Digital Minimalism - Cal Newport
Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
I. Foundations
1. A Lopsided Arms Race
Facebook started out as a simple novelty. Similarly the iPhone was proclaimed “revolutionary”, but mainly because it combined the iPods features into a phone, as well as improved ways to make calls.
Few, not even the inventors, guessed how much these tools would change us.
The extreme changes that this technology brought were never planned. They just happened.
They can be useful, but the problem is when we get a feeling of loosing control.
While initially we all stumbled into this, later we were deliberately pushed deeper into it by clever device and app designers who found value in our distraction.
[q] Tristan Harris: Tech companies are in a “race to the bottom of the brain stem."
Until the 21st century we thought that only substances could cause real addiction, but over the last one or two decades we realized that behavioral addictions are equally real.
One key force behind technology’s addictive power: “intermittent positive reinforcement”. Rewards that are delivered at random release much more dopamine than if the pattern was predictable.
Every time we post something online we play the lottery, waiting to see how many likes we get.
Second force that encourages addiction: drive for social approval. We are hardwired to crave social approval, it used to be crucial for our survival. The like button now provides instant access to that. Also explains our urge to instantly respond to all texts or messages we receive.
The technologies were carefully designed to capitalize on these addictive properties.
2. Digital Minimalism
To recover our old habits, tricks and tweaks probably won’t do. Need a fundamental shift in our behavior.
We need a “philosophy of technology use”, a set of rules for which technologies we allow into our lives and which we don’t. Need to be aware of the digital tools that we actually want to use, and not just blindly consume.
[bq] “Digital Minimalism: A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.”
New tools that are only somewhat useful are ignored. Has to be a massive benefit to be used.
Core question: “Is this the best way to use technology to support this value?”
Principle #1 - Clutter is costly: Even if many apps are somewhat useful, the overall clutter creates a negative effect.
Principle #2 - Optimization is important: It’s not enough to choose what tools to use, but also how to best use each of them
Principle #3 - Intentionality is satisfying: Somewhat independent of the actual commitment, the sheer act of committing is a very meaningful and joyful thing.
Thoreau’s “New Economics” shifts the focus from direct money to time value.
[q] “The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
- Henry David Thoreau.
Then Thoreau worked backwards, figuring out how much a minimalist lifestyle costs him, and then how many hours he needs to work for that.
Most people only consider what technologies to adopt, but not how to effectively use them.
Removing social media apps from phone can be great, because you can still access them on computer and get all their benefits, but without the constant distraction/availability.
3. The Digital Declutter
Gradually diminishing use of these technologies often doesn’t work well, there is too much habit and (carefully engineered) friction.
Should instead employ a rapid process, a “digital declutter”.
For 30 days remove all optional technology from your life, and rediscover activities and behaviors that you value. Then afterwards slowly reintroduce technologies one by one, always asking what value they serve in your life and how exactly you will use them to maximize that value.
[bq] “For many people, their compulsive phone use papers over a void created by a lack of a well-developed leisure life.”
II. Practices
4. Spend Time Alone
[bq] Solitude doesn’t require physical separation from others; it’s a “subjective state in which your mind is free from input from other minds."
Using this definition, even if we’re physically alone, we might not experience solitude if we get input from others via e.g. smart phones, TV, or even books to some extent.
In his 2017 book “Solitude”, Micheal Harris argues that our culture is more and more inflicting itself with deprivation of solitude and the benefits it provides. He names three key benefits of solitude:
New ideas
Understanding of the self
Closeness to others
He argues that we actually need solitude to truly appreciate the time we spend with others.
In early 2000s, iPod changed the way we consume music. For many, we now have music on almost the entire time, giving us no time to be alone with our thoughts. The smartphone then gave the final push against solitude, now also banishing brief moments of solitude and boredom by providing rewards for quick glances.
Newport argues many of us suffer from solitude deprivation, spending close to zero time alone with our own mind/thoughts.
Teenage anxiety and mental healthy issues have skyrocketed in generations born after 1995. Those were the first who grep up on smartphone use and don’t even remember the solitude without.
[bq] “We need solitude to thrive as human beings, and in recent years, without even realizing it, we’ve been systematically reducing this crucial ingredient from our lives.”
[bq] “Simply put, humans are not wired to be constantly wired.”
5. Don’t Click “Like"
Our brains evolved with social interaction as one of the key tasks. Even when doing nothing and the default mode network activates, there are exactly the regions also responsible for social processing.
Similarly to the effect of fast food on nutritional health, digital communication tools are now causing problem to our old neural systems for social processing.
Social media use actually linked to lower happiness. Studies showed that it’s not social media itself that makes us unhappy (in most cases) but that on average the more your use social media, the fewer interactions you have in real life, which reduces happiness.
