Digital Minimalism
Cal Newport
First published 2019Portfolio first edition, 5 February 2019 (author's own bibliography, calnewport.com)
What it is.
The declutter itself. Thirty days off optional tech, then tools earn their way back.
The instruction is blunt. Thirty days off every optional technology, then let each one argue its way back by naming what it does for you that nothing else does. Most do not survive. What I took from it was the two things either side of the declutter. Solitude is a requirement rather than a preference, and leisure has quality levels, so you replace a feed with something demanding rather than with nothing. The walking practice is the piece I kept.
Working summary · based on Toward's reading notes
The strongest objection
The declutter is a prescription, not a tested protocol. The closest real evidence, a paid month-long deactivation study, is not the same thing as a month you choose for yourself.
Working summary · based on Toward's records
Why it is here.
Friction is the effort between you and an action. Apps spend billions engineering it away. Add a little back on purpose, and you choose where your hours go instead of the feed choosing for you.
The friction principle sits behind reclaiming your time and this is the book it comes from. Newport is not writing behavioral science and does not claim to be. He is describing choice architecture anyway. The scroll is a default, the apps engineered the friction out, and the fix is putting some back on purpose.
Working summary · based on Toward's reading notes
Where it sits.
Goals it serves.
Read it before Deep Work. This one clears the room and that one tells you what to do once it is clear. Indistractable sits beside both and works at a smaller scale, for the weeks when thirty days off anything is not on the table.
Working summary · based on Toward's records