Sometimes it feels like the whole world wants a #HyperactiveHiveMind communication style, and I just want to listen to #CalNewport and not do that 😄

Mrs is having another eye test to see if she can wear glasses again after her eye op. So I'm doing something vaguely useful by reading #deepWork by #CalNewport in the hope of learning better.

#CalNewport on #ChatGPT:
#AI #Openai
https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/what-kind-of-mind-does-chatgpt-have

A wise person once said, "If you aren't paying for the content, you ARE the content." This is a slight variation on the quote, "If you aren't paying for the product, you ARE the product," which is from #TheSocialDilemma #Netflix #documentary (2020), a #CalNewport-like look into the #darkside of #socialmedia: https://www.netflix.com/title/81254224. If you haven't seen it yet, go WATCH it. Sure, I'm pro-tech but more to the point, pro-#ethicaltech and pro-#privacy as well. Hello, TikTok keylogging, anyone?

@nazgul #CalNewport's advice on time-boxing, and to set aside a specific time of day (later rather than earlier: #EatTheFrog First) for limited interactions, is highly sound.

@EricaFriedman

Teenagers reading books and whittling a stick!

Cal Newport writes about The New York Times article "'Luddite' Teens Don't Want Your Likes".

https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2022/12/16/on-teenage-luddites/

#CalNewport
#Teenagers
#SocialMedia
#CounterCulture

Cal Newport's Deep Questions Ep 224: A World Without Twitter

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1121972/11770127-ep-224-a-world-without-twitter.mp3

https://www.calnewport.com/podcast/

I've been listening to Deep Questions on walks for a few weeks now and have been eagerly awaiting his take on Mastodon.

#CalNewport #DeepWork #DeepQuestions #Podcast #Mastodon #CalmTech #HumaneTech #DigitalWellbeing #DigitalMinimalism #IndieWeb #KnowledgeWork

I've been using a text-based #Productivity system implemented in #Obsidian for years, with a daily note for my schedule and thoughts, and a separate task list. Recently, I switched to using #CalNewport's #TimeBlocking approach: allocating tasks to each block of time during the day. This lets me work on multiple projects. With a task list I'd do the A1 items and never get to anything else.

Anyone else playing with time blocking/personal productivity with ideas to share?

Ulysses, strapping himself to a giant copy of Deep Work, intending on hearing the Sirens of Non Algorithmically Determined Sirens On The Shore.

#CalNewport #DeepWork #focus #comics #minicomics #confession

I think it plays well into #CalNewport's (and others) ideas about #DeepWork + #Focus though perhaps not #DigitalMinimalism. I mean to some extent both are still #WastingTimeOnTheInternet...

But I guess that's why I like it here but still occasionally check over there...#noxp

From the New Yorker: What Hunter-Gatherers Can Teach Us About the Frustrations of Modern Work.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/office-space/lessons-from-the-deep-history-of-work

#CalNewport #HunterGatherer #history #paleolithic

On the Jaron Lanier/Cal Newport side of things... a non-algorithmic, decentralized microblogging platform* promises to be simply addictive, not intentionally numbing and manipulative.

Perhaps microblogging can play a constructive role.

Still needs to be doled out in glasses, not slurping from the firehose.

* which has a Patreon, which means I am not being ground up into Soylent Green--I'm a dues paying member of a community.

#deepwork #calnewport #jaronlanier #focus #distraction

Don’t “Follow Your #Passion”
https://medium.com/@janie.k/dont-follow-your-passion-933276932b3b #CalNewport #Career #LifeHacks

@vortex_egg
One cheat approach to this I have is to go through the HN daily archive, where HN is a decent prefilter. Often there's a small set of the top 30 (or up to ~100) daily items which are worth a closer look. I'll read a few days behind.

On Reddit, if you've got a good subreddit, you can set a date range (day, week, month, year) and then sort by "top" to get the most highly-rated items in that period. Reddit tends not to do a great job of quality selection, but it's not completely worthless.

