How Your Phone Is Changing You - What Happens When You Mindlessly Scroll | Cal Newport

When your phone is always within reach, you’re never fully present in the real world; it’s like living life through a fog.

So, as most of you probably know, I am not a heavy phone user. I do own a smartphone, but I don't use any social media, so my phone just isn't that interesting to me. When I work, I time block my day, so the idea of just casually looking at my phone for distraction is also something that I'm just not that used to.

That was until last week when a couple of things happened at the same time. First, I got sick and was home for about a week; you might still hear it in my voice today. During that time, I found myself without much to do, often bored, and my phone was there. Suddenly, I was looking at that thing much more than I normally would. To pile on, we had Hurricane Helen here in the States, which caused disastrous flooding in Asheville. I have a good friend in Asheville, so I was really plugged in, following the news and trying to piece together from various online sources, minute by minute, what was going on up there. This also got me looking at my phone even more.

There was this period, less than a week, but it was a time in which I was constantly using my phone. It punctuated everything that was going on in my life, and I'll tell you, here's my review of that period: it was terrible. The scary thing is, I think this is how a lot of people live, basically all the time, with that phone just sort of always there, never that far away from their life. This concerns me based on my experience.

What I want to talk about today is what happens when your phone plays a constant presence in your life. Let's define and explore this phenomenon and then discuss some solutions for what you could do if you want to get away from that.

To start, let's explain what happens when you use your phone that much. The statistic here I think is helpful: how often do we check our phones? According to one survey I found from reviews.org, which aligns with other data I've seen, Americans now check their phone an average of 144 times a day. We're also spending an average of 4 hours and 25 minutes total each day on our phone; that latter statistic is up 30% from last year. If you do the math on 144 checks of your phone per day and assume a roughly 16-hour waking day, that's checking your phone roughly every 6.7 minutes. This means the average American has the networked digital world essentially never far from their attention; it is a constant cognitive presence.

For the sake of our discussion today, let's call this state continuous partial participation in the networked digital. Most people, or at least a lot of people, right now exist in a state of this continuous partial participation in the networked digital. That's what I experienced last week, and it felt terrible.

Now, let's try to understand what goes wrong in this particular state. The first problem has to do with brain fog. I noticed this in my own experiments with continuous partial participation: it was as if I was experiencing the actual world around me through a fog. I could see what was going on, I was having conversations with people, and I knew where I was, but it was like you turned down the resolution on a video camera. The colors weren't so bright, and the details of what was going on were not as vivid. You were there, but only sort of kind of there, like you were remembering being there, not actually being in the physical situation that surrounded you.

This makes sense if we think about that statistic we looked at. When you're in this state of continuous partial participation in the networked digital, you are never far from being exposed to this online world. There’s a lot of information you've encountered that requires processing, especially since it's often highly salient information. Your brain is dedicating resources to processing and making sense of what you last saw when you looked at your phone. When you put your phone away, your brain doesn’t just snap and focus on the new thing you're doing; it's still trying to make sense of what it just encountered.

Thus, you don't have 100% of the normal cognitive resources that would typically be dedicated to the world around you at your disposal. A non-trivial portion is still trying to process the digital world. This is fine if you transition from the digital world somewhat permanently to the real world. For example, after watching a movie, maybe for 10 minutes, you're not completely present because your mind's making sense of the ending. But after about 10 or 15 minutes, you become present. However, when you're checking your phone every 6.7 minutes, you never actually get that freedom. Consequently, you see the world as if through a fog when your mind is never that far from encountering the network.

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Your perception of reality is shaped by what you choose to focus on, and if you're constantly plugged into a negative digital world, you're crafting a life you don't want to live.

The thing you're doing is still trying to make sense of what it just encountered. Therefore, you don't have 100% of the normal cognitive resources that would be dedicated to the world around you right now at your disposal. A non-trivial portion of your mind is still trying to process the digital world. This is fine if you transition from the digital world somewhat permanently to the real world. For example, after watching a movie, you might find that for about 10 minutes, you're not completely present because your mind is making sense of the ending. However, after about 10 or 15 minutes, you become present again.

In contrast, when you're checking your phone every 6.7 minutes, you never actually achieve that freedom. Instead, you see the world as if through a fog, as your mind is never that far from encountering the network. The second problem relates to your perception of the world itself and how you understand what's going on around you. I want to read a quote here; it's a little lengthy, but I think it's a good one. This quote is from an important book that came out in 2009, written by the science writer Winfred Gallagher, titled Wrapped: Attention and the Focused Life.

I often reference this book because it was influential to me, and I quote it somewhat extensively in my 2016 book, Deep Work. Let me quote Winfred Gallagher here: "Your experience largely depends on the material objects and mental subjects that you choose to pay attention to or ignore. This is not an imaginative notion but a physiological fact. When you focus on a stop sign, a sonnet, a waft of perfume, or a stock market tip, your brain registers that target, which enables it to affect your behavior. In contrast, things that you don’t attend to, in a sense, don’t exist—at least for you. All day long, you are selectively paying attention to something, and much more often than you may suspect, you can take charge of this process to good effect. Indeed, your ability to focus on this and suppress that is the key to controlling your experience and ultimately your well-being."

So, what Gallagher is saying here can be summarized as follows: your world is what you pay attention to. We tell ourselves this myth that there is just an objective world around us that we see through our senses. However, that is not really what we are experiencing. We are experiencing a mental construction of the world inside our brains. Some of it is visual, some auditory, some relates to what you smell, and some pertains to how you feel. Ultimately, your perception of the world is shaped by what you pay attention to.

What happens when we have this continuous partial participation in the online world? We end up spending a non-trivial amount of our attention targeting things that are highly emotionally salient. These are the things that push buttons, making them something we want to look at on our phones. This could be fear, outrage, or an emotional charge. It could also be a constant exposure to epicness—like the surfer on the biggest wave or the super-violent crime. Things are often exaggerated past scale online.

Moreover, it is a world of deep cynicism, where people are cutting each other down and trying to take each other out. They are carefully looking for taboo violations or trying to police their own. This is a world that is not so pleasant; it is a mix of Red Bull, MTV, and Orwell. If you are looking at this network digital once every 6.7 minutes, the construction of the world that exists in your mind is going to overlap heavily with this amalgam of MTV, Red Bull, and Orwell. Consequently, your perception of yourself, the life you lead, and the world surrounding you is going to be dark, exhausted, strained, upset, and in a defensive crouch.