Should prioritize conversation over mere connection. Might initially feel like that shrinks our social circle, but that’s illusory.
Idea: Set up a coffee shop office hour. Spend a certain time on a certain day always at the same coffee shop and tell friends about it so they can join you if they are free.
6. Reclaim Leisure
Aristotle in book ten of the Ethics says that leisure is important for the good and happy life.
[q] “The best and most pleasant life is the life of the intellect. This life will also be the happiest. […] [Contemplation is an] activity that is appreciated for its own sake. […] Nothing is gained from it except the act of contemplation.”
- Aristotle
[NFW: Similar to work=purpose, leisure=meaning idea of David Steindl-Rast]
Importance of things that are done purely for they own sake, not some purpose.
Newport calls these pursuits “high quality leisure”, things that bring us inward joy and protect us of the existential crisis many of us face when we’ve achieved the purpose of our work.
[bq] “More and more people are failing to cultivate the high-quality leisure life, that Aristotle identifies as crucial for human happiness.”
[bq] “This leaves a void that would be near unbearable if confronted, but that can be ignored with the help of digital noise."
Newport devotes an entire chapter of the book to cultivating good leisure and filling the void so that we don’t have to avoid it via distractions.
Interestingly, when people cultivate high quality leisure, test often pick activities that look like strenuous work. Gives more satisfaction and even mental health benefits.
[q] “I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
[q] “What? You say that full energy given to those sixteen hours [spent away from work] will lessen the value of the business eight? Not so. On the contrary, it will assuredly increase the value of the business eight. One of the chief things which my typical man has to learn is that the mental faculties are capable of a continuous hard activity; they do not tire like an arm or a leg. All they want is change - not rest, except in sleep.”
- Arnold Bennett in “How to live on 24 Hours a Day”
Counterintuitively, putting more energy into leisure, overall energizes us.
[bq] “Leisure Lesson #1: Prioritize demanding activity over passive consumption.”
We evolved using our hands as tools to shape things in the physical world, but nowadays many of us (if at all) only create things on a screen. Getting manual again can provide tremendous satisfaction.
Using true craft and skill gets us recognition and applies from our peers. But now we are looking for likes and retweets as an extremely inadequate replacement.
[bq] “Leisure Lesson #2: Use skills to produce valuable things in the real world.”
“Supercharged Socialising”: Interactions with higher intensity levels than common in polite society. E.g. while playing board games or doing sports.
[bq] “Leisure Lesson #3: Seek activities that require real-work, structured social interactions."
[bq] “Physical object […] demands (cognitive) struggle before it begins to return value - but when it does, the value is more substantial and lasting than the sugar high of a light weight digital interaction.”
[bq] “The internet is fueling a leisure renaissance of sorts by providing the average person more leisure options than ever before.”
[bq] “I want you to replace this [state of passive consumption] with a state where your leisure time is now filled with better pursuits, many of which will primarily exist in the physical world.”
Use technology, e.g. instructional Youtube videos, to teach you a skill you can then apply in the real world, not for mindless distraction.
[bq] Benjamin Franklin “was relentlessly driven to be part of groups, associations, lodges, and volunteer companies - any organization that brought interesting people together.”
Found time off in high quality socializing.
Should take a strategic approach to high quality leisure, including scheduling and organizing.
Make a seasonal leisure plan three or four times a year.
Should include objectives (things/goals you want to achieve) and habits (things you want to cultivate/honor). Objective should come with strategies, clear steps of how to achieve them.
Be clear and specific. Rather than “play guitar more frequently” should be something like “be able to play 10 songs”.
Habits should aim at generally improving high quality leisure.
In weekly leisure plan, review big objectives and decide how exactly you can make progress on them this week, and then actually schedule it.
7. Join the Attention Resistance
For Facebook and similar companies, the time users spend on their site is crucial for their revenue (through ads). So then try to hook us, and maximize our time on the platform.
[bq] “You are […] waging a David and Goliath battle against institution that are both impossibly rich and intent on using this wealth to stop you from winning.”
But there exists a “loosely organized attention resistance movement.”
Many attention grabbing “innovations” are mobile-only. So removing these apps from phone and only accessing on browser can be a big steps towards less distraction.
Using apps/tools like “Freedom” that restrict internet access for period of time can be extremely effective.
Often have this false perception that “general purpose” equals “productivity”. But often restricting capabilities available at any one time increases focus, and as a result productivity.
[bq] Want “computers that are general purpose in the long run, but are effectively single purpose in any given moment.”
Should embrace the “slow media” movement, selecting only a handful of our most trusted and high quality information/news sources, and then when we check them (ideally at a predetermined time) give them our full attention.