Digital Minimalism

Update 2023 — I reread this, and liked it again. It was interesting to see how much of it I'd adopted without realizing. The salient takeaways this time around are that one should be much more focused in how they spend their leisure time; it's not enough to remove digital crap; you actively need something to replace it with.

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Ever since I learned that people's score on an IQ drops by 15 points if they're regularly distracted during it (eg. by a phone), I've been pretty wary of my attention. 15 points of intelligence is a big price to pay for anything! About a year ago I got rid of my smart phone, and downgraded back to a flip phone. It's been working pretty well for me.

Digital Minimalism is Cal Newport's take on this phenomenon, and what to do about it. It gave me some vindication that maybe I'm not crazy for not wanting to sign up for instagram. Perhaps more importantly, it discusses a significantly less-haphazard-than-mine-was approach to weening yourself off these services.

The thesis of the book is “your smartphone provides much less value than you think,” but even if you already agree with that, there is value to be found in this book. Newport successfully argues that we've collectively lost the idea of active leisure and do-it-yourself-edness as a society, and suggests that these activities are a healthier substitute for mindlessly dicking around on our phones/netflix/what-have-you.

It's not Newport's best book (So Good They Can't Ignore You is), but it's worth a read.