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So Good They Can't Ignore YouBook

by Cal Newport, 2012

Who uses, recommends or left So Good They Can't Ignore You, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

3 people

Founder and CEO of Get Lighthouse, a management-coaching software company; former product lead at KISSmetrics who writes about leadership and product management.
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The common advice for Gen Y is to "Follow your passion" and yet so many of us struggle to do so. Cal has an awesome counter argument for a better approach to building a career you'll love. This book logically lays out its case for focusing on developing unique and valuable skills and slowly evolving a core mission that drives you. He also breaks it down so it's clear exactly what *you* can do so you're not feeling like you just have a bunch of empty theories.

His continuously-updated books page, where every book he reads gets a 1-10 rating and a "Why Read it" note; the book links carry his Amazon affiliate tag. The page carries no publication date for individual entries — its own metadata gives article:published_time 2012-12-16 and article:modified_time 2020-10-28, and books were added across that whole span. (undated page)

2020-10-28·jasonevanish.com ↗

Programmer and educator. Keeps a public bookshelf with a short comment on every book.
read

A nicely written case against the ‘follow your passion’ advice with a well-defined career-building strategy. As many non-fiction sel-help books, could be at least 10 times shorter, but hey, it’s pretty good.

On his public bookshelf, with his comment.

2026-08-16·rakhim.org ↗

Programmer and writer. Keeps a running list of the non-fiction he reads, starring the ones he recommends.
read

Podcast. They always say to follow your passion. But it’s actually a terrible career advice. The book offers an alternative model to think of your career more compelling than that.

On his public list of books he has read, with his notes.

2015-01-01·radex.io ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

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