Ep. 297: The Deep Life Hardware

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Why do you struggle with your grand attempts to escape distraction and aimlessness to make your life deeper? In this episode, Cal draws on an unexpected metaphor – Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, and the Analytical Engine – to help identify the subtle obstacle on your path to increase depth. With this new understanding in hand, he then details a specific gameplan to get around it. Later, he takes questions from the audience and reacts to the new AI Pin, a tool intended to render smartphones obsolete.
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: The Deep Life Hardware [4:09]
- Does personal productivity make us anxious? [34:04]
- How can I build skills without getting in the way of my existing work? [42:11]
- How can I build a deeper life after years of neglect? [46:00]
- How is Sam Sulek’s stripped down YouTube channel doing so well? [52:12]
- How can I convince my husband that I’m not a time management snob? [1:02:38]
- CALL: Obsessing over quality [1:06:04]
CASE STUDY: Shifting a mindset to do more deep work [1:11:04]
CAL REACTS: Is the Al Pin the End of Smartphones? [1:17:46]
Links:

• Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow
• computerhistory.org/babbage/engines/
• theverge.com/24126502/humane-ai-pin-review
• podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversation-with-cal-newport-the-key-to/id1498802610?i=1000652834277
• samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/363-knowledge-work
• Use this link to preorder a signed copy of “Slow Productivity”: https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/preorder-slow-productivity/

Thanks to our Sponsors:

• rhone.com/cal
• shopify.com/deep
• policygenius.com/deepquestions
• grammarly.com/podcast
• tim.blog

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

Chapter

1. Ep. 297: The Deep Life Hardware (00:00:00)

2. Deep Dive: The Deep Life Hardware (00:04:09)

3. Does personal productivity make us anxious? (00:34:04)

4. How can I build skills without getting in the way of my existing work? (00:42:11)

5. How can I build a deeper life after years of neglect? (00:46:00)

6. How is Sam Sulek’s stripped down YouTube channel doing so well? (00:52:12)

7. How can I convince my husband that I’m not a time management snob? (01:02:38)

8. CALL: Obsessing over quality (01:06:04)

9. CASE STUDY: Shifting a mindset to do more deep work (01:11:04)

10. CAL REACTS: Is the Al Pin the End of Smartphones? (01:17:46)