Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

conversation is crucial: Face-to-face conversation is the most human—and humanizing—thing we do.24 Fully present to one another, we learn to listen. It’s where we develop the capacity for empathy. It’s where we experience the joy of being heard, of being understood.

there’s one last question you must ask yourself before it’s allowed back into your life: How am I going to use this technology going forward to maximize its value and minimize its harms?

Thoreau’s] intention was not to inhabit a wilderness,” he writes, “but to find wildness in a suburban setting.”36

the Amish still practice Rumspringa. During this ritual period, which begins at the age of sixteen, Amish youth are allowed to leave home and experience the outside world beyond the restrictions of their community. It is then their decision, after having seen what they will be giving up, whether or not they accept baptism into the Amish church.

He had also been working out a new theory of economics that attempted to push back against the worst dehumanizing effects of industrialization.

a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life.

To be clear, conversation-centric communication requires sacrifices. If you adopt this philosophy, you’ll almost certainly reduce the number of people with whom you have an active relationship. Real conversation takes time, and the total number of people for which you can uphold this standard will be significantly less than the total number of peop

“Amish communities are not relics of a bygone era.13 Rather, they are demonstrations of a different form of modernity.”

ruthlessly reducing their time spent online to focus on a small number of high-value activities.