SLOW PRODUCTIVITY: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, by Cal NewportAbout halfway through his new book, “Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout,” Cal Newport presents the example of Galileo, whose summertime visits to a villa near Padua gave him a chance to rest and reflect between scientific pursuits.
“Once there,” Newport writes, “he would take long walks in the hills and enjoy sleeping in a room ingeniously air-conditioned by a series of ducts that carried in cool air from a nearby cave system.”But that “ingeniously air-conditioned” room also happened to be deadly.
The glancing footnote about Galileo’s ailment gestures at something profoundly connected to Newport’s subject: the tension between contingency and control, and the specter of mortality that looms over our preoccupation with productivity and time.
But Newport, who writes that the idea for this book came to him during the pandemic, isn’t inclined to explore anything so complicated.
For his purposes, Galileo is just another input — an exemplar like any other.
Persons:
Cal, Galileo, ” Newport, “, ”, Marie Curie, Lin, Manuel Miranda, Alanis Morissette
Organizations:
Cal Newport, Newport
Locations:
Padua, Newport, Philippines