Digital Minimalism

December 16, 2023

Attention is the new currency, and you’re giving it away for free.

Instead of being addicted to a meaningful goal that will benefit your life, you’re addicted to cheap dopamine.

Instead of waking up ready to attack your days with purpose, you grab your phone. 

Most people won’t make it to the end of this letter.

Your mind has already wandered off into something else by now. 

And you don’t think I’m talking about you, but I am.

People can’t read anymore because overstimulation has fried our brains and we can’t focus.

Shortform scrolling content dominates the internet right now and it makes it harder for people to sit through videos like mine.

The one thing that will prevent you from living the life that you want is distraction. If you don’t regain control of your digital habits, you will never regain control of your life.

Attention Economy

The goal of every social media company, including YouTube, is to keep your attention. 

That is the only thing they want. 

Tech companies invest millions, maybe even billions into keeping your attention as long as possible. 

As long as you are looking at a screen, the more advertisements that are strategically placed around the content that you love. 

Even though all of these platforms are free to use, it’s not free. You are paying with your attention. They shove ads in your face, and the only way to escape the ads is to pay them. 

So, none of this is free.

When you mindlessly give away your attention, you suffer more consequences. 

It takes away your time, leaving you no opportunity to do other things that are important to you. 

Or you are constantly pulling away from those other things to give more attention to your phone. 

The scariest part about it is that it deliberately bombards you with negative content and views because it attracts more attention and keeps it. 

The human brain is wired to notice and feed off of negativity. 

Under pretty much any comment section on any platform, you’ll see someone arguing. 

Faceless profiles will go back and forth for days over something that doesn’t matter. 

Can you imagine being so stuck in the matrix, that you leave a hate comment on a post, then another angry person insults you, and then you proceed to take time out of your life on Earth to argue with some random stranger on the internet about how nobody can beat Goku? 

Then, the people who are a little more sane, like us, take time out of our lives, to read the argument.

Popcorn in hand.

But it’s not just these platforms that are trying to keep your attention. 

It’s the creators too. Me included. 

YouTubers invest tons of time into flashy editing and thumbnails that keep your attention. 

It’s really hard to grow a YouTube channel without strengthening your internet addiction. 

I try not to use super flashy edits and overstimulating thumbnails and my channel suffers because of it. 

Most of my viewers drop off after 30 seconds. 

And even more, drop off after 3-4 minutes.

If I wanted to maximize the income I make off of YouTube, I could make my videos super stimulating to keep your attention. Just farming views. Your little lizard brains love all that stuff. 

The subtitles, the background images, the sound effects. Those are the things that would keep your attention but if I had those things you wouldn't be paying attention to what I'm saying, you'd be paying attention to those things.

Cheap Dopamine

Yes, we are going there again.

Cheap dopamine is just one easily attainable source of pleasure and instant gratification that comes from internet addiction.

But it's not just from internet addiction. 

Cheap dopamine is anything that is not aligned with your ideal future. 

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, reward, and motivation. 

Activities that lead to the release of dopamine give us a sense of pleasure, but these feelings are only temporary and don’t contribute to your well-being in the long term if it’s not the right thing.

That means that it can include:

• Overspending
• Gaming
• Binge watching TV
• Junk Food
• Mindless Consumption of Social Media
• Porn

When I spell those things out for you, you already understand that these things have negative effects. 

And some of these things are okay sometimes. They do have their place.

But if you do indulge in these things, you need to be aware of the outcome that comes from it. And if that outcome is preventing you from achieving your goals, and you’re ruining things for your future self, then you need to make a conscious decision.

The way that I navigate this reality, is that I know what I want for myself, for my family, and my future. I know that those things, at the point that I’m at in my life, are not congruent with what I want. And I want to reach my goals more than I want those things. Therefore I don’t want to do those things. 

I want a high income, therefore I want all of the things that are required to get there. And that includes hours upon hours of hard work, determination, and missing out on a lot of the things that other people call fun. 

I don’t play video games anymore. I’ve played a few games at my friend’s house, and I’ve been there maybe a handful of times this year, but I don’t play video games at home on my own time. I stopped using my PS4 in December 2022 at the same time I started the social media detox.

I also don't watch TV. I used to watch a lot of anime, but it’s too time-consuming for me so I stopped doing that around the same time as well. At the start of this year, I watched like 20 episodes of Dragonball Z and I was only watching one episode a day while I was eating my dinner but I still felt like it wasn’t worth the time. So I stopped watching TV too. 

