I'm Cal Newport, and this is Deep Questions, the show about cultivating a deep life in a distracted world.

Normally I'd be joining you for my deep work HQ in Tacoma Park, Maryland, but not today.

Jesse is there, but I am, as I do, each summer, recording this episode from an undisclosed

location up in New England, where I go to escape the summer heat and to

right. Jesse, what am I missing down there in sunny Washington, D.C.? Some humidity.

A little bit of humidity? I don't believe it. It's not dry and nice. It's humid up here as well,

but not so hot. So I'm pretty happy.

Pretty happy to be up here.

Can't complain.

I am, I told you before you started recording, but just to give a little peek into the writer's life.

It had a frustrating couple of days.

A key chapter in the Deep Life book that I'm working on. It was the first chapter of part two.

So I showed up here having finished all a part one. And I'm working on the first chapter of

part two, which really lays out the ideas. Like, this is the key thing. And I was not quite sure how

to make it work. We went on a long hike up in the White Mountains. I sort of cracked it. I felt

did two days

worth of research and writing on, if I want to be more specific, the hormones that play a role

and the neurotransmitters is kind of a distinction between those two can get hazy that play a role

in feeling good, feeling satisfaction and meaning. And I did all this work and wrote up this

whole section to explain them all. And just did all this work and wrote up this whole

section to explain them all. And just this morning before we started recording, realized I got to cut

that all out. How did you realize it? This is just writing for me is I have a feeling inside my

...