Digital Minimalism

I think we would all agree that we spend too much time looking at screens. This post will help you figure out your relationship with technology and how best to optimize the advantages if offers us.

I’m sure I could find a bunch of stats saying how often people are on their phones, computers, Netflix and in screens in general. You don’t need to be convinced that we are obsessed with screens and we should all be spending at least slightly less time with our devices. But how? Let’s find out. (Everything in italics is take directly from the book)

Obviously, none of these ideas I have thought of on my own. I read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport last year and suggest if you want a deeper dive into less technology, give it a read. I also read 24/6 by Tiffany Shlain which wasn’t the best but I learned a few things. Matt D'Avella has great YouTube videos about digital minimalism here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=matt+d%27avella

General tips

-Delete most apps from your phone. Not having Instagram, Twitter or TikTok to distract you the first moment you get bored will limit your overall screen unlocks. I know I said I wouldn’t bore you with stats but only picking one will make my argument more persuasive. The average person unlocks their phone 79 times a day, according to

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1050339/average-unlocks-per-day-us-smartphone-users/.

This study was completed in 2018 so my guess would be that it’s higher in our age of not leaving our houses.

-Lately I’ve been hovering around 40ish unlocks a day. The majority of those unlocks are to use my podcast app because I don’t need to check my phone for messages since my social status in Seoul is low.

To find out your screen unlocks, just go to your settings which should have a screen time management feature. This will help you determine where you are spending your time each day in terms of apps. I have a feature that “locks” my phone after 90 minutes of screen time. It’s not hard to extend the time but it’s a reminder that I’ve been on my phone too much that day. My phone also tells me when it is time to go to bed and turns my screen grey. I find it helpful.

-Only check your email once in the morning and once in the afternoon or before the end of the day.

-Not using the internet an hour after you wake up or an hour before bed. Waking up, grabbing your phone and scrolling to see how terrible the world is doesn’t seem like a great way to start your day.

-Buy an alarm clock so you aren’t tempted to use your phone first thing in the morning. Leave your phone in another room to make it more difficult to waste your time.

-I only check Instagram once every day or two for probably less than 10 minutes. Once or twice a month I will redownload the app, post a picture or story then delete a day or two after. It works for me.

-One way I am not a digital minimalist if that I have multiple tabs, in multiple browsers. I can’t help it. However, if you want to upgrade this part of your life, try and close all tabs at the end of the day. Good luck with that one.

-On the other hand, I don't have data or a phone number. Is this convenient? No. Should you try it? No; just put your phone on airplane mode as often as you can. 

-If you want to be hardcore and keep these apps on your phone, at least disable notifications. Why should your day be interrupted for the internet to show you a comment from your aunt liking your selfie from 8 years ago? Stop the notifications.

Unsubscribe from newsletters and anyone else sending you daily or weekly email that is not improving your life.

-Go for long walks or hikes without your phone. You’ll be alright.

-Here is a pro tip from Bert: Send voice notes instead of texts or comments on social media sites. You can say way more, way faster. I was first introduced to voice notes in Shanghai and I’ve been trying to bring it to my social circle. Just press the microphone on WhatsApp or Messenger. People will think it’s strange at first; I did. But once people get comfortable, they won’t want to go back. Send voice notes.

-Limit your news consumption. Listen to a podcast you trust, find a reliable newsletter or subscribe to magazines that keep you up to date. Checking the news constantly throughout the day is not a productive way to deal with boredom. 

Cal Tips:

-The Digital Declutter Process Put aside a thirty-day period during which you will take a break from optional technologies in your life. During this thirty-day break, explore and rediscover activities and behaviors that you find satisfying and meaningful. At the end of the break, reintroduce optional technologies into your life, starting from a blank slate. For each technology you reintroduce, determine what value it serves in your life and how specifically you will use it so as to maximize this value

-For this process to succeed, you must also spend this period trying to rediscover what’s important to you and what you enjoy outside the world of the always-on, shiny digital…you’re more likely to succeed in reducing the role of digital tools in your life if you cultivate high-quality alternatives to the easy distraction they provide.