You guys probably think I’m boring now. 

And you may be right. I’m probably a little extreme with this stuff. But I still have fun in other ways. I still go out with my friends sometimes, and at the end of the night, I’ll sit down and watch a couple of YouTube videos unrelated to work, and I’ll read comics before bed to kind of shut my mind off. Right now I’m reading BONE.

But 90% of my day I’m trying to do something that isn’t instantly gratifying. Because when I do, I always feel like it’s wasting my time. 

I can’t believe I’m explaining to you guys that I’m not a boring person….

If I had to give you a raw unfiltered belief that I have, I think that if you aren’t making progress towards your goals, you shouldn’t be indulging in cheap pleasures.

Social Media

The reason I’m singling this one out is because this is the one people suffer from the most and it’s also the most controversial. Some people think that any social media is bad social media and others think that social media is what you make it. I’m kinda in both camps.

Achieving a balance between consuming and taking action every day is the key to improvement. By consumption, I mean watching videos, listening to podcasts, reading articles and books.

Short-form content is great for quick research, but it should be quickly abandoned for long-form content when it comes to actually learning something.

Keeping Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok on your phone is cope.

You can’t escape social media. It’s here to stay. If you let it consume your mind and attention then it will be a detriment. If you use it mindfully as a creator or as a researcher then you will gain.  And you will see things that nobody else is seeing.

I made this realization after my “detox”  and I got a better idea of the capabilities of social media and I also made a realization that If I wanted to grow a business, (which was my plan for a long time) social media was a non-negotiable. 

Let me say that again. If you want to make a profitable business, of any kind, Social media is non-negotiable. 

Having a personal brand is one of the best business models you can get into at this point. And it’s also the most desired among young people.

57% of Gen-Z to be exact.

Anyways, dopamine detox is not a challenge. I honestly don't even like using that term but that's what most people associate this subject with. 

Instead, I like to think of it as a long-term lifestyle change. 

Anyone who tells you that you can fix your life with a one-week dopamine detox is lying to you. I'm not going to go too much into how to do a “detox” because I already wrote about it previously. Read it here.

Just know that the actions you take and the habits you adopt now will shape your future. Where are your habits leading you?

Observe the masses and think about it. If everyone else is addicted to overconsumption, where does that bring them? 

Do you want that for yourself?

Are you in control of your digital habits?

Does this benefit your life beyond minor convenience?

Is this the best way to support your values?

A lot of you like to cope and say that you need to keep Snapchat to talk to your friends but do you need it to keep in touch? Is that the only way to communicate? What would happen if you stopped talking to them on Snapchat? Would the relationship end? If so, is it worth worrying about?

Like I said before, you don’t need to remove all social media from your life forever, but just be conscious of what you’re spending your life doing. 

Understand that the thing that gives you pleasure today will give you pain tomorrow. And if it doesn’t give you pain tomorrow, at the very least, you won’t have it anymore, and that will give you pain.

That’s all.

So now I’ll walk you through the steps to become a Conscious Consumer.

Create Your Blueprint

This is your ideal future. 

You create this by understanding what you don’t want and using that to find out what you do want. Not just one goal. 

Your blueprint encapsulates every aspect of life. 

What kind of car do you want, your living situation, relationship status? 

Do you want kids? 

How much financial abundance do you want? 

What time do you want to wake up? Get specific.

A mindless consumer doesn’t think from this lens. They don’t have any idea what their ideal future is and if they do they definitely aren’t being conscious of it. That is why they consume shallow useless content every day that doesn’t benefit them. They aren’t aware of what they want.

“When you align your search for knowledge with your vision, goals, and present purpose, the potential for distraction decreases dramatically. You will spot future opportunities and self-correct your learning endeavors.”-Dan Koe The Art of Focus

Consuming information through the lens of your ideal future allows you to deeply understand and apply the knowledge. 

Over time, this will raise your level of consciousness. 

And each time you reread or rewatch something from that higher level of consciousness, you will interpret it in a completely different way; each time get new insights.

You need to know this to mindfully consume because you need to filter out information that is conducive to your goals. You will see things that other people aren’t seeing.

Conscious consumption

Now that you have an idea of what you want, you can then start to research how to get it.

So if your goal right now is to move out and into your apartment, figure out the problem associated with that goal. (Probably financial) Then base all of your learning on things that will lead to you solving that problem. (how to increase your income)

There’s an Arab Proverb that goes: “The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens.”

