Ep. 298: Rethinking Attention
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
Cal Newport
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2024
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We think of information as something neutral; a spotlight that helps illuminate the reality of the outside world. Accordingly, more information is better than less. In this episode, Cal pushes back on this model, arguing that the form in which information arrives can strongly impact the understanding we extract. We must therefore be more intentional about what and how we pay attention. He then answers reader questions and surveys some unusual but entertaining stories about slowness.
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: Rethinking attention [4:08]
- What books should I read to help me develop a deep life? [34:35]
- Does writing by hand have benefits for your brain? [38:40]
- Should I get a brain scan to prove I have a low IQ? [43:46]
- Should I use ChatGPT for book recommendations? [47:39]
- How can I avoid wasting your gap year? [49:40]
- CALL: Is “Slow Productivity” related to “The Burnout Society” by Buying-Chui Han? [55:32]
CASE STUDY: Utilizing the phone foyer method [1:01:58]
FINAL SEGMENT: Slow news [1:10:58]
Links:
- Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at calnewport.com/slow
- Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/
- Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba?v=448bf8afad0740d18f6b109b4bd40d51
- slow-watches.com/
- penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318747/help-wanted-one-rooster-by-julie-falatko-illustrated-by-andrea-stegmaier/
- rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/1108/1415296-why-handwriting-is-good-for-your-brain/
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 distracted |
| 0:18.8 | world. |
| 0:19.8 | So I'm here in my Deep Work HQ joined as always by my producer Jesse. |
| 0:29.6 | Jesse you just got back from one of my favorite places. |
| 0:32.4 | Boston, how's it what's going? Jesse you just got back from one of my favorite places |
| 0:32.7 | Boston |
| 0:33.8 | How's it what's going on up there is it spring what was the report? I was thinking about you actually because yesterday when I was driving to a golf turn with my two buddies for Tuss lac. |
| 0:43.3 | We were going along the Charles and I was thinking about your walks |
| 0:45.8 | and with your dog and stuff like that. |
| 0:48.5 | We went by MIT, we went by Harvard, well, yeah, we went by Harvard. Yeah, well if you're on the Charles you're probably going by the business school. |
| 0:55.0 | Here's my routine. When I was a post stock, man I had so much, when I was a postdoc I had a lot of time, right? |
| 1:03.0 | And at this routine, I would walk my dog from Beacon Hill |
| 1:08.0 | across the Longfellow Bridge to the MIT campus, |
| 1:12.0 | and he would be in my office, and the way that was like a whole chaos because of my fellow post-doc had a dog and then one of the professors there who I think is since one genius grant, |
| 1:22.8 | Dina Gatabi, she had this little dog that was there, |
| 1:25.5 | we were all in the same floor, the dog, it was like chaos, |
| 1:27.6 | we probably shouldn't have had the dogs. |
| 1:28.9 | And then at lunch I would be |
| 1:35.0 | be like conservatively like negative 100, |
| 1:37.0 | a hundred thousand degrees, you know, just like terrible. |
| 1:42.0 | So I had all of this like gear you'd put on like these special gloves and hats and scarfs and then I would run with my dog |
| 1:50.7 | along to Charles on the Cambridge side rather down to the Mass Ave bridge. |
... |
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