Book SummarySo Good They Can't Ignore You, by Cal Newport

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of So Good They Can't Ignore You

In 2010, as author Cal Newport wrapped up his postdoctoral associate at MIT and started looking for a professorship, he began to wonder: What makes people love their work? As he waited to hear back about his job applications, he studied performance science, interviewed people about their professional successes and failures, and tested out his hypotheses on his own career and life.

Interestingly, he discovered that the best way to find or create work you love is not to follow your passion, as so many career counselors, books, and well-meaning mentors advise. In fact, the best way to love what you do is to become highly skilled—so good no one can ignore you. Then, you can offer your skills in exchange for work that allows you autonomy and the opportunity to change the world, two of the most significant contributors to workplace satisfaction.

So Good They Can’t Ignore You describes four rules to loving your work:

1. Don’t concern yourself with passion.
2. Instead, improve your skills.
3. Cash in your skills for autonomy.
4. Cash in your skills for the opportunity to change the world.

Rule #1: Don’t Concern Yourself With Passion

In this rule, we’ll debunk the “passion hypothesis”—the idea that a job that lets you exercise a pre-existing passion is guaranteed to make you happy. While the passion hypothesis is popular, the author believes it’s flawed for several reasons:

Reason #1: Scientists have uncovered three major discoveries that debunk the passion hypothesis:

• Discovery #1: Passion isn’t an ingredient for motivation. Self-determination theory states that the real ingredients are independence (having control over your responsibilities makes you want to do them well), capability (feeling competent results in a feeling of satisfaction), and connection (liking your coworkers makes you happier).
• Discovery #2: Most people don’t have occupational passions. When Robert J. Vallerand, a psychologist, surveyed Canadian university students about their passions, he discovered that 84% of students had a passion, but less than 4% of the passions were related to work.
• Discovery #3: Occupational passions can be developed. Amy Wrzesniewski, an organizational behavior professor, studied college administrative assistants and discovered that the assistants who saw their job as a calling (rather than simply a way of making money) had been working the job the longest. This suggests that people learn to love their work as they acquire the ingredients of motivation.

Reason #2: Since the rise of the passion hypothesis, workplace satisfaction has actually decreased.

• Example #1: According to Conference Board surveys, in 1987, 61% of Americans said they were happy with their jobs. By 2010, only 45% of Americans were.
• Example #2: Anecdotal evidence shows that even people who have jobs that match their passions aren’t happy. For example, 27-year-old Scott, who works in politics, admits that his job matches his passion, but he’s still not happy because it includes some tasks he doesn’t like.

Reason #3: The people who have jobs they love didn’t get them by following their passions.

• For example, Andrew Steele, an astrobiologist who loves his job, didn’t know where he was going to end up when he started his Ph.D. program. He signed up because it gave him options, not because he was passionate about the subject.

Rule #2: Instead, Improve Your Skills

As we established in Rule #1, following your passion is unlikely to lead you to love your work. Rule #2 explains what will lead you to love your work—improving your scarce and prized skills (career capital) to the point where you’re so good people can’t ignore you.

Career Capital Theory

The author’s interpretation of career capital theory includes three statements:

Statement #1: The traits that make a job desirable are scarce and prized. After looking at case studies of three people who enjoy their work, the author discovered three notable traits:

• Trait #1: The job provides the opportunity for autonomy. For example, Al Merrick, a surfboard shaper, doesn’t have to adhere to a dress code or work prescribed hours. His surfboard factory is a block from the beach and he can take off and go surfing whenever he wants.
• Trait #2: The job provides the opportunity to change the world. For example, Steve Jobs’s advances in the field of technology have changed the lives of everyone who uses computers.
• Trait #3: The job provides the opportunity to use imagination. For example, Ira Glass, host of This American Life, narrates a one-of-a-kind podcast that lets him use his creativity.

Statement #2: Careers are subject to the rules of supply and demand. The rules state that if you want something scarce and prized, you need to pay for it with something equally scarce and prized. You’ll “buy” the three desirable job traits using your career capital.

Statement #3: You must adopt the craftsperson mindset to build career capital. There are two different mindsets when it comes to work:

• The passion mindset is concerned with what the universe can do for you. It leads to pessimism and an identity crisis because if you concentrate on what you’re supposed to be getting, it makes you aware of what you’re not getting.
  • For example, Jane, a college dropout, expected the universe to give her adventures, and when it didn’t, she was unhappy.
• The craftsperson mindset is the opposite of the passion mindset—instead of concerning yourself with what the universe can do for you, you focus on what you can do for the universe. You don’t have to think about whether your job is perfect or represents your identity—you simply focus on developing your skills, thus increasing your career capital.
  • For example, Steve Martin practiced comedy and the banjo for years to develop his skills.

How to Acquire Career Capital: Practice...

So Good They Can't Ignore You Summary Introduction

In 2010, author Cal Newport was a postdoctoral associate at MIT and just about to start his job search for a professorship. He had three things working against him: His research specialty was niche, the academic job market was particularly bad as a result of the 2008 recession, and he wasn’t willing to relocate. He was facing the very real possibility that he might not be able to secure a professorship.

