Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Intro Assignment for So Good They Can't Ignore You
Watch the video below. Then, leave TWO takeaways from it. After that, leave TWO reactions to the takeaways from your peers. Be sure that your takeaways and reactions save and publish. If they don't, you won't receive points for them. This will be worth 100 points (25 points per response).
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ReplyDeleteI think it was interesting he pointed out that college won't necessarily help you figure out what you want to do with your life. People often think once they go to college they'll eventually figure it out, but that's not how it works. You are still required to go to certain classes, so you don't get to "find yourself" that way. Once he dropped out, he could focus on learning what he actually thought was interesting, and that's how he was able to direct his life.
ReplyDeleteI thought that part was interesting too. Everyone has their own way of figuring out their place in the world, whether it be attending college or not.
DeleteKaitlyn Bakken
ReplyDelete1-- He trusted that even if he dropped out everything would eventually work out. By following his curiosity and intuition it become priceless. He learned about things that really interested him, instead of the classes that he HAD to take because the school made him. If he would have never dropped out, he would have never dropped in on the calligraphy class that helped design for computers today. He believed that all of his dots would connect down the road.
2-- He was a public failure, and had been rejected but he still loved what he did. Getting fired from apple was the best thing that could have happened to him. Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick.. You have to have faith. Do what you believe is great work and you have to love what you do. Don’t settle. Keep Looking, Don’t settle. What stood out to me was how many times he failed. He failed so many times but always came back stronger. If he would not have failed as many times as he did, he would not be as successful as he is now.
Luckily for Jobs, he stumbled upon a career that naturally fit his skill set (charisma, innovative mindset, risk taker, and an eye for design). Jobs had relatively little technical skill (at least for Silicone Valley). BUT Jobs was lucky enough to stumble into a partnership with Steve Wozniak, who perfectly complimented Jobs' skill set. Woz was strong in all the areas Jobs wasn't and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteBut your parents (and your future bank accounts) don't want you stumbling your way into a career as Jobs did.
I liked his story about being fired from Apple. What might seem like a failure at first can turn out to be a good thing. Failure allows you to explore different paths and ideas. It can get you out of a rut and help you be more creative, but you have to let it. If you fail but close yourself off to new things then there was no purpose in that failure. If you fail and attack the problem from a new direction, you'll find a way to move on in spite of the failure.
ReplyDeleteI think that most times when people fail they do close themselves off which is why they do not find a new path or greater things to move on to. When Steve Jobs failed he did attack the problem. I think you have to find your balance when it comes to how you are going to attack your failures because you never know if something great could come out of it.
DeleteI like that you mentioned creativity in response to this, that was what I was thinking too. That failing at something forces you to think differently and expand how you think and act.
DeleteI agree. Though I have never looked at failing as being able to help you out of a rut, it makes sense. Failing can help lead you down a path you never dreamed of going. However, I believe that failing can only help you if you attack the problem, like you mentioned Steve Jobs had. It's ironic that your greatest failure can lead to your biggest success.
DeleteI agree with all of this, especially about not letting failure ruin you. What many take as a signal that its time to give up, others take as a sign that they need to work harder and continue to improve. I think this all ties into his other message about living like it will be your last day because when everything is over you will get to look back on your life and you will be the only person who can be proud of, or regret the choices that you have made.
DeleteKarryn Leake
ReplyDeleteSteve Jobs tells the audience to have faith that the dots will connect and everything will work out. I believe that while it is good to have faith in what you are doing, you have to be logical and realize that it might not always work out. You have to take control of your life, not the other way around.
I agree with this because his story makes it seem like if you fail, you will move to bigger and better things but there are many times were you keep failing over and over and over. It is good to believe that something good will happen and work towards that but the dots are not always going to connect easily for everyone.
DeleteI agree. I think sometimes people seem to believe too strongly in the fact that life will work itself out, and before they know it life has passed them by and they didn't accomplish what they wanted to. Mistakes are fine, and if you recognize that you are headed down the wrong path you should obviously get out and try something new, but you can't sit around waiting for something to find you.
Delete-Josiah Dyrud-
DeleteYou're right, his failures are probably the biggest takeaway. Being successful takes persistence and drive, not simply following a passion.
He used his previous calligraphy class to innovate different types of fonts in the first mac computer (even though he thought calligraphy would never have a practical use) “you cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward, so you must trust in everything to fall together” I think this is all good advice because he spoke of how he simply let everything work itself out, and though that is not always guaranteed to happen, drastically planning your life around a certain thing is equally unlikely to work out the way you want it to.
ReplyDeleteKathryn,
DeleteGreat point about "drastically planning your life around a certain thing" is a very important issue. What Newport would argue in the book is that you shouldn't plan your life around things that you aren't good at or don't have skills around.
He would equate it to the first few weeks of American Idol where dozens upon dozens of would-be American Idols get up on stage to be totally humiliated because they have zero talent. Somewhere along the way - their parents or voice coaches or just their grand illusions - people have lied or enabled them.
