2. Digital Minimalism Flashcards
What is the ‘digital minimalism’ philosophy’?
Limiting digital life to a small number of carefully selected and highly optimised activities which support one’s key values, and happily missing out on the rest.
What is a digital maximalists approach?
Start using a technology that offers ANY benefit, even if it’s small.
What’s an example of stripping away superfluous features of useful technology to help avoid distraction?
- Bookmarking the events or notifications page of facebook, instead of going to the homepage.
- Using facebook with a very small group of people, work colleagues (for example)
What are the 3 principles of digital minimalism?
- Clutter is costly
- Optimise the technology we use
- Intentionality is satisfying
What is principle #1 of digital minimalism, and what is they key example that supports it in the book?
- Clutter is costly.
This is supported by Thoroau’s Walden, and his ‘new economics’ of the cost of any activity being measured by the time it takes away from life, either immediately or in the long run.
Say someone spends 10 hours per week on Twitter, which is a high time price to pay.
If this person uses twitter for making and maintaining connections, what is a less costly way to achieve the same (or better) outcomes?
Anything that will still help make and maintain connections, whilst taking up less than 40 hours per month.
In the book, he uses the example of attending a talk/event etc once a month, and forcing yourself to talk to at least 3 new people. This would accomplish a similar outcome, but take only a few hours a month instead of 40.
What is the 2nd principle of digital minimalism?
What is the justifying example in the book?
- Optimise your technology use
The law of diminishing returns explains that you can make large gains initially, and smaller gains as you dive deeper. Therefore, we should spend the small amount of time to improve how we implement a technology in our lives, due to the disproportionate benefit offered from slight tweaks initially.
What is the 3rd principle of digital minimalism?
What is the example used in the book?
- Intentionality is satisfying.
The Amish community, and how they have someone (or a small group) test any potential new technology to weigh up the pros and the cons before deciding whether to incorporate it into the lives of the community members.
