Why “Follow Your Passion” Is Bad Advice With Cal Newport (Ep. 35)

Cal Newport, author of the Study Hacks blog and best-selling books like So Good They Can't Ignore You, talks with me about the importance of building skills over "finding your passion," choosing a major, and building deep habits. Full show notes Things mentioned in this episode: Study Hacks - Cal's blog on pursuing deep work habits. Has an amazing backlog of student-focused posts as well. (Ryan, the med student from episode 26, cited Cal's Four Weeks to a 4.0 series as the inspiration for his study system) So Good They Can't Ignore You - Cal's latest book, which focuses on why building skills is much more important than trying to find your passion How to Win at College - One of the first college success books I ever read. It influenced a lot of the decisions I made early in my college career. How to be a High School Superstar - The book that explores Cal's discovery of why the highest performers are often the most relaxed. How to Become a Straight-A Student - Cal's advice on planning, studying, learning quickly, acing exams, and writing great papers. Bryan Caplan's Signaling Model of Education Want more cool stuff? You can find all sorts of great tools at my Resources page. You can also get a free copy of my book, 10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (While Studying Less), by staying up to date with the College Info Geek newsletter. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! It's easy, you'll get new episodes automatically, and it also helps the show gain exposure :) You can also leave a review! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.