To remain valuable in our economy, therefore, you must master the art of quickly learning complicated things.

To learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction. To learn, in other words, is an act of deep work.

Two Core Abilities for Thriving in the New Economy 1. The ability to quickly master hard things. 2. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.

Be good at something. It makes you valuable.

The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner.

Do extremely difficult work.

That seems obvious, right? If you do something that's valued but scarce because it's difficult, you're more likely to be in demand and to be compensated fairly for what you do.

The implication is stunning, though: When designing a project or developing a skill, seek out the most difficult parts to master and contribute. If it's easy, it's not for you.

How do you truly become more valuable? Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn.

A thing worth learning is worth learning well.

The second reason that deep work is valuable is because the impacts of the digital network revolution cut both ways. If you can create something useful, its reachable audience (e.g., employers or customers) is essentially limitless — which greatly magnifies your reward. On the other hand, if what you’re producing is mediocre, then you’re in trouble, as it’s too easy for your audience to find a better alternative online. Whether you’re a computer programmer, writer, marketer, consultant, or entrepreneur, your situation has become similar to Jung trying to outwit Freud, or Jason Benn trying to hold his own in a hot start-up: To succeed you have to produce the absolute best stuff you’re capable of producing — a task that requires depth.

I learned the hard way how to step out of the time economy and into the knowledge economy to become more productive.

To earn more, you must learn more.

How to master any skill fast:

- Stop studying
- Outline a project
- Start building it
- Hit a roadblock
- Research how to overcome it
- Repeat until completed

Most people get trapped in tutorial hell and have nothing to show for years of "learning."

And I learned a valuable lesson: success is not something you pursue. Success is something you attract because of the person you become. What you pursue usually eludes you like the butterfly you can’t quite catch. But if you want to be successful, you must attract success by developing the skills and the appropriate mind-set. What you learn about the marketplace and its goods and services… that’s what’s valuable. The key to getting paid very well in the marketplace is to develop very valuable skills.