If Cal didn’t become a professor, he’d have to do something else, and this made him wonder: What makes people love their work? As he waited to hear back about his job applications, he...

So Good They Can't Ignore You Summary Chapters 1-3: Rule #1: Don’t Concern Yourself With Passion

In this rule, we’ll look at the “passion hypothesis”—the idea that a job that lets you exercise a pre-existing passion will be enjoyable. Then, we’ll look at the evidence that suggests following your passion isn’t going to make you happy.

The Passion Hypothesis

The “passion hypothesis” is the idea that you can find a job you like by first figuring out what you’re passionate about, and then looking for a job that allows you to use this passion.

The author doesn’t know exactly when this idea evolved, but he thinks it was sometime around 1970 when Richard Bolles published What Color Is Your Parachute? The book’s thesis is that the best way to change careers is to figure out what you enjoy doing, and then find somewhere you could get paid to do the activities you like. (Shortform note: To learn more about Bolles’s ideas, read our summary of What Color Is Your Parachute?)

This message was groundbreaking at the time, and readers liked it and passed it on to younger generations. It's now a staple of culture. Most career counselors teach it, most career books cover it, and people who have followed their...

Shortform Exercise: Debunk the Passion Hypothesis

Following your passion isn’t going to make you happy—the three factors that most contribute to workplace satisfaction are independence, capability, and connection.

Think back on all the jobs you’ve had in your life. Describe two or three jobs that you’ve enjoyed.

So Good They Can't Ignore You Summary Chapters 4-7: Rule #2: Improve Your Skills

As we established in Rule #1, following your passion is unlikely to lead you to love your work. Rule #2 explains what will lead you to love your work—improving your scarce and prized skills (career capital) to the point where you’re so good people can’t ignore you.

First, we’ll look at the theory of career capital. Then, we’ll look at how to acquire this capital.

The Theory of Career Capital

The career capital theory includes three statements:

Statement #1: The Traits That Make a Job Desirable Are Scarce and Prized

After looking at case studies of three people who enjoy their work, the author came up with three scarce and prized traits that make a job desirable:

Trait #1: The job provides the opportunity for autonomy. (We’ll look more at this trait in Rule #3.)

• For example, Al Merrick, a surfboard shaper, doesn’t have to adhere to a dress code or work prescribed hours. His surfboard factory is a block from the beach and he can take off and go surfing whenever he wants.

Trait #2: The job provides the opportunity to change the world. (We’ll look more at this trait in Rule #4.)

• For example, Steve Jobs’s advances in the field of...

Shortform Exercise: Practice Deliberately

Deliberate practice requires two elements: challenging yourself and immediate feedback.

What’s one skill you could develop to increase your career capital?

So Good They Can't Ignore You Summary Chapters 8-11: Rule #3: Cash in Your Skills for Autonomy

Now that you’ve developed your scarce and prized skills, you can start cashing them in for the scarce and prized traits that make a job desirable. In Rule #3, we’ll look at the desirable trait of autonomy. We’ll also look at two autonomy pitfalls and how to avoid them.

The Importance of Autonomy

Autonomy is the ability to control what you work on and how you work, including, among other things, your schedule, responsibilities, and office space. Autonomy is such an important determiner of happiness that the author calls it the “dream-job elixir.” Most common dream jobs include autonomy—for example, many people want to own a farm not only to get away from screens and escape their cubicles, but also because the country lifestyle offers so much autonomy.

People who have autonomy in their workplace tend to be happier and more productive. There are several examples that demonstrate this:

• Results-Only Work Environments (ROWEs) are workplaces where, as the name implies, results are the only rule. Employees can work whatever hours they want, ignore their email, and dress however they like as long as they get their work done.
  • ROWE teams at Best Buy saw increased...

Shortform Exercise: Use the Law of Payment

When seeking more autonomy, use the law of payment to avoid pitfalls.

What’s one opportunity you currently have to increase your autonomy? (For example, you might quit your job and work freelance instead.)

So Good They Can't Ignore You Summary Chapters 12-15: Rule #4: Cash in Your Skills for a Mission

In Rule #3, we looked at how to cash in your scarce and prized skills for autonomy. Now, we’ll look at how to cash them in for a mission, which, like autonomy, is one of the traits of a lovable job.

A mission is a useful, potentially world-changing goal that focuses your career. People who think their careers make a difference are happier and can better weather the difficulties of work. For example, for many people, putting in overtime is worth it if they’re saving lives.

In this chapter, we’ll look at how to find your general mission and then how to transform that mission into reality by pursuing specific projects.

Finding Your Mission: The “Adjacent Possible”

Missions come from a space called the “adjacent possible”: the space just beyond the cutting edge of human knowledge.

The idea of the adjacent possible originally comes from biology, in which it refers to the potential for simple chemical structures to combine and form more complex structures. Before the simple structures combine, the complex structures don’t exist yet. Because the simple structures are the building blocks of the more complex ones, it’s perfectly possible they’ll eventually...

Shortform Exercise: Develop Your Mission

The mission-development strategy uses a pyramid exercise to explore possible missions.

The bottom level of your pyramid is researching your field to identify possible areas of innovation. How could you research? (For example, what lectures could you attend or experts could you talk to?)