“The key to living well in a high tech world is to spend much less time using technology.”
ORDER
"I challenge you not to devour this wonderful book in one sitting."
-Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism
“What a timely and useful book! It's neither hysterical nor complacent - a workable guide to being thoughtful about digital media. It's already made me rethink some of my media use in a considered way.”
- Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
"This book is an urgent call to action for anyone serious about being in command of their own life."
- Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacle Is the Way
"You’re not the user, you’re the product. Hang up, log off, and tune in to a different way to be in the world. Bravo, Cal. Smart advice for good people."
- Seth Godin, author of This Is Marketing
“Newport is making a bid to be the Marie Kondo of technology: someone with an actual plan for helping you realize the digital pursuits that do, and don’t, bring value to your life.”
- Ezra Klein, founder of Vox.com
I’m a computer science professor at Georgetown University who studies the theory of distributed systems. In addition to my academic work, I write about the intersection of technology and culture.
I'm the author of six books, including, most recently, the New York Times bestseller, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. My work has been published in over 25 languages and has been featured in many major publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Washington Post, and Economist.
I've been blogging here at calnewport.com for over a decade.
Last October, my friend James Clear published the breakout hit book, Atomic Habits. As we both discovered in the months that followed, we have many readers in common. James’s habit-building framework, it turns out, is quite useful for those looking to increase the quality of their deep work or succeed in a transition toward digital […]
Interviews are a common part of the book publicity process, especially as you become better known as a writer. Between television, radio, print and podcasts, I ended up doing well north of 100 interviews about Digital Minimalism since its release last February. Given this volume of appointments (which is actually modest compared to many authors), […]
In 2013, the novelist Jonathan Safran Foer gave the commencement address at Middlebury College. He subsequently adapted parts of it into a short but impactful essay published in the New York Times. It was titled: “How Not to Be Alone.” In this piece, Foer explores the evolution of communication technology, writing: “Most of our communication […]
In computer programming, it’s common to split your program into multiple different threads that run simultaneously, as this often simplifies application design. Imagine, for example, you’re creating a basic game. You might have one thread dedicated to updating the graphics on the screen, another thread dedicated to calculating the next move, and another monitoring the […]
A college senior I’ll call Brady recently sent me a description of his creative experiments with digital minimalism. What caught my attention about his story was that his changes centered on a radical idea: making his mobile phone much less mobile. In more detail, Brady leaves behind his phone each day when he heads off […]
◀ ▶
Cal is interviewed by Dan Harris on Good Morning America.