It literally makes your world worse. What you pay attention to constructs your world, and we are paying attention to things that create worlds we don't actually like spending time in. I had a memory—a really strong sense memory—when I was thinking about this portion of this deep dive discussion. I don’t know why I remember this, but it was a random day from my 20s, specifically during the 2000s, when I was a doctoral student at MIT.

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What you focus on shapes your reality; choose wisely to create a world you actually want to live in.

With this amalgam of MTV, Red Bull, and Orwell, your perception of yourself and the life that you lead, along with the world that surrounds you, is going to be dark. It’s going to be exhausted, strained out, upset, and in a defensive crouch. It literally makes your world worse. What you pay attention to constructs your world, and we are paying attention to things that construct worlds that we don't actually like spending time in.

I had a memory, a really strong sense memory, when I was thinking about this portion of this deep dive discussion. I don’t know why I remember this, but it was a random day from my 20s, specifically in the 2000s. This memory comes from when I was a doctoral student at MIT, likely around 2006 or 2007. For whatever reason, I got this really clear memory of that day. I remembered that it was pre-smartphones; I mean, I didn’t use social media, and even if I wanted to back then, it didn’t exist. Facebook was around, but I didn’t have a phone, and I didn’t use anything.

I have this memory of what a day was like back then. I remember stopping at the Abon Pan on Main Street as I went from the Kindle subway station on my way to Vaster Street and ultimately to the Status Center. I got an egg sandwich and thought, “This is great! I like the egg sandwich here. Isn’t it great just to eat an egg sandwich?” I remember being in my office, probably working on a paper and then working on a blog post. Back in the day, I was blogging three days a week, so I probably wrote a blog post that day.

What I remember about that day was that it was sunny; it was April. I know this because it was Marathon Day. I thought, “It’s great! It’s sunny in Boston, and spring is coming.” I left early to watch the marathon, and I had the Red Sox game on. They play early on the day of the marathon, and I had one of those little radios you could plug in. I was listening to the game, enjoying the sun, and thinking, “This is nice.” It was just nice that it was sunny, and spring was great. I was excited that it was going to be warmer, baseball season had started, and I was probably looking forward to watching a Netflix DVD that had arrived in the mail. Maybe my wife and I were going to the farmers market to get something for dinner. It was just pleasant.

It was about paying attention to what you were doing, appreciating what was nice about the day, and looking forward to some upcoming events. The world my mind created that day was a really nice world to be in. It would have been very different if I had a phone and was on social media, constantly checking in on things. I would have had one foot in a digital world that wasn’t nearly as pleasant as just wandering over to the Federal Plaza. I remember there was a food truck owned by my doctoral adviser’s son, and I got some food from there while walking over to watch the marathon. It was all great—just paying attention to the moment.

It would have been so different if I had been in a state of continuous partial participation in the network. This is what Winner Fred Gallagher discusses in his book. The motivation for that book about attention stems from a cancer diagnosis. She learns that by paying attention to things that matter to her and to the positive, she was able to construct a world that was pretty sunny, even as she was going through objectively darker times. It matters what world you’re exposed to.

All right, the third problem is lack of quiet. It is in the long pauses in life, when nothing much is happening, that your mind slows down and quiets, allowing for real insight. The Catholics have a good term for this process; they call it discernment. They discuss this in terms of turning your intention inward to try to understand the sort of will of God.

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Quiet moments are where true clarity and insight emerge; embrace stillness to reconnect with what truly matters.

All right, the third problem is lack of quiet. It is in the long pauses in life, when nothing much is happening, that your mind slows down and quiets, and real insight can be had. The Catholics have a good term for this process; they call it discernment. They discuss this in terms of turning your intention inward to try to understand the sort of will of God. However, it's a concept that has secularized nicely. When you are quiet and turned inward, you are alone with your thoughts and looking at the world around you. This is when some of your most profound insights come, and where you identify some of the sharpest clarity. You realize, "Here's where I am, here's what matters to me, here's what doesn't, here's the path I want to be on, here's how I have left that path, but how I might actually get back."

When something really difficult happens to you, this is where you process that. You make sense of it and gain resilient growth from it. Cognitive quiet is so critical to a life that is not just rich and fulfilling, but a life that you can continually aim back towards meaning and depth. Obviously, if you exist in a state of continuous partial participation in the digital network, you don't get that quiet. Why would you tolerate that quiet when there is a perfectly distracting TikTok video just a second away? You pull that out, hit that button, and you are taken away.

I have to say, my experience of living this way last week was eye-opening. It's not like these distractions are fantastic; the allure to your screen, that drive to go back to your screen, is stronger than the reward you actually get. I found that looking at my phone and scrolling was numbing in a weird, unsettling way. You feel just sort of vaguely uneasy, as if the edges have been rounded off your emotions—both positive and negative. So, it's not like you're getting something wonderful; you're actually numbing yourself with it. That was my experience of it. The quiet is where so much of life is actually figured out.

So, if we don't want to exist in this state, what can we do? I'm going to give six ideas. You've heard some of these before, but let's just put them one after another. How do you escape a state of continuous partial participation in the digital network?

1. Make your phone less interesting. Take the social media apps off your phone. Stop using social media if it's not vital to you. If it is vital, use it on your computer, but don't have it on your phone. Don't put games on your phone, and don't put the YouTube app on your phone. Your phone should now be dedicated to phone calls, text messages, information like maps, and audio content. Remember the original vision of the iPhone that Steve Jobs laid out when he first introduced it in 2007? He envisioned a really useful phone combined with your iPod so you don't have to carry two devices. That's a great vision! I can scroll through my voicemail instead of having to dial into a voicemail system, listen to podcasts and music really well, and if I need to look something up, there's a map.

2. Treat your workspace like it's a phone-free school. There is a big push going on right now towards phone-free schools, and I'm a fan of this. The idea is not to have your phone out in the classroom but to have it out in the hallway or at lunch. The model is that your phone goes away when you walk in the door, and you don't get it back until you walk back out. We have too much research indicating that this is so much better for kids. Their minds can focus completely on what's happening in school and the people around them without being distracted by their phones. They know they will see that phone soon and want to check what's going on. We know it's a much better experience. This holds true for adults as well. Kids might be a little more susceptible to the distractions or the impact of these distractions, but it applies to everyone.

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Create a phone-free zone in your life to boost focus and presence, just like a school. Set boundaries, schedule your online time, and savor real-life moments.

