Tag: cal newport
On Thomas Edison, Technophobia, and Social Media Criticism
Source: On Thomas Edison, Technophobia, and Social Media Criticism February 10, 2020 I recently finished Edmund Morris’s epic new Thomas Edison biography. It took me a while to get used to his reverse chronology structure (he works backwards from Edison’s later years to his earlier years), but once I did, I found it riveting. One ...
Reflections on the Disconnected Life by Cal Newport
Reflections on the Disconnected Life November 25, 2019 Not long ago, an Australian media professor named Robert Hassan boarded the CGM CMA Rossini, a container ship, at a dock in Melbourne. He had arranged to stay on the ship for its five week passage to Singapore. He brought a handful of books, but no phone, ...
Senator Hawley on Social Media: “addiction is actually the point.” by Cal Newport
Senator Hawley on Social Media: “addiction is actually the point.” June 29, 2019 Photo by Natureofthought. Early last month, Josh Hawley, the newly-elected senator from Missouri, gave a speech about big tech at the Hoover Institute. He made a couple points that caught my attention, such as when he said this: “Social media only works ...
Naval Ravikant, Email, and the Future of Work by Cal Newport
Naval Ravikant, Email, and the Future of Work June 19, 2019 In a recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Naval Ravikant referenced economist Ronald Coase’s 1937 paper, “The Nature of the Firm,” which later helped Coase win a Nobel prize. The mathematical details of this paper are dense, but on Rogan’s show, Ravikant summarizes its ...
On the Pleasures and Sorrows of Life Without Screens by Cal Newport
On the Pleasures and Sorrows of Life Without Screens June 1, 2019 Photo by Marketa. I recently received a message from a friend of mine, a young man named Mike. He told me that Digital Minimalism had changed his life. Naturally, I asked him to elaborate what he meant. In response, he listed the following ...
Novelist Mark Haddon Quit Twitter. Not Because It’s Terrible, But Because It Prevents Him From Being Great by Cal Newport
Source: Novelist Mark Haddon Quit Twitter. Not Because It’s Terrible, But Because It Prevents Him From Being Great May 18, 2019 Photo by Luis Marina. Last week, the British novelist Mark Haddon wrote an essay for the Financial Times about his recent decision to take a break from Twitter. What I liked about this piece ...
Cal Newport On the Utility Fallacy
But as I’ve learned in my years thinking and writing about such issues, when it comes to consumer-facing technologies, the more important story is almost always how they end up mutating our socio-cultural dynamics.
On Monks and Email by Cal Newport
On Monks and Email April 29, 2019 Medieval monks thought a lot about thinking. As University of Georgia history professor Jamie Kreiner elaborates in a recent Aeon article: “Their job, more than anything else, was to focus on divine communication. For these monks, the meditating mind wasn’t supposed to be at ease. It was supposed ...
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Quits Facebook. The Media Bungled the Story. by Cal Newport
AOC Quit Facebook. The Media Bungled the Story. April 18, 2019 Photo by bruce mars from Pexels Over the weekend, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced on a podcast that she was quitting Facebook as part of her efforts to cut back on her social media use more generally. This was big news because the 29-year-old AOC is ...
Is Social Media Undermining Religion? by Cal Newport
Source: Digital Minimalism and God (Or, is Social Media Undermining Religion?) April 9, 2019 Photo by Oliver Sjöström from Pexels Those who know Martin Luther King Jr.’s story well, know that January 27, 1956, was a pivotal date for the young minister. Only one month earlier, still a newcomer in town, King, to his surprise, ...