Why Do Better Tools Make Me Worse at My Job? (w/ David Epstein) | Monday Advice
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How can I shift from being busy to being better?
In 1984, a former physicist turned business guru named Eliyahu Goldratt published a strange book. It was called The Goal, and it was what Goldratt described as a business novel. Now, this book follows the fate of a fictional plant manager named Alex Rogo, who meets an enigmatic physicist who, through a series of long Socratic dialogues, helps Rogo...
What is the Theory of Constraints and how does it relate to productivity?
turnaround the profitability of his plant. It also features a storyline about Rogo's marriage, as well as a sort of extended detour to a Boy Scout camping trip. I told you, this is a strange book. But here's the thing. The goal went on to sell more than 10 million copies. Why? Because contained within those novelistic plot lines is a critically important idea that Goldratt calls the theory of constraints. Now, I've come to believe that this theory helps explain a paradox that I talk about often on this show. The reality that digital tools designed to make us more productive often end up instead just making us more busy. Now, if you want to know why this happened and how you can avoid it, how, in other words, to shift from busy to better, then you need to understand the theory of constraints.
Well, today is Monday, which means it's time for an advice episode of this show. So this is the perfect opportunity to dive deeper into the question of how this old theory can solve a lot of new problems in productivity.
How did David Epstein's experiences influence his views on productivity?
All right, here's my plan. I've asked the number one New York Times bestselling author, David Epstein, to join me to talk about all things constraints. Why did I invite Dave? Because I learned about Goldratt and the ideas that he talks about in the goal from Dave's brand new book, which is called Inside the Box, How Constraints Make Us Better, a book that is coming out tomorrow. So you definitely need to check it out. Now, in our conversation, Dave and I focus on one chapter of his new book in particular where he introduced the goal and talks about theory of constraints and gives a bunch of stories about what this theory actually meant. So I thought he'd be a great guide to understanding what's going on here.
He's going to help me in this conversation understand the underlying theory. Then we apply these ideas to our own lives as writers, and almost immediately I come up with – some new ideas for improving my productivity based on the foundation that we're going to lay in this conversation. So if you yearn to do more important work, but feel like all of your efforts to get things done have just left you feeling more frantic and exhausted, or maybe you're just curious why a small business novel went on to sell millions upon millions of copies, then this episode is for you. All right, so let's get into it. As always, I'm Cal Newport, and this is Deep Questions, the show for seeking depth in a distracted world.
All right, well, Dave, I'm really happy to have you here because I read your new book, Inside the Box. which is great and I recommend, you know, Epstein books are fantastic, read the book.
What examples illustrate the Theory of Constraints in action?
But there was one chapter in particular that really caught my attention because it gets to this question that we've been grappling with here on the show. And I thought you have some insights that are gonna really help us understand a core issue on the Deep Questions podcast. So I'm glad you're here because I'm going to first pick your brain about what you wrote in that chapter and then hopefully together, We are going to apply it to help tackle this question of why do productivity technologies often end up making us feel busy but not actually like we're producing more. I assume when you wrote this chapter, you, of course, had me and my productivity obsessions in mind. Is that – that's accurate, I assume.
It's really just for me.
Absolutely. I typically find it's very clarifying if I just build all of my work life around things that I think Cal Newport would be interested in or can use. So it really adds a lot of structure to my life.
It's what I recommend to everybody. I'm surprised more people don't, but okay. So let's, I want my audience to, to, to bear with me.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How can I shift from being busy to being better?
0:00–0:26
2
What is the Theory of Constraints and how does it relate to productivity?
0:26–1:36
3
How did David Epstein's experiences influence his views on productivity?
1:36–3:17
4
What examples illustrate the Theory of Constraints in action?
3:17–4:35
5
How can personal bottlenecks affect productivity?
4:35–6:02
6
What strategies can help manage digital distractions?
6:02–7:03
7
How do digital tools impact our productivity?
7:03–8:57
8
What lessons can we draw from this episode for our own work?
8:57–1:21:04
Speakers
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