Ep. 378: The Lost Art of Long Thinking

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We often talk on this show about how digital devices undermine our ability to consume more complicated and meaningful ideas. But what about our ability to produce such ideas from scratch? In this episode, Cal identifies a key productive skill – long thinking – that we’re increasingly losing. He argues that it’s critical for living a deep life and provides a simple strategy to help regain the skill. He then answers listener questions and discusses the books he read in October 2025.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We often talk about the ways that digital devices undermine our ability to consume complicated and meaningful information.
0:12.4	If you spend too much time scrolling TikTok, you'll eventually start struggling to read Tolstoy.
0:19.8	But what about our ability to produce complicated and
0:24.4	meaningful information? I'm talking about original and creative thoughts or deep insight into
0:29.9	yourself or a new understanding of the wondrous complexity of the world or exciting new
0:34.8	visions for what's possible.
0:40.0	This is what I want to get into today.
0:41.5	I'm going to go in three parts here.
0:46.1	In the first part of our discussion, I'm going to introduce an idea that I call long thinking.
0:47.1	I'm going to explain why I think long thinking is critical to creating a flourishing life.
0:52.8	In part two, I'll explore why specifically our modern technological environment is undermining our ability to perform long thinking.
1:02.9	And then in part three, I'm going to present a simple but effective training plan for regaining this ability.
1:08.7	Believe it or not, it's going to be based on an idea that I first wrote about in 2009
1:13.2	and have been practicing ever since.
1:16.9	All right.
1:17.4	So if you found yourself struggling to hold a line of thought or to make sense of complex
1:21.7	ideas or material, if your world seems to have collapsed into shorter digital takes
1:26.0	and cruder primal emotions,
1:28.7	then this episode is for you.
1:31.3	As always, I'm Cal Newport, and this is Deep Questions. Today's episode, The Lost Start of Long Thinking.
1:55.7	All right, so I want to start here with an example from my own life.
1:59.2	I'm going to load on the screen here for people who are watching instead of just listening. An essay that I published on my blog and newsletter back in the
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