Cal Newport has an answer for digital burnout

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 11.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2019

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cal Newport suspects you’re a digital maximalist — someone who believes that any potential for benefit is reason enough to start using a new technology. Don’t feel bad. That’s how most of us are. That’s how society teaches us to be. Newport wants us to become digital minimalists. He defines digital minimalism as “a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected activities … that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” Newport is making a bid to be the Marie Kondo of technology: someone with an actual plan for helping you realize the digital pursuits that do, and don’t, spark joy and bring value to your life. This is a conversation about becoming a digital minimalist: why to do it, how to do it, and what it might get you. Whether you want to try Newport’s whole plan or just pick and choose some good ideas from his buffet, there’s a lot in here that will help you find a healthier, more intentional approach to technology. Book Recommendations: The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul Medieval Technology and Social Change by Lynn White Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	First, sweet tarts dare to combine sweet and tart, but they didn't stop there.
0:06.0	Now they've combined soft and bouncy to bring you new sweet tarts, gummy fruity splits.
0:12.0	A uniquely delicious dual-sided gummy with one side that's sweet, and the other side that's tart.
0:19.0	But entirely smooth and squishy.
0:22.0	A powerfully perfect combo.
0:24.0	Sweet tarts dare to combine.
0:28.0	When you drive a Chevy electric vehicle, you're getting more than a way to get from point A to point B.
0:33.0	You're saying goodbye to gas stations and how low to open roads.
0:37.0	With a growing network of public charging stations, you'll be able to charge your EV while you shop, work, or do whatever you want to be doing with your time.
0:44.0	Chevy is making EVs for everyone, everywhere. Go to chevrelay.com slash electric to learn more.
0:51.0	I mean, it was really a technological miracle that even made it possible for us to try this experiment of can we go a standard day with no moments of solitude.
1:03.0	10 years ago, 20 years ago, would be near impossible to avoid solitude on a regular basis through a typical day.
1:21.0	Hello, welcome to Mr. Clanchon on the Vox Media podcast network.
1:24.0	My guest today is a returning guest, one of my favorite guests, Cald Newport, who is a computer scientist at Georgetown University, the author of a bunch of really fascinating books on technology and how to use it or not use it.
1:36.0	You all have probably heard me talk about Deep Work, which is a book of his. It has influenced me quite a bit.
1:40.0	But he's got a new one coming out called digital minimalism.
1:44.0	He defines digital minimalism as a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time, a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that support things you value and then you happily miss out on everything else.
1:58.0	We have a lot of conversations on the show about ways in which technology maybe is bad or is using us rather than us using it.
2:05.0	And of course, we talk about some of that in this episode too.
2:08.0	What's interesting to me about Newport's work is that he's actually coming up with a way to maybe reboot a way to develop a different set of habits around technology and a different set of philosophies for when and how to use it.
2:21.0	So this isn't just a conversation of complaining.
2:24.0	This is a conversation with some very actionable ideas and some ideas you can put into playing your own life to see where you really stand with it.
	...

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