Cal Newport

speaker

1,088 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 22 Jul

Cal Newport’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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The Liz Moody Podcast · How To Work Less This Summer (And Still Get MORE Done) · 22 Jul 2026 podcast

As you get better at something really valuable, you get this instinct to be less busy.

And then over time, you gain the ability to act on that instinct.

So this very same initiative, I want to get better at something that really matters to me.

This very same initiative both gives you the instinct to slow down and the leverage you need to actually achieve that goal.

Well, at the very least, you have to care about something you do in your job.

And if it's not there, invent it.

OK, I'm going to change within my same position, like what I'm working on.

I'm going to volunteer to work on this instead of that, because what I need is something that is hard that I can do well and I can get better at.

And as I get better at it,

I'll get recognized for that and get more leverage.

I call it the accumulation of career capital.

If you don't have the ability to accumulate career capital, which is I'm getting better and better at something that's rare and valuable, it is very difficult for you to craft your working life into something that matches you and is sustainable and is rewarding.

It really is the key engine of designing a professional life that over time becomes increasingly sustainable and rewarding.

So yeah, if your job has none of that,

You need to start figuring out how do I get something like that into my job?

Yeah, I think early in your career, it's all about getting as much career capital as possible as quickly as possible.

You can't expect your job to be great until you're great at something.

So in your first years in a job, you should not have your antenna up saying, what is this job offering me?

Do I like this job?

Is another job gonna be better?

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