Does anyone else find the term "Deep Work" to be pretentious? Most people who say they were busy doing 'deep work' makes me feel like they are a bit self important.
"Does anyone else find the term "Deep Work" to be pretentious?"
I don't. It's a description of the work they're doing, not themselves. There's a bit more to it. In the book of the same name (Deep Work), he talks about how the kind of work you can do when you can get away from the distractions creates value beyond the same amount of time spread around those distractions.
Deep work: "professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate" (Cal Newport)
focus: "to concentrate attention or effort" (Merriam-Webster)
Do you feel like they are self important because they were turning you away or declining invitations so they could focus, or because they are essentially describing their work as having high value?
It's in the same group of eye rolling phrases for me such as "heads down" e.g. "I'm going to be heads down working on X tomorrow so I won't be available on Slack". Something seems off with your priorities and expected responsibilities if you need to declare this. For me, just take the time you need to focus. I always see colleagues say this right before the end of a sprint when trying to get a feature finished or something.
Ha. Yes, personally I feel there are some overtones. I keep it to myself, but I tend to smile and nod when seeing its use. I admit the term's useful though, as others have explained it does capture more than just a state of focus.
I don't. It's a description of the work they're doing, not themselves. There's a bit more to it. In the book of the same name (Deep Work), he talks about how the kind of work you can do when you can get away from the distractions creates value beyond the same amount of time spread around those distractions.
Deep work: "professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate" (Cal Newport)
focus: "to concentrate attention or effort" (Merriam-Webster)
Do you feel like they are self important because they were turning you away or declining invitations so they could focus, or because they are essentially describing their work as having high value?