Calm technology

Technology designed to inform without agitating—staying peripheral and unobtrusive rather than demanding constant attention.

Even more calm than a sand timer →

Published January 16  ·  All posts on Jan 16  ·  

I tell anyone who will listen about using physical sand timers for managing individual sessions of work. They are the perfect example of calm technology. I like to work with about 40 to 45 minutes of sand time.

Today I took a half an hour to have Claude build me a digital one. Often, I’m not within reach of my favorite sand timer and I’ve wanted to try building a digital one, which behaved exactly like a physical one. A digital one which was exactly as calm as a physical one.

A sand timer permits a constant flow rate through the neck. I didn’t bother modeling that.

In my descriptions and prompting I steered Claude to build a trivially simple approximation: The upper “sand pile” is a perfect triangle and it “drains” by having single-pixel rows removed from its top. The lower “sand pile” grows by adding lines to its top. This is NOT how a sand timer (which approximates fluid flow) actually behaves: It means the height drops at a constant rate, not an accelerating one.

When it was all working, I realized it was actually even more calm than a sand timer.

When you view a sand timer, the height of the sand changes at an increasing rate. In the beginning the height changes very slowly, and right near the end, the height runs down much more quickly.

But my digital sand timer is so calm, it even remains unhurried as it nears its end.

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In the dim →

Published April 10  ·  All posts on Apr 10  ·  

Why? If I’d asked them, they would probably have said: to reduce distractions and improve focus. Programming a computer is a bit like repairing a very tiny machine with precision tools while looking under a microscope. Quiet and calm help facilitate that process. Programmers may also just prefer the dark.

~ Ian Bogost, from We’re All in ‘Dark Mode’ Now

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Hey look, “quiet and calm” has the literal calm of calm technology. Bright, flashing lights are preceded by trigger warnings for a reason. I’ve been cultivating warm-toned lighting, and earth tones, in my working spaces for a long time. I cut my teeth on the Internet with VT-100 terminals, green type on black, cathode ray tubes and “screen burn-in” was a real hazard. These days a lot of my screens have ‘paper-white’ backgrounds with the black text. It’s been nice to watch the world catch up over the last few decades.

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Notifications make no sense →

Published February 26, 2025  ·  All posts on Feb 26  ·  

When I heard Hayes describe how his phone buzzes in his pocket whenever there is breaking news, I was actually shocked. Do people really allow their devices to interrupt them on a random reinforcement schedule? I mean, no wonder the internet makes people go crazy. I’m not a big believer in BF Skinner, but I think it’s well established that any stimulus that occurs at random intervals is impossible to get used to, and shocks you anew every time it recurs.

Rather than letting myself get pocket-buzzed by the news, I have an RSS reader. You should use an RSS reader, seriously:

~ Cory Doctorow, from Pluralistic: Pluralistic is five (19 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

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Doctorow is pretty polarizing in general. And on this topic, I agree with him entirely. And his point about RSS readers is ONLY even about alerts for news. Forget that RSS point… TURN NOTIFICATIONS OFF ENTIRELY.

I challenge you to put your phone in a drawer, buried in clothing—just banish it for 24 hours.

You won’t believe how ridiculously needy your phone is when you get it out of that drawer a day later. And then you’ll start turning off notifications one by one on your way to improving your entire life. And then you’ll want to go learn more about calm technology.

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Only so many hours →

Published February 2, 2025  ·  All posts on Feb 2  ·  

Several years ago the idea struck me to try living in the digital world but without digital media. I realised that I used to have all these analogue habits that fell by the wayside as I spent more time online, and thought that six months without digital media would give me the opportunity to focus on more material activities.

~ From Jennifer Rauch on why Slow Media is satisfying, sustainable and smart

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There are, after all, only so many hours in the day. Our choices (or our defaults if we don’t choose) end up determining the quality of our lives.

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Thanks for making me think, Ric! →

Published November 6, 2024  ·  All posts on Nov 6  ·  ,

It’s important we actually think about this: what you’re unaware of controls you here. We can’t talk about continuous improvement if we don’t ask ourselves,  why are we here as a team? What’s our promise to the organisation? Here, I think it’s vital that we embrace the fact that our hurry to get to say number three on a scale of ten is often what blocks us from actually getting to ten.