-The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they’re friendly nerd gods building a better world and admit they’re just tobacco farmers in T-shirts selling an addictive product to children. Because, let’s face it, checking your “likes” is the new smoking.

“We’re social beings who can’t ever completely ignore what other people think of us.” This behavior, of course, is adaptive. In Paleolithic times, it was important that you carefully managed your social standing with other members of your tribe because your survival depended on it. In the twenty-first century, however, new technologies have hijacked this deep drive to create profitable behavioral addictions. Consider, once again, social media feedback buttons. In addition to delivering unpredictable feedback, as discussed above, this feedback also concerns other people’s approval. If lots of people click the little heart icon under your latest Instagram post, it feels like the tribe is showing you approval—which we’re adapted to strongly crave.*

-The more you use social media, the less time you tend to devote to offline interaction, and therefore the worse this value deficit becomes—leaving the heaviest social media users much more likely to be lonely and miserable.

-The “Like” feature evolved to become the foundation on which Facebook rebuilt itself from a fun amusement that people occasionally checked, to a digital slot machine that began to dominate its users’ time and attention. This button introduced a rich new stream of social approval indicators that arrive in an unpredictable fashion— creating an almost impossibly appealing impulse to keep checking your account. It also provided Facebook much more detailed information on your preferences, allowing their machine-learning algorithms to digest your humanity into statistical slivers that could then be mined to push you toward targeted ads and stickier content.

Instead of seeing these easy clicks as a fun way to nudge a friend, start treating them as poison to your attempts to cultivate a meaningful social life. Put simply, you should stop using them. Don’t click “Like.” Ever. And while you’re at it, stop leaving comments on social media posts as well. No “so cute!” or “so cool!” Remain silent.

-Finally, it’s worth noting that refusing to use social media icons and comments to interact means that some people will inevitably fall out of your social orbit—in particular, those whose relationship with you exists only over social media. Here’s my tough love reassurance: let them go. The idea that it’s valuable to maintain vast numbers of weak-tie social connections is largely an invention of the past decade or so—the detritus of overexuberant network scientists spilling inappropriately into the social sphere. Humans have maintained rich and fulfilling social lives for our entire history without needing the ability to send a few bits of information each month to people we knew briefly during high school. Nothing about your life will notably diminish when you return to this steady state. As an academic who studies and teaches social media explained to me: “I don’t think we’re meant to keep in touch with so many people.”

-Being less available over text, in other words, has a way of paradoxically strengthening your relationship even while making you (slightly) less available to those you care about. This point is crucial because many people fear that their relationships will suffer if they downgrade this form of lightweight connection. I want to reassure you that it will instead strengthen the relationships you care most about. You can be the one person in their life who actually talks to them on a regular basis, forming a deeper, more nuanced relationship than any number of exclamation points and bitmapped emojis can provide.

-I learned it from a technology executive in Silicon Valley who innovated a novel strategy for supporting high-quality interaction with friends and family: he tells them that he’s always available to talk on the phone at 5:30 p.m. on weekdays. There’s no need to schedule a conversation or let him know when you plan to call—just dial him up. As it turns out, 5:30 is when he begins his traffic-clogged commute home in the Bay Area. He decided at some point that he wanted to put this daily period of car confinement to good use, so he invented the 5:30 rule.

Leisure Lesson #1: Prioritize demanding activity over passive consumption.

Leisure Lesson #2: Use skills to produce valuable things in the physical world.

Here’s my suggestion: schedule in advance the time you spend on low-quality leisure. Work out the specific time periods during which you’ll indulge in web surfing, social media checking, and entertainment streaming. When you get to these periods, anything goes. If you want to binge-watch Netflix while live-streaming yourself browsing Twitter: go for it. But outside these periods, stay offline

Tips from 24/6

Her family takes part in a Tech Sabbath. They put their phones away Friday night. Have a dinner, invite people they want to know better. Spend Saturday doing an activity. The day before they print or look up anything they need. Have a landline for emergencies. Let their friends and family know about their technology free Friday to Saturday nights. People are into it.

