Hamlet's BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital AgeOur computers and mobile devices do wonderful things for us. But they also impose a burden, making it harder for us to focus, do our best work, build strong relationships, and find the depth and fulfillment we crave. How to solve this problem? Hamlet’s BlackBerry argues that we just need a new way of thinking, an everyday philosophy for life with screens. William Powers sets out to solve what he calls the conundrum of connectedness. Reaching into the past—using his own life as laboratory and object lesson—he draws on some of history’s most brilliant thinkers, from Plato to Shakespeare to Thoreau, to demonstrate that digital connectedness serves us best when it’s balanced by its opposite, disconnectedness. Lively, original, and entertaining, Hamlet’s BlackBerry will challenge you to rethink your digital life. |
Contents
9 | |
Falling Out with the Connected | 37 |
The Trouble with Not Really | 67 |
Plato Discovers Distance | 83 |
Seneca on Inner Space | 101 |
Gutenberg and the Business | 121 |
Shakespeare on the Beauty | 137 |
Ben Franklin on Positive | 157 |
Thoreau on Making | 175 |
McLuhan and the Thermostat | 193 |
Practical Philosophies for Every | 209 |
The Internet Sabbath | 223 |
Back to the Room | 235 |
Acknowledgments | 241 |
FurtherReading | 263 |
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Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the ... William Powers No preview available - 2010 |