I am a fan of phone-free schools. In these environments, students do not have their phones out in the classroom but can use them in the hallway or at lunch. The model I envision is that your phone goes away when you walk in the door, and you don’t get it back until you walk back out. We have too much research indicating that this approach is much better for students. When the minds of kids can focus completely on what's happening in school and the people around them, they are not distracted by their phones. Knowing that they will see their phones soon also reduces distraction, as they want to check what’s going on. We know it’s a much better experience, and this principle holds true for adults as well. While kids might be a little more susceptible to distractions, adults are not immune to them.

To improve focus in the workplace, treat it like a phone-free school. One effective way to do this is by putting your phone on a custom Do Not Disturb mode that blocks everything except phone calls. Inform the important people in your life that if there’s an emergency, they can call you. In reality, emergencies are rare, so they will seldom call. You don’t need to worry about missing urgent messages, as important calls will come through. Put your ringer on, place your phone in your bag, and refrain from using it while working. If a call comes in, you will hear it, but avoid text messaging and social media. This creates a simulated phone-free school environment in your workplace.

If you need to check messages or organize something, schedule specific times for that. For example, during your lunch break, you can take out your phone to catch up on texts. At the end of those conversations, you might say, “I’m about to put my phone away for the rest of the day.” This sets clear expectations, and people will learn within a week that you are not constantly available for texting during the day. They will understand that you check your phone midday and are accessible after work hours.

Next, treat online content browsing like you would watching television shows. Remember how it felt in 2009 when you were excited to watch a specific episode? You would plan your evening around it, perhaps watching "The Office" followed by "Parks and Recreation." This is very different from watching random clips throughout the day. You should make your online entertainment more structured. Set aside a specific time, like half an hour or an hour, to enjoy your online activities. Load up your laptop to check on your favorite baseball team or follow Instagram influencers. Consolidate your online entertainment into a designated time rather than allowing it to be a constant distraction throughout the day.

The last two ideas are more non-digital. First, actively practice presence and gratitude. Create enjoyable experiences and look forward to them. When you are in the moment, force yourself to acknowledge, “This is great; I’m really enjoying this.” Afterward, reflect on the experience by saying, “That was great.” For example, plan to go for a walk in the woods after finishing your work. Bring your favorite tea, journal on a rock, and consciously enjoy the moment. This practice retrains your brain to pay attention and appreciate what is happening right now. I was much better at this during my grad school days, and it made a significant difference.

Finally, consider going analog in your activities. Embrace experiences that do not involve screens or digital devices, allowing yourself to be fully present in the moment.

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Train your mind to savor the moment, whether it's a walk in the woods or journaling on a rock. Embrace the analog life and disconnect from digital distractions to truly enjoy your experiences.

Experience that you're going to enjoy is something we should all strive for. It's important to look forward to the experience when you're in it. You need to force yourself to actually sit there and think and say, "This is great, I'm really liking this." When you're done, reflect on it and say, "That was great."

For instance, I am going to go for a walk in the woods after I do a shutdown. I plan to bring my favorite tea with me, and I will journal on this rock. I will look forward to the walk, enjoy it while I'm doing it, and have moments where I think, "Isn't this great?" This is all about retraining your brain to pay attention to the moment and enjoy what's happening in it. I was much better at this back in those grad school days I was talking about, and it made a big difference.

Finally, go analog in your activities. Journaling helps; it could be the structured journaling we talked about in an earlier episode, or it could be you working through a particular issue. Journaling is analog and interior, meaning there’s no digital distraction. Read real books; reading is great because it slows everything down. After five or ten minutes, your brain is fully committed to constructing the world on your page, which helps you escape that sort of brain fog and partial attention existence.

Additionally, read more and spend more time outside. Go for walks, go for long walks, go for runs, or go for rows—whatever it is. These analog experiences heighten your awareness of yourself and encourage you to pay attention to the world around you.

I did not enjoy being in a state of continuous partial attention towards the networked digital world, and I don't think you should be in that state either. You don't have to be in that state; it's not worth it unless you have a lot of stock in Meta or ByteDance, the company that makes TikTok. If you don't, you don’t need this in your life.

To improve your experience, reduce the footprint of your phone. Give yourself full attention to what you're doing, whether it's all digital or you're all in the real world. Hopefully, those ideas will resonate with you.

Regarding my own experience, I was not a happy man; I was feeling quite depressed. I found myself scrolling for the Asheville news, discovering a lot of information on Twitter. I don’t have the Twitter app on my phone; I only access it through a browser.

For most of the accounts, I have these burner accounts for journalism purposes because you can't look at them without some context. I have a longstanding burner account that allows me to look at individual people's feeds. Since I don’t use Twitter in a conventional way, I don’t have a timeline or follow people. Instead, I go directly to individuals’ profiles to see what they are saying.

I was searching for someone on the ground who had cellular access to get updates. I also looked at local news clips and updates to see what was happening in Asheville. This process was about consolidating news, and it actually served a purpose. I eventually found out that my friend got out of there, but it wasn’t easy since almost all the roads were destroyed due to flooding.

I found a post on Reddit while Google searching. Someone had shared that they made it out and that I-26 was open south of Asheville, which was the only interstate open in all four cardinal directions. However, to get there, you had to detour because it was closed in Asheville. The post included very specific back road detours that would eventually lead to I-26, far enough south to avoid the flooding.

So, I provided this escape plan to my friend, and it worked. He managed to get out by following the map. You saved him! It’s still the only way out of Asheville right now, and it’s a bad situation. Man, it’s stressful. There are so many stressful things going on in the world that you could constantly be in that state.

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In a world filled with chaos and constant emergencies, remember to prioritize your mental health and nurture your relationship with your own mind.

The open south of Asheville is currently the only Interstate available in all four cardinal directions. However, to reach it, one must take a detour, as it is closed in Asheville. This detour involves navigating specific back roads that will eventually lead you to I-26, far enough south to avoid the flooding. From there, you can connect to routes 74 and 80 to reach Charlotte. In fact, all that searching resulted in an escape plan for a friend, which I provided to him. He followed the map, and it worked! I actually saved him, as this is still the only way out of Asheville right now. It’s a bad situation.

The stress of these circumstances is palpable. There are so many stressful things happening in the world that one could constantly be in a state of anxiety. For instance, we are recording this today after Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. There’s always something else to worry about; tomorrow, there will likely be another crisis. Additionally, there is a vice presidential debate coming up, which could easily lead to a rabbit hole of information and stress. It’s easy to find oneself in a state of continual emergency in this networked world, which is not a pleasant place to be.

Now, moving on from that heavy topic, I’m glad to be back in a more analog space. We have some good questions to address, but first, let’s hear from a sponsor. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. As I just mentioned, the stress and anxiety stemming from everything we see online is a good reminder that the most important relationship you have is with your own brain. If that relationship is strained, it’s essential to fix it, and one of the best ways to do that is through professional therapy.

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Now, with that said, let’s move on to some questions. Jesse, who do we have first? The first question is from Trevor: “I run a small business and have two managers who are disorganized. They always prioritize the urgent over the important and love to talk about stress and overwork. What can we do to better evangelize the Deep Life?”

I’m trying to decide if this is the right terminology to use here or not. When we talk about the Deep Life, we refer to the intentional construction of a life that focuses on the things that matter to you and minimizes the things that don’t. A bad job can certainly get in the way of realizing a deep life, but what you...

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To create a productive work environment, prioritize accountability over accessibility and seek bosses who embrace structured systems.

Today, we have a rated doctor, that's zooc. Let's move on to some questions. Jesse, who do we have first?

The first question is from Trevor. He mentions, "I run a small business and have two managers that are disorganized. They always prioritize the urgent over the important. They love to talk about stress and overwork. What can we do to better evangelize the Deep life?"

In response to Trevor's question, I'm trying to decide if this is the right terminology to use here or not. When we talk about the Deep life, we're discussing the intentional construction of a life that focuses on the things that matter to you and minimizes the things that don't. A bad job can get in the way of realizing a Deep life, but what you're evangelizing to your bosses is not the Deep life; rather, it's about having a sane way of actually working.

They don't need to know about the Deep life, but they do need to understand about administrative overhead and the context switching that occurs when you have too many things on your plate. More and more of your time is dedicated to servicing those obligations instead of actually finishing things. The rate at which you complete useful work goes down; it is not a linear function. The more stuff you push on your employees, the more stuff will get done—that's not how it works. They need to be aware of the cost of having to jump back and forth between different targets, especially when bosses demand instant responsiveness, always sending emails and making calls. This constant switching makes you less effective.

In a perfect world, you would make this case to your bosses. The relevant books I wrote that would be helpful are Deep Work, A World Without Email, and Slow Productivity. You could give them those books and hope they say, "I like the sound of this Cal guy; these ideas make sense." However, they might not be bad bosses, and it probably won't work.

So, what do you need to do then? You need to cash in your career capital to improve your situation. This could involve changing your setup with your employer so that you are willing to trade accountability for autonomy. Usually, this means focusing on just one thing, which is much more self-driven and autonomously executed, rather than juggling many easy tasks and being a general vessel for your boss's to-dos. You might say, "I handle this type of thing, so I'm not super accessible, but I'm pretty autonomous. In exchange, you can hold me very accountable. If I'm not delivering—if the numbers show I'm not producing value—you can get rid of me."

This type of trade works well because often, these types of bosses fear being taken advantage of or worry that you are not working hard. They might question why you want to work from home or be less accessible. By establishing accountability—showing them that you are creating measurable value—you can alleviate their fears. This allows them to focus on other employees who might need more oversight.

Another option is to simply find better bosses. When looking for a job, what should you be searching for regarding these issues? The main thing you should look for is not a particular idea they subscribe to about management or time management. Instead, you should seek an interest and openness to systems. Look for bosses who say, "Okay, you have a way you want to organize your work, and you have a reason for doing it that way. Great! I love that initiative; let's see how it goes."

You want to have bosses who, when you ask about their time management philosophy, will roll a whiteboard into the room and say, "Sit down; it's going to take a while." These are the bosses who think deeply about the actual structure and organization of work because they will be more open and adaptable to new ideas.

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Choose a boss who values systems over chaos; it's the key to a productive workplace.

When it comes to workplace issues, the main thing you should be looking for is not a particular idea that a boss subscribes to about management or time management. Instead, you should seek an interest and openness to systems. Bosses that say, "Okay, you have a way you want to organize your work; you have a reason you want to do it that way—great! I love that initiative. Try it, let's see how it goes," are the ones you want to work for.

You want to have bosses who, if you ask them about their time management philosophy, will roll a whiteboard into the room and say, "Sit down, it's going to take a while." These are bosses who think a lot about the actual structure and organization of work because they are likely to be more open and adaptable to you trying different systems of work. This approach can lead to a work environment that is less frenetic, less hyperactive, and less overloaded, with reduced context switching.

I believe that anti-system bosses—those who demand constant responsiveness and show no interest in effective systems or good working methods—are a significant problem. We often fail to qualify or quantify the impact of this issue adequately. Bosses that demand responsiveness often view work as merely a matter of whether you respond to them, which can be as detrimental as having a verbally abusive or incompetent boss. Such behavior can conflict with your ethical values, and we should treat it as a serious issue.

What I really care about is whether this is a workplace that respects the way the human brain functions and is open to people being critical and systematic about how they approach their day, time, and work. If it’s not, then I think we need warning sirens going off. We should be more willing to recognize this as a major problem. If more people pushed back against this and chose employers based on these criteria, I believe employers would improve.

I recently emailed Trevor, who is the overall boss, and discussed how the same advice likely holds true for the managers below him. I suggested that he give them the three books and, if they don’t engage with the material, he should consider letting them go. It’s important to establish systems: have them read the books and work with them to structure workloads and communication. By implementing the ideas from the books, I think they will come around to a much better way of working.

Those who struggle with a more systematic approach are often leveraging a smoke screen of artificial busyness to avoid actual work. These individuals may feel overwhelmed by the need to execute hard tasks on a schedule, which requires focus and organization. Some might prefer to jump back and forth between emails and calls, creating a facade of productivity. However, you don’t want those people in cognitive production-oriented positions; you need individuals capable of doing the hard cognitive work that produces value.

So, Trevor, you are in a better situation than you might have thought, but this advice holds for anyone whose boss is problematic.

Next, we have a question from Blake, a physician. He mentions that his interactions with patients are considered deep work, but he faces the challenge of context switching all day between different patients. He notes that physicians are evaluated by volume, with quality being secondary to his managers, as long as he avoids lawsuits. Blake asks how he can navigate this situation in a deep manner.

There are two related issues here. The first is the specific challenge of modern medical practice and the high volume of patients, which is a significant problem that I cannot solve, as it relates to medical care and reimbursement in this country. However, the second issue is important because it touches on a general point that applies to many professions.

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Shift your perspective on deep work: instead of viewing each patient interaction as a separate task, see them as part of one continuous session. This mindset helps maintain focus and reduces distractions.

