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The New Tesla Demo Captures Why Big Tech is Broken

Cal Newport, 14 min, 246.9K views, Oct 22, 2026

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Tesla’s recent demo of a rocket-powered Roadster doing a kick-flick over a parked car touched a nerve in me. It seemed to epitomize changes to the tech sector in recent years that have been largely negative. In this short episode, I jump on the mic to explain some of my developing thoughts surrounding these ideas. 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 Intro 2:40 Factor 1: Growth companies vs. stable companies 5:40 Factor 2: Engagement-pilling 8:00 Factor 3: Building useful products is hard 10:43 Why this is a problem — and what we can do about it 13:49 Outro Credits: Podcast Production: Jesse Miller Newsletter/Research: Nate Mechler Theme Music: Jay Kerstens

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