scientific_discoveries

Monday briefing: Gaza’s collapsing health system; Penn president’s resignation; Tennessee tornadoes; Alex Jones; and more

Read today's briefing.

In celebration of the newly released *second* edition of the Time Block Planner, Cal provides some additional expert tips for getting the most out of a time blocking discipline before answering listener questions on the general topic of time management. He closes by discussing the recent claim that phones are ruining peoples’ ability to watch movies. 

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: How can I double what I accomplish each week by better controlling my time? [16:54] 

- How do I deal with the guilt of missing time blocks? [44:17] 

- How does Cal reconcile slow productivity with the urgency of time blocking? [49:22] 

- How do I block enough time to keep up with all the internet content I want to read? [52:40] 

- How do I stick to my block schedule if no one is forcing me to? [1:02:11] 

- How can Cal be both a computer science professor and yet still be so bad at technology? [1:07:00] 

Something Interesting: Have Phones Ruined Movies? [1:15:45] 

Links: 

washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/08/05/barbenheimer-bad-movie-behavior/ 

Thanks to our Sponsors: 

moshlife.com/deep 

mintmobile.com/deep 

expressvpn.com/deep 

80000hours.org/deep 

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

It was a tremendous honor & pleasure to interview Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb

We discuss

- similarities between AI progress & Manhattan Project (developing a powerful, unprecedented, & potentially apocalyptic technology within an uncertain arms-race situation)

- visiting starving former Soviet scientists during fall of Soviet Union

- whether Oppenheimer was a spy, & consulting on the Nolan movie

- living through WW2 as a child

- odds of nuclear war in Ukraine, Taiwan, Pakistan, & North Korea

- how the US pulled of such a massive secret wartime scientific & industrial project

Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here. Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes.

Timestamps

(0:00:00) - Oppenheimer movie

(0:06:22) - Was the bomb inevitable?

(0:29:10) - Firebombing vs nuclear vs hydrogen bombs

(0:49:44) - Stalin & the Soviet program

(1:08:24) - Deterrence, disarmament, North Korea, Taiwan

(1:33:12) - Oppenheimer as lab director

(1:53:40) - AI progress vs Manhattan Project

(1:59:50) - Living through WW2

(2:16:45) - Secrecy

(2:26:34) - Wisdom & war