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Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

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Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#61

Post by yellow_postit »

peruvian wrote: post #53
chrisweekly wrote: post #3

Related tangent: Newport's book "Deep Work" is excellent. It makes a strong case that deep work is increasingly rare, valuable, and meaningful. But it goes way beyond the "what" and the "why", providing the "how", in the form of specific, pragmatic, actionable guidance for achieving just that. Anecdotally, it's been very helpful for me.

The book is good, but could've been one long blog post. It also sadly is not very relevant for many workers. Dr Newport is a tenured, famous professor. He sets his own schedule and probably works by himself. I'm an average tech worker in an open office. My office is quieter and more peaceful than most, but I can rarely get much "deep work" in. Meetings, Slack, etc. I have no door I can close and isolate myself with.…

Blocking no-meeting times, scheduling times to check slack or email, staying vigilant about declining, shortening, canceling meetings are all techniques to help free up contiguous blocks of time for focused work. Though they shouldn’t have required a book I’ve seen Deep Work and PG’s Makers Schedule post be used to justify ICs making this space.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#62

Post by baxtr »

randomsearch wrote: post #17
baxtr wrote: post #6

I don’t buy the analogy. Do we look back at TV saying the same thing? Granted we have to learn how we can live in balance with smartphones and the always-in mentality. Compared to cigarettes there are a lot of positives things you can do with smartphones.

TV isn't the same, as it doesn't contain the same tight feedback loop of reward and punishment as social media.

TV isn’t the same? you mean like smartphones aren’t the same as cigarettes?

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#63

Post by lm28469 »

j-c-hewitt wrote: post #39
deweller wrote: post #5

Cigarettes are a flawed analogy. There is no such thing as a "healthy" use of cigarettes. But I would argue that smart phones can be used in a healthy way. And I would also argue that the phone itself is not the problem. The problem is the reliance on the endorphin hit that comes from a new IM, like, post, etc. Some app makers have optimized their platform for engagement and have consequently made this highly addicti…

Not totally true. Cigarettes are a very effective appetite suppressant. That is one of the reasons why people who work in the food industry all smoke so much. Obesity has skyrocketed as cigarette and other tobacco use has declined. Obesity also increases the risk for most types of cancer, so it is just trading increased lung cancer risk for some people for increased risk of both heart disease and cancer. In general n…

Do you have any source for "That is one of the reasons why people who work in the food industry all smoke so much." ?

As far as I can tell most low wage / manual labor jobs are plagued with cigarette smoking because it allows more breaks / and it's a way to kill time.

Here in germany a lot of 30s people picked up smoking during their mandatory military service (cigarettes were free to avoid creation of black markets, people who smoked had more breaks + herd behavior)

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#64

Post by skohan »

lm28469 wrote: post #56
skohan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there are a lot of therapeutic applications for Nicotine. Nicotine can be beneficial for a wide range of psychiatric disorders, and there's evidence it might help with Parkinson's symptoms as well.

afaik nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes but it's not the most dangerous. + Inhaling any burned matter / fumes will have an impact the lungs. "Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemical compounds, including arsenic, formaldehyde, cyanide, lead, nicotine, carbon monoxide, acrolein, and other poisonous substances. Over 70 of these are carcinogenic." [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette

Yes that is absolutely true, nicotine is not meaningfully toxic on its own as far as I'm aware.

That said, it doesn't mean it's not dangerous. For instance, Opiates were once thought of as a "perfect anesthetic" because they achieve the desired effect with little to no toxicity, but we've all seen how that played out over the last few decades.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#65

Post by carb »

nullproblemo wrote: post #55
HiroshiSan wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though I completely agree with your sentiment, Cal explicitly defines the meaning of Deep Work, and I think it's an important thing society should think about as technology progresses. It helps to have the terminology to describe the state of our lives. From page 3 of the book, Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limi…

Seems like the state of flow, redefined in a professional context.

Newport make the same comparison in the book. I personally think about it such that "flow" is the verb to produce "deep work", the noun.

I also highly recommend his book.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#66

Post by everdrive »

DisruptiveDave wrote: post #7
deweller wrote: post #5

Cigarettes are a flawed analogy. There is no such thing as a "healthy" use of cigarettes. But I would argue that smart phones can be used in a healthy way. And I would also argue that the phone itself is not the problem. The problem is the reliance on the endorphin hit that comes from a new IM, like, post, etc. Some app makers have optimized their platform for engagement and have consequently made this highly addicti…

> But this addiction is much easier to break for most people than an addiction to something like say cigarettes (or even sugar). Physically? I presume you're right. But here's the problem; you don't need cigarettes to accomplish any other expected, daily task in your life. You need your phone for a whole bunch of useful tasks that aren't health-depleting. I once read someone explain eating disorders in a similar way.…

> You need your phone

This is debatable. What can you really do on your phone that you can't do on a PC?

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#67

Post by lm28469 »

bluedino wrote: post #40
everdev wrote: post #22

If you look at city photos pre-iPhone people are walking with their heads up (no one is looking at their phone). Not a judgement, just a stark contrast from ~10 years ago.

posts old timey photo of everyone on a train reading the newspaper

Well, between smartphones, desk jobs, lack of proper physical activity there is definitely more people with rounded shoulders and "smartphone necks". And to be honest I don't think anyone read the newspaper for 3+ hours a day [0]

It's especially damaging for kids (still growing + somewhat more malleable bones / joints).

[0] https://www.emarketer.com/content/mobile-time-spent-2018

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#68

Post by gnicholas »

I was recently searching for a metal box that I could put my iPhone in when it's time for me to focus on family. After seeing a few vintage cigarette boxes pop up in the search results, I realized that sticking my phone into a box built for cigarettes would be a helpful reminder of how addictive my phone can be. I even considered getting a Camel-brand tin, but decided to get something classier/more subtle.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#69

Post by hackermailman »

walterbell wrote: post #59
hackermailman wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three sentences: https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/book-summaries/business/d... I think the author himself has a one page blog post summarizing it as well. I agree with him about the smartphone cancer that has crept into all our lives though I imagine there will be much worse distractions in the near future like deep learning phones that can tell us everything going on in a room the moment we enter it (since everybo…

> deep learning phones that can tell us everything going on in a room What information would be on this HUD? Do you mean real-time voice analysis?

It was from slides in a deep learning CMU course with examples such as walking into a restaurant with group seating where staff immediately knows your name and preferences/allergies, and you immediately have information on what topic each table is talking about and in what languages (which are automatically translated) what seats are free to sit at, which order is currently being cooked, ect. The idea was a scenario where each room you walk into your device can tell you everything there is to know.

Re: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

#70

Post by throwaway413 »

rauhl wrote: post #20
deweller wrote: post #5

Cigarettes are a flawed analogy. There is no such thing as a "healthy" use of cigarettes. But I would argue that smart phones can be used in a healthy way. And I would also argue that the phone itself is not the problem. The problem is the reliance on the endorphin hit that comes from a new IM, like, post, etc. Some app makers have optimized their platform for engagement and have consequently made this highly addicti…

> There is no such thing as a "healthy" use of cigarettes. I don’t think that’s really true. The health effects of a cigarette a week would be indistinguishable from background noise. The fundamental problem with cigarettes is that they are addictive, and convenient (at one time very convenient), and so it’s easy to smoke more and more. That’s actually very similar to smartphones: their use is addictive, and convenie…

> I don’t think that’s really true. The health effects of a cigarette a week would be indistinguishable from background noise.

Is this true? Can you provide a source?

Brb running to the corner store...

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