for having ‘Think Weeks’ twice a year, during which he would isolate himself (often in a lakeside cottage) to do nothing but read and think big thoughts.

The people above are all examples in the introduction of the book to prove how different people throughout history got worldwide recognition by using deep work to produce mind blowing creations. And something you may notice is that they share a lot in common, which is why I grouped them in specific paragraphs. Jung, Montaigne, Twain & Higgs all worked in isolation (Jung worked soon after walking up which is recommended in ‘The 5am Club’); Allen & Higgs avoided electronic devices even though they had access to it and Rowling & Gates both work with electronics but take time away from social media to work on projects or to regain metal clarity. Now that you have found similarities in the way these high achievers worked, compare the way they work to the way you work. I suspect you will find more differences than similarities, considering the average person spends 7 hours and 3 minutes looking at a screen every day. And don’t get me wrong, there is a positive and negative way to use technology, with this newsletter being an excellent investment of your time, but at the end of the day you must give yourself a break.