Ep. 357: What Worries the Internet’s Favorite Philosopher?
Summary
Cal dives into the work of philosopher Byung-Chul Han, exploring his critiques of digital society, including his ideas on respect, outrage, modern work culture, virality, and thinking. He then answers a variety of listener questions covering topics like writing while traveling, adapting to new job duties, memory training, the relationship between creativity and productivity, and fitting responsibilities into a lifestyle plan. The episode concludes with Cal's "What to Read" segment, where he recommends a book and dissects contrasting articles on the reasoning capabilities of large language models.Episode description
Few philosophers in recent memory have enjoyed as much attention as Byung-Chul Han. His mix of profundity and pithiness in tackling some of the big issues of the modern technical environment has made him “the internet’s new favorite philosopher” (to quote The New Yorker). But is he saying that is making such an impact? In this episode, Cal seeks to find out. He reports back on five of the biggest ideas he encountered reading Han’s 2017 book, IN THE SWARM. He then answers listener questions and concludes with a WHAT TO READ segment where he tackles a pair of competing articles on AI’s abilities.
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
Deep Dive: What Worries the Internet’s Favorite Philosopher? [3:50]
- What’s Cal’s writing schedule when traveling? [29:26]
- How do I adapt to new job duties after making partner? [31:44]
- Should I do memory training? [33:22]
- Can you explain how creativity and productivity are related? [36:16]
- How do Cal’s responsibilities fit into his lifestyle-centric plan? [39:33]
CASE STUDY: A retiree adopts Cal’s principles [43:07]
CALL: Adventure work [46:13]
WHAT TO READ: Two Dueling Takes on AI’s Abilities [54:35]
Links:
Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at calnewport.com/slow
Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport
Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba?
theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/10/billion-dollar-ai-puzzle-break-down
scientificamerican.com/article/inside-the-secret-meeting-where-mathematicians-struggled-to-outsmart-ai/
arxiv.org/pdf/2504.01995
arxiv.org/pdf/2503.21934
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Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.
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