Stopping to Think

  Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport My rating: 5 of 5 stars Did you enjoy Deep Work , but weren't sure how to implement the ideas, because the pull of distraction still seemed constant and hard to silence? Looking for more practical advice on how to break up with your constant need for distraction? Digital Minimalism is probably for you. That's not to say you need to have read any of Newport's work before to benefit from this book. He spends the first section of the book, 80 pages or so, laying the groundwork for what he's arguing. The attention-based economy has the best minds and attention science on their side, and by unthinkingly using every new tool, toy, and app that comes along we are volunteering to give them our most precious resource - time - in exchange for what they're mainly after - money. This is not only a bad trade-off, it's also bad for our mental health and quality of life. The remainder of the book...

  "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion." Proverbs 18:2 We live in a day when the right to self expression, codified in America by our constitutional right to free speech, is not seen as something you are simply entitled to. Expressing what is happening to you and in you at any given moment is not something we are only allowed to do in our social media age, but is considered a positive virtue.  How does this line up with Proverbs? The writer in Proverbs 18:2 seems less enamored with free expression than the typical modern American. In fact, the free expression of one's opinion is juxtaposed, held up against and contrasted with, finding pleasure in understanding. Whereas the dispenser of this biblical wisdom might give advice that sounds like an old school dad- "you have two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion" - the modern individual, who sees self-expression as the highest ideal, might counter - "ah, yes...