In a recent discussion, a physician named Blake expressed his concerns regarding the nature of his work. He stated, "As I understand it, my interactions with patients are considered deep work." However, he faced a significant challenge: "I have to contact switch all day between different patients." Blake highlighted that physicians are evaluated by volume, and quality doesn't matter to his managers; he simply needs to avoid a lawsuit. He sought advice on how to navigate this situation in a deep manner.

In response, it was pointed out that there are two related issues at play. The first is the specific challenge of modern medical practice and the volume of patients, which is a pervasive problem in medical care and reimbursement in the country. The second issue is more general and pertains to the scale at which one measures deep work. The speaker noted that Blake views each patient engagement as a standalone deep work session. While this is indeed deep work—requiring concentration and the application of hard-won skills—the suggestion was made to expand the time scale of this deep work.

Instead of perceiving each patient as a separate session, it was proposed to view a morning spent with patients as one long deep work session. During this session, various problems arise, and the physician must maintain focus while pivoting between different cases. This approach encourages a sustained concentration over a longer period, rather than allowing distractions to creep in during brief interludes between patients. The speaker emphasized that "if you think okay this patient's one session, that patient is another session, you're going to release your focus in the 2 minutes in between." Instead, by treating the entire morning as a three-hour deep work session, Blake could enhance his focus and effectiveness.

To illustrate this point, the speaker provided examples from other fields. For instance, a math student working on a problem set would not see each problem as a separate context switch but rather as part of one cohesive deep work session. Similarly, a radio host answering multiple questions should view the entire Q&A as a single deep work session. The overarching message was to reframe fragmented deep work into a more unified experience, which can lead to improved concentration and productivity.

Next, the conversation shifted to Laura, who expressed her feelings of overwhelm regarding her organizational tools. She mentioned, "I have a remarkable two tablet, and why I love it, I'm still drawn to using other planners and single-purpose notebooks." Laura was seeking advice on how to merge these tools effectively. The speaker reassured her that the remarkable two functions like a stack of notebooks combined into one, alleviating the need to carry multiple physical notebooks. While the speaker also utilizes single-purpose notebooks for specific projects, they emphasized that the remarkable two can serve as a versatile tool for organization, allowing for a more streamlined approach to managing various tasks and projects.

=> 00:38:57

Embrace the power of merging tools to simplify your life—less clutter, more clarity.

Notebooks can sometimes lead to a feeling of overwhelm. For instance, when considering how to merge various tools, one might ponder, "Am I remarkable too?" This phrase suggests that the Remarkable 2 device serves as a consolidation of numerous notebooks into one. By utilizing the Remarkable 2, you are effectively saving yourself from the hassle of carrying or keeping track of multiple physical notebooks.

In my own experience, I don't keep everything in my Remarkable 2. I primarily utilize single-purpose notebooks. Although I still use traditional notebooks for specific tasks, I tend to rely on my Remarkable 2 for most of my notes. For example, I have a time block planner paper that I don't use in my Remarkable, and I also have a small field note notebook dedicated to working on individual projects. When I embark on a new significant project, I pull out that notebook to delve deeply into it.

While I appreciate the discipline of having a general-purpose notebook for brainstorming and working through ideas, I believe it’s perfectly acceptable to maintain some physical notebooks that are not single-purpose. If you find yourself using pages from a regular notebook or a legal pad for various tasks, consider transitioning that work back to the Remarkable 2. This way, you can maintain a clear and organized collection of your thoughts and projects. A combination of a planner, the Remarkable, and single-purpose notebooks makes a lot of sense to me.

Next, we have a question from Natasha. She asks, "Have you considered adding the category creativity to the Deep Life buckets of craft, contemplation, community, and celebration?" While this could fit into the craft category, I believe it goes deeper than that.

When discussing deep life buckets, the key is to have distinct categories. The specific collection of buckets you choose is somewhat arbitrary; the main goal is to ensure that when you reflect on what matters in your life, you avoid becoming myopic. It’s essential not to focus solely on one aspect, such as your career. By breaking down different areas, you can examine each one separately and develop a vision for a well-lived life that encompasses all those areas.

As you create your master narrative for your ideal lifestyle, these buckets will help you maintain a broad perspective. They will also assist you in dividing your actions among the various important areas of your life. Having these buckets is critical, and the specific ones you use can change over time. For example, I have been experimenting with a different set of bucket definitions based on a body metaphor.

In this metaphor, consider the following:

• The head represents your mental and intellectual life, encompassing ideas, reading, and the role of your phone.
• The heart covers relationships and connections to community and family.
• The hands correspond to craft and work, including both professional and hobby pursuits.
• The soul deals with philosophical and theological issues that shape your conception of a well-lived life.
• Lastly, I introduced a new category, feet, which pertains to the places you live and exist. This includes considerations about the city you live in, the type of house you occupy, and the spaces within your current environment.

By reflecting on these areas, you can gain a more comprehensive understanding of your life and the various aspects that contribute to your overall well-being.

=> 00:42:46

Creating value in your life starts with the spaces you inhabit; where you stand shapes your perspective on what a fulfilling life truly means.

Producing new things of value in the world and enjoying the process of doing it yourself is essential. This concept stretches the body a little bit, but we could say it stretches the soul as well. It deals with philosophical and theological issues that are critical to your conception of a life well lived.

I recently added a new perspective to this discussion. Jesse, this idea didn’t fall under the alliterative buckets that had the C's in it, but it relates to feet. I don’t know if you can guess, but what I’m thinking about for feet is the places you live and exist. This involves considering, on a larger scale, where you live—what city you reside in, what type of house you have in that city, and the specific locations you inhabit.

It could also pertain to the spaces within the place you already live. For example, the renovation I’m doing on the maker lab of the HQ would also fall under the feet component of this type of deep life decomposition. It’s about the places you stand. As I work on my deep life book, I realize that we didn’t adequately address this in the show. The places in which you exist play a significant role in your perception of life. Where you live, the type of place you inhabit, and the nature of your spaces are all crucial factors.

I’m exploring this concept as a body metaphor, though perhaps something else might work just as well. What I’m trying to emphasize is that you need categories for understanding the parts of your life that are important to you. However, my categories might differ from yours, and your categories might change over time. Just like I’ve moved on from the C's to experimenting with body metaphors, it’s essential to find what resonates with you.

Now, are we up to the slow productivity corner? It looks like we are! For those who are new, the slow productivity corner is where we take a question relevant to my most recent book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout. If you haven’t yet read that book, you should get it wherever books are sold. A large fraction of what we discuss on the show is based, at least in some part, on the ideas presented in that book. It serves as a sort of user guide for deep questions.

