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Much of author and Georgetown University computer science professor Cal Newports work is about preparation. His books Deep Work and Slow Productivity, among others, make the argument for intention around productivity, creativity, collaboration, innovation, rest, reflection, and recovery. In fact, Newports literary focus is to figure out the best circumstances and cadence for perpetuating creativity. Thats what allows him to do his own writing, maintain his coursework, and generally feel available for new ideas. Hes cultivated an empire of ideas, he says, which have helped him sell more than 1.5 million copies of Deep Work alone. Its also why much of what Newport writes about is so resonant for CEOs and college students alike. Even scheduling a call with Newport required a purposeful balance of timing. In the summer for a few weeks, Newport flees his home base in the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C., to New England, where he writes, enjoys quiet, brainstorms, and spends more time in nature and with his family. I caught him one morning while he was in Vermont, post camp drop-off, baseball cap on, in full summer mode. My day is very seasonal. I believe in having variation throughout the year. The summertime: This is a period thats very idea-focused. In the summer, we go up north. My summer schedule prioritizes two things: long stretches for deep work (typically dedicated to writing), and relief from a busy calendar requiring me to jump rapidly between meetings and calls. To accomplish this, I try to dedicate every weekday morning, until lunch time, to uninterrupted writing. On Tuesday through Thursday, I’ll schedule meetings, interviews, and other appointments in the afternoon, but I leave Monday and Fridays, if possible, completely devoid of appointments, so I can ease back into the work week more gradually and have longer periods of deep work. These are, at best, targets I hope to hit, but often fall short. When I get to a busy part of the school year, during a semester Im teaching or taking care of administrative responsibilities, I try and keep the mornings free for ideas and writing, and know from midday to afternoon Im teaching class or in meetings. To think and write: Its the only thing I want in life. To me, its the most precious resource. What I do for a living is generate ideas. That is my top priority. Its what puts food on the table. That is No. 1: an empire of ideas. The spinning of a good idea; one that captures attention and generates positive impactIm building a craft to express ideas. The core hardest talent is ideas training. The secondary skills are to convey those ideas. The sense that temporarily slowing down requires permission, or is somehow negative, comes from our culture’s embrace of “pseudo-productivity.” This is a term I introduced in my book Slow Productivity that describes the common heuristic of using visible activity as a proxy for useful effort. We fall back on pseudo-productivity because it’s a shortcut for evaluating people that’s much easier than actually trying to understand what they are doing and why it’s useful. In a culture of pseudo-productivity, any move toward slowing down is read as unproductive and suspicious. The problem is that this measure is deeply flawed. In cognitive work, visible activity can be a poor predictor of how much value someone is actually producing in the long term. I was a good writer growing up and a precocious reader. I thought writing was hard, though, and being in computers made more sense to me. I went to college to study computer science and started writing in college. I sold my first book after my junior year, and thats where I said, Im going to grad school; its flexible enough that I can be writing at the same time. In fact, I wrote a New York Times op-ed about how I made that career decision. I knew at that point I was going to write and be a professor. I had a job offer in the tech industry, but I knew I wouldnt be able to write as much as I wanted. I love movies. Studying movies and trying to get into the details of how a particular movie was made and what makes it a classic . . . I find it a kind of creativity cross-training. When youre learning about a director none of those stresses are there. I can feel how hard that would have been. Its all abstract because it’s not in my field. I get a lot of benefit from studying other creative fields. You can operate creative risks. You can think about the writing process and editing process. I read all of the time; its an influx of raw material. I try to read five books a month as a general commitment to cognitive fitness. I mainly read nonfiction as it’s more directly useful to what I do as a writer. I often find inspiration in biographies of professional thinkers and creatives; you gain insight into their process. Just this morning, for example, I finished reading Alec Nevala-Lee’s biography of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and polymath Luis Alvarez. It had some great material about how Alvarez sifted through potential ideas to find the few that might work. When you create ideas for a living, youre looking for what sticks. I dont use complicated idea tracking systems. I have notebooks. There are a lot of opportunities to try ideas out on the fly. You get a sense that it connects or seems interesting. If theres a spine tingle, thats a good one. I think, Theres something here. For idea generation, Ive got to be walking in nature. Thats by far my 10x. I have to be moving. I can clarify my thoughts better when Im moving. I dont want extraneous stimulation. If Im working on a book chapter, Ill drive over to the nearest parkRock Creek Park or whatever trail is nearby. For writing, though, Ive got to be quiet. I dont write with music. I have multiple offices. I have my podcast studio office/creative playhouse here. I have a library at my house, which we separate from the home office. There is no technology in my library. I have a small upstairs office where you go to, like, pay taxes. The library is analog. Theres a record player, a curated book collection in there. We had our desk custom made by a company in Maine. I have spent my entire adult life in academic libraries so I created a library just for writing. I like to test out new ideas on my newsletter and podcast to see if they have legs. This is partially about receiving audience feedback, but also partially about just seeing how I feel about the idea once I’ve had a chance to stretch it out and fill in the details. I have a pretty good sense, honed through experience, about what ideas in this seem promising and which are fools gold.
