Five Good Questions: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang – Rest

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Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is the founder of The Restful Company and a visiting scholar at Stanford. He spent more than a decade as a science and technology forecaster, most recently as a senior consultant at Strategic Business Insights. Alex received a Ph.D. in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang – Rest

Audio Podcast:

Five Good Questions:

  1. What’s Wallas’s four-stage model of creativity?
  2. What’s the Default Mode Network?
  3. Our society idolizes the 80-100 hour work week as a requirement for success.  How do you explain the paradox of the most productive and creative people working much less than that?  Also, what is this notion of “deep play” that a lot of creative people practice?
  4. What was a Bill Gates’s “Think Week” and what can we learn from it?
  5. How has your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly schedule changed based on what you learned writing a book about rest?  How has it impacted how you think about work and creativity?

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang – Rest: Description

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

For most of us, overwork is the new normal and rest is an afterthought. In our busy lives, rest is defined as the absence of work: late-night TV binges, hours spent trawling the internet, something to do once we’ve finished everything else on our to-do lists. But dismissing rest stifles our ability to think creatively and truly recharge.

In Rest, Silicon Valley consultant Alex Pang argues that we can be more successful in all areas of our lives by recognizing the importance of rest: working better does not mean working more, it means working less and resting better. Treating rest as a passive activity secondary to work undermines our chances for a rewarding and meaningful life. Whether by making space for daily naps, as Winston Churchill did during World War II; going on hours-long strolls like Charles Darwin; or spending a week alone in a cabin like Bill Gates, pursuing what Pang calls “deliberate rest” is the true key to fulfillment and creative success. Drawing on rigorous scientific evidence and revelatory historical examples, Rest overturns everything our culture has taught us about work and shows that only by resting better can we start living better

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang – Rest: Review

“[Pang] argues convincingly that the focus on work, often measured in long hours spent at the workplace, is a modern construct.”– Nilanjana Roy, Financial Times

“This is a book of deep wisdom and human insight.” – Chauncey Mabe, Success

“Rest is a brilliant book, and a timely reminder that rest needs to be deliberate, or our work will become debilitating.” – 800 CEO Read

“Consider this a much-needed guide for the overworked: a credible, factual case for chilling out and getting rest, by a well-known Silicon Valley consultant.” – VanityFair.com

“[T]here’s another force transforming the way we work, and that is: nonwork. Or, more specifically, what we’re doing in those few hours when we’re not working. With Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang superbly illuminates this phenomenon and helps push it along… Rest is such a valuable book. If work is our national religion, Pang is the philosopher reintegrating our bifurcated selves.” – Arianna Huffington, New York Times Book Review

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