“I crack the tab open, and I feel the cold metal… I hear the tink and give of the aluminum. And maybe when I’m done, I crush it into a small patty.” — Ian Bogost on the everyday enchantment of a Diet Coke can
Don’t sweat the small stuff is one of the most persistent (and annoying) mantras of the self-help industry. But the counter-intuitive Atlantic columnist Ian Bogost advises the opposite. In his new book, The Small Stuff, Bogost suggests that gratification lies in our appreciation of small stuff like the crinkle of empty Diet Coke cans and the foldability of plane tickets.
Max Weber argued that disenchantment was the defining quality of modernity, but in The Small Stuff, Bogost maps a way back to it. What we need to get away from, he says, is “optimization” — metrics, feedback loops, money as a proxy for a place in heaven. Rather than the cult of delayed gratification, pick up that empty coke can and revel in its architectural glory. Or lick a tree. That’s how to be enchanted in postmodernity.
Five Takeaways
• Sweat the Small Stuff. The crack of a Diet Coke tab, the tink and give of the aluminum, the can crushed into a patty. Not where deep purpose lives — but it recurs daily, delivering a surprising payload of enchantment.
• Dematerialization. QR codes replaced tickets; automatic faucets replaced taps — and never work. Convenience stripped the texture from everyday life so gradually nobody noticed.
• Sensory, Not Physical — and Not Anti-Tech. The smartphone compels because it’s delightful to touch. Everything is technology, including language. He gave his twelve-year-old a smartwatch, not a ban.
• We Got Rid of God — Meaning Had to Move. Secularization emptied heaven; optimization and wealth filled the gap. What Bogost loves about his walk isn’t the step count. It’s the twigs underfoot.
• The Quietism Charge — and the AI Twist. Stoicism in the age of Trump? We are political and bodily creatures, and must be both. AI may push us back into the sensory world — he asks ChatGPT how to fix his thermostat, then fixes it with his hands.
About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
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Buy The Small Stuff: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Small-Stuff/Ian-Bogost/9781668062630
Chapters:
00:00:31 Introduction: Ian Bogost, from Play Anything to The Small Stuff
00:01:39 Not fixing the tech industry — changing ourselves
00:02:41 Enchantment, Max Weber, and disenchantment
00:03:17 A surprisingly spiritual book
00:04:26 What is the wonder of everyday life?
00:04:55 From Alien Phenomenology to the small stuff
00:07:04 Is this Heidegger for idiots?
00:08:58 Why should a Diet Coke can instill wonder?
00:11:12 Matthew Crawford and Shop Class as Soulcraft
00:11:46 It's sensory, not physical
00:14:31 Smartwatches, kids, and parents
00:15:23 Dematerialization: QR codes and automatic faucets
00:16:50 We must live in the present
00:19:40 Parents pouring their frustrations into their kids?
00:20:10 Hyper-optimized lives, obsessed with outcomes
00:22:50 The cult of delayed gratification
00:23:35 We already got rid of God — meaning had to move
00:25:41 The watch quantifies everything
00:27:28 Licking trees, birdsong, nature on the wane
00:28:06 A diverse sensory diet, not back-to-nature
00:30:23 Heidegger, quietism, and the age of Trump
00:31:17 Political creatures and bodily creatures
00:33:25 An Instagram full of hot dogs
00:34:43 Looksmaxxing and extremism about everything
00:36:08 Psychedelics, Brave New World, and the tech set
00:36:47 Kurzweil on one side, Bryan Johnson on the other
00:38:32 Preparing us for the AI age?
00:39:18 AI might push us back into the sensory world
00:40:54 Congratulations on the book