Exits and entrances: Count to ten with your hand on the doorknob when you’re about to enter a new room, to make sure you don’t bring the energy or emotional baggage from the previous meeting into the next one. And definitely don’t bring in your in-progress phone call. No one wants to be greeted with half a telephone conversation that doesn’t include them: half a hello, a smiley head nod with a finger up saying I’ll just be a minute (right), and then being subjected to one side of a conversation

Focusing on creating an official entrance and exit to the week, and to Tech Shabbat itself, has an extended effect throughout the week to make you think more intentionally about all the other entrances and exits you open and close throughout the day, with your parents, your friends, the people at your work or school, your pets, your partner, your children, and all the people you interact with as you go about your day.

 

We know that people who keep a rest day tend to live longer. (As a number of studies have shown, Seventh Day Adventists, who keep a weekly Sabbath, live ten years longer than the average American.)

A recent study confirmed that we remember things less well when we use screens to document them.

“Creating a hard copy of an experience through media leaves only a diminished copy in our own heads.”

“Appreciate beauty. Plant gardens. Enjoy sunsets. Help people less fortunate than you. Think big. Nothing is more important than family. Be present.” Much later, I would realize these are exactly the things we do on our screen-free days.

Questions to ask yourself

What are your (or your partner’s or kids’) habits around screens that you most struggle with?

 What’s going to be the hardest part about giving up screens for a full day?

What, if anything, do you fear will happen (or not happen)?

How many screens do you have in your house?

How often do you think you’re on at least one screen every day? Every week? 

Consider actually tracking your screen time, either with an app on your phone, on a spreadsheet, or through nondigital means.

What aspects of your screen use worry you?

When is the first time you check your phone in the morning?

What is the longest amount of time you can remember being away from at least one screen?

When was the last time you went a whole day without screens?

In summary, companies spend billions of dollars to hijack our attention. It’s time that we take a short break from our everyday technological habits, think about our values and how we want to spend our time. After that short break, reintroduce technologies that add joy to your life. Monitor your own screen time and make time for device free activities. To me, digital minimalism is about getting all of the good from technology while limiting or eliminating the bad.

“You can't do big things if you are distracted by small things.”

Thoughts on Sri Lanka

I wrote this while still in Sri Lanka. The only thing missing is that my flight got cancelled and there was a brief period of time where I thought I would be in Sri Lanka for an extended period of time. I ended up getting a flight to Hong Kong to Taiwan to Seoul and now life is almost back to normal in Seoul.

Thoughts on Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka had been on my radar for a few years. My brother’s wife adores the place and planted the seeds for my eventual trip here. Sri Lanka being named Lonely Planet’s country to travel to in 2019 was more evidence that this country deserved some exploration. After being in Thailand for two weeks and with school being delayed another two weeks, I started looking at flights. One-way flight to Colombo was only $130. Sold. So, what’s the deal with Sri Lanka?

It’s hot! Super warm. I am a fan of hot weather so I enjoyed it but carefully planning on staying in places with air con and limiting getting lost in the streets during the day is a must. Did I get lost my first hour outside of my guesthouse in Negombo? Obviously. I initially booked a one-way ticket because of schools closing in Seoul and an opening date not being set in stone. I figured I had 15ish days. (Ended up having like 9) The virus started to calm down a bit and school looked to be opening March 23^rd so I booked a flight back to Seoul on the 21^st. I found out today school is further delayed until April 6^th which will give me time in Seoul to unwind after a month away.

My two priorities for this trip were trying to learn how to surf and go on a safari. Sri Lanka is known for having great waves and an excellent place for beginners to learn how to surf. Safaris are also a famous part of Sri Lankan culture that I was unaware of. Did I go either of these things? Obviously not. I had planned to do the safari on Thursday March 19^th but all parks are closed due to the virus. Nature has been cancelled. Surfing was delayed for a few inconsequential reasons. One, you really need to find a surfing school, spend a few days learning and really commit. The two beaches I ended up at weren’t big surf spots and after a few days, being at the beach becomes a little dull. Second, I think it would be more fun to learn with a friend or a group of people you know. Third, I might be slightly lazy and I just wanted to see more of Sri Lanka instead of getting angry at a surfboard and losing my temper.

