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Lex Fridman Podcast

#166 – Cal Newport: Deep Work, Focus, Productivity, Email, and Social Media

Lex Fridman Podcast

Lex Fridman

Philosophy, Science, Society & Culture, Technology

4.713.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2021

⏱️ 189 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cal Newport is a computer scientist who also writes about productivity. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
A World Without Email (book): https://amzn.to/3blXyjv
Deep Work (book): https://amzn.to/3c0npMM
Digital Minimalism (book): https://amzn.to/3kJPMmx
Cal’s Website: https://www.calnewport.com/
Deep Questions (podcast): https://www.calnewport.com/podcast/

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(08:24) – Deep work
(13:10) – Focus
(18:52) – Time blocking
(25:47) – Deadlines
(35:22) – Do less, do better, know why
(38:04) – Clubhouse
(52:07) – Burnout
(58:34) – Boredom
(1:06:19) – Quit social media for 30 days
(1:16:13) – Social media
(1:41:21) – How email destroyed our productivity at work
(1:51:07) – How we fix email
(1:58:09) – Over-optimization
(2:02:23) – When to use email and when not to
(2:10:06) – Podcasting
(2:14:42) – Alan Turing proving the impossible
(2:18:41) – Fragility of math in the face of randomness
(2:27:30) – Neural networks
(2:36:16) – What will the P=NP proof look like?
(2:39:55) – Is math discovered or invented?
(2:44:02) – Book publishing
(2:54:09) – Love
(2:57:30) – Death
(3:00:26) – Meaning of life

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The following is a conversation with Cal Newport.

0:02.4

He's a friend and someone who's writing like his book Deep Work, for example,

0:06.8

has guided how I strive to approach productivity and life in general.

0:11.1

He doesn't use social media and in his book Digital Minimalism,

0:15.6

he encourages people to find the right amount of social media usage

0:19.1

that provides value and joy.

0:21.2

He has a new book called TheWorldWithoutEmail,

0:24.6

where he argues brilliantly, I would say,

0:27.2

that email is destroying productivity in companies and in our lives.

0:31.6

And very importantly, he offers solutions.

0:35.5

He is a computer scientist at Georgetown University

0:38.7

who practices what he preaches.

0:41.0

To do theoretical computer science at the level that he does it,

0:44.4

you really have to live a focused life that minimizes distractions and

0:48.4

maximizes hours of deep work.

0:51.1

Lastly, he's a host of an amazing podcast called Deep Questions

0:56.0

that I highly recommend for anyone who wants to improve their productive life.

1:00.6

Quick mention of our sponsors.

1:02.8

ExpressVPN, Linux Virtual Machines,

1:06.6

SunBasket Meal Delivery Service,

1:08.9

and Simple Safe Home Security.

1:11.2

Click the sponsor links to get a discount and to support this podcast.

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