Category:
E-Commerce
If 2025 is the year of anything, it is the year of the tariff. Ever since President Trump unleashed his Liberation Day tariffs on the world in April, consumer confidence has slumped, businesses have laid off workers, and economic uncertainty has risen sharply. But economic uncertainty isnt the only thing rising. Prices of consumer goods, especially those manufactured in some of the highest-tariffed countries, including China, Vietnam, and India, are up, or are likely to be before the end of the year. And thats bad news for iPhone fans because Apple manufactures a majority of its most popular devicesor at least the components that go into themin those countries. Will the new iPhone 17 models that Apple is on track to debut next month cost more due to Trumps tariffs? Unfortunately, the answer is likely a big yepthough some uncertainty remains. Based on what we know today, heres how much you could be paying for your next iPhone 17. How much could a tariffed iPhone 17 cost? Its important to note that just because there is a 30%, 40%, or even 50% tariff on goods from select countries, it doesnt mean that consumer items shipped in from those countries will automatically be 30%, 40%, or 50% more expensive. This is because large companies often have some leverage in reducing the impact of tariffs on their bottom lines. Yes, they can, and often will, pass some of the tariff costs onto their customers. But they can also reduce some tariff costs in other ways. Ive previously written about how Apple is likely to do this, including by pressuring its suppliers in tariff-affected countries to absorb some of the costs themselves (by lowering the rates they charge Apple). Why would the suppliers agree to it? Apple is one of their biggest customers and is likely to remain so long after Trump leaves office. Therefore, its better to keep Apple happy by taking a short-term financial hit. Yet its still very likely that Apple will also raise prices on consumers for its iPhone 17 family this year. By how much? Well, that depends on which of two likely scenarios play out. First, here’s what consumers in the United States currently pay for the base storage model of iPhone 16: iPhone 16 (128GB): $799 iPhone 16 Plus (128GB): $899 iPhone 16 Pro (128GB): $999 iPhone 16 Pro Max (256GB): $1199 And here are the two ways it might go. Possible scenario #1: This scenario is floated by Jefferies analyst Edison Lee (via 9to5Mac), who expects that Apple will raise the price of most iPhone 17 models by $50. The entry-level iPhone 17 would be spared a price increase, while the other models would all see a $50 bump. If that’s accurate, then these are the starting prices that youll be paying for the iPhone 17 family next month: iPhone 17 (128GB): $849 iPhone 17 Air/Slim (128GB): $949 iPhone 17 Pro (256GB): $1,049 iPhone 17 Pro Max (256GB): $1,249 Possible scenario #2 However, theres an alternative scenario making the rounds, too. In this one, Apple will keep the regular iPhone 17 models at the same price as their iPhone 16 counterparts, and only raise the prices of its Pro models. If this is accurate, then here’s what you can expect to pay for the iPhone 17 family next month: iPhone 17 (128GB): $799 iPhone 17 Air/Slim (128GB): $899 iPhone 17 Pro (256GB): $1,049 iPhone 17 Pro Max (256GB): $1,249 If I had to choose between the two scenarios, I’d predict that Apple will opt for the first scenario, meaning that the company will only spare the regular iPhone 17 model a price increase. Consumers who buy the iPhone Pro models are usually willing to spend more for better tech. In other words, these consumers prioritize capabilities over costs. They probably wouldnt balk at an increase of $50 as much as regular consumers wouldand Apple likely knows that. A user known as Instant Digital on the Chinese social media network Weibo also claims that Apple will increase the base storage of its iPhone 17 Pro model from 128GB to 256GB. If this happens, Apple could argue that the iPhone 17 Pro consumer is actually getting more for less. Currently, an iPhone 16 Pro with an option of 256GB of storage costs $1,099$50 more than the 256GB iPhone 17 Pro is likely to cost. As for the new, supposedly thinnest ever iPhone, the 17 Air/Slim, which will reportedly replace the iPhone 16 Plus, I can see Apple bumping its originally planned price up by $50, too. Most consumers probably wouldn’t even notice the price point shift for the device, considering that they will likely view the iPhone 17 Slim/Air (or whatever its final name will be) as a new device entirely. What about the “budget” iPhone 17e? Youll notice that the budget iPhone 17e is absent from the lists above. This is because Apple is not expected to introduce the iPhone 17e until