Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Ep. 39: DAVID EPSTEIN on Skills, Practice, and the Subtle Art of Cultivating a Meaningful Career

Oct 26, 2020

01:45:35

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Episode guests

David Epstein

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Highlights

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Continuous skill building is important, even if it means exploring different fields of interest.

Embrace discomfort and challenge yourself beyond your comfort zone for skill development.

Utilize existing skills in lateral ways to find fulfillment and happiness.

Evaluate productivity systems and address inefficiencies to reduce overwhelm and increase career satisfaction.

Deep dives

Importance of Skill Diversification

It is important to continuously invest in skill building and learning, even if it means exploring different fields of interest. Rather than staying focused on a single skill for the rest of your career, be open to sharpening multiple skills and be adaptable to changing opportunities.

Effective reflective questions for self-improvement

02:02

Embrace Discomfort for Skill Development

04:10

The Power of Overlapping Skills and Short-Term Improvement

01:20

How a Scientist's Writing Skills Led to Investigating Sudden Athlete Deaths

01:40

Introduction

3min

How Old Areyo, Forty?

2min

Is It a Firmy Estimation?

5min

The Back of the Envelope - How Many People Would Have to Die Per Day?

2min

Did You Go to Columbia Journalism School?

2min

The Path to a Master's Degree

2min

How Did You Get Your Degree From Undergrad?

2min

How Did You Transition From Journalism School to Sports Illustrated?

4min

What I Didn't Know About Crime Reporting

2min

10.

The Ten Thousand Hours, the Magic Rule to Success

2min

11.

Cognitively Complex Tasks - Is There Still Disagreement?

3min

12.

The X Factor Hears, What Talent Um That's?

2min

13.

Is Talent a Training Discipline?

2min

14.

Magic Snacks - The Best Breakfast Ever!

6min

15.

How to Sharpen a Skill

3min

16.

Deliberate Practice

4min

17.

The Skill Acquisition Engine in a World in Which Work Is Cognitive

2min

18.

The Zagging and Zagging

2min

19.

How to Play Guitar at a Comfort Level

5min

20.

Are You Overwhelmed and Stressed?

3min

21.

Is It to Commit Deep Work to Two Different Disciplines?

4min

22.

Is There a Difference Between Leaving and Writing?

4min

23.

How Do You Write a Novel?

2min

24.

How to Become a Better Socker Player?

3min

25.

The Reflective Questioner

2min

26.

Are You Trying to Improve Your Strength or Your Weaknesses?

2min

27.

Reseach Is an Attempt to Make Wicked Learning Environments More Kind

2min

28.

Is There a Lot of Knowledge Work?

2min

29.

How to Be a Top Thinker in Computer Science

4min

30.

The Uncanny Valley Between Academics and Academics

4min

31.

I've, You Know, Struggled With Holters in Journalism

2min

32.

How Many Scientific Papers Do You Have to Read?

2min

33.

How Do You Read Academic Papers?

2min

34.

Do You Actually Use the Reference to Paper Internally?

2min

35.

How Do You Track Your Cue of Papers to Read?

3min

36.

Is There a Difference in Gene Expression?

3min

37.

Are You Worried About Racism?

3min

38.

How to Hit a Fast Ball?

2min

39.

Do You Have This Right or Wrong?

2min

40.

I Love It!

51sec

In this episode of DEEP QUESTIONS we're joined by a guest host: David Epstein.

David is the New York Times bestselling author of THE SPORTS GENE and RANGE. I probably get asked questions about RANGE more than any other book by listeners of this podcast, so I knew we had to get David on the show to share his wisdom.

We talk about his career, his (short-lived) public feud with Malcolm Gladwell, and his research habits, but most importantly, we go deep on his breakthrough ideas about skills, practice, and meaning in careers -- answering many of your questions as well as a few of my own.

You can find out more about David at https://davidepstein.com.

To submit your own questions for this podcast, sign up for my mailing list at calnewport.com.

Thanks to our sponsor Magic Spoon (use magicspoon.com/CAL to receive free shipping).

Thank you to listener Jay Kerstens for the intro music.

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Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Ep. 39: DAVID EPSTEIN on Skills, Practice, and the Subtle Art of Cultivating a Meaningful Career

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Importance of Skill Diversification

Embrace Discomfort and Strain

Consider Lateral Mobility

Address Overwhelm and Stress

The importance of skill building and avoiding stagnation

Don't overly obsess about specific career paths or outcomes

Make time for skill building by being mindful of time-wasting activities

Balance between deliberate practice and open exploration

Effective reflective questions for self-improvement

Embrace Discomfort for Skill Development

The Power of Overlapping Skills and Short-Term Improvement

How a Scientist's Writing Skills Led to Investigating Sudden Athlete Deaths

Get the Snipd
podcast app

AI-powered
podcast player

Discover
highlights

Save any
moment

Share
& Export

AI-powered
podcast player

Discover
highlights

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Ep. 39: DAVID EPSTEIN on Skills, Practice, and the Subtle Art of Cultivating a Meaningful Career

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Importance of Skill Diversification

Embrace Discomfort and Strain

Consider Lateral Mobility

Address Overwhelm and Stress

The importance of skill building and avoiding stagnation

Don't overly obsess about specific career paths or outcomes

Make time for skill building by being mindful of time-wasting activities

Balance between deliberate practice and open exploration

Effective reflective questions for self-improvement

Embrace Discomfort for Skill Development

The Power of Overlapping Skills and Short-Term Improvement

How a Scientist's Writing Skills Led to Investigating Sudden Athlete Deaths

Get the Snipdpodcast app

AI-poweredpodcast player

Discoverhighlights

Save anymoment

Share& Export

AI-poweredpodcast player

Discoverhighlights

Get the Snipd
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