Alright, Jesse, what’s our slow productivity corner question of the week? It’s from Susan: “Moving away from pseudo work makes me feel very vulnerable. I went from being able to tell my bosses about 15 teeny incremental updates to only being able to talk about one or two projects at a time. Nobody has jumped down my throat about this, but I’m feeling guilty. My friends are also judging me because I’m not putting in a solid eight hours at the desk. They believe in ‘sit still and look busy.’ I do things like take a nap, hopefully to think better, wander around outside, or sit in a comfy chair and journal about a work project to help me come up with solutions.”

Well, Susan, I like the direction you’re going, and I’m going to give you some reassurance here. First of all, your friends aren’t judging you; they don’t care. They don’t really care about your work habits. Maybe someone made a comment once, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Secondly, I want to emphasize that this is like the hidden secret of people who follow the slow productivity philosophy. You can construct a very sustainable, energizing, and productive professional life where you’re doing things that matter, but your life remains interesting and sustainable.

We don’t advertise this much because, as you pointed out, a lot of people don’t get it. They are caught up in the cult of pseudo work, which, as I explain in the book, is the belief that visible activity is the best proxy for useful effort. To that mindset, anything that reduces work in the moment is seen as dangerous. So, just don’t advertise it. Take your naps, sit in your comfy chair, but maybe just don’t tell people—that’s what you’re doing. They’re probably not going to reassure you because they don’t understand, and they likely don’t care that much.

Thirdly, you need to focus on part three of the slow productivity framework. You’re already doing the first two parts: doing fewer things and working at a natural pace. Excellent! To make that work in a way that is sustainable and doesn’t make you feel guilty or build up resentment towards work in general, you need to focus on quality. You need to become obsessed with the quality of what you produce. Now that you’re doing fewer things at a natural pace, it’s crucial to get obsessed about the quality of what you produce in a way that you didn’t have to worry about when you were juggling 15 tasks.

=> 00:46:31

Focus on quality over quantity; doing fewer things well leads to greater confidence and satisfaction in your work.

People, that's what you're doing; they're probably not going to reassure you because they don't understand, and also they probably don't care that much.

Third, you need to focus on part three of the slow productivity framework. So, you're doing the first two parts: doing fewer things and working at a natural pace. Excellent! To make that work in a way that is sustainable, and that doesn't make you feel guilty or similarly build up resentment towards work in general, is quality. You need to become obsessed with the quality of what you produce. Now that you're doing fewer things at a natural pace, you need to get obsessed about the quality of what you produce in a way that you didn't have to bother when you were doing 15 things. It was impossible to do anything that well anyways.

When you were doing 15 things, you were getting credit for being busy. Now, you're going to get credit for doing things well. As you start delivering things that catch people's attention as being unusually good, the scrutiny on you will go down, and your self-scrutiny on your behavior is going to reduce as well. You're going to feel more confident in this new approach to work. So, be careful about your time block plan. Make sure that you are giving large blocks of focused work on the things that matter.

Adopt a deliberate practice mindset where you're trying to deliberately get better at the skills that you're applying in your work. You're like an athlete training to get a better free throw percentage or to cut some time off of your mile run time. You want to be practicing systematically to get better. Get obsessed with quality, and then you'll feel much better about the other parts of your life that are now getting more sustainable. That's the whole mix that makes this whole thing work. You're not doing too much; your pace is varied, but the stuff you're doing is very good. You have to have all three. I think as you obsess over quality and as you see the tangible results of that obsession, you're going to feel much better.

So, you're on the right track. Slow productivity is such a better way to approach the working world, so keep it up, but get the quality in your crosshairs as well because that's going to make this whole thing work.

All right, let's hear that music one more time.

Usually, around this time in the show, we like to take a call from a reader or listener. I suppose it's hard just to say "you" since I have so many different ways that people encounter me; they watch me, they listen to me, and they read me. So, I have to kind of get that straight. We'll say listeners. All right, so do we have a call from a listener this week? We do!

All right, hi KJ, my name is Nancy, and I live in Brussels, Belgium, in Europe. I have a question about episode 319. You tell us that when you do deep work and you've been disturbed, it takes about 20 minutes to refocus to do deep work again. But what about the Pomodoro Technique? Because then you work for 25 minutes and take a 5-minute break, and then you work again for 25 minutes. How does it match with the 20 minutes it takes to regain focus? Thank you, bye.

That's a very good question, actually. Interestingly, you know the 20-minute specific quantity? I was having a hard time remembering exactly where that particular number came from. Now, the fact that it takes a long time, on the scale of many minutes, to return your focus after a distraction is well known in multiple different studies. You can look, for example, at Sophie Leroy's work on attention residue, among others that have quantified this.

But if you go back and read Sophie's papers, for example, she doesn't quantify exactly how long it takes. However, I had this 20 minutes; I've always used this 20 minutes, and I couldn't remember where it came from until I was researching for the deep dive at the beginning of the episode. I was going back to Winter Fred Gallagher's book, Wrapped, and I discovered, oh, that's where it's from! She talks to a cognitive scientist in that book who's discussing distraction and bringing your attention back, and he gives that exact number: it takes about 20 minutes to get your attention back after you're distracted. So, it's like I rediscovered where that specific value came from.

Clearly, it's not so precise; it could be seven minutes, it could be 27 minutes—it kind of depends—but it's many minutes. Okay, so back to the Pomodoro Technique. For that to work, you're talking about 25 minutes on and 5 minutes off. For that to work, you can't initiate a significant context switch in the five minutes off. Back in the old days of my...

=> 00:50:34

To master focus, take deep breaks and gradually extend your concentration sessions; train your brain like a muscle for peak performance.

At the beginning of the episode, I was revisiting Winter Fred Gallagher's book, Wrapped, and I discovered that it contains insights from a cognitive scientist discussing distraction and the process of bringing your attention back. He mentions that it takes about 20 minutes to regain your focus after being distracted. While this number isn't exact—it could be seven minutes or even 27 minutes—it generally indicates that it takes many minutes to refocus.

Now, regarding the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working for 25 minutes followed by a 5-minute break, it's essential that you do not initiate a significant context switch during those five minutes off. In my earlier newsletter and blog, I referred to this as deep breaks. During these breaks, you should allow your brain to take a breather without introducing distractions. For instance, you might lower your intensity by walking to get coffee, stretching, or simply moving around before starting your next Pomodoro session. However, if you expose your brain to highly salient distractions—like checking your email, browsing social media, or engaging in unrelated conversations—your next Pomodoro will likely suffer. As you mentioned in the call, you probably won't regain your full concentration by the end of that session.

