alt Hacker NewsSimplification of my digital self. Removed most of my online accounts. Removed all my VPS's. Removed most apps from my phone except core ones. Cancelled a lot of online subscriptions.
In the real world finally moved everything to USB-C. Gave all my old cables away. I have two chargers in my home and a handful of C to C cables. Everything connects to everything now.
Home is now downgraded to a dumb home. Lights work on physical toggles. No hubs or sensors anywhere. Heat and AC is with a dumb panel on the wall.
It feels freeing.
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Portland, OR's Free Geek is a great place to donate old parts to. Every city should have a similar resource.
For me, it’s always having website productivity blockers on all my browsers across all my various devices (and for the most part, not installing news apps on any devices either). Haven’t simplified my digital life, but at least it’s very restricted. Yeah, if even one device doesn’t have one installed, feel like am vulnerable to having hours sucked away.
And actually, still browse the web and watch YouTube, but just on my non-work days.
I have asked ChatGPT recently how to de-optimize my life. It seems I'm not the only one who wants go back to the old ways of doing things :)
> Removed all my VPS's.
Do you still host things? If so, do you host from home and how?
No mention of tube amplifiers. Fail.
I did a similar thing a few years back, but rather than simplifying, I focused on getting rid of hacky DIY things that needed maintenance.
I got rid of almost all the customized software in my life, and the few projects I decided to keep, I aggressively modernized, getting rid of thousands of lines of original code and adding many times more tests than I'd ever had before.
It very significantly improved my life and career to not have a second part time job maintaining a note taking app.