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The speaker is known for criticizing social media and not using it themselves. Their 2016 Ted Talk on quitting social media has over 10 million views and their 2019 book on digital minimalism has sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
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They recently looked at actual social media apps like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to see if they are missing out on anything valuable.
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On Twitter, they found arguing over celebrities and politics. Instagram was mostly people showing off vacation photos and lives. TikTok was endless random videos playing automatically.
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As an outsider, they found the content strange and perplexing to see as the foundation of so much leisure time and culture. However, there is nothing inherently wrong with individual posts or activities.
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Their view is that social media takes attention away from other important things in life. Simply abstaining cold turkey does not work either, as it leaves an empty void that needs filling.
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Their philosophy of digital minimalism argues for moderation instead of zero use or obsession. Filling leisure time with other meaningful activities and social connections instead of constant social media and phone use.
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In conclusion, they saw positives and negatives of social media use, but were mainly surprised it has become the core of many people’s non-work engagement and that this foundation seems odd from an outside perspective. Moderation rather than total avoidance is advocated based on their perspective.
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The chapter discusses putting the ideas of slow productivity from Cal Newport’s book into action. It provides a crash course on how to do this.
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The first step is not to abstain from your phone, but to “forget” it by adding higher quality alternatives. These include reading, skill-based hobbies, exercise, community involvement, and adventures.
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The second step is a 30-day declutter where you stop using optional digital technologies like social media. You can do this because you’ve built up those higher quality leisure activities.
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During the 30 days you see what you miss and value. You can then decide what, if anything, to add back into your digital life, with clear rules on how and when to use it.
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The goal is to reconfigure your digital life on your own terms to support what you value, while minimizing unnecessary negative impacts. This requires building a better life outside of digital technologies first.
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An example is selectively bringing Twitter back just to follow baseball rumors during specific times, instead of having it on your phone constantly.
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The person talks about getting sent a video to check out by someone, but it often only shows part of the video and makes you log in to see more.
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They then discuss advertising sponsors - Ran mens clothing and Mint Mobile. Ran has comfortable clothes with features like breathability, wrinkle resistance, etc. Mint Mobile has affordable phone plans starting at $15/month.
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The rest of the transcript is questions from listeners about topics related to technology and media.
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The first question is about Neil Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” and how it relates to a digital minimalist philosophy. The person responds that Postman’s later book “Technopoly” better captures his full views, and recommends an article they wrote about it. They also provide some background on Postman’s critique of how different media can impact culture and thought.
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The second question is about reconciling the “4 hour daily limit” on deep work mentioned in Cal Newport’s book, with also pursuing high-quality leisure. The person responds that the 4 hour limit comes from studies on intense deliberate practice, and that it’s generally not a problem to also pursue leisure activities on the same day as deep work, as long as the work was not as intensely concentrated.
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The speaker discussed how people who practice extreme programming (XP) find they can only work intensely focused for a limited number of hours each day before burning out. By the afternoon, everyone needs to go home and rest.
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High-quality leisure activities like practicing a musical instrument can be exhausting in the same way as intense work if done at a deep, focused level. But most high-quality leisure isn’t as draining.
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If a leisure activity feels exhausting, like intensely working on a novel, it’s best to balance it with less demanding leisure.
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Arnold Bennett’s early 20th century book “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day” argued the brain gets rest through sleep, not downtime. Engaging the brain in interesting high-quality leisure can energize it even when tired from work.
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Switching from exhausting work to unrelated high-quality leisure like pondering poetry can raise energy levels compared to low-effort leisure like popular media consumption.
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When watching sports with commercial breaks, it’s fine to have a secondary leisure activity but not work-related ones to avoid context switching. Engaging activities like YouTube videos are too distracting - something slower like reading is better.
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Augmented reality could replace all screens once technologies like Apple Glasses advance, but screen interfaces will likely still be preferred psychologically to fully integrated digital data.
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The speaker believes that augmented reality interfaces in the future will still rely heavily on screen-based metaphors even if we can’t physically touch the screens. Games and some other applications may have more immersive 3D elements popping out of the screen.
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Typical AR demo videos show digital objects floating in space or messages flying around, but the speaker thinks people will prefer having a big stationary screen in front of them to view multiple things at once like emails side by side.
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Using screen-based interfaces will be technically easier than more complex ways of integrating digital and physical worlds. The easiest AR approach is anchoring a screen that moves with the user.
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The speaker has not yet found a good reason to purchase an Apple Vision Pro headset to experiment with AR applications, though they might find inspiration from an article by Jared Lanier who wrote about this topic in The New Yorker.
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In summary, the speaker predicts screen-based interfaces will dominate AR due to their technical simplicity compared to more immersive options, though certain applications may break from that paradigm. They are looking for the right project to justify purchasing an AR headset.
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Having your own website or hosting your own content directly gives you more control over it compared to relying on platforms like Shopify or social media. Platforms are just helping you distribute your content but you don’t fully own it.
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For things like podcasts, having your own hosting server means the MP3 files are truly yours. Streaming platforms just distribute copies but don’t own the content.
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It’s better to have your own “home base” online to own and control where you monetize your work, like a website or email list. Then you can use platforms to promote this home base.
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Writers may use a newsletter, artists a website, podcasters their own hosting server. But the content truly lives on their owned platform, not third party sites that could disappear.
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Social media popularity is unpredictable and benefits the platforms more than creators. The traditional methods like building skills, audiences, mailing lists are still most reliable, though rejection is harder.
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One person shared applying lessons from Digital Minimalism improved their life significantly in reading, exercise, sleep and conscious media consumption in 1.5 years versus previous passive use. Their wife even started appreciating the lessons.
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In summary, owning your own content platform gives more control and reliability than relying solely on third parties like social media. But traditional audience building is still important paired with decluttering technology use.
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The segment promoted Ladder Life Insurance and My Body Tutor. Ladder Life provides instant approval for life insurance from highly rated insurers. My Body Tutor offers online fitness coaching to help with consistency.
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It then transitioned to discussing J.R.R. Tolkien as part of the weekly Slow Productivity Corner. Tolkien faced stresses from his academic work at Oxford but found fulfillment creating fantastical worlds in stories and illustrations.
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A quote was shared where Tolkien said writing stories “has been stolen often guiltily from time already mortgaged.” Once his books succeeded financially, he had time to focus on what he truly desired - creating these imaginative worlds.
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This showed how Tolkien engaged in slow creativity amid fast productivity demands, finding more peace working on fewer high-quality things. It’s an example of the promises of slow productivity and engaging in deeper work.
So in summary, it promoted fitness and insurance products before analyzing Tolkien’s work habits as emblematic of slow, engaging productivity leading to greater fulfillment.
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About Matheus Puppe