In addition to taking deep breaks, if you're implementing a Pomodoro-type technique, I suggest considering it as interval training for concentration. Starting with 25 minutes is reasonable, but you should aim to gradually increase that duration as you become more comfortable. Once you can manage 25 minutes without cognitive strain, try extending it to 35 minutes, and then to 45 minutes. You might want to spend a week or two at each duration, ultimately aiming for a comfortable focus period of about 90 minutes. Achieving this level of sustained focus is challenging, but if you can consistently maintain it, you will have effectively trained your brain's fitness for deep work.

To summarize my advice: when taking short breaks between sprints, avoid exposing yourself to highly salient distractions. If you feel the need to look at something, choose something that is non-engaging and unrelated to your work, such as baseball trade rumors during a break from academic tasks. This way, you can take deep breaks and gradually expand your Pomodoro sessions until they exceed the initial 25 minutes.

Now, let's move on to a case study. This segment features accounts from listeners who have applied the concepts discussed in the show to their own lives. Today's case study comes from Yel, who shares, "I've been a longtime reader and listener, and your advice has guided me well. I wanted to share some recent developments in my life as a case study. I'm a 39-year-old social psychologist, and as my children grew older, I felt the need for a career change. This led me to enroll in a master's program in counseling psychology at a prestigious university in New York. Your voice kept echoing in my mind, encouraging me to build on the skills and abilities I've developed over the years, which influenced my decision."

Yel continues, "During the first semester of the program, I used a time-blocking method. I even bought your journal, though I never wrote in it. I still planned my days on a simple notepad with your journal as inspiration. My grades were all A's; I submitted every assignment ahead of time and received excellent feedback. But that's not all—during this first semester, I conducted meaningful research, built connections with a well-known professor, and presented our preliminary findings at a major conference in New York City. I also used to run a large Facebook group where I shared my thoughts and interesting insights.

=> 00:54:17

Success in school isn't about popularity or social media; it's about being systematic and treating your studies like a job. Focus on what truly matters, and you'll shine.

During my time at the University in New York, your voice kept echoing in my mind, encouraging me to build on the skills and abilities I've developed over the years. This influence significantly impacted my decision-making during the first semester of the program. I adopted a Time blocking method and even purchased your journal; although I never wrote in it, I still planned my days on a simple notepad inspired by your journal. As a result, my grades were all A's. I submitted every assignment ahead of time and received excellent feedback.

But that's not all. During this first semester, I conducted meaningful research, built connections with a well-known professor, and presented our preliminary findings at a major conference in New York City. Additionally, I used to run a large Facebook group where I shared my thoughts and interesting discoveries from my reading and research. I loved how quickly I could jot down ideas and receive immediate reactions. However, it eventually became too time-consuming without much tangible benefit.

I've often heard you explain how we like to believe things will work a certain way, such as gaining popularity through social media and being discovered. However, that's not how things usually unfold in the real world. Instead, I've shifted my focus to writing my thoughts more coherently, and I've started publishing them in a widely read newspaper.

I appreciate this case study for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it serves as a good reminder for students: being systematic about the job of being a student will make you a good student. Most students are terrible at being a student; they don't manage their time effectively, lack a realistic plan for completing their tasks, and give no foresight to how they're going to approach their assignments. They often fail to adjust their approaches based on what they learn in practice. Because of this, if you are focused and systematic, it provides a major advantage.

I frequently hear from students returning later in life who treat their education like a job. They often say, "I'm crushing it," because they approach their studies with the seriousness of an adult. So, all students out there, take this lesson to heart: if you apply the type of advice we discuss here to student life, you will appear to be a superstar.

I also like the point about the Facebook group. It's easy to write stories about something and claim its importance, but the reality is that these narratives aren't always true. You have to be willing to act on what you discover. While I was on this Facebook group, I was publishing content and receiving feedback, which felt important for my ideation. It was fun, and I had a deeper story about potentially going viral and achieving great things. However, the reality I discovered was that it was distracting me. It took a lot of time and, while it may have stroked my ego, it wasn't helping me improve at what I do.

So, I decided to move away from that and pursue something harder and more traditional, like trying to publish in a newspaper, pushing myself to get better. As you pointed out, we often tell ourselves a story about how our professional activities on social media are critical to our success. We believe we have a significant audience that cares, but often, this sense is carefully constructed by these platforms to keep us engaged. For 99.9% of people in jobs and companies, social media is not at the core of improving what we do.

I appreciate this case study. Now, for our final segment, we will discuss the books I read last month. But first, let's hear from another sponsor. We actually have a new sponsor today, which is a game-changing product you can use before a night out that includes drinks. The product is called pre-alcohol.

Let’s be honest; people like you and I are older than we used to be. The 20-year-old Dartmouth student in my past probably had an easier time enjoying a few drinks with friends than the 42-year-old version of me. Now, after just two beers, the next day can feel like a stretch on a stretcher. We can't party as hard as we used to, Jesse, but sometimes it’s nice to go out and celebrate an event or catch up with a good friend. That’s where the idea of pre-alcohol comes in, particularly the product I want to discuss here: ZBiotics pre-alcohol pre-probiotic.

=> 00:58:06

Embrace the night out without the morning regret—pre-alcohol is your new best friend for a fun evening and a smooth recovery.

We have a new sponsor today, and it is a game-changing product that you can use before a night out that will include drinks. The product is called pre-alcohol. Let's be honest, people like me are older than we used to be. The 20-year-old Dartmouth student in my past probably had an easier time having a few drinks with friends than the 42-year-old version of me. Now, after just two beers, I find myself feeling the effects much more intensely, and the next day can feel like I'm on a stretcher. We can't party as hard as we used to, right, Jesse?

However, sometimes it's nice to go out and celebrate an event or catch up with a good friend. This is where the idea of pre-alcohol comes in. In particular, I want to talk about a product called ZBiotics pre-alcohol. This is a pre-probiotic drink that is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, invented by a PhD scientist to tackle those rough mornings after drinking.

Here’s how it works: when you drink alcohol, it gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It is this byproduct, not dehydration, that is to blame for your rough next day. Pre-alcohol produces an enzyme to break that product down. So, what you do is drink the pre-alcohol before you start having your drinks. Remember to make ZBiotics your first drink of the night, then drink responsibly, and you will feel your best the next day.

