Digital Minimalism - “Quick Hitters” (notes I wrote in the front cover):
17 - Addiction due to intermittent positive reinforcement and the drive for social approval
Irresistible by
25 - Increasingly ceding autonomy to the digital = a "diminishing of our soul's authority"
34 - Average FB user spends 50 min/day on FB + platforms
37 - Dead Poets Society (movie)
42 - Most important resource we possess = the minutes of our life
57 - the sting of missing out dulls rapidly
71 - put technology to work on behalf of specific things you value
73 - sidestep mindless digital activity to prioritize the real you
74 - return technology to a supporting role for more meaningful ends
75 - Does this technology directly support something I deeply value?
93 - Solitude = your mind is free from the input of other minds
96 - Solitude by Anthony Starr (seminal work)
"Solitude is the school of genius"
119 - Walking is a fantastic source of solitude
"Accept only excellence from myself" (124)
Face-to-face conversation = most human/humanizing thing we do (144)
"My answer isn't anti-technology, it's pro-conversation (146)
Conversation is being replaced by "connection"; we must reclaim this
"Reclaim conversation" (151)
The "Like" button is like towing a Ferrari behind a mule (!!) (153)
Texting isn't sufficiently rich to fulfill our brain's craving for real conversation (157)
People crave real conversation (164)
Value you receive from a pursuit is often proportional to the energy invested (176)
Craft = apply skill to make something valuable (177)
Can also apply to high-value behaviors
"Our strong instinct for manipulating objects in the physical world" (197)
Your time = Their $$ (246)
"I'm terrible about texting" (247)
The Annex (Quick bulleted notes from the book):
(6) Average modern user spends two hours per day on social media and related messaging services
(9) Bill Maher: tycoons of social media aren't friendly nerd gods; they're "tobacco farmers in T-shirts, selling an addictive product to children”
Checking your "likes" = the new smoking
(16) Behavioral (internet) addiction added as a diagnosable illness in 2013
(34) Dave's father wrote him a handwritten note every week during his freshman year of college
(73) The sheer quantity of time that can be reclaimed when you "sidestep mindless digital activity to once again prioritize the real you"
(77) To allow an optional tech. back into your life after your digital declutter, it must:
Serve something you deeply value (some benefit is not enough)
Be the best way to use tech. to serve this value (if not, replace with something better)
Have a role in your life that is constrained with a standard operating procedure that specifies when and how you use it
(96) Descartes, Newton, Locke, Pascal, Spinoza, Kant, Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein never had families or fostered close personal ties
(103) Solitude Deprivation: a state in which you spend close to zero time alone with your own thoughts and free from input from other minds
As early as 1990s, this was difficult to achieve!
(104) Kids born after 1995 consume media more than nine hours per day, on average
Major shifts in student mental health ---> therefore, tech is messing with students' brain chemistry
Spike in anxiety began around 2011
"Hum of low-grade anxiety that permeates their daily lives"
(109) We need solitude to thrive as human beings
"Humans are not wired to be constantly wired"
(117) Nietzsche walked up to 8 hours/day
"Accept only excellence from myself"
(134) Loss of social connection triggers the same system as physical pain
(140) The use of Facebook was negatively associated with well-being
(157) Setting on iPhone to automatically turn on "Do Not Disturb"
Text messages become like emails
(158) "Our brains don't react well to constant disruptive interaction
(164) Cal has open hours for all Georgetown students (CCT grad program…!)
(176) The value you receive from a pursuit is often proportional to the energy invested
(178) Computers are eliminating touch as one of our senses
(182) "Leave good evidence of yourself" by creating things
(185) F3 organization - Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith
(195) "There was a time in this country when most people were handy"
Handy = comfortable picking up a new physical skill when needed
(233) "Dunbar Number" = ~150 people we can successfully keep track of in our social circles
(251) The concept of back-and-forth conversation existing outside the context of two people talking in close proximity is completely foreign to our species' history
(253) Cal: "I'm enthralled by the possibilities of our techno-future"