Paper and Smoke: A Technologist's Journey Through Digital Detox

I bought an MP3 player for my daughter. That sent me down a rabbit hole of downloading old purchases, ripping CDs, and realizing I don’t actually own most of the music I’ve paid for. It started with trying to avoid smartphones and finding a simple device — the Innioasis Y1 — that just plays music. But once I had it, I had to answer an important question: Where is my music? Between Apple Music, Ama...

Someone recently told me that they can’t leave the house without their phone. I call Bull. We’ve been reprogrammed to thing we need it at all times. Even my parents, who spent almost as much of their lives without cell phones as with them, think they are a necessity. Here’s my case against that idea. You can read the full article here: https://paperandsmoke.com/p/the-case-for-leaving-your-phone-at...

I finished reading FROM SILK TO SILICON: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives by Jeffrey E. Garten and enjoyed it. He tells (as you might surmise) the story of how we became a globalized society through the lives and accomplishments of ten people throughout history (up until the year 2000). The book was written in 2016, with a new preface added in 2017. He starts with Genghis...

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they’ve consumed too much of something, and they find the very notion of consuming more sickening. This is the very basis for my yearly theme. 2025 was finally the year were I felt my overconsumption of technology was getting the best of me. So this year, my theme is digital detox. Read about it here: https://paperandsmoke.com/p/my-2026-yearly-theme-the-y...

It’s likely a coincidence that the best quarter in my business was also the quarter where I left nearly all social media behind. The truth is that it’s been a gradual process that started when I left Twitter in December 2024 . I was tired of reading garbage, and engaging in garbage, and the benefit I was getting from being on the platform was basically non-existent. Since then, I realized most soc...

I knew from a young age, I wanted to play the drums. I got my first small kit when I was five, and when my friends and I started a "band," heavy quotes, I played paint buckets. When I was 15 years old, I knew I needed a real kit. This is the story of how I got it, and how one man's incredible kindness had a profound effect on me. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with oth...

I am no Luddite. I have three pieces of technology that monitor my health and wellness. I’ve come to rely on many devices. That is why I am doing a digital detox. This is Paper and Smoke. It’s a look at how real-world craft happens, through the lens of a technologist going through digital detox. In a society increasingly online (and outsourcing thinking to AI), Paper and Smoke celebrates the real,...