全书分成两个部分，第一部分写深度工作有价值，深度工作创造了浮浅工作所不能带来的深度价值，而即将到来的人工智能革命会淘汰很多浮浅工作者，而会使深度工作者受益，因为这是机器所无法取代的人类的深度思维所创造的价值。深度工作同时会让人的工作变得有意义和乐趣，这也是浮浅工作所无法带来的。
As Brynjolfsson and McAfee emphasize, this Great Restructuring is not driving down all jobs but is instead dividing them. Though an increasing number of people will lose in this new economy as their skill becomes automatable or easily outsourced, there are others who will not only survive, but thrive—becoming more valued (and therefore more rewarded) than before.
I’ll try to convince you to join me in the effort to build our own personal Bollingen Towers; to cultivate an ability to produce real value in an increasingly distracted world; and to recognize a truth embraced by the most productive and important personalities of generations past: A deep life is a good life.
第二部分讲怎么进入深度工作的建议，介绍了几种深度工作者的方法论，和一些普通人进入深度工作的技巧。我印象深刻的有这么几个，
一是吴军硅谷来信也提到的chevruta方法，说是犹太人特有的辩论组织，这个作者也经常去参加，在纽约上州的Spring Valley，每周工作日上午六点，一群犹太人就古希伯来宗教经典进行不含主观假设的激烈辩论。
I was introduced to this world by Adam Marlin, a member of the Knesses Yisroel congregation and one of the regulars at its morning study group. As Marlin explained to me, his goal with this practice is to decipher one Talmud page each day (though he sometimes fails to make it even this far), often working with a chevruta (study partner) to push his understanding closer to his cognitive limit.
二是，西奥多罗斯福的工作方法，他在大学花了绝大部分时间研究生物解刨，但是自己的课业完全没有拉下，他把一天八个小时解刨，除去自己计划的事情，解刨，锻炼，背诵，然后再全部拿来学习课程，这样用在课程上的时间很短，但是效果很深。
One might expect therefore that Roosevelt’s grades would crater. But they didn’t. He wasn’t the top student in his class, but he certainly didn’t struggle either: In his freshman year he earned honor grades in five out of his seven courses. The explanation for this Roosevelt paradox turns out to be his unique approach to tackling this schoolwork. Roosevelt would begin his scheduling by considering the eight hours from eight thirty a.m. to four thirty p.m. He would then remove the time spent in recitation and classes, his athletic training (which was once a day), and lunch. The fragments that remained were then considered time dedicated exclusively to studying. As noted, these fragments didn’t usually add up to a large number of total hours, but he would get the most out of them by working only on schoolwork during these periods, and doing so with a blistering intensity.
This strategy asks you to inject the occasional dash of Rooseveltian intensity into your own workday. In particular, identify a deep task (that is, something that requires deep work to complete) that’s high on your priority list. Estimate how long you’d normally put aside for an obligation of this type, then give yourself a hard deadline that drastically reduces this time. If possible, commit publicly to the deadline—for example, by telling the person expecting the finished project when they should expect it. If this isn’t possible (or if it puts your job in jeopardy), then motivate yourself by setting a countdown timer on your phone and propping it up where you can’t avoid seeing it as you work.
三是，设定冷却系统，在冷却时间内，只能专注当下工作，不能看邮件，回信息，或者上网，拿一个小本子，记录下次可以干这些事的时间，比如半小时后，不到那个时间绝对不碰，然后处理邮件，回复信息，上网，又开始冷却。工作和生活也要分开，每天事情要有一个休止符，说了shutdown，天大的事情也留到明天。这样让大脑习惯于单任务深度工作，不接受打断。
I suggest that you keep a notepad near your computer at work. On this pad, record the next time you’re allowed to use the Internet. Until you arrive at that time, absolutely no network connectivity is allowed—no matter how tempting. The idea motivating this strategy is that the use of a distracting service does not, by itself, reduce your brain’s ability to focus. It’s instead the constant switching from low-stimuli/high-value activities to high-stimuli/low-value activities, at the slightest hint of boredom or cognitive challenge, that teaches your mind to never tolerate an absence of novelty.
四是，散步思考，在散步洗澡遛狗这些闲暇时间专注思考专业上的难题，不要被打断，只想一件事情，也不要在已经想出来的结果里面打转，想下一步。
The goal of productive meditation is to take a period in which you’re occupied physically but not mentally—walking, jogging, driving, showering—and focus your attention on a single well-defined professional problem. Depending on your profession, this problem might be outlining an article, writing a talk, making progress on a proof, or attempting to sharpen a business strategy. As in mindfulness meditation, you must continue to bring your attention back to the problem at hand when it wanders or stalls.