As our attention spans and cognitive abilities are increasingly damaged by digital overuse and AI-mediated shortcuts, the ability to focus deeply and learn something in depth is quickly becoming a critical skill. Never have we had such broad access to information. And never have so many people felt unable to concentrate long enough to truly master anything. Learning is everywhere, yet depth feels elusive.
"There's a deeply human satisfaction to retreating to an exotic location and wrestling with your own mind, scratching a record of your battle on paper," Cal writes. "The innovations and insights produced by this long thinking are deeper and more subversive than the artificially cheery bullet points of a chatbot."