I think this invention is a godsend for those of us who no longer rage like we once did. Now, we can actually enjoy a night out catching up with a friend or celebrating a birthday. Just throw down some ZBiotics first to lessen the impact of that fun night out. I kept hearing about pre-alcohol and wondered what it was actually like. After trying it out, I understand what people are talking about; it’s a good idea. With their GMO technology, ZBiotics is continuing to invent probiotics that will help with the everyday challenges of modern living.

=> 01:02:16

reading can transport you to new worlds and inspire you to rediscover your passions.

All right, Jesse, let's get to our final segment. It's the first episode in a new month, and I want to review the five books I read in the month before. So, we'll be talking now about the books I read in September 2024.

The first book I read was The Devil's Teeth by Susan Casey. I am a big Susan Casey fan, and I'm actually trying to find a way to interview her because I want to interview her for my new book, maybe even get her on this podcast. If you know Susan, let me know. I'm going back and rereading some of the Susan Casey catalog. The Devil's Teeth I think was her first book. It takes place on the Farallon Islands, off the coast of California, right beyond San Francisco. It happens to be the place that has one of the most consistent, largest populations of large great white sharks.

It's a typical Susan Casey book, so it is adventure science. She goes out there and spends time on the island and on a boat off the island. The boat almost sinks, and you learn about the people on the island, the sharks, and what they're learning about the sharks. Casey is a great writer; it makes sense. I mean, she was the editor at Outside during the John CRA hour era, so she really understands how to do adventure writing. I'm actually rereading The Wave right now, so I'm kind of on a Susan Casey trip. Her most recent book, which was about the deep ocean, The Underworld, is also fantastic. I recommend it.

Next, I read The Outrun by Amy Liptrot. This is a memoir about Amy Liptrot, who grew up on one of these small Scottish islands, sort of beyond the Shetland Islands. I don't know the UK geography well, but I think you go north from Scotland to find these islands where people live. She grew up on a small island, escaped to London, and kind of loved the city life but became a really serious alcoholic. She returns to this island where she grew up as part of her process of getting sober. So, it's a memoir of that return to the island, rediscovering herself, and finding some variety. She's a very good writer, and I think I was attracted to it because I was drawn to these islands. It was cool to hear about what life is like on these small, windswept North Atlantic Scottish islands.

Then, I read The Amateurs by David Halberstam. This book is about rowers, specifically scullers, preparing for the 1984 Olympics. I think that was the Olympics we boycotted in 1980, but I can look it up. Anyway, it follows a group of scullers who were preparing to compete for spots on the Olympic team for one of the Olympics in the 80s. It's called The Amateurs because the point was that sculling was one of the last truly amateur sports at the Olympics, in that there is no professional career in it. These are people doing it in their own time. Halberstam follows four or five of these characters, all ex-Ivy League rowers who are basically sculling full-time and trying to compete for these spots.

It's good; I mean, clearly, he was influenced by John McPhee. There’s definitely a Levels of the Game type vibe to this book, maybe more detail than you really want to hear. If I guess I’m going to critique it, it’s a famous book, but these people aren’t that interesting. The story is kind of the same: they went to Yale, they wanted their dad's approval because they weren't playing football like their dad and their grandfather and great-grandfather did. They get into rowing, they have freak bodies for rowing, they get really good at rowing, and all they do is row. Rowing really hurts, and they want to win the Olympics. You kind of hear the story again and again. The main variation is that I think one of them went to Harvard, but that’s about it.

He really gets into the pain of competitive sculling, too. Part of it is just pain tolerance, especially during the last 500 meters when it's all lactic acid. But it's a classic book, and it really gives you a sense of rowing. It actually got me back on a rowing program, so it had that effect. I'm getting back in rowing shape because I have this dream of when...

=> 01:06:18

Pain is part of the journey to greatness; whether in rowing or baseball, it's the struggle that shapes champions.

In the world of sports, many young athletes find inspiration in their family legacies. Playing football like their dad and their grandfather and the great-grandfather did, some of them transition into rowing. They possess freak bodies for rowing and become exceptionally skilled at it. However, rowing really hurts, and despite the pain, their ultimate goal is to win the Olympics. This narrative is a common one, with variations such as one athlete attending Harvard. The story delves into the pain of competitive sculling, emphasizing that part of success is simply pain tolerance. The last 500 meters of a race can be excruciating, filled with lactic acid buildup. This classic book on rowing has even inspired me to get back on a rowing program, as I dream of returning to the river during my next sabbatical.

In Washington, D.C., there are several boat houses, including a serious one where my buddy used to row in college. I believe it’s the Potomac Boat Club, which has produced some Olympians.

Shifting gears, I recently read The Machine by Joe Posnanski, a timely baseball book about the famous 1970s era Reds team featuring Pete Rose and Johnny Bench, who went on to win the World Series. Posnanski's coverage of that season is thorough, drawing from numerous sources, and his writing style is high-energy and immersive, allowing readers to feel inside the minds of the players. However, one flaw from a baseball perspective is that while the team, known as The Big Red Machine, had a fantastic offense, the book doesn’t delve deeply into their pitching.

Posnanski does highlight the force of will behind hitting, particularly with Pete Rose, who was driven and determined to succeed. This perspective contrasts with the reality of hitting, which is more about timing, adjustments, and strategy. Modern hitting resembles a cat and mouse game, where players study pitchers and devise strategies rather than relying solely on raw emotion.

The last book I read is quite different and somewhat unconventional. Titled You Shall Be Holy by Joseph Tushin, this extensive 600-page reference book on ethics is not meant to be read straight through, yet I found myself doing just that. As the director of the Computer Science Ethics and Society academic program at Georgetown, I felt the need to deepen my understanding of ethics, particularly from ancient sources. Much of modern Western ethics has roots in ancient Jewish texts, which influenced Christianity, Islam, and Enlightenment human rights thinking.

This book systematically explores Jewish ethics, breaking down topics into numbered subtopics with citations from the Torah and medieval commentaries. I aimed to absorb ancient ethical thinking that forms the foundation of contemporary moral considerations. For instance, the book meticulously addresses scenarios such as gossip, analyzing the nuances of when it might be permissible to share information to prevent harm while minimizing the spread of gossip itself.

Although it is designed as a reference book, I read it cover to cover, enjoying it as a meditative background read. I completed it last month, but I discovered that it is only volume one of a series, leaving me curious about how many volumes exist. Nevertheless, I feel I gained substantial insights from this first volume.

Those are the books I read back in September. I’ll report back in October with my current reads. Thank you for listening to the show, and we’ll be back next week with a new episode. Until then, as always, stay deep. If you enjoyed today’s discussion about the impact of our information consumption, you might also like episode 298, titled Rethinking Attention.