The same applies to content. You might be intentionally consuming the wrong things. 

You have to be able to filter out the useless information. 

There is infinite content out there trying to get your attention, and if you don’t navigate it wisely, you will find yourself wasting hours of your time again.

Consume from people who have what you want. People who have solved your problems and achieved your goals. 

You should limit it to only a few people who have the identity that you want to integrate. Right now, as you are reading, you are choosing to let me inside of your head. The more you read my content, the more I’m going to shape your worldview and identity. Eventually, you will become more and more like me. If I’m adding to your life, then keep me around. But if I’m not, then remove me. That simple.

If you find someone that you relate to a lot and that has lots of content and products you can use, maybe even mentorship, use that to your advantage. Put yourself in an echo chamber so you can think like they do. 

If you can’t trust your brain to do the right things, then trust theirs. 

Drown yourself in the content that will lead to your desired outcome.

Be Intentional

Understand that you need sustained long-term focus, if you expect to achieve anything meaningful in life. 

Be intentional about your consumption, even when it’s the right people. Pick when you want to consume and pick when you want to watch. 

So if you go onto YouTube, ask yourself:

Am I going on here to learn something specific or am I just scrolling because I’m bored?

Because there are two types of content: Entertainment and education. 

You may find yourself watching educational videos for entertainment. 

When you actively make this choice of picking when you watch and what you watch, you open up the opportunity to take action on what you’re learning.

When you feel like you should be taking notes on it or it gives you a sense of clarity, that’s how you’ll know that you’re learning the right things.

How To Fix Your Short Attention Span/Mind Wandering

A lot of people tell me that they struggle to make that switch from short-form to long-form consumption. 

(Tik tok to YouTube videos, podcasts, books, etc)

And to them, I’ll say this: Why do you expect yourself to be good at it right away? 

Let me paint a picture. 

You know those TikTok and short videos where the top half of the screen is Subway Surfer gameplay the bottom half is reading off a Reddit post and the middle has the flashy subtitles. You’ve probably seen those. 

Can you imagine going from watching that stuff to picking up a book? Imagine how hard that is. 

This was me. The first book that I read outside of school was Atomic Habits. I reread the same chapters multiple times. Because I would read it but my mind was wandering off into random things.

You can’t expect yourself to go from watching 4 hours of TikTok a day to 4 hours of reading. 

You have to start small. And be patient or you’ll be frustrated with yourself.

Focus is a skill. You have to train it just like any other skill. 

Just keep trying and you’ll eventually be able to read and sit through lectures and podcasts. 

Last week I read for almost 3 hours straight in the library. Even 6 months ago I couldn’t even dream of doing that.

Another way to train your mind to not wander is to practice some form of mindfulness meditation.

The cure for mind wandering is mindfulness.

When you’re mind is wandering, you’re not in the present moment. Your focus is essentially non-existent.

Mindfulness is when you are in the present moment. Focus. 

The weird thing is the way you become mindful is to become mindful of you not being mindful. In other words. You become mindful by watching your own mind and waiting until you aren’t mindful. Becoming mindful of the fact you aren’t present. Then actually become present again. And it’s a cycle.

Recently I have gotten into meditation and I’ve also been listening to the audiobook of The Power of Now. I’m not finished with it but I’m enjoying it a lot and I’ve learned so much about being present and how it improves your focus.

Here’s a trick I’ve learned from it that will help you understand what I mean.

Close your eyes and say to yourself, “I wonder what my next thought will be?”

Then become alert and wait for that next thought to come. Almost like it’s not you being mindful, but you’re watching your own mind to see what it will think about.

Try it now.

When you do this become completely present and alert of what’s going on. 

You aren’t thinking about anything but you are fully aware of what’s going on around you. 

You hear noises in your room that you didn’t notice and you can feel every part of your body and your breath.

I feel like I lose track of time, almost like I don’t know how long I’ve had my eyes closed. 

You don’t have to sit cross-legged and meditate to become mindful. You can do this anywhere. 

I do it with meditation but I also do it when I’m praying. Also when I’m doing my work and when I’m talking to someone. You can practice this skill of being present anywhere. 

I think that if you become conscious of how mindful you are at any given moment you will feel more comfortable in your head and enjoy yourself at all times. And of course, it will improve your focus too.

That is all for now, make sure to check out 14 Days to Purpose to help you craft your blueprint and goals.

Have a great weekend, see ya.

-Abraham