Cal’s reflections on the evolution of personal productivity highlight an important shift from mere efficiency to meaningful engagement. It’s crucial to remember that true productivity isn’t about being busy; it’s about being effective in what truly matters. 👍
Hey Cal, big fan and love your podcast and books, and I’m going back and slowly reading through all of them. I wanted to namedrop Jonathan Pageau to you (in case he’s not already on your radar) because I think that you guys could have a really interesting conversation together. Thanks for everything you do, it really helps.
Nice mention of The Archive. I think it's sort of a successor to nvAlt, backed by a lot of thought into the art of Zettelkasten and knowledge management in general.
Good faith, nutrition, sleep and overall health keeps goals attainable and the fatigue at bay. Our forefathers conquered empires. What we do is nothing in comparison.
Cal! Big fan - I work for Bullet Journal and I know you've interviewed with Ryder in the past - please chat about how the Bullet Journal method (in its ACTUAL form of System + Practice, not social media version) can be a great tool and practice for productivity!
People like Cal Newport will never understand the power dynamics that most people have to deal with at work. Our frenetic pace is enforced as a matter of labor discipline. People didn’t just decide that they prefer to engage in productivity theater. Very little of what "gets done" is productive.
Yes Cal, the general audience is still buying the book because the general audience is desperate for some sanity and clarity around work, life besides work and a completely rigged economy and unfortunately it’s most likely that the elite circles with their critiques are doing more justice to the concerns of the larger audience than the book. I’m not an economist and I’m not even too financially literate. I know this. Whatever is being said about the current economy and how great it is, life has changed drastically in the last 20 years and not in a good way and people are feeling it. I feel like at this point in your life, like Sam Harris, try as you do to relate to the experience of the other 92%, you just can’t. You’re in an elite realm and there’s a fog bank below obscuring your ability to know what it’s really like down below.
I’m not sure that the “elites” are able to appreciate the problems either, at least academics are often quite divorced from the realities of a market economy because they’re operating outside of those constraints, e.g. if you can write papers with Marxist critiques of capitalism you’re not really serving actual market demand (at least I don’t know any regular people who would pay money for something like that). While even the marxists can be on point about some of the problems their proposed solutions have the luxury of never being tested practically. Real solutions will have to come from practitioners, I think they might also suffer from having too much academic training, additionally those who end up in leadership positions are often the “survivors’ who manage to play a rigged game very well.
a missing point is ai as a productivity tool and a danger to the future of work. i'd say it's the biggest topic in the last year or two, not 'humanistic productivity' - that's just work/life balance that was discussed to death already.
Stop referring to better health as psychotherapy it is nothing even close to that it is maybe coaching but they don't even maintain confidence reality of records they may have a license but they're not actually engaging in psychotherapy by sending a goddamn f****** text back and forth to somebody. I have been a psychotherapist for 35 years and every time you talk about better help you're insulting my career and everyone else who actually does psychotherapy you're insulting your audience knock it off. 😡
Cal’s reflections on the evolution of personal productivity highlight an important shift from mere efficiency to meaningful engagement. It’s crucial to remember that true productivity isn’t about being busy; it’s about being effective in what truly matters. 👍
Great look at the history! This was very interesting.
Keep enlightening the youth, we love you and god bless
Cal, thank you so much for content.... super insightful and helpful.. excited to read your book
Hey Cal, big fan and love your podcast and books, and I’m going back and slowly reading through all of them.
I wanted to namedrop Jonathan Pageau to you (in case he’s not already on your radar) because I think that you guys could have a really interesting conversation together.
Thanks for everything you do, it really helps.
Nice mention of The Archive. I think it's sort of a successor to nvAlt, backed by a lot of thought into the art of Zettelkasten and knowledge management in general.
Good faith, nutrition, sleep and overall health keeps goals attainable and the fatigue at bay.
Our forefathers conquered empires. What we do is nothing in comparison.
1:48:57
1:51:40
Cal! Big fan - I work for Bullet Journal and I know you've interviewed with Ryder in the past - please chat about how the Bullet Journal method (in its ACTUAL form of System + Practice, not social media version) can be a great tool and practice for productivity!
When I say "there is nothing to do." And surfing on youtube, realize this vid comes in 43 min ago.
People like Cal Newport will never understand the power dynamics that most people have to deal with at work. Our frenetic pace is enforced as a matter of labor discipline. People didn’t just decide that they prefer to engage in productivity theater. Very little of what "gets done" is productive.
Yes Cal, the general audience is still buying the book because the general audience is desperate for some sanity and clarity around work, life besides work and a completely rigged economy and unfortunately it’s most likely that the elite circles with their critiques are doing more justice to the concerns of the larger audience than the book. I’m not an economist and I’m not even too financially literate. I know this. Whatever is being said about the current economy and how great it is, life has changed drastically in the last 20 years and not in a good way and people are feeling it. I feel like at this point in your life, like Sam Harris, try as you do to relate to the experience of the other 92%, you just can’t. You’re in an elite realm and there’s a fog bank below obscuring your ability to know what it’s really like down below.
I’m not sure that the “elites” are able to appreciate the problems either, at least academics are often quite divorced from the realities of a market economy because they’re operating outside of those constraints, e.g. if you can write papers with Marxist critiques of capitalism you’re not really serving actual market demand (at least I don’t know any regular people who would pay money for something like that). While even the marxists can be on point about some of the problems their proposed solutions have the luxury of never being tested practically. Real solutions will have to come from practitioners, I think they might also suffer from having too much academic training, additionally those who end up in leadership positions are often the “survivors’ who manage to play a rigged game very well.
Which book?
Know what prevents things from getting done? 2hr long vids about productivity. Love Cal but but all his vids are WAY too long.
a missing point is ai as a productivity tool and a danger to the future of work. i'd say it's the biggest topic in the last year or two, not 'humanistic productivity' - that's just work/life balance that was discussed to death already.
Stop referring to better health as psychotherapy it is nothing even close to that it is maybe coaching but they don't even maintain confidence reality of records they may have a license but they're not actually engaging in psychotherapy by sending a goddamn f****** text back and forth to somebody. I have been a psychotherapist for 35 years and every time you talk about better help you're insulting my career and everyone else who actually does psychotherapy you're insulting your audience knock it off. 😡