next Spring. The budget iPhone 16e only came out in February, and it seems reasonable to assume that its price will likely remain the same. (Though starting at $599, the iPhone 16e can barely be considered a true budget phone already). Will Apple blame iPhone 17 price hikes on Trumps tariffs? As for whether Apple will blame its iPhone 17 price rises on President Trumps tariffs . . . dont bet on it. Doing so would likely be tantamount to tariff suicide for the company. As Ive written before, Apple CEO Tim Cook is one of the most adept chief executives in America when it comes to dealing with Trump. His good relationship with and handling of the president have helped the company navigate extremely rough economic waters. If Apple were now to outright blame its iPhone price increases on Trumps tariffs, it would likely lead toat besta strained relationship with the president and, more likely, the pssible elimination of some of the tariff exemptions Apple and other tech giants have managed to finagle. I mean, look at how well the proposed tariff cost labels went for Amazon. In other words, you will likely be paying more for at least some iPhone 17 models next month. You can blame Trump if you wantbut Apple wont.
Category:
E-Commerce
When the U.S. government signs contracts with private technology companies, the fine print rarely reaches the public. Palantir Technologies, however, has attracted more and more attention over the past decade because of the size and scope of its contracts with the government. Palantirs two main platforms are Foundry and Gotham. Each does different things. Foundry is used by corporations in the private sector to help with global operations. Gotham is marketed as an operating system for global decision making and is primarily used by governments. I am a researcher who studies the intersection of data governance, digital technologies, and the U.S. federal government. Im observing how the government is increasingly pulling together data from various sources, and the political and social consequences of combining those data sources. Palantirs work with the federal government using the Gotham platform is amplifying this process. Gotham is an investigative platform built for police, national security agencies, public health departments, and other state clients. Its purpose is deceptively simple: take whatever data an agency already has, break it down into its smallest components, and then connect the dots. Gotham is not simply a database. It takes fragmented data, scattered across various agencies and stored in different formats, and transforms it into a unified, searchable web. The stakes are high with Palantirs Gotham platform. The software enables law enforcement and government analysts to connect vast, disparate datasets, build intelligence profiles, and search for individuals based on characteristics as granular as a tattoo or an immigration status. It transforms historically static recordsthink department of motor vehicles files, police reports, and subpoenaed social media data like location history and private messagesinto a fluid web of intelligence and surveillance. These departments and agencies use Palantirs platform to assemble detailed profiles of individuals, mapping their social networks, tracking their movements, identifying their physical characteristics, and reviewing their criminal history. This can involve mapping a suspected gang members network using arrest logs and license plate reader data, or flagging individuals in a specific region with a particular immigration status. The efficiency the platform enables is undeniable. For investigators, what once required weeks of cross-checking siloed systems can now be done in hours or less. But by scaling up the governments investigative capacity, Gotham also alters the relationship between the state and the people it governs. Shifting the balance of power The political ramifications of Palantirs rise come into focus when you consider its influence and reach across the government. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement alone has spent more than $200 million on Palantir contracts, relying on the software to run its Investigative Case Management system and to integrate travel histories, visa records, biometric data, and social media data. The Department of Defense has awarded Palantir billion-dollar contracts to support battlefield intelligence and AI-driven analysis. Even domestic agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Internal Revenue Service, and local police agencies like the New York Police Department, have contracted with Palantir for data integration projects. These integrations mean that Palantir is not just a vendor of software; it is becoming a partner in how the