Depth = Distance from people who live on the surface.
“The deeper you got, the fewer who will understand.
Everybody gets surface level. The relatable. Where there is a frame of reference.
Those who get off the surface are labeled obsessed, crazy, & even irrational.
Rest assured, despite the labels, deep work is not in vain.”
-Ray Zingler on X
If you’ve never read the book, “Deep Work” by Cal Newport, I highly suggest it.
It is no secret that we live in a highly distracted world.
From tech to family, to business, to school, we often have unlimited “stuff” competing for our attention.
While things like family and work are good things to have our attention gravitate towards, screens full of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, X, Netflix, and YouTube dominate the majority of people’s time.
And it’s not just “kid’s these days.” Adults are damn near just as busy wasting their time away on screens as kids are.
Creed Fisher said it best in his song, ‘This Place Called USA’, “These days dad’s are always gone, mama’s still here but she’s on her phone, Grandma’s raisin’ the kids, and the devil is, too.”
The problem with all these distractions is that it puts people under the illusion that they are “busy”, despite doing hardly, if any, valuable work at all.
Most people have plenty of time, but because they fill all their dead time with garbage time, they think they are busier than they are.
This is precisely why few people accomplish things of significance and live their lives on the surface consuming, complaining, and gossiping.
If you choose to go against the modern narrative, drown out the noise, focus on personal development so that you can find your calling for deep, fulfilling work, I can without a shadow of a doubt promise you one thing:
You will be misunderstood. You will be labeled obsessed, crazy, and irrational.
How could you not be?
Most people are so far removed from the concept of deep fulfilling work, they couldn’t hit it with a ball bat. Even with unlimited swings!
How can they support or understand what they can’t at all relate too?
They can’t.
And that is why there will forever be a sense of disconnect and an element of loneliness associated with depth.
It’s a math equation.
The deeper you go, the fewer who will understand.
But one should never let this fact deter them from finding and acting on their purpose.
Deep work is misunderstood by most, but it is certainly not in vain.
And remember, obsessed is only a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated.
