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Cal Newport

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
See mentions of this person in podcasts
2293 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

Like, that's really clear.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

We don't have those limits as clear in the culture for other types of jobs that we probably should.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

If you're at a high-wage hourly rate,

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

build job like a law partner at a big law firm there the economic model is the more you work the more profitable it is and we'll pay you big money to do this but like you should basically work as much as you can that your body will take it that's the economic engine that's why I think those jobs are those jobs are scary if you're a novelist

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

that writes literary fiction.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

So you're like, I really need to be award nominated for each book, or I'm going to fall out of this like slipstream of, because no one's going to read these books unless they're some of the best books.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

Then you should be doing like four hours in the morning and then just

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

disappear right like you should be doing all very little more work than that because almost anything else will get in the way of you like sticking in that position and so it all just depends on what on what you do you know didn't you look at some experiment of shorter work weeks yeah what what did you learn from that

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

There was a lot of these right around the pandemic, right before and then right after, in Europe and Iceland.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

So some European studies, I think Germany did one, Iceland did one, UK did one.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

And they were looking at four-day work weeks.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

So what would happen if we take away one day?

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

The interesting thing about those experiments is what they found is whatever measures of productivity they came up with, they didn't get worse, which I thought was very interesting.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

they took a day away and yet the perceived productivity or the measured productivity didn't go down.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

There's two ways to look at it.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

The one way to look at it is to say, oh, this means that we should have a four-day work week because things didn't get worse.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

Maybe.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

But to me, there's a bigger observation that came out of that, which is like, wait, so what are we doing during the work days?

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

There's something going on here that should really catch our attention.

Modern Wisdom
#1067 - Cal Newport - The collapse of modern attention (and how to get it back)

What does work mean?