Forem: Rey van den Berg

Digital Minimalism: Why Your Happiness Demands It

Rey van den Berg — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 07:42:13 +0000

1. Introduction to Minimalism

2. What is Minimalism?

3. What is Digital Minimalism?

4. 7 Core Principles of Digital Minimalism

5. Am I a Victim of Digital Mindlessness?

6. How Can I Become More Digitally Minimal?

7. The Harms of an Unchecked Digital Life

8. Summary

1. Introduction to Minimalism

Digital minimalism is a topic that is "all-that-rage" right now.

Type "What is Digital Minimalism" into your web browser search bar and you'll be greeted with an absolute plethora of articles ranging from full "how-to" guides to quick 2-minute "best tips" posts.

There is no doubt that the concept and practice of digital minimalism has gone from being the brain-child of yoga-practicing hipsters to a popular practice where one attempts to intentionally remove digital 'clutter' for a 'better' life.

By reading on, you will peek into the practice of digital minimalism, scientifically-backed dangers of digital mind*lessness, the life-altering effects of digital mindful*ness (minimalism), identify whether you could benefit from this approach and, finally, how to actually become more digitally minimal.

First Off, Let's Get Personal

Each morning, I open my eyes and tell myself that I should probably not check my phone first thing in the morning. Such pure intentions...

I then proceed to check my phone, blaming my uncontrolled impulses on my dopamine addiction, straight after an intentional thought aimed in the opposite direction.

I then get out of bed, make some hot lemon water, come back to bed and practice mindfulness via my favourite meditation app.

Immediately after, I jump up, mindlessly grab breakfast and plonk myself in front of my computer screen where I spend the next 8 hours.

Those 8 hours will only be interrupted by brief excursions to the kitchen, toilet, and the outdoors often accompanied by my phone and the 48 bookmarked very-important-must-read-if-I-want-to-be-a-better-human-and-developer articles.

Essentially, I spend most of my time in front of a screen writing code and trying (but failing) to avoid social media (not because I don't love cat videos) but because I know how addictive it all is. As you can tell, I'm not here to brag...

What I'm trying to say is, if there is anyone who could benefit from the practice of digital minimalism, it's me.

And so I write this for you and me both. Let's jump in, shall we?

2. What is Minimalism?

The whole concept can be boiled down into just 3 words:

Less is More

I'm going to keep this explanation short for the sake of your total reading time (less is more right?) so that you can go back to doom-scrolling, Twitter, or, if you're feeling super conscientious, your work station (bonus points if you're already reading this at your work-station instead of working - you're not fooling anyone, Steve!)

Rambling aside, minimalism is really just that - the concept of aspiring for 'less' which, in practice, should result in 'more'.

The tangible value of 'less' and 'more' really just depends on your context.

The First Minimalist Liked Black Squares

The current trending form of minimalism is certainly not the first time the concept of 'minimalism' was brought to the attention of the world.

Back in 1913, a painter by the name of Kasimir Malevich painted a black square on a white background explaining: "...trying desperately to free art from the dead weight of the real world, I took refuge in the form of the square.".

The man was a minimalist!

Well, his art was (it was called Suprematism though).

While I don't know anything about his personal finances during his creative years, it is said that he 'died in poverty and oblivion' thanks to the decisions of Soviet politicians against modern art. Yikes. Turns out the man was a minimalist in practice too, but probably not by choice.

Contemporary Minimalism

Today we have vocal advocates for minimalism (unimpeded by communist ideologies) like Joshua Becker, Cal Newport, and Joshua Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus who stand for a message that I can totally agree with! In essence, this is their "Why" and "How":

Momentary Aside: Some of these guys have built careers (being paid to be a minimalist can be called a career now, you know) around teaching people the what, the why, and, on the all-important HOW of minimalism. I'm of the inclination that you don't need to spend any money to become a good minimalist (this is becoming quite meta...) and to this end I propose you prepend your minimalism adventures with a look into becoming mindful. I've written a short article on some habits that we can adopt in becoming more mindful which will definitely help you in your digital minimalism journey.