The third of my two tricks is to just rely on random selection to an extent. If you've got too much material to make an informed choice on, shuffle your deck and select something at random. You'll miss some stuff, yes, but you're making an unbiased rather than a biased selection. You can also apply other filters to noise sources.

#Research #ResearchMethods #LiteratureSearch #InformationOverload #CalNewport #DavidAllen #GettingThingsDone #DeepWork #Zettlekasten #BOTI

3/end/

@vortex_egg There are two techniques in particular I'd like to suggest which ... well, they don't fully work but they seem to help:

1) Time block your information-gathering phase. Whether that's on a daily or weekly ongoing basis, or as a project phase, say "I'll scan Twitter for X minutes per day, only". And do that at the end of the day, when you've taken care of high-relevance/payoff tasks first.

2) What I call #BOTI: "Best of the Interval". On a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual ... basis, review the items you've selected as noteworthy from that period as well as the top items from the next smaller intervals, and select some n number of best items. You'll probably find that a good value is 10 <= n <= 100, but do what works for you.

BOTI draws on the 43 folders / tickler file concept, or the round-robin database. Essentially you're determining that no matter how long your research goes on, you're committing to a finite set of retained data.

(This is used in all kinds of IT systems and network monitoring, especially with long-term data history.)

You end up with higher resolution in recent / near periods, lower resolution as you go back in time. But you're constantly trying to filter up the best stuff. Since assessment can take time, you'll re-scan earlier selections to see if you'd missed something of relevance (and you can always break protocol for something especially good). But you've got a structure and have set limits on scope.

You'll also start to develop a sense with time as to what actually provides usefulness, and if you track sources, which of those are most valuable. Filter noise aggressively.

A source that sometimes generates signal but usually doesn't ... is virtually always noise. Signal tends to come through, eventually.

(This is related to my "block fuckwits" advice.)

#Zettlekasten #DeepWork #GettingThingsDone #DavidAllen #CalNewport #InformationOverload #LiteratureSearch #ResearchMethods #Research

2/

@vortex_egg This is a core challenge and failure of any academic. (Or unaffiliated researcher.) I struggle with this constantly.

That was the subtext of this toot:
https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/106933960589722037

Cal Newport does a fair bit of writing on this, aimed at both academics and professionals. Deep Work is probably the best starting point.

A good academic programme (especially for re-entering / nontraditional students) should also address this. Talk to your advisor or department. That library-skills course you're taking is actually directly addressing this, or should (and I'd still reall like to see the course notes / outline / syllabus / readings).

David Allen's Getting Things Done is another good general time-management / goals-management guide.

Zettlekasten (or an equivalent notes-and-references-tracking system) is also very helpful.

#Research #ResearchMethods #LiteratureSearch #InformationOverload #CalNewport #DavidAllen #GettingThingsDone #DeepWork #Zettlekasten

1/

#CalNewport on How to Work Efficiently
https://karl-voit.at/2021/04/30/Cal-Newport-tips
#DeepWork #Books #boredom #socialmedia #PIM #publicvoit

@cadadr Lists.

I've basically got about 3 tiers of lists that I add users to, in order of interest. They're just "A", "B", and "C". One or two of those is typically pinned.

High-interest / high-value, low-volume posters go to those.

Any high-volume or high-drama profiles either don't get added to lists, or get unfollowed entirely.

There's my block-early-and-often policy: https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/104371585950783019

I think there's also a "voluble" list, but since high-volume posters have a really negative effect on the Home stream anyhow, I tend just to unfollow. (You cannot follow, list, and exclude from the Home stream a profile. It'd be nice if I could.)

I frequently un-pin my Notifs stream. Especially if the last response there is something gratuitously annoying.

And I've got a set of instance admins and media types in their own lists, though I rarely use those. (Categorical lists ... basically don't work.)

I'm often using a device that doesn't have Mastodon (or a logged-in session) on it. Go all #CalNewport on your devices, seriously.