In an interview on the AI Podcast,  Andrew Ng predicts that AI would be an essential part of our lives and it is going to transform the world, the way electricity did. A consequence of that is not that Skynet would activate, but many of the existing jobs would disappear. To survive, lifelong learning would become essential. Previously, we could learn something in college and ply trade based on that knowledge for decades. Now we will have to replenish that knowledge constantly.

Andrew also expresses surprise that people spend less time learning new things; in general, he thinks humanity does not spend as much time as they should learning new things. Hence, if you put the effort in learning new topics, you can advance in your career. He goes on to advise that learning something that catches your fancy for the weekend is not enough. The effort has to be sustained over a long period of time to see the results.

But how can you learn when you are distracted all the time

Another podcast, Hidden Brain talks about this.  There are distractions all around; notification messages on your phone, email client alerting you about the latest mail, co-workers disrupting you constantly because we have an open floor plan with the ambiance of a railway station. Every time, you are focusing on a problem, someone interrupts you with a quick question. You respond and return back to the problem. By then the attention to the original task has fallen and it takes a while to get back into the flow.

If you are getting paid at work for using your brain, then it is important to understand this. If you are trying to learn new topics, like what Andrew Ng suggested, then also it is important to understand this. If you are planning to learn something new, then you need to focus. Deep Work requires deep commitment. For people who pretend to be busy, it is good to know that very few people became rich by responding to e-mail. This wisdom is known to manual craftsmen and has to be reminded to 21st-century software engineers and their managers.

If you are going to spend your lifetime learning, then you have to go meta and learn effectively. You have to decide if you want to live an examined life or a life controlled by interruptions. Thus you not only have to learn to do Deep Work, like what Cal Newport suggested but also learn Deliberate Practice. It is a combination of these skills that can get you to the next level.