They are crushed when the judges tell them they suck. Here they have their whole lives planned around being an American Idol only to hear that they can't sing at all.
Steve Jobs is someone that has been very successful in his career, but just like everyone else he has had many failures over the years. But instead of letting those failures ruin him, he used them to fuel his passion for what he loved. I think that everyone needs to look at failures as lessons just like he did and take that lesson and learn from it to make you a better person or employee.
ReplyDeleteI believe that you are right and that we need to look at failures as lessons. If you are not failing, you are not expanding and changing the way you think. You are not able to evolve if you do not try, and trying often leads to failing. Through failing, we are able to get closer to the right path or answer.
DeleteAbby and Karryn,
DeleteGreat point about failures. One of the key features of "deliberate practice," which we will read about more in a few days, is the willingness to fail and to learn from your mistakes.
Jobs said something very interesting - You can only connect the dots looking back. You can't connect them looking forward.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting because Cal Newport actually tries to connect the dots looking forward.
His way of connecting the dots is to follow what you are good at (instead of simply following your passion or your "heart" as Jobs puts it in the talk), to be willing to put the work in to develop what you are good at (here is where the 10,000 hours and deliberate practice come in to play) so that you develop what he calls 'Career Capital' (which are just rare and valuable skills). Those rare and valuable skills will make your very important to your employer and to others seeking your services (think Mr. Zutz here, getting hired away to Digi Key).
Don’t settle for something you don’t love, and don’t let yourself settle but let life keep pushing you forward. I think that it is very important that we always keep trying to improve in what we do. You can’t always do what you love, but it is important to try an incorporate the things you love into your life. Even if it isn’t something you love right away, I think you should try and make it something you love, do what you can to improve it if you can.
ReplyDelete“Don’t waste your life living someone else’s.” As a youngest sibling, I try too hard to be like my brother and sister sometimes. I have worried far too much about being as good at them in a certain area, when I have to focus on what I like and am good at.
Faith Dvergsten
I really like that quote about not living someone else life. Having siblings too, I see what you mean about trying to be like them or live up to their expectations. Personally I have a competition between my sisters. I always try to be better than them or one up them in a way. Like you said focus on what you are good at and not others.
DeleteNewport would agree with focusing on what you are good at and developing that more fully. You will live a life of discontent if you constantly compare yourself to others.
DeleteI totally agree. We shouldn't settle, but we also shouldn't have our heads in the clouds thinking that everything will just play out exactly the way we want it to. We have to work towards what we want.
DeleteSteve Jobs talked about how being successful can have pressures and constraints that a new beginner does not have. If you have nothing to lose, there is no harm in taking risks. I believe that this is true because if you are a successful person, everyone depends on you to keep being a success in the company. However, a beginner has no one depending on them to be great and can forge their own path.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the "if you have nothing to lose, there is no harm in taking risks." Even if there is something to lose, it can still be worth the risk. People seem to be too scared of failure that they don't take necessary risks.
DeleteI thought Jobs’s take on death was really interesting. I love the question: “If you were to die today, are you happy with the way your living right now?” It shows that in the end, what matters isn’t how much money you make or whether or not you’re doing what everyone expects you to do, what matters is whether or not you’re happy and passionate about what you’re doing.
ReplyDeleteI think that this makes it way easier to find what you love because all you need to ask is "What would I do if I knew?". I really like the way he phrased it, also, because it makes you think without worry.
DeleteI liked how he thought about it as well. A majority of the problems we concern ourselves with today won't matter years down the road. Heck, most of them won't even matter tomorrow. If think about living each day like it's your last you are pushed to be more involved. You don't have time to worry about the trivial things, because you're too busy making changes. You need to be sure that you are happy first, then worry about the other stuff.
DeleteHe dropped out of school because he didn't see the value in taking classes he didn't care about. He found more value in dropping into classes he had an interest in, such as the typography class. If you cannot see yourself doing something, leave. Trying something different could be the best thing that happens to you. I think this is great advice. Why waste all the time, energy, and money on something you know you do not like?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alison along the lines of wasting resources on something that will not challenge or help you. Why spend such precious time and money doing something that will not have any kind of positive outcome?
DeleteI think that this example really shows the importance of putting your time and energy into something that is useful and will one day benefit you in the long run.
DeleteI feel that his section on “connecting that dots” is important because he doesn’t touch on whether you need to be passionate or skillful. The only importance is that you trust everything will eventually be connected and workout. Also important was when he said not to focus on connecting the dots not, you can only do that later on.
ReplyDeleteOne interesting thing to note when you read the book is how Newport does that in how he examines people who have careers that they would call "passionate" or doing work that they love. He looks back and connects the dots. What he has found is that very few actually followed their passions.
DeleteI'm going to leave a third comment . . .
ReplyDeleteI'm loosely paraphrasing Jobs here: "You've got to find what you love. Do what you believe is great work. The only way to do that is to follow your heart and do what you love."
