Cal Newport
Distinguished Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
Georgetown University
Education
M.I.T.
M.S.,
Ph.D. , Computer Science
Dartmouth College
A.B., Computer Science
2004Podcasts
0:38:2408: You Have a Slot Machine in Your Phone & How It’s F*ing Up Your Ability to Focus With Dr. Cal Newport, Deep Work [Main T4C Episode]
Professor Cal Newport is a proud Millennial and a computer science professor who has never owned a social media account. Yup. You read this right. Newport has his Ph.D. in computer science from M.I.T and has deliberately eschewed Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. because his research shows it’s bad..
Career Path
Interview Highlights
“One of the more common paths to ending up passionate was to first go through an apprentice type stage deliberately practicing rare and valuable skills. You’re trying to build up rare and valuable skills to make yourself unambiguously valuable to the job market.”
Best Career Advice
“When you stretch out the timeframe, it takes off a lot of the sense of urgency that you might feel when you’re younger. What you choose at 22 is not what necessarily you’re gonna be doing at 62. So I often say choose something interesting that maybe complements natural skills you may or may not have and then focus on becoming so good that you can’t be ignored at that.”
