Ep. 293: Can A.I. Empty My Inbox?

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2024

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Imagine a world in which AI could handle your email inbox on your behalf. No more checking for new messages every five minutes. No more worries that people need you. No more exhausting cognitive context shifts. In this episode, Cal explores how close cutting-edge AI models are to achieving this goal, including using ChatGPT to help him answer some real email. He then dives into his latest article for The New Yorker, which explains the key technical obstacle to fully automated email and how it might be solved. This is followed by reader questions and a look at something interesting.

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

Deep Dive: Can A.I. Empty My Inbox? [4:33]
- Should I continue to study programming if AI will eventually replace software jobs? [44:40]
- Is it bad to use ChatGPT to assist with your writing? [49:22]
- How do I reclaim my workspace for Deep Work? [55:24]
- How do I decide what to do on my scheduled mini-breaks at work? [1:00:11]
- CALL: Heidegger’s view on technology [1:02:48]
- CALL: Seasonality with a partner and kids [1:09:11]

CASE STUDY: A Silicon Valley Chief of Staff balancing work and ego [1:20:07]

Something Interesting: General Grant’s Slow Productivity [1:30:08]

Links:
Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity”at calnewport.com/slow

newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/can-an-ai-make-plans

Thanks to our Sponsors:

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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Cal Newport and this is Deep Questions, the show about cultivating a deep life in a high-tech world.
0:19.0	So I'm here in my deep work, HQ joined as always by my producer Jesse. Though this is coming
0:29.6	out two weeks after our event at Politics and Pros, we're recording this just a few days after our event at Politics and Prose were recording this just a few days
0:34.4	after that event. Jesse was there. We had a good time, why don't you say?
0:37.0	Great showing. Yeah, we had a you guys turned out. We had a big line.
0:41.3	Folks from Canada. If someone line folks from Canada.
0:42.8	Yeah, if someone flew in from Canada brought me a first edition Michael Crichton book too.
0:47.3	Yeah, he was cool. Yeah. It was a lot of fun to see everyone. We haven't really done a Cal Newport only event since before the
0:55.5	pandemic really. So it's cool. So that was fun. Everyone showed up. Quick update
0:59.4	on my books, low productivity. One thing I wanted to notice note is the audio is doing particularly well and this too I'm going to sort of
1:09.1	give my nod to you my podcast audience.
1:11.2	I think I read the audio book myself and I think my
1:13.7	podcast audience wants to hear it. So we're having 50-50 sales hardcover and
1:19.2	audio, which is you know unusual. Usually you have more hardcover than audio so I think it's great we've been the audio version has been on the Amazon charts
1:26.2	20 best-selling non-fiction books of the week for the last two weeks in a row
1:30.1	It's actually moving up in that charts in the second week.
1:33.0	It's a 15th best-selling non-fiction book on Amazon last week.
1:37.0	So I think people are listening and I appreciate that.
1:40.0	It's because when you talked about your voice that you had to speak in on the podcast, everybody
1:43.8	want to check it out.
1:45.4	This is my audiobook voice.
1:47.9	I have to be measured, not too dynamic because the range must be clear. I was explaining this to an engineer the other day
	...

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