The research just doesn't support this. Newport interviews dozens of people and learns that they just didn't "do what they loved." So it sounds good from Jobs here, but he is totally talking out of his *&^ here.
If finding work that really mattered was just a matter of following your heart and doing what you love, why do 80% of working Americans dislike their jobs and careers?
Simply put - more often than not, "Have confidence and follow your heart" is career suicide.
I thought it was interesting how his biological mother was quick to pass judgement about the people who would raise her son based on their level of higher education. I understand wanting the best for your child, but who are you to judge someone based on whether they went to college or not? Another opinion that I have is that if you feel you are unable to raise your own child for whatever reason, should you really say no (within reason) to someone who is willing to do their best for that child? And although he did not get the full college education that he had planned to, he probably ended up better off without it.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a good point, that he ended up even better off. We often think that there is one big over-arching 'right idea' or 'right way' to do something but people are all different and what is right for them is too.
DeleteKatarina Malone: This reminds me of The Dip that we read last year because he quit college because he wasn't getting anywhere, but ended up being successful anyways. Unfortunately, I doubt that many people would get lucky enough to stumble upon a helpful class and turn their life around or be able to love something enough to be successful. There is only a certain amount of space for successful people.
ReplyDeleteI definitely didn't think of The Dip, but now that you mention it I completely agree. He had the choice to just push through the dip and graduate college. Instead he realized that it wasn't worth and dropped out. In doing so, he found something else that left him more successful.
DeleteKatarina Malone: Remembering that you are going to die is a rather morbid way to live, but it is oddly comforting. Plus, it helps you take the time to learn who you are as a yourself and not as who you wish you were. He mentions that he believes death is the best invention of life, and I agree. Simply because it is a constant reminder to live worry free and happily because you never know when it's the end.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you are saying here. If you live everyday like its your last you will never have any regrets, and when your life does come to an end you can die contently knowing you lived your life to the fullest.
DeleteWhile I don’t necessarily agree with everything that Jobs says, some of his statements have a lot of truth to them. These are my two takeaways:
ReplyDelete1.Staying in the moment is important – (living as if every moment could be your last)
2.Sometimes being shaken and forced to reevaluate a situation is exactly what you need.
-Josiah Dyrud
Delete#2 is a great point. I think being shaken and forced to reevaluate is what deliberate practice is all about. Newport will focus on that in a few chapters. It's vital to being able to develop new skills and come up with new ideas.
DeleteI'd also be interested in hearing what you disagreed with as there are a number of things I disagree with in the talk too.
Thanks
He points out that failure is sometimes the key to success. If he wouldn’t have been fired, he probably wouldn’t have had some of his ideas. It can be important to fail, take a step back, and realize what you can change and improve.
ReplyDeleteI really like the mindset of taking a step back and figuring out what you most want to change in your life because sometimes we get so sucked into what we are expected to do that we forget to ask ourselves where we want to be.
DeleteOne thing that stood out to me was what he said about following your curiosity and intuition. I think it’s really easy to let life and other people’s opinions get in the way of how you truly feel, so peeling back all those layers of uncertainty and negativity and identifying what it is you’re truly passionate about is great advice. I don’t think we do enough to encourage each other to ask questions and be curious about what’s going on around us. Also, following your intuition kind of sounds like mumbo jumbo, but I think he had a really good point. Listening to ourselves and following what we want will work out in the end because we’re passionate enough to put in the work to achieve our goals, even if there are a few setbacks.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you when you said that people aren't really allowed to find what they are truly passionate about because of all the opinions of other people. I think that it shouldn't have to be that way because then you won't know what you are truly good at.
DeleteStarting over is not always a bad thing. Take your obstacles and changes as signs and run with them. Turn a bad thing into a good thing. As long as you love and have a passion for something you can alway move forward. Don’t wait until it is too late.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I think that starting over can be scary for some people which makes them not try to try over after they fail.
Delete1. One of the things I took away that some of the biggest failures in your life could create you to finding better things in life to look forward too. I liked this because Jobs got fired from his own company he started but it was the best thing for him because then he was able to succeed. I liked that he didn't let getting fired keep him from moving forward in life.
ReplyDelete2. Another thing I took away is that Jobs trusted that everything was going to be okay in his life. When he got diagnosed with cancer he just trusted that everything was going to be okay, and it turned out that he did. I would like to think that him trusting everything is what lead his cancer to be a rare type and let him beat it. He has a very unique story, and his story is what made him a strong person today.
I like that you pointed out that he didn't let getting fired keep him form moving on to bigger and better things. I agree that you need to trust in life and know that everything is going to be alright.
DeleteLuckily for jobs he figured out quickly that college wasn't exactly for him. He thought the classes he was taking were a waste and instead of wasting his time taking classes he didn't care about he dropped out and took ones that he did care about. Those few classes he did care about really shaped him and helped him to form Apple. This brings be back to College Comp 1 when we talked about focusing on the things you're good at and dropping the things you're not. I think it is important for teenagers to know that college is not the only option and that you can find success even if you don't go to a university.
ReplyDelete