Let’s start at the beginning. I land at the airport which is 15 minutes from Negombo and 45ish minutes from Colombo. I did not hear great things about Colombo so I had booked a guesthouse in Negombo. I took a taxi to Negombo, desperate for some AC, some WIFI, a nap and a jump in the pool after waking up at 4:15am to catch my flight to Sri Lanka. I arrive at the place and they let me know that the power is out so internet and any type of cooling mechanism is not working. There were two older people just chilling at the pool and I didn’t want to mess up their vibe so I left in search of the beach. I walk through the town, find the sea and realize this is not an interesting place to be. I proceed to get lost walking back to my guesthouse and wonder why I am not better at traveling.

 I finally found the place, power still off so I make an executive decision to leave the guesthouse I have just paid for and head south to an allegedly more beautiful area. The owner is slightly confused why I was leaving hours after arriving but I feel that as long as I didn’t write him a negative review, he would not care to see me go. I took a bus to Colombo and then eventually figured out what bus to take south to Unawatuna. If you believed that buses in Sri Lanka were super modern, you would be mistaken. It looked like this:

By the time the bus left Colombo, it was 108% filled with Sri Lankans and one awkward foreign person from North Bay.

Was the bus quiet? If your definition of quiet is Sri Lankan music playing at a level 9 out of 10 for four hours then yes it was. Did I miss my stop and end up in the wrong town, unaware of how to get the bus to stop for me with a dying cell phone, no lunch or dinner and sweating in my seat like a pineapple at customs? Certainly. I found a Sri Lankan restaurant; told them I was very hungry and would eat anything they gave me and it was a big hit. Eventually found a cheap room in Unawatuna and spent two days here:

Observation: Hot

Observation: Most Sri Lankans speak English

Observation: Super friendly

The second day in Unawatuna, I set my alarm for 5:50am to watch the sunrise. What I did not take into consideration was my phone was still on Thailand time so when my alarm went off the next morning, it woke me up at 3:50 am. It took me 15 minutes to realize my mistake and this news did not come as a shock to me. I stayed awake and eventually made it to see this:

After Unawatune, I made my way to Merissa. Nothing super fascinating happened during this time period. One beach is called Secret Beach that you can find on Google Maps. It’s almost like they don’t want it to be a secret.

If you wanted to buy beer in Merissa, you couldn’t just walk into a store. You had to walk up to a caged area where you tell the man what you want and they get it for you. I’m not sure how I feel about this system other than the government doesn’t trust Sri Lankans and finding alcohol in this country is not a simple task.

After Merissa, I was not overly excited to take two buses to Ella that would take close to 8 hours so I hired a taxi to take me to Ella in under four hours. That cost about $90 which I feel is not a crazy amount of money. Some Ubers around Toronto can add up to more than that.

How many times would you say is a reasonable amount of times to be stopped by the police on a four-hour journey? Zero sounds about right but that was not my experience. We seemingly got stopped at random about an hour into our trip. The driver got out of his car, showed some papers and within 10 minutes we were set free.

“Why did they pull you over,” I inquired.

“For driving across the middle line on the road but I talked my way out of it,” he replied.

How can you talk your way out of driving across the middle of the road? I feel like police aren’t super into being told they were wrong. I do not believe a bribe was exchanged and here is why:

About two hours later, we get pulled over again. This seems unlikely but I was in no rush so excited to hear his story.

“Why did they pull you over this time?”

“I was going 90 in a 70 zone.”

Seems like a good reason to be pulled over.

“How much is the fine?”

“About a thousand rupees” ($8)

“Why didn’t you try and offer him 500?”

“I tried that to be honest but he refused!”

So apparently in Sri Lanka, once you get a ticket, you need to give the police your ID, then drive to some station and pay your fine immediately then return to the police with your receipt, then you are given your ID back and you are on your way. The fact that he offered to bribe the second police officer makes me think that he was being honest when he said he talked his way out of the first fine. I also feel like I asked him about the first encounter after our second stop and he said he didn’t bribe them so apparently Sri Lankan police are not super, super corrupt.

