Digital Minimalism: On Living Better with Less Technology

by Cal Newport

Tristan Harris, a former start-up founder and Google engineer who deviated from his well-worn path through the world

Adam Alter had little interest in technology as a research subject.9 A business professor with a PhD from Princeton in social psychology, Alter studied the broad question of how features in the world around us influence our thoughts and behavior.

Drunk Tank Pink, cataloged numerous similar cases where seemingly small environmental factors create large changes in behavior. The title, for example, refers to a study that showed aggressively drunk inmates at a Seattle naval prison were notably calmed after spending just fifteen minutes in a cell painted a particular shade of Pepto-Bismol pink, as were Canadian

schoolchildren when taught in a classroom of the same color. The book also reveals that wearing a red shirt on a dating profile will lead to significantly more interest than any other color, and that the easier your name is to pronounce, the faster you’ll advance in the legal profession.