Light Tech Backpack: 10 Tools to Defend Your Attention

I. The world is texting while driving and nobody seems to care. I don’t mean it literally (although that’s also true). It seems like everyone’s continuously living with half of their brain-power away on something else. Damn. Another “old man yelling at cloud” post. Fuck it. I have to write this. II. Recently, a very special group of friends of...

I. I always thought of myself as weird. Well, not really. But when I did start thinking of myself as weird, my life improved a lot. As a kid, I struggled to conform to other’s expectations of normalcy. Everyone played fútbol during school recess, but I hated it. One of the few times I ventured to the field, a classmate accidentally kicked the...

I. In December 2001, Argentine President Fernando de la Rua imposed an ATM withdrawal limit of $250 per week. The country was in a drawn-out recession since 1998, and the government tried to stop a precipitating bank run. I was 12 at the time, and my whole life savings were $80. My godfather had given me a $100 bill as a gift a few years back,...

I. Not long ago, you could play the guitar while singing along to almost any song just by googling “song name + chords” on your phone. This was a really nice social gathering activity, especially among musicians. Your phone (or tablet) was invisible, just a tool. The focus was in expressing yourself through music and connecting with friends....

What are you optimizing for? Money? Personal growth? Knowledge? Experiences? Family? Peace? Money is power. Money is time. It’s access to future energy. It’s freedom. It is control over nature. It takes effort to get money, but once you do, it’s addictive. With it, you can help others. A great many problems seem to disappear. You architect the...