Why would anyone want to become a minimalist?

To provide more room for the things that matter by removing anything that distracts us from living with intentionality and freedom.

How do people actually become minimalists?

If I were to give you the minimal solution to becoming a minimalist, it would be this: Identify items, practices, even beliefs, that are detracting from your life and simply remove them.

Again, look into mindfulness before you cast judgement on your percolator. It will save you the embarrassment of realizing your life revolves around caffeine and that you are nothing without it. The same applies to everything else, don't remove things that genuinely bring you pleasure - what would be the point of that? We're not trying to become Mormons over here.

By the way, if you are looking into becoming a Mormon, check out their official explanation as to why they don't drink tea or coffee. Make of that what you will but I for one will always keep a cup of coffee between me and that religion.

I digress...

What if you don't know what brings you genuine pleasure in life? Well, it might be simpler to approach the practice from a different angle - one of a process of elimination.

Since I'm a deluded digital addict (or at least pretending to be for the sake of this article... I am a little though), I want to tackle this process of becoming minimal from a digital perspective.

3. What is Digital Minimalism?

It's minimalism but digital. I know right?

Ok but seriously, it's pretty much the same idea as general minimalism: Identify 'things', whether that be something like newsletter subscriptions, Youtube channels, or doomscrolling; remove those 'things', and BOOM! You now have a life freer of distracting clutter allowing you more room for the things that matter.

For a more nerdy-wordy answer, look no further than this quote from computer science professor, Cal Newport:

Digital minimalism is a philosophy that helps you question what digital communication tools (and behaviors surrounding these tools) add the most value to your life. It is motivated by the belief that intentionally and aggressively clearing away low-value digital noise, and optimizing your use of the tools that really matter, can significantly improve your life.

Confused? Read my explanation again. Want to show off to your friends that you understand the justification for digital minimalism? Well, you now have a very quotable quote to quote when anyone questions you. Thanks, Prof. Cal!

4. Core Principles of Digital Minimalism

Tomfoolery aside, significant value can be garnered from inspecting Cal's core principles of digital minimalism which I've summarized for your viewing pleasure:

1. Missing out is not negative

Digital maximalists often justify their behaviour by telling you about all of the things they would miss out on if they weren't constantly clicking and 'apping' away.

By labeling every avoided activity as an opportunity lost, they will forever be in a state of catch up. The more sensible alternative is to measure the value gained from activities that you do embrace and then look to maximize the positive value/return from that activity.

2. Less can be more

By extension, applying the basics of the Pareto Principle, we can achieve more by doing less and focusing more on high quality content.

3. Start from first principles

You'll be swimming in a stormy sea of irrelevant online time if you accept a website or app just because it offers some value. Rather, identify the foundational principles that you hope to build a good life on, and go from there. Once identified, you can ask yourself, "Will this app/website add significant value to something I find to be significantly important to my life?"

4. Digital clutter is stressful

Incessant clicking and scrolling generates a background hum of anxiety. Drastically reducing the number of things you do in your digital life can by itself have a significant calming effect.

5. Attention is scarce and fragile

You have a finite amount of attention to expend each day. Large attention conglomerates like Facebook and Twitter thrive from getting as much of your attention each day as possible. How you expend your attention determines your quality of happiness.

6. Be wary of tools that solve a problem that didn't exist before the tool

GPS solved a problem that existed for a long time before it came along ("How do I get where I want to go?"), as did Google ("How do I find this piece of information I need right now?"). Snapchat, by contrast, did not. Be wary and thoughtful before using tools in this latter category as they may exist to mainly create addictive new behaviours that drive ad sales.

7. Activity trumps passivity

Some of the most fulfilling online activities, are those that involve creating things as opposed to simply consuming. Maybe try to seek those out instead of trawling clickbait. Write that poem, code that function - it may read terribly but it's a creative outlet and it may just be what you should be focusing on a little more.

