A case for less tech

A computer scientist’s advice for dumping the unnecessary gadgets and apps in your life.

DIGITAL MINIMALISM HAS a prescription: a month of abstinence from all modern technology except the essentials, such as work email and texts with family. After that, a slow, selective reintroduction of devices and apps, each one allowed back if, and only if, it boosts productivity or gratifies leisure. But really: What does Cal Newport, a father of three, Georgetown professor, bestselling author, theoretician, and aspiring maker, know about using time well? – Alexander George POPULAR MECHANICS: This book made me think of how much I covet new gadgets and apps, even though most of them don’t enable anything I can’t already do. So why do I still want them?

Cal Newport: The way we think about new technology, such as social media or smartphones, is different from any other tool. They’re presented as ‘This might be of some use, so why not try it?’ But if you’re a woodworker, you don’t go to the hardware store and think, ‘Look at this shiny new thing! I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with this, but if I have it, it will help.’ Woodworkers care about what they’re trying to produce, and the tools are subordinated to what they’re accomplishing. Digital minimalism is thinking of what you’re trying to do, personally and professionally, and asking, ‘What’s the best tool? What’s going to give me the biggest return?’ Once you get into a craftsman mindset, you’re going to say, ‘I don’t need a new iPad.’

A roboticist is using this tablet, dragging his finger across the screen to create robots. But that’s actually an incredibly physical job. Roboticists spend years learning how to build physical, actuated things, using very specific tools and huge workshops. They’re usually master electrical engineers and structural engineers. But this tablet enables them to figure out how to do responsive locomotion? That idea epitomises what’s going on now. It’s this vague sense of ‘Just turn on Slack, and your office will improve.’ PM: Besides overselling the utility of new tech, you talk about how adopting new gadgets or social media can be harmful.

CN: When the internet is consolidated into big companies such as Facebook, those companies think, ‘We gotta get users at all costs; we’ll figure it out later.’ That’s when you get maximalism and engineered addictiveness. Things like the Apple Watch or Amazon Echo represent this mindset, of not thinking of what problem the product solves. And that severely underestimates the value of our time. For example, I’ve been a sceptic of voice assistants like Alexa. Tapping my weather app wasn’t holding me back from anything important. PM: There’s a section about solitude, defined as time when you’re not experiencing ideas from other minds. What do you gain from turning off notifications, or leaving your phone at home?

CN: The way our brains work, when you bring in information, you also have to do a lot of processing. I have had the privilege to spend time with the very top theoretical minds in the world, and they spend tons of time just thinking. This time can help with a professional task, or with self-reflection, to figuring out your life. But even if you’re in a remote cabin, if you’re listening to a podcast, you’re not in solitude. You’re reacting. You’re thinking, ‘What does this person mean? Do I agree with them?’ Phones activate expensive parts of your brain. Running them all the time is actually really exhausting. PM: You’re a computer scientist. Isn’t talking like this bad for business?

CN: I see technology through this lens where there’s this beautiful theory, and computation. You can use logic and mathematics to determine what you can and can’t solve with computing systems. But then, I look around and think, ‘I’m at the beginning of a long pipeline that eventually leads to big systems.’ Technologies have huge impacts, a lot of them unintentional. That’s why I write about this stuff.

I figure, it’s probably good to have someone who’s deep inside this world doing some self-reflection. PM: But we, generally, choose the opposite of that.

CN: It makes me think of this commercial.