Deep Questions with Cal Newport Ep. 396: Can I Learn To Love My Phone Again?
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Mar 16, 2026 A nostalgic reset for smartphone life takes center stage, with talk of text-only screens, renaming apps around intentions, and stripping social platforms down in the browser. There’s also a look at doomscroll-friendly news apps, a study on AI-related brain fry, a TV set that swaps phones for books, and how even a 17th century scholar wrestled with overload.
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Turn Your Home Screen Into A Text List
- Replace colorful app icons with a monochrome text-based home screen using a minimalist launcher or widget app.
- Cal Newport describes clearing the dock, adding one widget on a blank page, and hiding other pages so the phone opens to a single simple screen.
Rename Apps As Actions You Actually Value
- Rename apps as verbs that reflect the outcome you want, so the phone cues agency instead of brand-driven reflexes.
- Ryder Carroll changed IA Writer to write and Messages to connect, making each tap feel like an intentional action.
Use Browser Tools To Defang Addictive Apps
- Access addictive platforms through a browser and strip out feeds, recommendations, and thumbnails with modification tools.
- Cal Newport cites Social Focus and Untrap for YouTube, which turn YouTube into a plain list instead of a binge-friendly rabbit hole.
