In this engaging conversation, Joseph Reagle, a professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University and author of "Hacking Life," explores the evolution of life hacking and its implications. He distinguishes between nominal and optimal life hacking, revealing the benefits and pitfalls of various productivity strategies. Reagle also critiques minimalism's contradictions and warns against reducing spiritual practices like meditation to mere hacks. Their discussion encourages a thoughtful approach to self-improvement in a digitally distracted world.
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Hack Origins
The term "hack" originated in the 1950s at an MIT model railroad club.
It referred to non-standard solutions, reflecting a geeky, innovative approach.
insights INSIGHT
Life Hacking as Self-Help
Life hacking is a modern form of self-help, reflecting current cultural anxieties and aspirations.
Like earlier self-help, it emulates perceived "alpha" figures, now often tech-savvy individuals.
insights INSIGHT
Geeks vs. Gurus
Within life hacking, "geeks" genuinely seek improvement, while "gurus" often sell potentially ineffective advice.
Gurus' advice often reflects their own experiences, limiting its applicability to others.
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In *Hacking Life*, Joseph Reagle examines the trend of systematizing living through life hacking, tracing its history from Benjamin Franklin to modern figures like Timothy Ferriss. The book discusses various life hacks, including personal outsourcing and the quantified self movement, highlighting both their utility and potential drawbacks. It questions the broader implications of treating life as a system to be optimized.
In an effort to get more done and be our best selves, many of us have turned to "life hacks" that we find in blogs, books, and podcasts. I've personally experimented with several life hacks in the past decade, and we've even written about some on AoM. But are there downsides to trying to hack your way through life?
My guest took a look at both the positives and negatives of life hacking in his book, Hacking Life: Systemized Living and Its Discontents. His name is Joseph Reagle, and he's a professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. We begin our conversation with a history of the life hacking movement and how blogging in the early 2000s made this obscure cultural movement amongst computer programmers go mainstream. Joseph then discusses how he distinguishes between "nominal life hacking" and "optimal life hacking" and between "geeks" and "gurus." We then discuss some of the beneficial productivity and motivation hacks out there, but also how there are ways they can go astray -- including only working for a certain class of people and becoming too much of a focus in life. We also discuss how the minimalism movement can sometimes lead to contradictory impulses, and end our conversation talking about how using spiritual practices like meditation or Stoicism as hacks can strip them of their deeper contexts.
The Art of Manliness 