~ Ric Lindberg, from Continuous improvement

That’s from a July podcast episode of Ric Lindberg’s Results and Relationships which you can find wherever you normally listen. His is currently the only podcast I subscribe to.

Ric is usually showing up to lead others in the context of professional organizations… but not entirely. There’s plenty in his work that applies to us as individual creatives. Every episode, I find myself thinking: “Right! I already knew that,” and “thanks, Ric, for making me think about this!”

Showing up to lead is enough. You don’t have to break new ground for your work to be helpful.

Right! I already knew that. Thanks, Ric, for making me think about this!

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PS: About my subscriptions, there are many podcasts whose RSS feeds I follow in my feed reader app (along with hundreds of other things.) My podcast player is quiet; No new episodes appear creating that fear-of-missing-out. Instead, only when I open my feed reader app, do I see all the new episodes from the many podcast shows I follow. And just like everything else, I simply skim through, and I can add a podcast episode if I wish. This is an example of calm technology.

Sabbath →

Published October 28, 2024  ·  All posts on Oct 28  ·  

Seriously? A whole day each week without work? Sitting in the orientation that day, I could not imagine pulling it off. I had spent a decade of my professional life running from event to event, fighting for the time to read and write and reflect.

~ Brenton Dickieson, from sabbath unplugged

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Therein lies much wisdom. Go readeth thou shall.

I’d like to suggest a layer of nuance be added: One can only achieve a certain “width” of change for that one day each week. You cannot have a completely relaxed day if the other six are maximally frenetic. If you live with the chaos and noise turned up to 11, you cannot turn it down to 2 on a particular day. By “width” I mean you can really only turn it down somewhat; If you’re normally living at an 11, you can only expect to get down to, perhaps, a 7 on your sabbath. If you really want to have a relaxing day of rest, that’s probably down around like a zero on the chaos and noise knob.

So, Sabbath? Certainly. And work regularly—every day—to turn that chaos and noise knob. Live life at 2, and then your day off can be a sublime zero of rest and recovery.

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Good questions →

Published September 1, 2024  ·  All posts on Sep 1  ·  

You can’t say that it’s a question of national peculiarities or even entirely political peculiarities. I mean, I think when the technological and applied scientific means are developed they just tend to be used. I mean, I think one can say that the whole history of recent times […] shows that if you plant the seed […] it grows and it tends to grow according to the law of its own being, and the laws of its being are not necessarily the same as the laws of our being.

~ Aldous Huxley, from 1961: Aldous Huxley on the power of TECHNOLOGY!

It’s interesting to hear an author speak about his own ideas. I’ve read Brave New World and a selection of his essays (Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow). That short video—I’m linking to YouTube, I hope I don’t regret that in another decade ¯\_(ツ)_/¯—contains a few questions; Huxley presents more questions than answers. And they’re just as relevant more than half a century later.

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Listening →

Published August 17, 2024  ·  All posts on Aug 17  ·  , ,

Sit at your desk and listen.

~ Franz Kafka

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Calm companies →

Published July 23, 2024  ·  All posts on Jul 23  ·  

Calm companies provide meaningful work, healthy interactions, and flexibility for people’s lives. If your kid is home sick, you can set work aside and take care of them. If it’s a beautiful day, you can go for a run on the beach.

~ Justin Jackson, from We need more calm companies

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It was only a little over a year ago (as noted in my Calm Technology post) that first heard of calm tech.

Calm technology is designed to be unobtrusive and blend in with daily life. The opposite is technology that is distracting and disruptive, creating agitation and stress.

And of course, what would one—hopefully—build using calm tech?

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Calm →

Published June 9, 2024  ·  All posts on Jun 9  ·  ,

Calm technology. Slow thought. Peace.

We need a philosophy of Slow Thought to ease thinking into a more playful and porous dialogue about what it means to live.

~ Vincenzo Di Nicola from, Take your time: the seven pillars of a Slow Thought manifesto | Aeon Essays

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We can each do some things, and not everything. Choose wisely.

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