Now that we know what digital minimalism is on a bit of a deeper level, let's get into the process of eliminating the things that are detracting from our sense of digital minimalism.

"But how do I know if I'll even benefit from the process?What if I don't actually need to go through a digital minimalism 'cleanse'?"

Fair point. There's no sense in preaching to the converted so check this out to be sure 👇

5. Am I a Victim of Digital Mindlessness?

Use the points below as a guide to whether you might want to look into digital minimalism:

You think that physical exercise is important for your health and happiness but often find yourself binging on another Netflix show instead of going for a run or hitting the gym.
You value long-term friendships but rarely reach out to call them, instead you find yourself spending way too much time on random (but totally justified, right?..) Youtube videos.
You think it's important to "be present and engaged" during meals but find yourself glancing at your phone every few minutes instead of being fully engaged with the meal and people around you.
You think procrastination is bad but sometimes you get lost (mindlessly) scrolling down the infinite stream that is social feeds and blog posts instead of working on your latest passion project.

You see what I'm getting at, right? We know better. We always know better. But somehow we still fall prey to bad habits. If you identified with even one of the above points, then maybe your life will become a little less cluttered, a little more purposeful, if you sought to become mindful and practice digital minimalism. Even if it makes your life 5% more engaged and meaningful, it's a win in our continual quest to be "happier" and more "at ease".

6. How Can I Become More Digitally Minimal?

So, what can you do practically to take back a little more control of your life where your brain is less reactive to a notification popping up on your smartphone

Here are some small actionable things to try out in your digital minimalism experiment:

The next time you're about to have a meal with someone, leave your phone in another room.
When you have some time to relax, try to catch yourself while reaching for your phone or PC. Observe the action.
Before you go to sleep at night, put your phone outside your bedroom door.
Set aside 2 hours during the weekend where you don't use your phone at all. After some time, set a whole morning orafternoon aside where you don't use any screen technology at all.
Delete your social media apps from your phone, only allowing yourself to check them on your PC. If you don't have a PC,delete them anyways and limit yourself to your phone's web browser.
For every "like" on social media, leave an actual response that isn't robotic. Try to be as genuine as you can.
Next time you're driving or walking to a new place, try to use the road signs instead of your phone's maps app.

Again, these are not meant to make your life difficult or unpleasant. They're a means to clarifying which pieces of technology are genuinely valuable and which are not. In other words, you're practicing digital minimalism!

7. The Harms of an Unchecked Digital Life

Aside: The sources for the stats below are from well-respected journals such as Nature, Journal of Communication, Journal of Consumer Research, American Economic Review, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Science Direct, Society for Research in Child Development; respected authors, and other sources deemed worthy and true by the Center for Humane Technology.

1. Attention and Cognition

Technology's attention economy are is taken a toll on our ability to think, to focus, to solve problems, and to be present.

75% of screen content is viewed for less than 1 minute.

1 hour per day is the amount of time Americans spend dealing with distractions. That's 5 full weeks a year just spent on getting back into focus!

40 seconds is the typical time we can focus while working on computers before our attention is broken.

2. Physical and Mental Health

Research is showing an ever-increasing range of adverse effects which technology (and it's misguided use) is having on our happiness, our self image, and our overall mental health.

The greater your level of Facebook addiction, the lower your brain volume.

1 month away from Facebook leads to a significant improvement in emotional well-being.

The more time you spend on Instagram, the more likely you are to suffer eating disorders.

The number of "Likes" on a celebrity Instagram account can significantly change how you see yourself.

3. Social Relationships

The true purpose of social networks is to connect us but it can leave many feeling socially isolated by distracting us from connecting with those directly in front of us.

50% of parents reported that mobile devices typically interrupted the time they spent with their children 3 or more times each day.

50% of Americans report that their partner is often distracted by their devices while trying to talk to them.

Those who take photos to share on social media experienced less enjoyment and less engagement with the scene than those taking photos for their own pleasure.

Preschoolers who use screen-based media for more than 1 hour each day have been shown to have less development in the parts of the brain involved in language and literacy

The level of electronic media use before bedtime is significantly correlated with depression in adolescence.

High depressive symptoms for 13 - 18 year old girls rose by 65% between 2010 and 2015 after nearly 2 decades in decline.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of resources but my hope, in summarizing them and providing references to the original research, is that it will propel your own understanding of the real dangers of being digitally mindless. Use these resources to equip yourself and educate those around you.

Digital minimalism might not be everyone's cup of tea but it sure is a taste everyone should start getting used to for the sake of our humanity.

A special thanks to the amazing humans at the Center for Humane Technology for the awesome work they're doing in bringing these stats to life! And thanks to James Tucker for pointing them out to me during one of our discussions on mindfulness.

8. Summary

Minimalism as a whole is meant to make our lives more enjoyable and rewarding, not dull and boring. The same applies to digital minimalism.

Ol' Prof. Newport puts it wisely:

... a simple, carefully curated, minimalist digital life is not a rejection of technology or a reactionary act of skepticism; it is, by contrast, an embrace of the immense value these new tools can offer…if we’re willing to do the hard work of figuring out how to best leverage them on behalf of the things we truly care about.

If you can identify parts of your digital routine that are introducing anxiety or other suffering (see links below), and effectively cut them out, you will be someone with less suffering. It's simple.

The difficult part for most people is identifying things that cause them suffering in the first place.

For this, I highly recommend looking into mindfulness (a.k.a. vipassana meditation). I've written a short article about the benefits of mindfulness and other good habits which may interest you.

Once you've identified the root cause of your suffering (however negligible it may seem), justifying it's removal and witnessing the benefits become easier. You really don't need to spend thousands of dollars to go on a 'cleansing' retreat to understand what is creating digital clutter in your life and how to fix it.

Prioritize the practice of mindfulness and the rest will follow.

Thanks for taking some of your time and spending it on this article. I hope you gained something of value from it.

If you think this article could be beneficial to others around you, feel free to share it directly with your friends. If you're a mindful user of Twitter or Facebook 😉, you're welcome to share the article. If this article resonated with you and you'd like to continue the conversation, find me on Twitter or email me directly at rey@fromthemountain.co.za.

The 3 Best Wellbeing Habits You Need to be a Better Developer

Rey van den Berg — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 09:45:15 +0000

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Needs Help

Like you, I'm someone who makes stuff for the web.

Like you, that means I sit in front of my monitor from 9-5 (sometimes later, especially when there's just one more bug to kill!).

Newsflash: this behaviour isn't the best for our postures or mental health

So shortly after noticing the effects of my habits as a developer, I started searching for habits that would help counteract this practice of being in front of the screen for hours on end.

But First, Why Listen to Me?

I have a degree in Human Physiology, Genetics, and Psychology so I sort of know how our bodies and brains work in creating a complex, highly-functional organism capable of critiquing tech tweets...

Ha! I don't remember a damn thing from that degree so ignore my 'credentials' because I don't have any. The only way you can trust me is check this 👇 and nod if you get me:

❌ aching eyeballs
❌ sore back
❌ grumpy about bugs
❌ headache at lunchtime
❌ writer's block (but with code)
❌ the eternal suffering of life as a developer (Jk, I love this stuff but sometimes it's hard).

Now, what if I told you I had the cure to at least 87.5% (quick maths) of these problems?

Read on because what I propose will make you a happier, healthier developer who gets your Starbucks with your name spelt right (imagine that...), an abundance of ice cream, world fame... You get the point.

Why Happier and Healthier developer?

So if you didn't get the point, here it is:

Being a happier, healthier developer will have tremendous knock-on effects for the rest of your life:

🚀 You will become a more understanding and respected member of a team
🚀 You will solve coding problems faster
🚀 You will have more creative ideas meaning cooler side projects... and better tweets! 😉

Alright! If you've made it this far, I applaud your patience aaaand LET'S GET TO IT!

