How to Reclaim Thinking in Your Life

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In 1910, we get this interesting advice from Arnold Bennett saying, essentially what I call productive meditation in my books. This is him a hundred years earlier saying, yeah, teach your mind how to think. Give it something to think about. Bring your attention back to the subject again and again. You have more control over your mind than you think if you do the work. To be a good thinker is to be like someone who can run a fast mile. Humans are capable of running a fast mile, but it takes a lot of training. It's too scary to think about the mind and just think and produce great thoughts and we want to reward you for it. We should take it more

The art of thinking – plain, old-fashioned, hard concentration on useful ideas – is rapidly vanishing as our culture recasts humans as the custodians and recipients of digital computation. In this episode, Cal explains why this is a problem and what we should do in response.

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

Today’s Deep Question: Why is it important to preserve the vanishing art of thinking? [5:02]

- How do I integrate movies and shows into the deep life? [27:42]

- Can I read after a long day of deep work? [33:30]

- Is a digital “second brain” a good idea to keep up with the latest advancements in your field? [36:25]

- Would Cal consider consolidating his notebooks? [42:37]

- Is Maria Popva’s note-taking method better than Cal’s method? [51:40]

The Books I Read in April 2023 [1:04:29]

Links:

Edward Teller talking about John Von Neumann

youtube.com/watcv=vQp70uqsBV4#t=55m0s