Passion VS Work & Deep Focus.

This week’s reading was centered around the ‘passion vs craftsmanship’ method of determining your line of work. The author of this reading focuses on the positive attributes of the craftsman and why this method of finding work allows you to remain both realistic and sighting of your goal. The author, Cal Newport expressed his frustration with the ideologies and common thought of ‘do what you love and the work will come to you’ which is expressed in common society. He uses an example of a musician to underpin this idea, claiming his fact “be so good they can’t ignore you”.

This statement is very interesting to me as I have grown up thinking to follow my passion – bu I can see how the craftsmanship mindset can be a benefit. Thus, using this method you only focus on what work offers you rather than how you can connect with the work (this also provides many other benefits such as knowing you will not stay in an entry-level job, room for movement) as the ‘passion mindset’ often is personal and offers many unanswered questions. Hence, Newport expresses to follow the craftsmanship mindset and success, passion and love for your job will follow in time, due to the self-driven nature.

A Youtube Video by the channel “Folded Corner” sums this up quite nicely (see below).

In this weeks lectorial, we covered a range of topics and touched on the reading, watching a video about Cal Newport speaking on his topic ‘passion vs deep work’. After speaking about studios, assessment tasks (how fun!) and general topics in the course, we knuckled down to learning.

I find blog posts quite interesting as we learn about the art of reflective writing, something that I find quite challenging to do. However, blog posts are very important in media for a number of reasons; they are a practical way to express your thoughts, they support the development of expertise, the help the interrelationships of identity and blogging and you can document a change in your practice over time – something I am interested in seeing. The art of reflection and blogging, however, is something that is challenging as you have to find your own voice and passion for the subject.

Newport ideas embody the fact that individuals will find work through gaining experience and until you find the satisfaction that you are ‘good’ at what you do. From this, you reap the rewards of not only feeling pleased with yourself but pleased with the experience of going to work. I like to compare it to school. For example, I had the most wonderful teacher for Ancient History – passionate, loved her job, enjoyed connecting with students, took time out of class to help us with our essays and engaged us (her students) with the subject. Because she has such a passion for teaching and an enthusiasm for her class, we, in turn, engaged more in learning. I then compare this with my Business Class the year prior, where my teacher was not engaged to teach or engage us in learning – I actually ended up not continuing the subject for my senior years because of her lack of engagement – her uninspired way of teaching ended up making me uninspired too.

Thus, reiterating my point with Newport – he states that once you gain control, experience and understanding of a situation (whether that be a concept in ancient history class or a new job) – you start feeling more confidence, thus, you are more passionate about the thing you are pursuing – not only creating a desire to continue, but engaging in the ‘craftsmanship mindset’.

We also touched on the Pomodoro technique, something that I used throughout high school (and I find to be one my favourite study methods) where you have ‘deep focus’ for twenty-five minutes and a five-minute break. The individual then repeats this for four blocks of study with a twenty minute break at the end. This is not only time effective, but also allowing the individual to have a break (have a drink/talk with friends/stretch/check social media), allowing them to focus for longer.