3 things from cal newport x tim ferris

You gotta just not want to get started, until you can’t help but get started

(1): Choosing what to work on

Newport thinks that most people today are too scattered and too hurried. Good things take time and you shouldn’t just get started on one thing after another, but instead we should be thinking for a long time about an idea until we have reasonable confidence that once we pursue it, it will succeed. He says, “You gotta just not want to get started, until you can’t help but get started.”

Tim makes the analogy to Warren Buffet, who in turn was a huge fan of Ted Williams’ theory on hitting. Ted Williams broke down his swing zone so that he would only swing at pitches he knew he was going to hit. “The trick in investing is just to sit there and watch pitch after pitch go by and wait for the one right in your sweet spot. And if people are yelling, ‘Swing, you bum!,’ ignore them.” Masterpieces, like Investing and hitting, looks like a lot of standing there not doing anything.

(2) Two-word catch-phrases

Newport: I come up with two-word catchphrases for things that people already understand deeply but don’t have a framework for thinking about, eg “Slow Productivity”, “Deep Work”. Most people already understanding that deep focus leads to quality work. All of our idols do this ( Munger, Bezos, Georgia O’Keefe ). This reminds me of something David Perell has talked about on his podcast, which is that great CEOs are sloganeers ¹. Like stand-up comedians working on bits, CEOs are constantly working on their pitch. Watch videos of Bezos talk about Amazon’s mandate to “Focus on the customer”. He repeats variations of this phrase constantly in interviews and writing, looking for feedback from his audience, feeling out what resonates.

(3) Money is a neutral indicator of value

This idea comes from Derek Sivers ² and was brought up in the context of attention economy, Youtube creators and other influences. Audience/Views alone , according to Newport, is a poor indicator of the value you provide. For example, Tim’s most watched Youtube is a video on how to peel an egg. If he used views as his signal for the value he was providing, he might be making videos about how to peel other foods. You end getting reinforcement from the algorithm, but not building an audience that actually values what you provide, eg “all content creation ultimately leads to a thumbnail image of a woman in a thong.”

Money, on the other hand is unambiguous. A person does not easily part with their money, so for them to pay you even $5/month is a clear indication that the thing you create is actually providing value.

There’s a deep satisfaction when you know how valuable you are, and the world agrees. Then it reinforces itself, because you can focus on being the best artist you can be, since you’ve found an audience that rewards you for it. - Derek Sivers

Bonus (4) Asynchronous vs Real-Time

clients want communication and to vet concerns having all of this over email leads to miscommunication and you are obliged to be available by email at all times Framework: schedule a weekly call and create a shared google doc that clients can list what they want to talk about this week