How Do I Escape the “Busyness Singularity”? | Monday Advice

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Self-improvement, Technology, Education

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There has been lots of discussion recently about AI eliminating jobs. But what if the real fear is that AI will instead make existing jobs miserable? In this episode, Cal argues that LLM–based tools are poised to accelerate the worst aspects of pseudo-productivity to an absurd degree. He then shares five ideas for avoiding this fate in your own professional life. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvo Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia (0:00) How Do I Escape the “Busyness Singularity”? (29:03) Reaction to Cal’s newsletter about LLMs (33:35) Slow productivity for managers (37:26) Efforts to improve cognitive fitness (40:28) What Cal is reading (42:21) What Cal is up to Books: In Defense of Food (Michael Pollan) Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/ Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba? https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/05/14/prepare-for-an-ai-jobs-apocalypse https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/technology/newsom-ai-executive-order-california.html https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/breaking-down-infinite-workday https://www.axios.com/2023/02/15/burnout-2022-2023-slack-remote-work-future-forum https://calnewport.com/on-god-and-llms/ Thanks to our Sponsors: https://www.shopify.com/deep https://www.larridin.com https://www.masterclass.com/deep https://www.expressvpn.com/deep Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There are a lot of concerns in our current discourse about work and technology.
0:06.5	Here, for example, is an economist article from just a couple of weeks ago.
0:10.3	The headline reads,
0:12.2	Prepare for an AI jobs apocalypse.
0:15.1	It is not here yet, but government should lay a safety net.
0:19.9	Yikes.
0:20.9	Right.
0:21.2	Now, here's a Times headline from just last week.
0:24.1	California's governor signs AI order aimed at protecting workers.
0:29.1	Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to explore an overhaul of labor policies to deal with
0:34.1	potential mass job displacement from artificial intelligence.
0:39.1	Now, notice what these examples have in common.
0:41.3	They're all about the potential catastrophic loss of jobs that might occur if technology
0:47.2	automates existing roles.
0:50.3	But there's another possibility that people haven't been discussing as much, but it's a possibility that I've increasingly come to worry about.
0:59.1	What if the real fear with new advancements like AI is not that these technologies are going to take your job, but instead are going to make your job miserable?
1:09.6	And if this is true, what specifically can you do to avoid this fate?
1:15.7	Well, it's Monday, meaning it's time for an advice episode of this show, which is the perfect
1:20.6	opportunity to go seek out some answers.
1:24.7	All right, so here's the plan.
1:25.7	I'm going to start by telling you a story, a story about
1:29.4	how technology has slowly and somewhat accidentally made knowledge work jobs increasingly worse.
	...

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