The Intimacy of the Experience

What happens when you write a book called The Revenge of Analog, only to find a pandemic relentlessly converting everything to virtual a few years later?

David Sax answered the call with a follow-up book, the only one he could write from the confines of home, describing the malaise of digital pushed to its extremes, again making the case for RR: Real Reality (and you know we couldn’t resist a few pirate jokes to follow).

I know you’ll love this conversation as much as I did about the timeless nature of our most meaningful moments; the future of books, book clubs, and bookstores; and why the metaverse has nothing to do with our salvation as a species.

More About David: David Sax is a technology critic and bestselling author of five books, including Save the Deli, The Tastemakers, The Revenge of Analog, and The Soul of an Entrepreneur. His new book, The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World, highlights the resurgence of analog goods and ideas in a digitally proliferated world. He reminds us all that we should look for community and humanity, not convenience and technology.

🌟Key Takeaway: There are things that are just better in AR: Actual Reality (as opposed to digital). Books, speaking engagements, school, bookstores. There’s nothing saying we have to choose the metaverse despite how relentlessly it’s marketed to us.

✅Next Action: When someone asks you about your plans for the future, consider: What makes you feel the most human? What kind of connection do you crave and desire? How can you bring more of that into your life? Take something back that has gone digital and return to analog, whether it’s buying a hardcover book or sending a handwritten thank you note.

📘Books: 

• Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One 
• Life After College
• A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport 
• The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning by Scott Galloway
• The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google by Scott Galloway

🔗Resources:

• David on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Article: New York Times—This is Life in the Metaverse
• Scott Galloway: Newsletter, The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
• Podcast: 3 Books with Neil Pasricha

🎧Related Podcast Episodes:

• 287: Solving Pivot Puzzles with A.J. Jacobs
• 265: Free Time Crossover — Eliminate Email with Cal Newport
• 122: Digital Minimalism with Cal Newport
• 29: Deep Work: Ditch Cognitive Junk Food with Cal Newport
• 143: Transmogrify with Neil Pasricha
• 44: Want Nothing, Have Everything: The Happiness Equation with Neil Pasricha
• JB on SPARKED with Jonathan Fields: On Putting Yourself in the Path of Pivot, How to Choose Freedom Over Familial Responsibility, How to Scale While Staying True to Yourself, and How to Know When to Jump Into Your Side Hustle
• Free Time 134: How I Prepare for In-Person Speaking Engagements

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