---
product_id: 44143132
title: "So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love Audio CD – Unabridged, January 5, 2016"
brand: "cal newport"
price: "280 Lei"
currency: RON
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.ro/products/44143132-so-good-they-cant-ignore-you-why-skills-trump-passion
store_origin: RO
region: Romania
---

# So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love Audio CD – Unabridged, January 5, 2016

**Brand:** cal newport
**Price:** 280 Lei
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love Audio CD – Unabridged, January 5, 2016 by cal newport
- **How much does it cost?** 280 Lei with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ro](https://www.desertcart.ro/products/44143132-so-good-they-cant-ignore-you-why-skills-trump-passion)

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- cal newport enthusiasts

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Newport got it wrong - but it's still a good read. :)
  

*by L***. on Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2017*

Overall, this was a good book with some provocative original ideas - but with some deep flaws.THE GOODI think Newport made a great original contribution to understanding career development with his concept of Career Capital:"The traits that define great work are rare and valuable. Supply and demand says that if you want [this work] you need rare and valuable skills to offer in return. Think of these rare and valuable skills you can offer as your career capital. The craftsman mindset, with its relentless focus on becoming “so good they can’t ignore you,” is a strategy well suited for acquiring career capital. "Newport suggests a strategy of acquiring career capital - and then investing it in better roles.To develop career capital,* develop a craftsman attitude* start "deliberative practice" - "Deliberate practice is the key strategy for acquiring career capital then integrating it into your own working life." As per the 10,000 hours philosophy espoused by Anders Ericsson and then Malcolm Gladwell..To get more career control, understand the two control traps:The First Control Trap"Control that’s acquired without career capital is not sustainable."The Second Control Trap"The point at which you have acquired enough career capital to get meaningful control over your working life is exactly the point when you’ve become valuable enough to your current employer that they will try to prevent you from making the change."Then, develop your mission by getting to the cutting edge of your field and spotting what is possible in the adjacent future.THE (VERY) BAD:In spite of the good in the book, I think Newport made several major mistakes that radically reduced the forcefulness of his book's argument.I just want to tackle one of them here, which is his attack on the "passion hypothesis."The Passion Hypothesis is stated as:"The key to occupational happiness is to first figure out what you’re passionate about and then find a job that matches this passion."Then Newport proceeds to tell us why this hypothesis is wrong.Unfortunately, this "passion hypothesis" is a straw man, an artificial construction created by Newport.According to Newport, the poster child for the passion hypothesis is Richard Bolles and his book "What Color is Your Parachute."Newport however seems to have completely missed the point of Bolles' book - and the central point of similar books in this genre."Passion" was not what was at the core of Bolles' book. In fact, the word "passion" was rarely mentioned in the book.Instead, Bolles advocated an alignment between Skills, "Knowledges," and (in different editions) either Values or Purpose, together with conceptualising an ideal work environment.** Bolles' book placed skills at the very centre of his approach **.For Bolles, 'skills' were NOT ignored. They were the very foundation.To say Bolles' approach was just about "following your passion" - and doing so at the expense of skills - is either a deliberate mischaracterisation of Bolles' work, or shows an astonishingly low level of understanding of the point of view that Newport is attacking.And it's not just Bolles who took this skills-based approach to career and business development.Most of the common models in the 'find your career' or 'do work you love' or  'start your business' genres tend to follow something like the Jim Collins Hedgehog model - combine what you love (your interests or passions) with what you're good at (your skills and strengths) and a market need.** For Newport to put passion VS skills as a dichotomy where you have to choose one or the other and can't have both is not representative of what people actually teach or what career seekers or business startups actually do. **It is a false dichotomy.In the examples he used in the book, this was so ridiculous that at one point (Ch. 5) Newport even observed his example wasn't really all that representative, and that we should understand the case examples forming the foundation of the chapter as simply a good 'metaphor.'This isn't just a minor point. This is a gaping hole in the fundamental premise in the book - that other people tell you to just go and follow your passion, that that's wrong, and Newport alone has a different and better way.Well, Newport's way - to focus on skills development - is along the lines what everyone else does anyway.Newport makes some good contributions about the process of developing your skills and using them to advance your career. But his rhetorical positioning that everyone else is just about following your passion and only he can show us the 'true path' is plain wrong.I do recommend reading this book as it has some good ideas and for me it generated some good reflections. Just be aware that there is a gaping hole in his premise around the role that passion plays in career development. And that he uses the same rhetorical device of constructing and attacking a false 'straw man' in his next book, Deep Work - so this seems to be a deliberate strategy or preference on Newport's part.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Brilliant concepts, but dry and unnecessary narratives
  

*by A***N on Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2017*

I had mixed feelings towards this book.  It has a brilliant and very good premise, where following your passion is bad advice.  Instead, you need to sweat to get to work you love, and that's captured brilliantly by the author in what he calls "career capital".  He refers to a vast array of experiences and research to support his argument.But, the author is so obsessed by strong words like "laws" and "rules", and has a rather dry writing style.  I also caught him several times trying to forcefully project general experiences in his frame of thoughts and rules.  Actually, the first two can be called rules.  The last two are more of a couple of traits (control/autonomy, and mission/meaning) that someone who has built his career capital with hard work can enjoy and target.  There could be a fifth and a sixth, etc.  Which means the hardly can be called rules.On another note, his theory and findings are very simple, but he keeps repeating again and again the same words and sentences.  For instance, when he reaches Rule #3, he would go and lay out his arguments for Rule #1 and Rule #2.  In Rule #4, he will go and lay out the same monotonous arguments for Rule #1, #2, and #3.  And the same happens at almost the beginning and ending of chapters and parts, and at the conclusion.  I find it very annoying!On another note, he keeps elaborating on the experience of his subjects in extended lengths of narrative.  Not a single time, I wanted to say: "cut it short, Cal!"Again, the premise of the book and his findings are great and I consider them crucial for anyone who takes his career seriously.  I, however, see the readers will go through unnecessary labor to reach simple conclusions that hardly need more than 50 pages of writing.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Some interesting parts here
  

*by D***N on Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2019*

I am a bit conflicted by this book. One hand I do agree with it, on the other hand, I also disagree with it. In So Good They Can't Ignore You, Cal Newport takes on passion. He argues that passion and following passion is dangerous as it leaves people disillusioned and sets them up for failure. He introduces something called Career Capital which is actually just skills and experience and argues that building skills and experiences lead to a greater chance to eventually get you to work that you love.So why am I so conflicted by this book? I think he makes valid points that acquiring skills will ultimately lead you to get to interesting work. But on the other hand, I think he dismisses passion too easily. For Newport passion always leads to failure evidenced by him cherry picking one example which goes to almost be definite proof. Perhaps the world isn't so simple to boil down to one path? The way I read this book was that it had a preference for going the same established way that everyone else has gone down. Newport seems to have a clear preference for education and working up career ladders which is perhaps not that surprising seeing as he's a professor at Georgetown University.I think this book is excellent for those who don't quite know their passion or perhaps feel stuck in their current situation. The principles are great, build your skills, combine your skills into new combinations, ensure that the skills you have are the ones that are sought after. But don't pay too much attention to the parts about passion as it seems the passion part of the book is the least interesting part.

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*Store origin: RO*
*Last updated: 2026-01-24*