

Do fewer things; do them better; know why you're doing them - yskchu
http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/03/27/what-the-hell-is-study-hacks/

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thejteam
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a
hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a
wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act
alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization
is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

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gnaritas
He's wrong. If everyone were a generalist, we'd achieve very little as a
species.

~~~
delluminatus
None of his statemetns suggest that anyone should be a true generalist, but
that people should not focus on a single field to the exclusion of even a
basic understanding of the rest of human knowledge.

~~~
gnaritas
There comes a point where the breadth of human knowledge is so vast that's
it's not possible to have even a basic understanding of it all; I believe we
passed that point long ago. All men are necessarily ignorant about a great
many things.

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MaxGabriel
For all critics of this article, there's much more to Cal Newport's ideas than
presented here. Stuff I often disagreed with, for sure. But this post is
basically an 'About' page and should be treated as such (and as such, makes a
poor candidate for HN)

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skb_
I think "do fewer things" is dangerous advice, especially given the relative
inexperience of college students. I would say do more things, explore more
areas. You shouldn't obsess about getting good grades, but rather you should
obsess about learning as much as you can. The things that are truly
interesting will stick, but you risk never discovering them if you try and do
as little as possible.

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grabble
Bad advice, especially if you're under the age of 35 or want to evolve as a
person.

I would suggest the exact opposite: do many things, fail better, be open to
new possibilities.

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Jun8
I think you are not completely disagreeing with the most important part of the
message: knowing why you are doing something. When young, you can be trying
lots of news things, e.g. drugs, casual sex, going to Tibet, etc. etc. either
as a clueless youth (which is how it's done mostly) or doing them for
consciously in order to learn from your experiences.

The options become less less as you get older, obviously. In fact I think the
best description of the change in career outlook as you get older is a switch
from breadth-first search of new experiences to depth-first search.

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bjoernbu
At first I thought this post and the whole blog were an awesome idea. It seems
to describe really well what I was never able to put into words. How exactly
did I get through school and my BSc/MSc with awesome grades while always
having a feeling that everybody else is working so much harder and still
incredibly intelligent?

I thought this blog had the answer. But then I relaized that this will not
work in every major / profession. My girlfriend is doing lots of things and
somehow suffers under the heavy workload. But I can't give her this kind of
advice because (at least here in Germany) it does not apply to someone who
studies philosophy and politics and wants to get into the best positions as
development worker. Why? because nobody cares about your marks. You basically
get a degree for the sake of the degree itself and for living a students life
while doing as much extracurricular activities as possible. Internships,
important roles in local divisions of NGOs and so on are almost everything
that counts for getting the job you want.

Personally, I still think "Do fewer things; do them better; know why you're
doing them" worked incredibly well for me and may help many other students, I
is probably not for everyone and certainly not for every subject.

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ebiester
So the, for her the fewer things is the coursework itself, timeboxing each
assignment as to know how to do enough for the target grade which likely is
not an a

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drieddust
This article assumes that only goal of going to college is to earn good marks.
Colleges are wombs where ideas are born and birth is messy process :)

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mythz
Although it's only in the context of studying...

This core philosophy is very close to the spoken truth and highlights my
biggest gripe with cargo cults:

Blind faith and regurgitation of process/teachings without a deep
understanding of what and why it works.

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pefavre
It's just the lean methodology applied to studying. But the point is
interesting, because while learning you do get a lot of informations that you
have to assess in order to focus on the essential.

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timinman
mirror?

