Book Review: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Here’s the thing… I kind of suck at writing book reviews, I get so involved with the learning in a book that I forget to take notes on the things a book review should have.

Instead, I take notes for my learning… not yours.

So my book reviews are more like “book thoughts”… more of a here’s what I learned, here’s my take-away, here are my thoughts.

Brilliant, I know.

Here we go…

Cal Newport’s newest is called Digital Minimalism.

What it’s about…

Newport doesn’t think you need to simply take a break from technology one day a week or for a whole week. He does think you should abstain for one month then add in selectively, he calls this a ‘digital detox’. Newport believes that, “what you need … is a full-fledged philosophy of technology use.”

In other words, you need a plan and you need to practice it. The plan should encompass what tools you should use and how you should use them based upon your values. Everything else gets dumped.

I don’t disagree for the most part. It’s easy to be enticed by new shiny objects, to fill our phones with apps all designed to steal our attention.

The question is… how much of your attention do you want stolen? That’s one of the big ideas in the book.

Newport doesn’t necessarily think you need to ditch all technology but rather be mindful of the technology you use and why.

I agree that thinking technology will make us more efficient is a fallacy, so why not be more mindful of what does make us more efficient.

And to be clear, efficiency is in the eye of the beholder because for each of us the tactics and systems will be different but I do think our output is a good measure of our ability to be productive; what did we get done or produce? Without undistracted time how could we possibly produce much at all?

Newport is an example of an extreme producer, the amount of written work he produces is very high compared to his colleagues so his arguments are believable.

Digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use. The book is designed to make the case for that philosophy and show you how to adapt and sustain it.

What are the big A-Ha’s?

There were a few big take-away items for me. First, the amount of time spent daily by the average user on social media and its messaging features… 2 hours.

Doesn’t seem like a lot at first but think about it for a moment. What could you accomplish with an extra 2 hours a day?

I could literally read 3 books a week with 2 extra hours every day… that’s 14 extra hours every week!

Second, that all of these technologies cause behavioral addictions and that they are engineered to cause addition and rob attention from us. The builders of apps and games and such are using specific tactics to hook our brains and cultivate excessive use.

Dopamine – a neurotransmitter in our brains which regulates our sense of craving – is released the more “likes” we get on Facebook… and that’s what social media is designed to do. These technologies are engineered to grab our attention and not let go through psychological tactics that release brain chemicals, like dopamine…

It’s good business, it’s profitable, and it’s stealing our lives.

Finally, the biggest take-away and the most obvious… it’s my life so I need to decided how I want to spend my time, focus, and energy. Once I’ve done that… then I craft a technology plan that supports it.

If I want to spend more time reading, outdoors, with family and friends, then I need to cut my technology use. Mine was already pretty minimal but I could do better. We could all do better.

My digital use…

Before I read Digital Minimalism I was already pretty good about minimizing digital distractions. I’d read this great article about configuring your iPhone for productivity and had started to systematically put into practice many of the suggestions.

I don’t answer the phone unless I know who is calling (Mom, bestie…) and even when I do know who’s calling I may not answer. If I’m in the middle of something I just keep on.

I’ve always felt that from a business/work perspective if someone calls and leaves a message with what they need, it’s far more efficient to get back to them with the answer. It just saves time.

It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you… it’s just that as Newport argues, distractions decrease efficiency. And, I leave sound off most of the day so I don’t hear the rings and dings which are very distracting to me.

I also have just a few apps… 8 on my home screen that aren’t the already available Apple apps. 7 extra apps that I use once a month on screen 2 and on screen 3 everything else loaded on the phone by Apple is dumped into folders, most of the apps unused.

AND, I never have my phone in my bedroom, ever.

I had also already minimized my social media time. I use Facebook and LinkedIn. That’s it.

I quit Twitter because I couldn’t justify the time spent on it. The time I had spent on it derived no profitable outcome, so why use it?

While I have an Instagram account, I only use it once a month to check on the folks I follow, I don’t post anything.

I do a have a Pinterest account but use it mostly as a bookmarking tool.

Facebook and LinkedIn I do use but I try to be conscious of the time I spend in those spaces and generally it is business use or a quick check in with friends.

What did I change and learn…

The one thing that fascinated me in the book is the story of Henry David Thoreau and his theory of economics. Thoreau went into the woods (Walden Pond), built a cabin, lived there for two years as a way to gather information for his economic theory. He recorded what it cost for him to live at Walden Pond at a minimum and compared that to what he would need to earn through his labor to support that life. He concluded 1 day of labor per week.

I thought about that math… a lot.

This piece really affected my thought process in terms of what amount of time I would spend using technology because for every hour I spent skimming Facebook I was losing between $50-100. (My lowest rates for work by hour.)

I could spend a few hundred dollars to have my property maintained. (With ½ acre and 12 mature Mesquite trees it is a constant work load to keep things maintained.) Or I could do it myself, remove the additional cost and therefore the additional desk work.

Would I rather work in front of my computer for 8 hours, back aching, to pay to have trees trimmed and leaves raked?

For the last few years… yes. The answer would have been an unwavering “YES”. But five years out from my cancer surgeries and 4 ½ out from chemo… I am 80% back to my original physical stamina and I could again do a lot of it myself.

The question became, did I want to trade sitting a chair in front of pages of code or research in exchange for a few hours outside doing something physical?

Yes, I was willing to trade. I knew it would be hard work. I knew I would be tired. But once I started the experiment I began to really enjoy the effort. My upper body became stronger and more toned, something that didn’t happen running or biking. The physical effort was rewarding and satisfying.

The key to this idea of time trading of work is different for everyone but I found the experiment fulfilling. Newport contrasts not just desk work but technology use…

“Thoreau’s new economics, however, demands that you balance this profit against the costs measured in terms of “your life.”

How much of your time and attention, he would ask, must be sacrificed to earn the small profit of occasional connections and new ideas that is earned by cultivating a significant presence on Twitter?”

For me, giving up profit through work to spend the time myself on maintenance chores is worth the trade. Giving up social media use to spend time on maintenance chores is a no-brainer.

Finally…

I’ve thought a lot about the idea of loneliness and social isolation over the last few years. I keep thinking, and sometimes saying out loud, that we are heading to a place of lots of lonely people. Dating sites abound, new ones popping up regularly, and still folks feel alone. We are constantly surrounded by people and yet we can’t make new friends or connections or get dates…

Newton’s book just seemed to reinforce that we are social animals and using technology to attempt to replace being social with others is failing. We need to connect with one another in person to combat loneliness. We need conversation. We need connection. We can’t get those things from a 140 character tweet.

As an introvert I need good excuses to get out of my cocoon of solitude. Even as an introvert, I still need a certain amount of face-to-face human connection and I make the needed effort. It isn’t a lot for me but it is necessary so I expend the energy even when it’s hard. As a result, I don’t suffer from feeling lonely or alone for the most part, sure loneliness can creep in for all of us but the answer isn’t more Facebook and Instagram. In fact, it’s less.

Set down your phone and go for a walk, hike, trim a tree, paint a wall in your place, make some art… do something you truly enjoy and I think you’ll find that doing can stave off loneliness as well.

And, well, do the math. Do you really need that job and title and more money? Or do you simply need to conserve more of what you have? Less meals out, less fast food, less stuff, less outside services…

I’m not saying dump them all, I’m saying do the math. For me, shoveling dirt myself instead of paying for it has saved me a gym membership and has reminded me that doing physical work can be super satisfying.

If you’ve read Digital Minimalism, tell us in the comments what you got out of it, if you’ve not read it I recommend it. I’ve only scratched the surface of its content in my post.