Good information still pollutes the epistemic ecosystem
I’m largely positive on Cal Newport's work. With the release of his latest book "Slow Productivity," I went back summarized his underlying message in my previous post, as well as providing a number of critiques and implementations of his methods.
When it comes to the productivity space, his advice tends to be more grounded and practical than the majority of online content creators — which is admittedly a fairly low bar to overcome, given the majority of creators in this particular corner of the Internet are spouting crypto nonsense or doing… whatever the hell is going on here.
People who follow Cal Newport can easily acknowledge the contradiction of this video. This is a man who has spent over a decade talking about reclaiming your attention, developing a craftsman mindset, improving knowledge work, and avoiding all the pitfalls of social media — and here he is posting the same sort of clickbait “Rat Race” nonsense as everybody else.
Perhaps he could be forgiven if the interview itself lived up to the thumbnail and title, but after listening to the first 30 minutes, I can readily conclude that it’s the same Gary Vee style pablum you might hear at any sales funnel course that offers to change your life in a simple eight week program.
