Hi everyone! I saw this book recommended on the MMM forums somewhere and I just finished it, but it doesn't appear that there's a specific thread for it yet. I'm interested in your thoughts, and whether you've put any of its "rules" into practice in your own life.
Overall I can easily see the similarities between this philosophy and the one we cultivate here: the analysis of how you're spending your finite resources and culling what doesn't improve your life, the argument of pleasure through action rather than through relaxation, and the broad willingness to go against the grain in pursuit of a better life.
I also found reassuring the reminders that distraction is an effect engineered by modern surroundings, not a personal failing, though it certainly takes discipline to combat (similar to middle-class consumerism). I was already in the midst of efforts to scale back my social media usage, and after reading this book I'm taking them farther (made various messaging apps harder to access on my phone, plan to restrict facebook usage to once a week, on top of already having heavily filtered what I see there).
I did feel, though, that the book was a bit heavy on career-focused achievement, especially at the beginning. Newport's philosophy relies heavily on the aim of extracting as much value from your brain as possible, which seems parallel but not identical to to an aim of leading the most enjoyable or most beneficial life possible (especially since, with career as a focus, "value" tends to mean "commercial value.") I found it contrasted with what I've read on the FIRE subforum about being able to enjoy a slower pace to life - Newport's life seems less full of nonsense, but no less jam-packed.
I may be interested in reading one of the books he mentioned, Rapt by Winnifred Gallagher (the woman who was diagnosed with cancer and argues for a life striving to focus attention in positive places).
Anyone else have responses to this book?