How the Digital Workplace Broke Our Brains

How the Digital Workplace Broke Our Brains

Calvin Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University and the author of, among other books, 'Deep Work' and 'A World Without Email.' At the heart of so much of Newport’s work is this incredibly rich mystery: Why hasn't the internet produced more geniuses? One possibility is that the productivity tools ironically inhibit our productivity. The average white-collar worker in marketing, advertising, finance, and media now spends up to 60 percent of the workweek engaged in electronic communication. In a recent survey, Microsoft found that video meetings had taken up so much of the day that a significant share of its workforce was logging online between 9 and 10 p.m. to finish their actual non-email, non-meeting work. In response to this relentless need to loop back and back and back, Newport came up with what he called the Deep Work Hypothesis: He said to learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction. But the ability to perform this kind of deep focused work is becoming rare at exactly the same time it is becoming most valuable in our economy. In this conversation, we talk about deep work and shallow work, how our productivity tools make us less productive, and how to actually get things done. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish_ Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Calvin Newport Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episoder(363)

Crypto Crashing, Pandemic Stocks Plunging: The Story Behind January’s Crazy Stock Market

Crypto Crashing, Pandemic Stocks Plunging: The Story Behind January’s Crazy Stock Market

Morgan Housel, the bestselling author of ‘The Psychology of Money’ and a partner at Collaborative Fund, is back to talk Bitcoin, Peloton, tech stocks, financial media myths, the psychology of stock ma...

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2022 Is Off to a Terrible Start for Democrats

2022 Is Off to a Terrible Start for Democrats

Legendary journalist James Fallows joins to discuss the filibuster wars, Democrats’ Voting Rights Act, the political outlook for Joe Biden and the Democrats, and the media’s negativity bias (as exempl...

21 Jan 202241min

The Biggest Losers of the Streaming Wars: ESPN, Movie Theaters, Peacock, and More

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Do movie theaters have a future? What should Disney do with ESPN? And is anybody watching Peacock? Derek’s favorite entertainment-media analyst Rich Greenfield joins the pod to talk about the future o...

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Everybody Was Wrong About Inflation

Everybody Was Wrong About Inflation

Okay, almost everybody. The Biden administration was wrong. Many critics of the Biden administration were also wrong. The Federal Reserve was wrong. Investors were wrong. Banks were wrong. And Bitcoin...

14 Jan 202243min

Omicron: Feelings vs. Facts

Omicron: Feelings vs. Facts

Derek talks about the rise of the "Vaxxed and Done" movement before reviewing the latest omicron data with John Burn-Murdoch, data superstar at the Financial Times. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: John Bu...

11 Jan 202236min

The Biggest Inventions of the 2020s: Cancer Vaccines, Flying Cars, Space Travel, and More

The Biggest Inventions of the 2020s: Cancer Vaccines, Flying Cars, Space Travel, and More

Let’s kick off the new year with a bit of techno-optimism! After a miserable start to this decade, we can still have a Roaring Twenties. In this episode, ‘Plain English’ presents a tour of the frontie...

7 Jan 202254min

The Four Ways That America Is Polarizing

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David Frum joins Derek to talk about rising and falling polarization by race, gender, education, and place—and what it tells us about America's strange new politics. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: David ...

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The Four Biggest Myths of the U.S. Economy. Plus, Omicron in 100 Seconds.

The Four Biggest Myths of the U.S. Economy. Plus, Omicron in 100 Seconds.

Morgan Housel, Collaborative Fund partner and author of the bestseller 'The Psychology of Money,' joins the pod to debate what we're getting wrong about inflation, the Great Resignation, robots, and i...

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