Digital Minimalism: Two Camps

Videos Techlore
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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://techlore.tv/w/7985gJYCp5pwMki331aLfD
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That’s a very interesting discussion that could be explored a bit more here.

I have actually been debating this with myself ever since I started getting interested in privacy, and I came to the conclusion that I wanted :

  • A minimum number of devices on which to work on ;
  • A maximum number of dedicated storages/sessions for each relevant usecase scenario.

I have already started doing this on my computer where I have a C drive for the system, a D drive for my personal work, and an E drive for all games, movies, and more “for fun” content.

Still, you can’t always have portable softwares so you are bound to have some interaction between the drives which doesn’t make for a properly isolated environnement.

I got interested in containers or things like NixOS, but never actually tried as I felt it was too complex for a need that I felt should just exist in the first place on the market.

Just imagine : you have a single host device, and you can just hotswap a work drive or a gaming drive like some very high performance USB and it just works out of the box without having to worry about your OS messing with things, having different partitions, etc. and since it’d be hardware isolated, you couldn’t possibly leak data from your gaming drive to your work drive and vice-versa.

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Thank you very much for PeerTube links.

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This isn’t the form of total hardware isolation that folks in the digital minimalism space for privacy/security are after (I don’t think). If they were, they’d simply use or advocate for hot-swap-able storage instead? I wrote on GrapheneOS forums (can’t find the link) about why even hardware-assisted virtualization (specifically in the context of pkvm that GrapheneOS team is working on) isn’t isolation enough for folks who practice digital minimalism (of needing one device per context) for security & privacy purposes (like folks in high-risk situations & professions).

You can call having a bed room, a living room, a home office, a kitchen … all some form of isolation even if it is all behind the same door, but in reality, having a vacation home, having a workplace to go to, having meals at diners are very different kinds of “isolation”, if we can call it that.

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Of course! Yeah it’s great to get it properly spun up

You’ve definitely struck on the #1 issue with managing multiple devices: file management. If you’re in the middle of a project on one machine how can you ensure everything you need is on your other machines? What you’re describing is loosely what the cloud and/or a NAS aims to provide.

The other issue on my end is the practical maintenance of each device. Updating software, applying workflow changes on multiple devices, remembering to charge each device, etc.

It’s a tough balance for sure, and at least in my journey I do think for the first time in a while I’m going to add a new device to my daily workflow—a dedicated editing machine. It’s more for compartmentalization and having a focused OS without everything else on it. Luckily my NAS allows easy maintenance outside software updates, and I’m looking at a desktop so no batteries :slight_smile:

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Okay thanks for the valuable feedback.

It might just be the push I need. (Scribbles notes frantically.)

I think a tech ecosystem centered around all this is what we need and if no one wants to provide it, then so be it. I will.

(It will takes years.)

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I watched this a while ago and thought I’d test out the ‘two camps’ idea by using only my smartphone for everything for a couple of weeks. I became addicted to my smartphone within days. Here is my article on that experience: Digital Minimalism: Using One Device for Everything | Welcome to The Privacy Dad's Blog!

Thanks for provoking deeper thoughts about digital minimalism!

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Yes I was in that state where my phone was so addicting I was unable to finish showering properly and unable to have good sleeps, after this whole transition aside from the few days waiting for the smartwatch to ship I’ve went on a 2 device approach, significantly impactful and I made it way more rewarding for when I’m home (eg. High refresh rate gaming).
I plan to write the results especially before my smartwatch comes in for enhancement
image

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Please share a link when it’s done.

I was just surprised how quickly I became addicted just like anyone would.

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13 days later it’s here, you were even given a shoutout:

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I was thinking about doing this by having Signal or Molly on a smart watch, and just using it for notifications and answering phone calls, but I don’t know if there’s any way to get signal on one of those

Funnily enough, I want to use my phone more like a computor that isn’t connected to data, and answer texts and stuff only when I’m connected to wifi. If I was able to do that, I could basically use my wallet as a beeper, answering texts only when extremely necessary. I like the idea of needing to dock somewhere to access the internet or send texts

I use my phone for reading most ideally. My maps are offline, etc

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signal is not available in any smartwatch, bummer, unless it’s one of those very small chinese android it’s going to be a nope