vitalik on digital minimalism ness
vitalik buterin on digital minimalism ness
via tweet [https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2116368336842100913?a=5N9m1owim2N1TjCwBZg&s=20]:
Digital minimalism [https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2026/10/31/digital_minimalism.html]
notes/quotes from vitalik’s (oct 31 2026) post:
For a long time I have been a fan of minimalism in my physical life: have few physical possessions, and try to do more with less. Four years ago, I wrote this blog post describing what I had in the 40-liter backpack that I travel around with.
minimalist letting go law et al..
Physical minimalism, however, was an idea that came of age in the 2000s and 2010s and was responding to the challenges and the opportunities of the 2000s and 2010s. I continue to believe that it is valuable – though I recognize some arguments in the other direction, notably that having the right kinds of physical things can make more practical to have more self-sovereignty over your life. But I also think that in the modern era, we need a new kind of minimalism: digital minimalism.
to me (warning ness) .. minimalism we need has more to do with gupta roadblock law..
and why we need tech w/o judgment
Digital minimalism is about *being intentional about ways that you access digital technology, making each use **a conscious choice rather than something that you get sucked into by default..t In this post, I will describe some experiments that I’ve done in this direction.
*to me.. that’s ie: self-talk as data via tech as it could be
**to me.. if still making ‘choices’ .. still getting sucked in by default.. still perpetuating myth of ‘free choice’ as freedom
need a means to facil curiosity/itch over decision making.. because the finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us.. keeping us from us..
ie: imagine if we listen to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & use that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)
if want legit minimalism (aka: gupta roadblock law et al.. sans all the cancerous distractions of any form of m\a\p).. need 1st/most: means (nonjudgmental expo labeling) to undo hierarchical listening – so we can hear what’s on each heart as global detox in order to org around legit needs
Social media minimalism
But even still, in those moments when I go back into the X interface, I find myself logging back out and going back to Firefly. I also find that my mind has changed. *I find myself less interested in the various battles that the intellectual titans on the platform seem to be sucking every day of their lives into. Recently, I logged back in, and I learned that the culture war issue du jour was that people were stridently arguing about whether or not Mao was evil. When I saw this, I had an emotional response that was sort of similar to what I think is the common experience of being an adult, seeing some food or TV show or game that you used to love as a kid, and realizing that you now find no interest in it at all. **I smiled, and immediately went back to enjoying my day.
*again.. any form of m\a\p does this
findings (aka: the things i can’t unsee) from on the ground ness deep dive and why we need tech w/o judgment
ie: the dance won’t dance unless/until it’s 1\ all of us 2\ legit free
nothing to date (ever since that day) has gotten to that root of problem
legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of measuring, accounting, people telling other people what to do
**’enjoying/smiling’ in sea world.. because none of us are free if one of us is chained..
Cell data minimalism
again.. aka: self-talk as data
For a period of 100 days, I embarked upon a second experiment: I lived my life with my phone always on airplane mode. I still used wifi, but not my cell connection.
I had two goals in doing this:
- Privacy.
- Mental health.
‘privacy’ (aka: maté trump law; batra hide in public law; et al) we need most via idiosyncratic jargon ness
‘mental health’ (aka: missing pieces) we need most via self-talk as data – 2 conversations – as infra – detox as detox – et al
My general impression is: right now, we are *exactly on the cusp of these kinds of apps starting to make sense. Most of the participants in the competition were trying to use on-device text LLMs to think for a long time before coming up with an answer. My impression is that this approach was too slow: answering a single question would take anywhere from 1 to 22 minutes. **The best apps, on the other hand, used some kind of semantic search to show the user a search result from the local database immediately, and then followed that up with a very small LLM writing a text answer. This gives actually-good answers in a very reasonable timeframe.
*we need to let go of ‘making sense ness’ .. if we want legit minimalism.. if we want legit peace/freedom
**best app? nonjudgmental expo labeling
ie: imagine if we listen to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & use that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)
Finally, when you’re out and about, especially if you have meetings, sometimes you do need to have internet when you’re on the go. When you arrive at a place, you often need to contact a person you’re meeting to confirm their exact location or to get them to open the door. When you’re at one meeting, you often need to re-confirm details about the next. If you don’t have cell data, your only option is public wifi – and importantly, the public wifi hotspot must allow you to connect without providing an SMS confirmation code.
rather.. this (all) is why we need tech w/o judgment
Web minimalism
web min we need: berners-lee everyone law et al
Conclusion
Physical-world minimalism, of the style that became popular in the 2000s and 10s, was made possible by a new wave of technology: computers and the internet. A single computer could substitute for dozens of physical things. As a result, you could live a life of much greater simplicity and freedom, with just a laptop, a few sets of clothing, and basic charging and hygiene equipment. Physical minimalism was much harder before the internet; it was doable, but would entail a much more complex lifestyle commitment. After the internet, the costs of a more physically minimalistic lifestyle greatly dropped.
not ‘simple/free’ if any form of m\a\p
With the last ten years of progress of software quality, together with modern AI, I would argue that we now have the wave of technology needed to similarly enable the next wave of minimalism: digital minimalism. We need social media less than before, because you can talk to the bot for information instead (and for human connection, there’s still the old-fashioned solution: going out and talking to people in real life). We need the internet less than before, because there’s so much more you can do purely locally and offline. And we need the web less than before, because you can do much more, and more conveniently, though either command-line tools or custom-made user interfaces, and AI can help you use or craft both. And these things are all happening at exactly the time that the flaws of these previous paradigms – and, for that matter, the flaws of using AI in the wrong way – are reaching their apex, and so a digital minimalism is becoming more and more necessary.
ever since that day
Each person’s path to digital minimalism will be different, as *each person has different needs. But I highly recommend everyone try **reducing their digital clutter in at least one important way, and if you like the result then keep going.
*if talking legit min.. then same 2 basic needs
**if want legit ‘reducing’ ness.. need to let go.
ie: we need a problem deep enough to resonate w/8b today.. via a mechanism simple enough to be accessible/usable to 8b today.. in an ecosystem open enough to set/keep 8b legit free
ie: org around a problem deep enough (aka: org around legit needs) to resonate w/8b today.. via a mechanism simple enough (aka: tech as it could be) to be accessible/usable to 8b today.. and an ecosystem open enough (aka: sans any form of m\a\p) to set/keep 8b legit free
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