Ep. 378: The Lost Art of Long Thinking

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Education, Self-improvement, Technology

4.8 • 1.5K 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. 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 Lost Art of Long Thinking [0:02] How does Cal organize his notebooks for his books and New Yorker articles? [42:40] How can an 18 year old student get better at reading? [45:42] How can I restart my creative writing if I don’t want to use a computer? [47:56] Is it important to write reflections on the books I read? [56:57] How often should I take reflection walks with single purpose notebooks? [59:00]CASE STUDY: Trying to live a Deep Life [1:00:47]CALL: Adventure Work [1:09:00]OCTOBER BOOKS: The 5 Books Cal Read in October 2025 [1:11:57] The Gift of the Jews (Thomas Cahill)Lin-Manuel Miranda (Daniel Pollack-Pelzner)Inspired (Rachel Held Evans)The Future of Tutoring (Liz Cohen)Society of the Spectacle (Guy Debord) 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?calnewport.com/solutions-beyond-the-screen-the-adventure-work-method-for-producing-creative-insights/youtube.com/watch?v=bEusrD8g-dMcalnewport.com/the-notebook-method-how-pen-and-paper-can-transform-you-into-an-star-student/ Thanks to our Sponsors: indeed.com/deepcozyearth.com/deep for up to 40% offwayfair.comgrammarly.com/podcast Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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