Here’s a key question: Did technology like smartphones make us miserable, or were we already miserable and smartphones made it worse? To help figure out this answer, I talked to Arthur Brooks, the #1 New York Times bestselling author and Harvard professor, about this new book: The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. In our conversation, Brooks argues that our current Age of Emptiness began in the 1990s, but technology like smartphones and social media made it worse. We then discuss smart strategies for finding purpose in our current moment. More from Cal Download Cal’s FREE guide to cultivating a deeper life: calnewport.com/ideas Learn more about Cal’s books: calnewport.com/books Listen to Cal’s podcast: thedeeplife.com/listen Chapters 0:00 how Do I Find Purpose in a Distracted World? (W/ Arthur Brooks) 1:01:41 Tech employees being evaluated through LLM tokens 1:07:29 Can Cal comment on reading digital books? 1:13:00 What Cal is reading 1:14:29 Deep Work HQ update Resources Mentioned: https://gizmodo.com/tech-employees-are-reportedly-being-evaluated-by-how-fast-they-burn-through-llm-tokens-2000736627 Sponsors: https://www.monarch.com (Use code “DEEP”) https://www.butcherbox.com/deep https://www.drinklmnt.com/deep https://www.meetfabric.com/deep Credits: Podcast Production: Jesse Miller Newsletter/Research: Nate Mechler Audio Mastering: Mark Miles Theme Music: