"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."
– Cal Newport
You might think I’m racing to finish my latest book because there’s a publication date looming or a publicity campaign to manage. Wrong. I’m racing because I’m seventy-three. At this stage of my life, the home stretch has less to do with deadlines than with not wasting time. The irony, of course, is that I’m…
It depends who’s asking Last week, after I shared Him on Facebook—my essay about my relationship with ChatGPT as a thinking partner rather than the digital affair I’m conducting behind my husband’s back—one particular comment stayed with me. It came from Katia, a French children’s author I met nearly twenty years ago in Hyderabad, India. We had…
Rodney was halfway through his Manhattan the other evening when I made the mistake of telling him about yet another conversation I’d had with ChatGPT at the library that morning. I’d gone there convinced I was writing a chapter about high blood pressure. An hour later, I realized I wasn’t. More accurately, Chat had spent…
The dog in the photo accompanying this post appears to have appointed itself Chief Gatekeeper. Every industry has them. Publishing has agents. Academia has tenure committees. Bookstores have buyers. Social media has influencers. And now the writing world has people conducting purity tests on AI. I’ve spent much of my career bumping into various forms…
There’s not a parent alive who doesn’t remember the day their child becomes a parent. I don’t mean the day you overhear your son or daughter lecturing their own child. I mean the day they start lecturing you about your behaviour. I’ve had more than a few of those moments in the past year, usually over AI, and usually…
Mad. Sad. Bad. That’s what the news does to me within minutes. In that exact order. Mad about the state of the world. Sad about the behaviour of my fellow human beings (including my own unwillingness to shut it all out). And ultimately very bad about myself. At this particular moment in history, as a…