Firstly, Focus on the Process

Barbara Oakley, known for her course "Learning How to Learn", explains this quite succinctly:

"Focus on the process (the way you spend your time) instead of the product (what you want to accomplish)."

Now, if you apply this to the way you approach a day of coding, you may find a significant reduction in frustration.

But how?

Well, it can be quite simple...

Adjust Your Mindset

Instead of thinking "My day will be successful if I fix this failing code", approach it slightly differently.

Maybe something like "My day will be successful if I spend time attempting to fix this failing code".

That slight mental adjustment is especially helpful for beginners - often they (a.k.a. we) underestimate a problem and feel that they've wasted the day when they go to bed without having solved it.

Your feelings of frustration only hurt yourself, they don't help you to code better or faster.

So try it - focus on the process because, guess what, tomorrow is another day.

Secondly, Attain a State of Mindfulness

Not to get all 'new-agey' and stuff but this is a serious contender for one of the best things I've started doing in the last year.

If you're not sure what this is about, check out this explanation by Headspace.

If you want to get some practical 'how-to', you'd do well to see what Sam Harris has to say.

"In a nutshell, mindfulness is the quality of being present and fully engaged with whatever we’re doing at the moment" - Headspace

So now that we know what is, how can we apply it to our lives as professional debuggers?

Imagine for a second that you are fully engaged with a block of code in front of you. "Yeah, dude, that's called concentration. I do it every day!", I hear you say. True! But...

What if I told you that being fully engaged also meant knowing when you're not thinking optimally? Or that being fully engaged (re: mindful) allows you to quickly realize that it's time to get up and take a break for your own good?

Don't Bash the Wall with Your Head

You see, so often we get stuck into our work and plough on, come rain or shine in the proverbial landscape of our minds, that we don't see it's major downsides. Bashing your head against the wall is not a good way to break the wall down!

What I'm suggesting is that mindfulness at your work station will help to quickly realize when it's time to take a diffuse thinking approach as opposed to a persistent focused one. And research shows that these two approaches work in tandem to create solutions to difficult problems.

I've added a little treat at the end of this post for those interested in becoming mindful 🍬

Lastly, Sleep More Than You Think

Lol. Obviously. Nothing new... Right?

Apart from the obvious advice of "Exercise every day and eat well", sleep is absolutely essential for a healthy developer mind. And if you're sleeping less than 8 hours a night, you might be in trouble like most of the developed world.

It has been argued that the physical and mental damage from one bad night of sleep is far greater than eating terribly or not exercising.

There are a HUGE number of awesome health benefits that sleep has which you can see at the end of this post but here's a little example of what happens in your brain when you sleep:

Your glymphatic system is boosted allowing it to clear your brain of toxic waste. By sleeping, you're basically allowing your brain to take a nice hot shower to wash off all the day's rubbish. How convenient!
Your brain moves short-term memories into long-term storage. Getting a good night's sleep after learning something new is like hitting a healthy 'Save' button on all that new info.

Practice, Sleep, Repeat

How many times have you heard, "The only way to become a better coder is to practice practice practice"? Well if you've been on tech Twitter for even a minute then you know it's a favourite quote of the "influencers". And for good reason right? We need to train our minds with the ways of code and that takes time and physical typing practice.

But there is a crucial thing that needs to happen after your practice for the day...

“Practice does not make perfect. It is practice, followed by a night of sleep, that leads to perfection.” - Matthew Walker

Ok. Cool. The dude has quotes but who is this Mat guy?

Let me just say that you'd do well to follow his advice to the letter. He's a neuroscientist at Berkeley (formerly at Harvard) and he's one of the top people in the WORLD when it comes to sleep. He's only been studying it for like 20 years. No seriously, this guy know what he's talking about. He's worked as a sleep consultant (yip, that's a real thing!) for the NBA, NFL, and British Premier League football teams and professes his absolute academic obsession with sleep and it's superpowers in his book, "Why We Sleep".

