Ep. 354: The Workload Fairytale

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Education, Self-improvement, Technology

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A few years ago, in a spirit of post-pandemic experimentation, multiple countries ran formal trials to test a radical idea: shortening the workweek. In this episode, Cal returns to the results of these trials to identify an astounding finding that has critical implications about how we work in the 21st century and how this could be made much better. He then answers listener questions and concludes with a tech corner that addresses a simple question: when will AI begin to automate most of my work? Find out more about Done Daily at DoneDaily.com! 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 Workload Fairytale [3:39] - How would you rewrite A World Without Email to account for Slack? [18:16]- How should I manage multiple deadlines? [22:14]- How does Values-Based Lifestyle Centric Career Planning relate to Rutger Bregman's concept of Moral Ambition? [27:28]- How can I avoid burnout and use my career capital to find a less demanding job? [34:24]- Should I do my weekly plan on Sunday night to avoid the scaries? [40:32] CASE STUDY: A lawyer argues in front of the New York Court of Appeals [42:57] CALL: What exactly is considered task switching? [47:15] TECH CORNER: When will AI automate my job? [56:04] Links:Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at calnewport.com/slowGet a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba?bbc.com/news/business-57724779theguardian.com/money/2023/feb/21/four-day-week-uk-trial-success-patterndw.com/en/german-firms-tested-4-day-workweek-heres-the-outcome/a-70685885calnewport.com/ai-and-work-some-predictions/ Thanks to our Sponsors: udacity.com/deeplandroverusa.comcalderalab.com/deep Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, Kieron Rees for the slow productivity music, and Mark Miles for mastering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Cal Newport, and this is Deep Questions,
0:15.2	The show about cultivating a deep life in a distracted world.
0:22.8	Here in my Deep Work HQ, joined as always by my producer, Jesse.
0:27.6	Jesse, we're doing something different.
0:29.2	Usually the video version of this podcast, we start with the deep dive.
0:33.4	Our audio listeners get to hear a little chatter ahead of time.
0:35.8	Well, we're putting this opening chatter on video as well on YouTube,
0:41.8	episode 354 because there was something I came across that I felt like I just had to share
0:47.2	with the viewers and listeners because it's making me so happy.
0:50.9	So I don't know if you know about this trend, Jesse,
0:53.2	but there's this big trend
0:54.1	where people sell fake books.
0:55.9	Yeah.
0:57.1	Sometimes they'll use AI to write like a 20 page whatever.
1:00.8	And sometimes they don't even bother, right?
1:02.5	They just put up fake titles.
1:04.0	There's a lot of books that are like similar to deep work that are out there,
1:06.5	this or that.
1:07.6	Well, I came across one of these that was so fantastic and it's made me so happy.
1:13.4	I wanted to share it with the audience. It's the biography of Cal Newport. This is a fake book.
1:18.0	It's disappeared now off Amazon, but I grabbed the screenshot of the cover. I want to bring up the cover right now.
1:24.9	Oh, I love this so much, Jesse. So here we go. A picture of me, smiling me.
	...

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