Ep. 345: Are We Getting Dumber?

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Multiple listeners recently sent in a Financial Times article that asks whether humans have passed “peak intelligence.” In this episode, Cal looks closer at the data in this article to try to understand why we seem to be getting dumber, and more importantly, what are the practical steps individuals can take to avoid the trend. He then answers listener questions and ends with a tech corner segment that highlights a blind spot in current discussions of AI.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Kyle Newport, and this is Deep Questioned, the show about cultivating a deep life in a distracted world.
0:23.5	So I'm here on my Deep Work HQ, joined as always by my producer, Jesse, right before we
0:29.8	started the microphones.
0:31.5	We were talking about one of the two websites that I run.
0:37.0	So I have Cald-Newport.com, which is the website for both my
0:41.4	writing and academic career. So it's sort of the website for me as a person. But then the,
0:47.2	I guess we don't use the word multimedia anymore, but like video and newsletter and podcast has
0:52.3	its own home, the deeplife.com.
0:55.0	We put that up.
0:56.2	When was that, Jesse?
0:56.9	Like during the pandemic?
0:58.3	Yeah, two years ago.
0:59.9	Okay, so we had that design and put up,
1:01.4	but now we're thinking it's time to revisit and update.
1:05.7	So we're thinking about ideas for how we can make that site more useful.
1:09.8	Jesse, you had a good idea. Yeah, I think we should have
1:12.6	a page there that has monthly articles, books, suggestions like that, some good resources to
1:19.2	check out. Should this be things we talk about on the show or just in general? Things we talk about
1:25.6	on the show could also be things that the audience would be interested in reading.
1:29.0	Okay.
1:29.4	Well, I don't want we call something like that.
1:31.7	Deep something.
	...

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