Career

Book

Deep Work

Newport argues that the ability to concentrate without distraction is becoming rare and therefore valuable. The economic logic is sound. But the conditions the book recommends, long uninterrupted blocks, control over your calendar, the ability to be unreachable, are largely determined by your seniority and what you do. A junior support engineer cannot decide to be unreachable. A parent cannot batch their children. That does not make the idea wrong. It makes it unevenly available, and the book spends more time on the value of depth than on who can access it. So: for those of you who do not control your own calendar, has any version of this worked? Or is the honest answer that the advice arrives about ten years into a career?