federal government organizes and acts on information. That creates a kind of dependency. The same private company helps define how investigations are conducted, how targets are prioritized, how algorithms work, and how decisions are justified. Because Gotham is proprietary, the public, and even elected officials, cannot see how its algorithms weigh certain data points or why they highlight certain connections. Yet the conclusions it generates can have life-altering consequences: inclusion on a deportation list or identification as a security risk. The opacity makes democratic oversight difficult, and the systems broad scope and wide deployment means that mistakes or biases can scale up rapidly to affect many people. Beyond law enforcement Supporters of Palantirs work argue that it modernizes outdated government IT systems, bringing them closer to the kind of integrated analytics that are routine in the private sector. However, the political and social stakes are different in public governance. Centralized, attribute-based searching, whether by location, immigration status, tattoos or affiliations, creates the capacity for mass profiling. In the wrong hands, or even in well-intentioned hands under shifting political conditions, this kind of system could normalize surveillance of entire communities. And the criteria that trigger scrutiny today could be expanded tomorrow. U.S. history provides warning examples: The mass surveillance of Muslim communities after 9/11, the targeting of civil rights activists in the 1960s, and the monitoring of anti-war protesters during the Vietnam era are just a few. Gothams capabilities may enable government agencies to carry out similar operations on a much larger scale and at a faster pace. And once some form of data integration infrastructure exists, its uses tend to expand, often into areas far from its original mandate. A broader shift in governance The deeper story here isnt just that the government is collecting more data. Its that the structure of governance is changing into a model where decision-making is increasingly influenced by what integrated data platforms reveal. In a pre-Gotham era, putting someone under suspicion of wrongdoing might have required specific evidence linked to an event or witness account. In a Gotham-enabled system, suspicion can stem from patterns in the datapatterns whose importance is defined by proprietary algorithms. This level of data integration means that government officials can use potential future risks to justify present action. The predictive turn in governance aligns with a broader shift toward what some scholars call preemptive security. It is a logic that can erode traditional legal safeguards that require proof before punishment. The stakes for democracy The partnership between Palantir and the federal government raises fundamental questions about accountability in a data-driven state. Who decides how these tools are used? Who can challenge a decision that was made by software, especially if that software is proprietary? Without clear rules and independent oversight, there is a risk that Palantirs technology becomes normalized as a default mode of governance. They could be used not only to track suspected criminals or terrorists but also to manage migration flows, monitor and suppress protests, and enforce public health measures. The concern is not that these data integration capabilities exist, but that government agencies could use them in ways that undermine civil liberties without public consent. Once put in use, such systems are hard to dismantle. They create new expectations for speed and efficiency in law enforcement, making it politically costly to revert to slower, more manual processes. That inertia can lock in not only the technology but also the expanded scope of surveillance it enables. Choosing the future As Palantir deepens its government partnerships, the issues its technology raises go beyond questions of cost or efficiency. There are civil liberties implications and the potential for abuse. Will strong legal safeguards and transparent oversight constrain these tools for integrated data analysis? The answer is likely to depend on political will as much as technical design. Ultimately, Palantirs Gotham is more than just software. It represents how modern governance might function: through data, connections, continuous monitoring, and control. The decisions made about its use today are likely to shape the balance between security and freedom for decades to come. Nicole M. Bennett is a PhD candidate in geography and assistant director at the Center for Refugee Studies at Indiana University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
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