Got 19min and 18s to spare? Do yourself a favour and watch Dr. Walker's TED Talk.

In short, his talk could be renamed "Sleep or Die". Fun.

Sweet. He's the real deal. So what should I do? What's his advice, yo?

The TL;DR would be:

Sleep at least 8 hours

per night,

every night.

Here are some more actionable tips from his book to ensure you give your brain the rest it deserves:

✅ Don't exercise two or three hours before your bedtime.
✅ Stick to a sleep schedule, even on weekends!
✅ Avoid caffeine (cringe...) and nicotine. If you must have coffee, like me, stop drinking it before late afternoon as it takes up to 8 hours for caffeine to wear off.
✅ Avoid alcohol before bed - it robs your brain of REM sleep which acts as "overnight therapy"
✅ Don't nap after 3pm. A nap is fine, just take it earlier than 3pm. Science says naps are good!
✅ Blue light delays our sleep-onset hormones, avoid it as early as possible in the evenings.

My fellow humans, just do yourself the biggest favour and sleep lots.

(There is another nugget of sleep info straight from the man himself at the end of this post and a fun fact about men and their shrinking testicles!)

Conclusion

That's it! You now know the things I try to focus on in my quest to be a better developer (and human in general, tbh) in this long-term thing we call life.

If you've enjoyed the read, learned something new, or know a friend or family member who could benefit from reading it, please share it! The things we've spoken about in this post have shaped my approach to life quite dramatically. Maybe someone needs to hear this stuff too.

Finally, thanks for reading!

Do you have some advice on how to be a better developer? I'd love to hear from you! Find me on twitter or pop me an email at reyvdb@gmail.com.

Oh, remember to check out the Meditation Links #2 below for the little treat I promised!✌💚

P.S A huge thank you and shout out to Monica Lent for giving that all important advice on writing and setting up my first blog post 🙌

Extra Links You Might Find Interesting

Process vs Product Links

Here is a 'Why and How of Diffuse vs Focused' for software developers.

Meditation Links

If you're interested in becoming mindful, check this out. The first 7 meditations are free and if you use this, you'll get a FREE MONTH from me - no card, no strings attached, simply a month free. At the end of your free month, it's possible to ask the Waking Up team for a free subscription if you can't afford it. They're super understanding and will help you out no questions asked.

Need more convincing that mindfulness is good and works? Check out this article from UC Berkeley about the scientifically-backed benefits of mindfulness.

Sleep Links

"How to Improve your Sleep" - Matthew Walker

What Happens to Your Brain When You Sleep or Don't

Apparently, men who only sleep five hours a night have markedly smaller testicles
than men who sleep more than seven.

Research shows that the world is exhausted and it's killing our economy.

Forem: Rey van den Berg

Digital Minimalism: Why Your Happiness Demands It

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Minimalism

First Off, Let's Get Personal

2. What is Minimalism?

The First Minimalist Liked Black Squares

3. What is Digital Minimalism?

4. Core Principles of Digital Minimalism

1. Missing out is not negative

2. Less can be more

3. Start from first principles

4. Digital clutter is stressful

5. Attention is scarce and fragile

6. Be wary of tools that solve a problem that didn't exist before the tool

7. Activity trumps passivity

5. Am I a Victim of Digital Mindlessness?

6. How Can I Become More Digitally Minimal?

7. The Harms of an Unchecked Digital Life

1. Attention and Cognition

2. Physical and Mental Health

3. Social Relationships

8. Summary

The 3 Best Wellbeing Habits You Need to be a Better Developer

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Needs Help

But First, Why Listen to Me?

Why Happier and Healthier developer?

Firstly, Focus on the Process

Secondly, Attain a State of Mindfulness

Lastly, Sleep More Than You Think

Conclusion

Extra Links You Might Find Interesting

Process vs Product Links

Meditation Links

Sleep Links