We make it to Ella which is known for its tea plantations and hikes. Ella is also where I ended up meeting up with a couple from Australia who are friends with my mom and ended up paying for my dinner so Ella was a win. The world isn’t that big of a place. Here are some Ella pictures I have stolen from the internet

Which brings me to a hot take I have:

Taking pictures of most things is stupid. What’s the point of going to a place that actual professional photographers have spent hours taking pictures of but you rock up and take some pictures on your Galaxy S7. I don’t get it. It makes slightly more sense to take pictures of yourself or you with friends but in general, can we all just knock it off and enjoy being where we are at and just ‘borrow’ pictures from professionals later? 

I will give you another example. Ella to Kandy is supposedly one of the most beautiful train rides in the world. When I got on the train, it was 92% empty which was great. The downside is that I was worried about getting at least one great picture from this journey. This is so dumb. I should have just put my phone away and enjoyed watching the scenery pass me by. Instead, I probably spent 30ish minutes taking sub-par pictures and when one of the more scenic views on the trip came into view, I wasn’t hanging off the side of the train snapping up prime pics like these:

If I took that train for a year, I doubt that I would get better photos than that. Thousands of people taking pictures of the exact same thing just to show other people they were there. I think we should all take a step back, quit it with the amateur photography hour, borrow professionals’ pictures and live in the moment more. Finally, not only are these pictures repetitive and inferior quality, people are also dying when trying to snap the best train picture. Apparently 28 people died as of June 2017. 28 people died in 6 months trying to take pictures. But it’s super worth it to get pictures like this:

https://medium.com/shanghaiist/chinese-tourist-falls-off-train-in-sri-lanka-while-snapping-scenic-selfie-451f2e5683ba

Once in Kandy, countries had started to shut their borders and panic was rising. I went to a national park yesterday and was told it was closed because of the virus. My plan to hit up a safari was dashed but after looking through these pictures I feel like I got the just of it

I am spending my last two day in Colombo then flying back to Seoul. Some final thoughts:

I read Island of a Thousand Mirrors. A novel about two your girls growing up in Sri Lanka. I recommend that you read a novel set in the next country you visit. I felt like it enriched my trip and I learned about the history of Sri Lanka.

I’ve been wondering what the main differences between India and Sri Lanka are. Here are some things that I found:

Sri Lanka has 21 million people. India has 1.3 billion.

Sri Lanka has a higher GDP per capita while India has more land and manpower.

India is the world’s biggest democracy. To learn more about their president, this is an interesting watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVIXUhZ2AWs

Both countries have an abundant amount of wildlife and a love for cricket.

Sri Lanka is an island while India is not.

Sri Lanka is mainly Buddhist while India is mainly Hindu.

Sri Lanka has three official languages while India has 22.

While both countries have a caste system, it is followed much more strictly in India and is not as serious in Sri Lanka.

India's movies are a cultural phenomenon while Sri Lanka's aren't.

Sri Lanka has better education, less pollution and better infrastructure.

Apparently, algebra, the number zero, shampoo, diamond mining and the value of pie originated in India.

Sri Lanka was the first country to elect a woman as the head of a government in 1960

Should you visit Sri Lanka? If you are into good, cheap food, train rides, beaches, nature, friendly people, fairly safe, hot and somewhat touristy country then make your way over. You can dream and start planning your next vacation whenever life goes back to normal. Stay safe.

 “There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.”

Abraham Lincoln 

 Favourite song right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXcjRLQE6dY

What are your 5 values?

A few weeks ago, I gave my students an assignment where they had to research values and list their top 5. I thought it would be fun to give it a try. It was a challenge to narrow my own down to 5 and think it might be beneficial for you to spend some time figuring out what your values are to use as a compass for your life.

Values to me are what you believe are important ways of living your life. Different religions put different levels of importance on certain values. For example, sacrifice, contribution and fidelity might be more common in religious circles than say the local union for librarians (Do librarians have unions? Imagine falling in love in a library? Who is the most famous librarian?).

Are there such a thing as wrong values? That sounds like too deep of a topic for what I’m trying to accomplish here but give it some thought. I think with most people sitting at home lately, this might be a good time to evaluate all the positives and less positive people, things, or values in your life and see if some areas are in need of a spring cleaning. Feel free to guess what you think might be in my top 5 or send the list to a partner and try and guess theirs. Here is the values list that I used:

https://scottjeffrey.com/core-values-list/

In no particular order, here are what I believe to be my 5 core values.

