Cal Newport: Deep Work, Focus, Productivity, Email, and Social Media | Lex Fridman Podcast #166

Cal Newport is a computer scientist who also writes about productivity. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

EPISODE LINKS:

PODCAST INFO:

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
2:15 - Deep work
7:00 - Focus
12:43 - Time blocking
19:38 - Deadlines
29:13 - Do less, do better, know why
31:55 - Clubhouse
45:58 - Burnout
52:25 - Boredom
1:00:10 - Quit social media for 30 days
1:10:04 - Social media
1:35:12 - How email destroyed our productivity at work
1:44:57 - How we fix email
1:51:59 - Over-optimization
1:56:14 - When to use email and when not to
2:03:57 - Podcasting
2:08:33 - Alan Turing proving the impossible
2:12:32 - Fragility of math in the face of randomness
2:21:21 - Neural networks
2:30:06 - What will the P=NP proof look like?
2:33:46 - Is math discovered or invented?
2:37:53 - Book publishing
2:47:59 - Love
2:51:21 - Death
2:54:17 - Meaning of life

SOCIAL:

[lexfridman]

Here are the timestamps. Please check out our sponsors to support this podcast.
0:00 - Introduction & sponsor mentions:
2:15 - Deep work
7:00 - Focus
12:43 - Time blocking
19:38 - Deadlines
29:13 - Do less, do better, know why
31:55 - Clubhouse
45:58 - Burnout
52:25 - Boredom
1:00:10 - Quit social media for 30 days
1:10:04 - Social media
1:35:12 - How email destroyed our productivity at work
1:44:57 - How we fix email
1:51:59 - Over-optimization
1:56:14 - When to use email and when not to
2:03:57 - Podcasting
2:08:33 - Alan Turing proving the impossible
2:12:32 - Fragility of math in the face of randomness
2:21:21 - Neural networks
2:30:06 - What will the P=NP proof look like?
2:33:46 - Is math discovered or invented?
2:37:53 - Book publishing
2:47:59 - Love
2:51:21 - Death
2:54:17 - Meaning of life

[maxwellschaphorst]

Cal Newport is like the David Goggins of disciplining your focus and attention. Every time I listen to him I'm like fuck, it's time to step it up to the next level.

[jenniferstevens]

When I was young if I said I was bored my father's response was "people who are bored are boring people" he fostered a love of reading and for me to find the answers that I had questions for myself. Also the importance of independent study and imagination. Thanks Dad:) And thanks Lex and Cal.

[ericconner]

I listened to this talk with great interest. Much of the last decade, I was in prison, and was lost in the first few years. The claustrophobia of being trapped in a tunnel underground or adrift at sea far in the ocean are the only two states of mind there. Deep work was the only thing that got me through it. That was like a deep rainforest, complex and disorienting, but I was moving ahead. I didn't even know the term at that time, but I worked like a madman on mathematics, reading classics, exercising and so forth because to break the intense focus meant going back to one of the two bad mental states. Years later, I have never been able to adapt to the world of emails, hyperactive hivemind, slack, zoom, discord and social media. When I look at those, I feel depressed and deeply long to be back in the forest. I am near your age, but feel so much older. I got great joy to hear that I am not the only one who yearns to be out of these systems and deep in the focus.

[cmralph...]

I'm a 66-year-old artist. This past September I deactivated all my social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and never looked back. My life has improved so dramatically it is astounding. I credit Dr. Cal Newport for a great deal of this improvement to my life. Not just my productivity has improved but also my mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. Thank you, Dr. Newport, for giving me back my life.

[goneoffcourse]

no way Cal Newport? this podcasts smokes the rogan one

[lorrainegatanianhits]

His book "Deep Work" was the first one I ever read intensely. A legend to me.

[boydharrisphoto]

I love watching lex live the dream. Consulting with and interviewing experts across interesting fields. Engaged examining of different mental models in an attempt to develop and mature his understanding and his desires for meaningful expenditures of energy makes for engaging content for others. Lex is another extraordinary work in progress that makes for exciting content. I don’t feel like I wasted my time here. I’m so grateful.

[vitobrusnik]

1:08:00 "No one comes off a day full of Twitter celebrating humanity."

[NateTimeTV]

I'm listening to this podcast while working which is exactly what he's telling us not to do...

[adhithyaravindra]

"There's nothing more draining to me, intellectually, philosophically. Just my spirit... is destroyed by even a ten minute Zoom meeting. Like what are we doing here?" I feel you brother 😌

[xSingularity]

loved his book “Deep Work”, this episode came just in time!

[chidimmaobi]

Nice one Lex, please bring on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. His book "flow" is enlightening

[fiilisboa]

Cal Newport is one of the most important people out there... really helpful thoughts and attitude towards life in post modern times. Great video, thank you very much, Lex.

[theworldsonfire.]

“To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem.” - Thoreau

[igoroliveira]

Cal's books helped me a lot to go well through electrical engineering, I'm glad to hear this one!

[Joe_Robinson]

Cal’s work has helped me a lot - thank you for this conversation!

[Schlonggdongg]

“Every zoom meeting I have an existential crisis” lmaoo

[SillySpudyRocking]

I feel like I have been living by that intuition, for almost everything I do and for as long as I can remember, I must weigh up whether or not my actions will have a wrongness to them or a rightness to them. And as for you Lex I must tell you that the reason I watch, listen and learn from you here is because it feels intuitively like a rightness

[JeyRamm]

This is the fastest Ive ever clicked on a 3hr video and cleared my schedule LOL