You liked one book, you read about somewhere on the web. You send an email to your librarian suggesting to buy the book. Ten days after that you receive an email, "We have bought a book for you, Please Come and collect it." This is my experience at NTU.
Just finished reading the book mentioned above. The book is named "So Good They Can't Ignore You". Cal Newport is an MIT graduate and Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. He writes a blog 'study hacks'. This is the first book of the kind(Career advice) I have read, which changed my view of career advice books. Now, I do feel that career advice book can also be good.
The BOOK:
'So Good They Can't Ignore You', such a distinctive title is an absolute head-turner. As a knowledge worker, after reading first page itself you understand these are not just stories but a research study. Cal keeps the spacing between the real world examples to the best possible.
If you have got any success in your life, you can relate with parts of book. If you have failures engraved on your past, you can connect with this book too. Here, I used word life because though Cal speaks all about career by my experience most of the prepositions from the book applies to life too. Examples in this book are vivid, encompassing more success stories than failures. The key point which separates this book from a lot is, it decodes success of the individuals. Success is shown as a step-wise ladder. [In real life we get to see overnight achievements, as we are unaware of efforts before that.] I think I liked it more because it has minimized the factor I don't believe in, the LuCk. No stone from a wall of success is formed by luck according to the author's research.
He has formulated four rules which take you to the freeway of Loving your work from heavy traffic of finding work you love. I will try to explain those rules in brief.
Rule #1: Don't follow your Passion
Here, he has argued [the same theory which he had already argued on his blog study hacks] that passion is rare. Every individual doesn't have it. Even Steve Jobs didn't had it, he proves with an elegance of a researcher. He went on to explain why you should not fall into trap of sudden passion finding or Job hopping[in search of an imaginary dream job]
Rule #2: Be so good they can't ignore YoU (Or, the importance of skill)
Cal proposed some terms which may not be familiar to many who don't read his blog, such as 'Career capitaL' and 'Craftsman mindseT'. In simple words it is giving utmost importance to every to every minute detail of your work. Example of guitarist Jordan Tice makes craftsman mindset clear. Craftsman is knowledge gatherer generating a bag full of experiences, career capital. He summarizes every rule with how to actually do that.
Rule #3: Turn down a promotion (Or the importance of ControL)
He explains how control is important, once you reach some plateau. once you have enough career capital, he terms control as a dream job elixir. At this plateau level if try to gain more control over your work everyone will resist from bosses to family and friends. They will set up traps so lucrative that you may sacrifice a control. Rule ends with a way to avoid those traps.
Rule #4: Think small act biG(Or the importance of mission)
Here, Cal comes down to explain what is mission and why it is important for creating work you love. What fuss can happen if you just think big without gathering a career capital. How you should take small bets to testify your missions viability and your capabilities to go for it or to change mission.
Overall, its a very good book for anyone who is developing his career or willing to improve himself.
Thank You for reading.
Please share your views through comments.
Just finished reading the book mentioned above. The book is named "So Good They Can't Ignore You". Cal Newport is an MIT graduate and Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. He writes a blog 'study hacks'. This is the first book of the kind(Career advice) I have read, which changed my view of career advice books. Now, I do feel that career advice book can also be good.
The BOOK:
'So Good They Can't Ignore You', such a distinctive title is an absolute head-turner. As a knowledge worker, after reading first page itself you understand these are not just stories but a research study. Cal keeps the spacing between the real world examples to the best possible.
If you have got any success in your life, you can relate with parts of book. If you have failures engraved on your past, you can connect with this book too. Here, I used word life because though Cal speaks all about career by my experience most of the prepositions from the book applies to life too. Examples in this book are vivid, encompassing more success stories than failures. The key point which separates this book from a lot is, it decodes success of the individuals. Success is shown as a step-wise ladder. [In real life we get to see overnight achievements, as we are unaware of efforts before that.] I think I liked it more because it has minimized the factor I don't believe in, the LuCk. No stone from a wall of success is formed by luck according to the author's research.
He has formulated four rules which take you to the freeway of Loving your work from heavy traffic of finding work you love. I will try to explain those rules in brief.
Rule #1: Don't follow your Passion
Here, he has argued [the same theory which he had already argued on his blog study hacks] that passion is rare. Every individual doesn't have it. Even Steve Jobs didn't had it, he proves with an elegance of a researcher. He went on to explain why you should not fall into trap of sudden passion finding or Job hopping[in search of an imaginary dream job]
Rule #2: Be so good they can't ignore YoU (Or, the importance of skill)
Cal proposed some terms which may not be familiar to many who don't read his blog, such as 'Career capitaL' and 'Craftsman mindseT'. In simple words it is giving utmost importance to every to every minute detail of your work. Example of guitarist Jordan Tice makes craftsman mindset clear. Craftsman is knowledge gatherer generating a bag full of experiences, career capital. He summarizes every rule with how to actually do that.
Rule #3: Turn down a promotion (Or the importance of ControL)
He explains how control is important, once you reach some plateau. once you have enough career capital, he terms control as a dream job elixir. At this plateau level if try to gain more control over your work everyone will resist from bosses to family and friends. They will set up traps so lucrative that you may sacrifice a control. Rule ends with a way to avoid those traps.
Rule #4: Think small act biG(Or the importance of mission)
Here, Cal comes down to explain what is mission and why it is important for creating work you love. What fuss can happen if you just think big without gathering a career capital. How you should take small bets to testify your missions viability and your capabilities to go for it or to change mission.
Overall, its a very good book for anyone who is developing his career or willing to improve himself.
Thank You for reading.
Please share your views through comments.
