Cal Newport
Cal Newport, a Georgetown computer science professor, writes about focused work, productivity, and building a career people enjoy.
What HN says
Commenters recommend it for study tips and staying focused, and mention his books and podcast as helpful for rethinking how they use technology.
Stats for nerds
415HN people shared it
528linked in comments
11Kstory points
Jul 2026last shared
Top posts on HN
- 1If you're busy, you're doing something wrong (2011)9 people · 890 points · first shared 2011 · 162 comments on HN
- 2Taking a break from social media makes you happier and less anxious1 person · 734 points · first shared 2022 · 474 comments on HN
- 3Advice on Getting Better from an Accomplished Piano Player (2011)5 people · 560 points · first shared 2011 · 156 comments on HN
- 4Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers?3 people · 426 points · first shared 2016 · 460 comments on HN
- 5On Digital Minimalism3 people · 291 points · first shared 2016 · 71 comments on HN
- 6TikTok’s Poison Pill3 people · 286 points · first shared 2022 · 421 comments on HN
- 7Mastering Linear Algebra in 10 Days: Astounding Experiments in Ultra-Learning6 people · 284 points · first shared 2012 · 76 comments on HN
- 8Our Brains Are Not Multi-Threaded2 people · 279 points · first shared 2019 · 110 comments on HN
- 9Facebook's Desperate Smoke Screen1 person · 278 points · first shared 2018 · 248 comments on HN
- 10The Pyramid Method: A Simple Strategy For Becoming Exceptionally Good2 people · 273 points · first shared 2009 · 34 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
- skadamatSep 2022
Cal's key ideas for the uninitiated:
- Deep Life: Kind of like essentialism / minimalism: Be intentional & focus on results / remove what matters. Create 5 pillars for your life, and work fits into it: https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2020/04/20/cultivating-a-deep-life/
- Deep Work: do one thing at a time, in a focused way. Context switching is expensive on the brain and stressful / anxiety inducing
- Career Advice (So Good They Can't Ignore You book): become great at a skill or the intersection of multiple skills. When you become good, you'll learn to love it and you can trade in your expertise for more lifestyle traits (more pay or less hours or no boss)
His podcast is awesome too: https://www.calnewport.com/podcast/
- madballsterMay 2020
Not sure if you seek advice on self-development (programming skills) or general college/university studying advice. Very similar set of challenges either way IMO:
Take Dr. Barbara Oakley's (free) learning how to learn course - I graduated 20 years ago (MSc) and found this very refreshing and insightful. Good interviews, too. https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
Cal Newport's book is full of studying/organization advice. Bottom line: Attack the hard stuff early on. Go hard, go deep. If you get organized and build a foundation in each course early on, then you won't have to catch up and cram in all-nighters later.
https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2009/03/09/the-straight-a-method-how-to-ace-college-courses/ - davidscolganMar 2019
I wouldn't say I've exactly "solved" this problem, as I do still think relaxation and getting new information are valuable. But making Reddit more than just a ctrl+t -> r -> enter away is helpful.
A great book about all of this that was also helpful for further motivating me to try to be proactive here was Cal Newport's book Digital Minimalism [http://calnewport.com/books/digital-minimalism/].
It's not really a book about "quit Facebook", but rather "be intentional about the technology in your life instead of having technology happen to you. I've determined that Hacker News is a valuable use of my time within moderation, while Reddit doesn't really ever provide any sort of value, whether productive _or_ relaxing.
- applecrazyJan 2018
Excellent resource with many study tips. As a high school student, it's hard to balance school, leisure, and code, and any sort of advice is appreciated.
In addition, I've found Cal Newport's blog both inspiring and also interesting, as he focuses on "hacks" to get higher quality studying for your time ("more bang for your buck")
Edit: Cal Newport's blog: http://calnewport.com/blog/
Edit 2: Another one of my sources of study inspiration is the MIT Challenge[1] by Scott H. Young. Not only does he finish an entire MIT CS undergrad curriculum, but does so in 1/4 the time, something that I wish to emulate once life permits.
[1]: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
- deb_yesprocrastApr 2020
I follow some practices from Cal Newport Deep Work [1].
In this case it is about scheduling your day (see also this blogpost [2]).I really like the feature in paymo to schedule your working day with tasks that do exist in a kanban board.
It ensures that you can quickly see what you're working on when picking things to do during the day and it also ensures that everything you do is in a kanban board.I understand that most people probably don't miss this feature but I have a hard time going back to a system that does not have this.
[1]: https://www.calnewport.com/books/deep-work/
[2]: https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2015/09/29/deep-habits-three-recent-daily-plans/
- dpatruSep 2017
But see this article by Cal Newport which highlights how the Pullman Company increased production by limiting communication. http://calnewport.com/blog/2017/06/21/an-early-20th-century-lesson-on-the-difference-between-convenience-and-value/
It seems that unrestricted communication slows down companies more than it speeds them up. Maybe at Tesla they already have ways to manage interruptions. Elon specifically mentions email and managers. Email can be read at the receiver's schedule. The part of the job of the manager is to protect the workers from distraction. "Try to email the manager who can best solve the problem." != "Feel free to interrupt anyone at any time."