Book Review by Cal Newport

Writing Assignment-Book Review

Zuhui An

25/ Nov./ 2015

Introduction

        I talked with lots of successful people, got advice and suggestions about career path, and I read lots of books, watch many of movies about career most of them are standing on the side which says: Do what you love to do, and find your passion about. Until one day, I met this book, and got to know this author: So good they can’t ignore you by Cal Newport. In this book, Newport argued that don’t follow your passion, because it would bring you the worse. This is some statement I rarely to see, and especially in these days society, people are more willing to advocate freedom, and especially for parents to children. No one will say like, “you should do something can make more money or just go to the hottest field and you will have a brighter future”. But Newport, gives another sound, “Do not follow your passion”. He use the whole book to talk about his argument, and giving examples to support his idea and suggestions. Cal Newport is a writer, published four books, and also he is an assistant professor in computer science at Georgetown University. This book is controversial in the society because of the argument is so different from the main stream, and it is kind of make sense to me. But it sill has some points could be improved in the future and not all the things he believe is what I believe. Overall, this is a book, which everyone would read.

Outline and analysis

        Cal Newport wrote his book So good they can’t ignore you in six sections, introduction, rule #1, rule #2, rule #3, rule #4 and conclusion. In his introduction, he use a story of Thomas who realized that follow your passion is a dangerous advice when Thomas was approaching his last destination of his trip to be a monk. Thomas used a long time to follow his passion about Zen practitioner, but in the end, he found out that throughout the time he spend and the thing he learnt, he is still the person who him was with the same concerns and anxiety. He thought that this passion is dangerous, and when people realized passion is dangerous it would be late to make your life happier. The author using this example to be the opening for his career suggestion book- So good they can’t ignore you. And I think this is a good example for the people or students who have concern about future and anxiety for the career. Newport gives four rules as advises for people, and he divided his book into four main parts.

        First, rule 1, Don’t follow your passion. The author used three chapters to discuss this argument. Steve job’s story is one of his example, and among in most of people who don’t know Steve Job’s life experience would say that Job’s follow his passion to do Apple. However, he didn’t. The success of Jobs was come from many different aspects, and that is not about passion. He also indicate passion is rare and dangerous, because passion always be short-term and when you lose the interested points, you will be in trouble. And he argues that people can build their passion after they got a job or start a career. The one thing to manage your career he suggested is rule number 2- the importance of skill.