3 Quotes & Sayings By Cal Newport

Cal Newport is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University, where he has taught since 2003. He was also the director of the Computer Science Department at Princeton University for two years, before getting a tenured professorship at Georgetown. His research interests include machine learning, algorithms and data structures. He has written a book on computer science education, titled "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World", which will be published by Penguin Random House on April 20th.

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This concept upends the way most people think about their subjective experienceof life. We tend to place a lot of emphasis on our circumstances, assuming that whathappens to us (or fails to happen) determines how we feel. From this perspective, thesmall-scale details of how you spend your day aren’t that important, because whatmatters are the large-scale outcomes, such as whether or not you get a promotion ormove to that nicer apartment. According to Gallagher, decades of research contradictthis understanding. Our brains instead construct our worldview based on what we payattention to. If you focus on a cancer diagnosis, you and your life become unhappy anddark, but if you focus instead on an evening martini, you and your life become morepleasant–even though the circumstances in both scenarios are the same. As Gallaghersummarizes: “Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love–is the sum ofwhat you focus on. . Cal Newport
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Start small and start immediately. Cal Newport