Kindness

This is 100% due to my mom being a devout kindness disciple. I once asked her what her favourite quote was and she responded, “Be kind.” While it lacks a certain flare, she is right. The entire world could use more kindness. It’s easy not to be kind but it’s a great philosophy. Be kind.

Simplicity

I don’t have a complicated life. I don’t have many possessions. Do you know how many bowls I own? One. How many plates? One. How many spoons? One. How many chopsticks? One. That last one is just a little Asian humour for you all. You’re welcome. I don’t believe life is as complicated as people make it seem. Don’t like your job? Get a new one. Don’t like your husband? Get a new one. Have too much stuff? Get rid of it. Spend too much money? Spend less. Too big? Exercise more. Humans like to make excuses, enjoy drama and complicate needlessly complicate our lives. If that’s your thing then drama is a value that works for you but I’m a simple man with simple tastes. I just need to make sure that simplicity involves Thailand once every few years.

Honesty

One of the worst things you can be called is a liar. Do you want people to not believe things you tell them?

“Honey, Bert called and he said he can’t make it because he sprained his ankle playing dodgeball.”

“Pfff. I doubt it. I don’t trust that guy. He’s a liar.”

These types of conversations happen every day, all over the world. If you are OK with people not fully believing what you say or trusting you completely then you should keep on saying things that are not true. This is why people dislike politicians so much. Telling the truth is hard and uncomfortable but is a sign of respect. People are tougher than you think and can handle the truth. This essay helped me fully grasp that almost any type of lie is not worth it.

https://samharris.org/books/lying/

Gratitude

I’m surprised it has taken me this long to insert a quote. Let’s make it a good one.

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you do not have. Remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

Epicurus.

This might be a hard time to get grateful depending on how 2020 has unfolded for you but there are almost always things to be grateful for.

It’s normal to want things we don’t have or think that if we just have this one person, object, place, possession, everything would finally be OK. The faster we realize that this thing doesn’t exist, the faster we can enjoy the moment. It’s important to me to be grateful for my health, my family, being Canadian, a native English speaker with Maybelline eyelashes because my life would be much harder without these things. Even being grateful for having clean water coming out of your tap, a roof over your head and clothes to wear is a great start that millions of people do not have.

Adventure

Now I’m not completely sold on this value. This might be a value of my past. Adventure and travel have definitely been a core value since 2011 but it might be taking a backseat this decade. I get bored easily and like exploring new places so adventure will always have a place in my heart but I feel that this value might not be as integral to who I am moving forward.

Values that just missed the cut

Boldness

I wish I was more bold. I wish that I acted more boldly in day-to-day life. I think living boldly is a trait that I admire but I don’t live this value enough for it to be a part of my 5. Embrace boldness is great advice.

Dependability

Nobody really depends on me for anything. Once I get more responsibility in my life, I hope that this value becomes more prevalent. If you tell people you are going to do something, do it. Dependability kind of crosses over with honesty a bit. One day people will depend on me but that day is not any time soon so this value will be put on hold for now.

Curiosity

Curiosity is one of the reasons I left home. What’s X place like? Let’s go find out. What’s in that forest? Let’s go look. You don’t need to travel to be curious. Just this week I looked up information on glaciers, soil, difference between a virus and bacteria, and America’s President’s approval rating because life is filled with interesting things to learn. If curiosity isn’t a top 5, I understand but to not have any curiosity at all is puzzling to me.

Figuring out your values is a good way to get a snapshot on what you find important in your life and if you need to incorporate a few new and different values into your life. Personally, none of my values fell under the Achievement headline. I should be more ambitious and focused on developing more professionally. Additionally, intelligence and health are both areas I need to focus more on in the future.

I hope figuring out your values gives you some clarity moving forward. Goodbye and good luck.

"Gratitude turns what we have into enough"

Aesop

A better read to understanding your values:

https://markmanson.net/values/personal-values-guide

Book Recommendations

Suddenly have some extra free time? I figured you might. Here are a list of books worth checking out.

