Being busy and being productive are not the same thing. Cal Newport, computer science professor at Georgetown and author of Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, has spent years making that case. This is the second of three episodes from the archive that we're revisiting this month on the subject of time. In it, Cal joins Jessi to zoom out and ask: what does it really mean to get meaningful work done over the course of our weeks, our months, and even our years?
In this episode, Jessi and Cal discuss:
Why "pseudo-productivity" — using visible activity as a proxy for real work — was always a bad idea, and why mobile computing made it unsustainable
How the pandemic pushed knowledge work past a breaking point
The administrative overhead trap: why agreeing to too many things at once is slowing you down
How to say no to new work without actually saying no, and why transparency is the key
Why boredom is essential
What your phone has to do with short-circuiting the most human productivity tool we have
Cal's rule for his kids on smartphones and social media, and the age he thinks unrestricted internet access becomes safe
Why doing fewer things at once will get you to the finish line faster
What AI tools like ChatGPT are actually good for, and what Cal is waiting for them to do instead
The difference between technology that helps you do things faster and technology that takes things off your plate entirely
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