Discover more from Tech for Humans
Introduction
I'm a contrarian by nature.
I love playing devil's advocate.
It probably started as a rebel streak as a teenager, but it has slowly crept into my personal life: I question things about day-to-day life and try to find out if they are necessary. In a way, I'm like those Youtubers with their 30-day challenges but without the followers, just for the sake of knowing.
The minimalist movement resonates significantly with me: Do I need X? Can I leave without Y?
In many cases, I find that indeed I don't need those things in my life and they stop being part of it. For others, I decide that I need them. Sometimes I go back and forth. As people say, it's about the journey and not the destination.
Some of the things that I tried:
Do we need beds? I tried sleeping on the floor for a few months while living in Paris. Not too bad; you can get used to it, but I eventually abandoned it.
Do we need to eat animal products? Hell, no! I’ve been vegan for the last 1595 days (as of writing this), and there is no stopping in sight. Are you considering the jump but have questions/doubts? I can help :)
Can you live Google free? Almost. I set up my own cloud using Nextcloud, installed a Google-free version of Android, and moved to another email provider. For search, I used Duckduckgo, and for maps, OSM. I was using Arch Linux at the time, so no problem there. My bank app required Google services to work, though, and I needed the app to authorize transactions. Overall, I think this is entirely feasible but not a priority for me (for now).
Can you live without a Smartphone? I tried this while living in Brussels. It was a beautiful month, and leaving the house without a phone felt free, even rebellious. Because I was living abroad, I needed WhatsApp to call friends and family. Eventually, that single-handedly made me quit the experiment. I'm searching for a way to ditch my smartphone again. Stay posted for updates.
Can I live car-free? So far, so good. I have had the luck of living in bikeable cities that allow me to live in a car, and I will probably avoid moving to a city where commuting by bike is not an option. Bikes are fantastic; bike more.
Can you ditch social media? I tried, but I always find that I need it for one reason or another. I am still figuring out how to get the benefits without mindless consumption. Nop, I can't just **only** do 15 minutes a day.
What can you expect from this blog?
I will write about my experiments with living with less. I'm particularly interested in technology and our dependency on it. I work in tech (AI), so I can't simply ditch computers. I also think that AI is great: I love talking to Siri and setting timers.
I'm against some of the ways in which we use technology, not technology itself: less scrolling on Instagram and more scheduling flights via voice while walking in the park.