Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

All good questions! To one degree or another the author examines most of these.

Though I'd like to hear some opinions on here as well as more questions related to those you've asked.

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I try to keep it simple.

If it will make me or mine safer or healthier, I'll buy it.

If it will save me time or money, I'll consider it (although I will probably wait for the early adopters to push it down the pricing curve first).

If it's primary purpose is to enhance my status, I won't buy it. I can rely on my sparkling wit and breathtaking physical beauty for that.

If it causes an addition to the sum total of things I need to carry on my person, I won't buy it.

Being able to brag about not using a technology is insufficient reason to not use it. I have no romantic illusions about the virtue of our hardy forebears.

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

All good questions! To one degree or another the author examines most of these.

Though I'd like to hear some opinions on here as well as more questions related to those you've asked.

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I would like t thnk that Eric learned in the Minimite community to carefully consider that pros and cons of each tech advance.

The Amish communities here are each differ in what they eschew. The community elders decide which items will be adopted depending on that community's needs and situation.

I think I'd like to read that book, because I gravitate towards books like that, and to that point I can recommend:

12 x 12 by William Powers (I loved that book)
Saved: How I Quit Worrying about Money and Became the Richest Guy in the World by Ben Hewitt
Unplugged, Hillary Bergeron
Plain Living, A Quaker Path to Simplicity by Catherine Whitmire

I don't think the purpose of these books is to get everyone to chuck their phones and TVs and refrigerators. I think it's to maybe consider that we may have lost something in the migration away from who we are as part of the natural world. We are in a place now where we can choose the level of technology that will make us the healthiest and happiest, but how can we choose if we've lost the experience of living without these things?

Reading these books enables you to live vicarious through the eyes and experiences of others or it may inspire you to follow them.

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Originally Posted by catherine

I think I'd like to read that book, because I gravitate towards books like that, and to that point I can recommend:

12 x 12 by William Power (I loved that book)
Saved: How I Quit Worrying about Money and Became the Richest Guy in the World by Ben Hewitt
Unplugged, Hillary Bergeron
Plain Living, A Quaker Path to Simplicity by Catherine Whitmire

I don't think the purpose of these books is to get everyone to chuck their phones and TVs and refrigerators. I think it's to maybe consider that we may have lost something in the migration away from who we are as part of the natural world. We are in a place now where we can choose the level of technology that will make us the healthiest and happiest, but how can we choose if we've lost the experience of living without these things?

Reading these books enables you to live vicarious through the eyes and experiences of others or it may inspire you to follow them.

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Thanks for the suggestions.

I read 12 X 12 by William Powers, it was okay overall. There were some good parts and some really bad parts. But his more recent book, New Slow City, was just... not good.

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

Thanks for the suggestions.

I read 12 X 12 by William Powers, it was okay overall. There were some good parts and some really bad parts. But his more recent book, New Slow City, was just... not good.

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Interesting. What didn't you like about 12 x 12?

Have you ever read Ben Hewitt's books? I've read a couple of them, and I enjoy his writing style.

The other two books are good, but I wouldn't say great. If you have a yearning for a simple living, off-the-grid book, they do the job.

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Originally Posted by catherine

Interesting. What didn't you like about 12 x 12?

Have you ever read Ben Hewitt's books? I've read a couple of them, and I enjoy his writing style.

The other two books are good, but I wouldn't say great. If you have a yearning for a simple living, off-the-grid book, they do the job.

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Well, I think I would have mixed feelings about 12 X 12 if I were to read it again.

But I liked Dr. Benton. I thought she was an interesting character, despite being imperfect. Though aren't we all?

For some reason I picked up New Slow City and thought it was going to be good. But it was... just not. And it came off as a bit smug, largely detached from reality, and -- dare I say it -- self-indulgent.

I have not read Ben Hewitt's books. I will google them now...

Is Saved by Ben super religious?

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

Is Saved by Ben super religious?

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Haha! Do you think I'd recommend a religious book to you? No, it is only religious if you consider living carefree in nature a religion.

ETA the description on Google:

When Ben Hewitt met Erik Gillard, he was amazed. Here was a real-life rebel living happily and comfortably in small-town Vermont on less than $10,000 per year. Gillard's no bum. He has a job, a girlfriend, good friends, and strong ties to the community. But how he lives his life--and why--launches Hewitt on a quest to understand the true role of money and mindless consumerism in our lives. By meeting and befriending people like Erik Gillard, Hewitt realized that their happiness was real. What was he--and the rest of a deeply unhappy population--missing?

Saved is the humorous, surprising, and ultimately life-changing result of Hewitt's quest, a narrative that challenges everything we know about the meaning of money. Hewitt uses his sharp eye for story, exhaustive reporting, and his own experience living below his means to bring what he learned into an even larger context. How does money really work? How can a bankrupt society move forward? The answers are not what you think, and Hewitt has written an important book for our times.

You Catholics are sneaky! haha

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

You Catholics are sneaky! haha

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Well, I'm no longer Catholic, but it's true you can't really scrub the Catholic out of the girl very easily if she was taught by nuns for 12 years the way I was. They weren't sneaky. They were pretty bold, actually.