To be entertained:

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah 

Story about Trevor Noah growing up in South Africa. The way he grew up and the way I grew up were worlds apart. Short and entertaining read. One of the best books I’ve ever read.

Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne

Jules Verne is a legend. Verne and H.G. Wells are considered the fathers of science fiction, his stories involve travel and adventure. This might be my favourite fictional book of all time. You can skip the movie. 

Troy Trilogy by David Gemmell

Lord of the Silver Bow, Troy: Shield of Thunder, Fall of Kings

I don’t re-read books but after a 12 year break, I needed to dive back in. Luckily I forgot almost every event that happens so it was like reading it for the first time. Better than Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. It’s a long read but if you like fantasy, you need to read this.

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig 

Boats are an incredible setting for a story. This book only takes about an hour to read and while you might say chess is a boring topic for a book, I think you will find this fictional book quite compelling. Give it a shot.

Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood

A little Canadianity. I fell in love with the show then read Handmaid’s Tale and 

The Testaments. Testaments not necessary to read but I would read the book then watch the show. Everything that happens in the book and on the show happened at some point in history. It gets a little dark but if you’re feeling gloomy, this might be the book for you.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain 

How can someone be such a great chef, writer and TV personality? Anthony Bourdain’s writing is thrilling, he tells great stories and makes you feel like you are right beside him while doing things that are far too inappropriate for my mother to read about.

New York by Edward Rutherford 

This book is a monster. One of the first historical fiction books I’ve ever read. Follows one family from the 17th century to 2009. If you like history and are interested in New York, Rutherford does an impeccable job painting what life would have been like during those years.

 

To learn:

Endurance by Alfred Lansing 

One of the greatest stories of survival ever told. Shakelton set out to cross the Antarctic in 1914. You might have guessed that things did not exactly goes as planned. Top 5 book for me. My English isn't very good so it's hard for me to describe how great this book is. 

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand 

It’s hard to believe this was Louis Zamperini's his life. To say that he lived a full life from 1917 to 20014 would be a gross understatement. If you are into history and unbelievable stories that apparently happened, read the book but stay away from the movie.

The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck and Everything is #@%!ed A Book About Hope

Mark Manson is my favourite author. He’s smart, funny and level headed. He’s what the world needs. His articles are helpful and can aid you with almost any issue you are facing. Read these books to gain insight into how our minds work and how to live more rationally. 

https://markmanson.net/

Digital Minimalism and Deep Work by Cal Newport

If you feel like technology is taking over your life, read these books for some perspective on how to reduce technology’s impact on your life and how to work more productively.

Sam Harris Lying

Sam Harris is one of the smartest people alive. His podcast is A1 and writes mainly about religion and philosophy. Lying is more of an essay and might change how you view even white lies.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie 

One of the most popular books of all time, Dale Carnegie shows you how better manage relationships in your life.

I Will Teach You to be Rich by Ramit Sethi 

If you want to learn about personal finance in a relaxed and humorous tone, read this. This is the book that helped me get my financial life together and pay of my $31, 500 debt.

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

A classic personal finance book. Shows two different approaches to money. You can decide which approach is best for you.

For kids but also for adults

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch 

There are no words.

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds 

This is a fun little book. Ish is a great word to use and this book does a tremendous job explaining how best to live life ishly.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis 

This is a book that completely surprised me. I don’t remember why I picked this book up but I was all in from the first page. I’m not going to watch the movies or read the other books because this book was everything I wanted from it. Read it to your kids or just read it before bed but be warned, you might end up going to be later than you had planned.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Originally written in French, this book is a tale of child trying to figure out what exactly is the deal with grownups. Not sure anyone knows what the deal with grown ups is.

Authors I like but not mentioned above:

Bill Bryson non-fiction. Short History of Nearly Everything.

Murakami-Hit or miss. Japanese. South of the Border, West of the Sun

Tim Ferris-Useful advice on how to be better at life. Tools of Titans 

Malcolm Gladwell. Super smart, Canadian and solid podcasts. The Tipping Point

Michael Lewis. Great storyteller. Liar’s Poker and Moneyball

Stay safe. Stay inside. Stay together. 

"Since all of the public libraries are closed, I'm checking you out instead."

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