Ep. 250: In Defense of Thinking

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2023

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The art of thinking – plain, old-fashioned, hard concentration on useful ideas – is rapidly vanishing as our culture recasts humans as the custodians and recipients of digital computation. In this episode, Cal explains why this is a problem and what we should do in response.

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

Today’s Deep Question: Why is it important to preserve the vanishing art of thinking? [5:02]

- How do I integrate movies and shows into the deep life? [27:42]

- Can I read after a long day of deep work? [33:30]

- Is a digital “second brain” a good idea to keep up with the latest advancements in your field? [36:25]

- Would Cal consider consolidating his notebooks? [42:37]

- Is Maria Popva’s note-taking method better than Cal’s method? [51:40]

The Books I Read in April 2023 [1:04:29]

Links:

Edward Teller talking about John Von Neumann

youtube.com/watcv=vQp70uqsBV4#t=55m0s

Aristotle on “philosophic wisdom.” See book 10, section 7 of The Ethics:

classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.7.vii.html

Arnold Bennet on training concentration (See chapter 7 of How to Live on 24 Hours a Day):

gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2274/pg2274-images.html

Thanks to our Sponsors:

huel.com/questions

rhone.come/cal

hensonshaving.com/cal

mybodytutor.com

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Calnew Port and this is Deep Questions, the show about working and living deeply in
0:17.3	a distracted world.
0:20.6	I'm here in my Deep Work HQ, joined as always by my producer, Jesse.
0:29.6	Jesse, you know I'm in a good mood today.
0:31.6	Why is that?
0:32.6	Going to the ballpark.
0:33.6	Yeah, baby.
0:34.6	The Nationals play.
0:36.6	The Padres.
0:37.6	I think, and Jesse, you'll back me up on this.
0:41.2	The audience wouldn't mind if we then therefore dedicated today's show to the analytical picture
0:49.5	of the 2023 Nationals.
0:51.5	I think that's appropriate.
0:52.5	I think it's appropriate.
0:53.5	I watched a lot of the game last night.
0:54.5	They were down three nothing.
0:55.5	I'm not sure what happened.
0:56.5	They tied it up for two run, home run by Abrams and one run, home run by Thomas.
1:02.2	But then Soto hit a home run and Erasmus gave up two runs and we lost by three.
1:09.6	But what I want to get into and I think everyone, especially international listeners, will
1:12.4	be very interested in this.
1:14.1	I was trying to understand if the gap between Josiah Gray's FIP and ERA is something we
	...

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