# Digital nihilism
## Intro
A term I have just came up with to quickly describe my idea. It is not the next logical step after "digital minimalism", rather a diffirent approach: not limiting and controlling device usage, but using a computer strictly as a tool and not using it when there are more effective tools. Setups matter little in this context, as long as you have bare minimum of programs and shortcuts the work can be done.
## There is an app for everything
Do you really need an app for that? I'll start with the basic premise of digital minimalism. There are a lot of apps for almost everything out there, and not all of them are good or even useful, let alone optimized and functional.
## Your phone and computer can do everything
They can't. More importantly, there are a lot of things they suck at and relatively few things they are good at. Actually, let's list some stuff.
### What a PC or a laptop can do really well
- Computations and programming, any kind of it
- Typing and, more importantly, editing text and documents
- Processing and visualising formatted data
- Editing images, audio, etc.
- Storing data on drives
- Research
### What a phone can do really well
- Keeping you in touch with people
- Looking stuff up
- Taking photos, videos, recording audio
## Here is a new feature for tagging your tasks
So, here is my point: any computer, being a fancy physical representations of mathematical algorithm enclosed in shiny box, is terrible at processing loosely-organized data. And your life, personal notes and planning are loosely organized and won't fit a nice layout of that app, no matter how hard you try. The entropy will take over, partly because these devices were not designed for it. If you can't do it with spreadsheet and a barebones txt file, you are probably better off with pen and paper.
Ditch notion, todoist and whatever it is you use. The only real application for them is to organize work tasks, with well-known workflow and a need for shared access. Ditch habit-building and note-taking apps on your phone and throw a small A6 notebook in your pocket or backpack. It will nicely replace all of them and do a better job at it. You need backup? Photocopy the necessary pages and throw them into the cloud. This is faster and more convenient than all the popups, tables and pages you could neatly organize on your screen.
Only use your device when it's the best tool for the bank. Forget about using your phone to learn or read, you will end up on tiktok or other time sink of choice anyway. People who designed this get paid to make sure you do, your "willpower" is no match for the team of engineers. Buy e-book reader or get paperback in the library. Get a mobile, lightweight laptop and use it to learn stuff on the go if you have to.
## But how about all my friends on social media?
Messaging apps are great for keeping in touch. Social media are terrible at virtually everything, especially at supplying you information. Use them if you have to, but do keep in mind that what you read is an algorithm maximising the profit and not the depiction of real world.
## Outro
This is, for the most part, a rant. Maybe it will prove useful for someone, who knows. The majority of it is inspired by Luke Smith and George Hotz and the linux laptop I am typing on.
Dixi.
Welcome back :-).
> This is, ... , a rant. Maybe it will prove useful for
someone, ...
Good start of an opinionated conversation.
## Reaction summary
Good topic. My lifelong on and off obsession too. Good start. Let me grab a coffee... :-)
Seriously, this is a topic worth exploring further.
## Notes
Digital nihilism --> Digital pragmatism?
> Do you really need an app for that?
For a long time I resisted apps on my phone. My private reasons, mostly security, privacy, etc. I discovered that the resistance was sometimes warranted, but some phone apps are better than replacement in pen and paper, or general purpose thin client (e.g., browser). The thresholds for me are: 1. either a significantly lower friction than alternatives; or 2. use anywhere, anytime; or 3. new mode of operating in the world.
Examples of 1:
- habit inducing app (Loop Habit Tracker) - if the thing reminds me it's easier to comply than to actively check (and forget to check)
- 2-factor auth/digital identity with my e-government (yes, I gave in finally and it improved my life hugely)
Examples of 2:
- mobile banking
- e-mail client as a read-only comm tool
- IM client(s) for quick and dirty comms under way
- quick pragmatic tools like MS Lens for scanning documents
Examples of 3 are mostly digital content consuming apps mostly. Firstly, I read a lot. I used to waste time on this. Then I discovered Text-To-Speech conversion and it changed my life. Several months ago I decided I want to read more books, but I do not have much time to read really and many books ended up drying up on my desk. I switched to Audible/audio books and it's a revelation. Over the last 3 months I read more books than last year altogether. I intend to continue with that. Finally, I value listening to meditations. Without mobile device it would be a huge hassle for me.
Todo lists, note taking, etc. I totally agree with you.
> And your life, personal notes and planning are loosely organized and won’t fit a nice layout of that app, no matter how hard you try. The entropy will take over, partly because these devices were not designed for it. If you can’t do it with spreadsheet and a barebones txt file, you are probably better off with pen and paper.
The key observation is that none of those methods work on their own. It started to work for me after I realised 1) what I actually want and need in my life; and 2) how those activities like note taking etc. support it. From that the technology/tooling flows easily.
@FailForward a nice tool for your phone is "Librera PRO" available free on F-Droid. It will text-to-speech any document and give you the option of going beyond audible books. The downside is that you won't have a natural voice, though one does get used to it quickly. Also in regards to listening to books, one can easily listen to audio at twice the speed and with some practice even up to three times. And based off of some studies, it seems that we can retain more information when listening at higher speeds. It mainly has to do with the process of becoming an active listener over having side thoughts that are distracting you from the current information source. Thus making you focus more on what's being conveyed.
@barefootstache Thanks for the tip. I am using @Voice Aloud Reader TTS since a couple of years. Works fine for me, not only for reading long-form web stuff, but also Gutenberg books.
As for listening at speed, I do not like it. The point is not how quickly I can "absorb" the information. I need to think. So the speed of thoughts about what is going on needs to match the flow of information. For fiction books, that can be faster than for fact-literature where I often need to slow down, take notes, or even rewind often.
@FailForward
Thorough analysis, as always. Thanks for feedback, I appreciate it. Digital pragmatism may be a better term, indeed.
I don't hesitate to use multiple apps and accounts if I need to, even momentarily. The majority of my data will leak anyway, and there is not much to leak, honestly. And most of sensitive stuff is now on paper.
Bank apps are, indeed, great... Except they are way more vulnerable and buggy than, say, facebook. At least Russian ones. I use one, because it's easy and I don't have a lot of money most of the time, but if I ever do - a paper with password and incognito tab on linux laptop are a way to go. My dad does this, except for linux part.