Ep. 341: Drowning, Treading, or Swimming

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tim Ferris is working on a new book about saying “no” and has posted the introduction online. In this episode, Cal reads an excerpt from this introduction and then tries to make sense of it with a metaphor about a shipwreck that helps unwind the complexity of dealing with the scourge of having too much to do. Cal then answers listener questions and reacts to a productivity meme inspired by a recent episode.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Cal Newport, and this is Deep Question, the show about cultivating a deep life in a distracted world.
0:23.4	I'm here in my Deep Work H.Q.
0:25.6	joined, as always, by my producer, Jesse.
0:29.2	Jesse, I want to do a quick, crazy or deep segment.
0:32.6	We haven't done that in a while.
0:34.6	This is one where I really don't know the answer.
0:36.4	Like, I'm actually interested in not just your thoughts, but the audience's thoughts as well. So, crazy or one where I really don't know the answer. Like I'm actually interested in
0:37.6	not just your thoughts, but the audience's thoughts as well. So crazy or deep, if you don't know,
0:42.0	is where I have an idea and the question is like, is this cool and deep or is it just insane?
0:48.5	Yeah. And a good thing to know is I have no idea what you're going to say. Yeah. Well, I mean, and I'm actually torn on this one. All right. So here at the,
0:54.6	at the HQ,
0:56.2	we know,
0:56.5	we have a couple of rooms in our HQ and we have one,
0:58.8	we call the Maker Lab.
0:59.7	And this is where,
1:01.3	uh,
1:02.1	our monitors are.
1:03.2	It's where we edit the podcast.
1:05.2	It's,
1:05.3	it's where there's also we do making, I do making in there. We have a 3D printer in there and soldering irons and
1:11.7	et cetera, et cetera. So I have a plan for how to update that room. And it's, I mean,
1:19.6	it's a good plan. It's not super exciting, but it's replacing tables in there, IKEA tables
	...

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