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Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology
What is the least we need to achieve the most? With this question in mind, MIT graduate Eric Brende flipped the switch on technology. He and his wife, Mary, ditched their car, electric stove, refrigerator, running water, and everything else motorized or "hooked to the grid," and spent eighteen months living in a remote community so primitive in its technology that even the Amish consider it antiquated.
Better Off is the story of their real-life experiment to see whether our cell phones, wide-screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier -- or whether life would be preferable without them. This smart, funny, and enlightening book mingles scientific analysis with the human story to demonstrate how a world free of technological excess can shrink stress -- and waistlines -- and expand happiness, health, and leisure.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Better Off is the story of their real-life experiment to see whether our cell phones, wide-screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier -- or whether life would be preferable without them. This smart, funny, and enlightening book mingles scientific analysis with the human story to demonstrate how a world free of technological excess can shrink stress -- and waistlines -- and expand happiness, health, and leisure.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
234 pages, Paperback
First published August 3, 2004
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1871 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 454 reviews
February 23, 2015
I really wanted to like this book, but it was painfully written and the author comes across as a jerk.
It's a decent premise: A man and woman decide to live off the grid for 18 months: no car, no electricity, no cell phones, and no refrigerator. Eric Brende and his new wife arranged to rent a room in an Amish-type community and adopt an agrarian lifestyle.
Generally I enjoy these kinds of project memoirs, but Brende's writing style was too florid, and he is not a good storyteller. He kept skipping around in his narrative and obsessing over minor things, to the point of irritation. He is also arrogant and condescending. At one point he yells at his wife for not having dinner ready on time, when it was mostly his fault for not making sure they had enough food on hand and not allowing her the use of a fridge. So, way to be a jackass.
I got so irritated with the narrator that I had to skim to finish this book. Based on other GR reviews, it seems like I'm not alone in my negative reaction. Whew.
NOTE
A colleague recommended this to me, saying it was his "favorite book ever," so I'm hoping he doesn't read this review. If so, sorry B.
It's a decent premise: A man and woman decide to live off the grid for 18 months: no car, no electricity, no cell phones, and no refrigerator. Eric Brende and his new wife arranged to rent a room in an Amish-type community and adopt an agrarian lifestyle.
Generally I enjoy these kinds of project memoirs, but Brende's writing style was too florid, and he is not a good storyteller. He kept skipping around in his narrative and obsessing over minor things, to the point of irritation. He is also arrogant and condescending. At one point he yells at his wife for not having dinner ready on time, when it was mostly his fault for not making sure they had enough food on hand and not allowing her the use of a fridge. So, way to be a jackass.
I got so irritated with the narrator that I had to skim to finish this book. Based on other GR reviews, it seems like I'm not alone in my negative reaction. Whew.
NOTE
A colleague recommended this to me, saying it was his "favorite book ever," so I'm hoping he doesn't read this review. If so, sorry B.
August 30, 2007
While it had an interesting premise, it didn't come close to living up to my expectations. A naive city boy decides to go "off the grid" for a year, but rather than try it on his own (a la Helen and Scott Nearing), he throws in the kitsch of moving into a community of religious folks akin to the Amish or Mennonites. He drags along some chick he knows (and marries for whatever reason) and spends 200 pages poorly documenting their experience. The style was bland and tedious, though the story could have -- should have -- been intriguing. I read the whole thing, but only because it was short and with simple enough prose that it took almost no time. I recommend The Good Life (Helen & Scott Nearing) or Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Kingsolver) it its place.
December 6, 2007
A good concept - one of those silly experiment for a year, back to nature books - that was pretty frustrating in the end. Very little about the actual work involved in living on an off-the-grid farm, and a terrible relationship with his wife where she was essentially disregarded throughout the book, made it much less good than I would like it to be. Sure, it made me more interested in living off the grid and growing my own food and not having a car - but I don't think I'd want to live in the same community as this guy.
August 2, 2009
This book fails on almost every level possible. Author Eric Brende's poorly-executed experiment in simple living results in a boring, oft-insulting, and almost non-informative record about his time in an anabaptist community.
I wanted to like this book. The premise seemed simple and charming: take a person out of the typical 20th century American lifestyle and test their ability to live and work in a quasi-Amish community. But Mr. Brende manages to dodge every opportunity to provide actual insight into that lifestyle, instead ruminating on everyday occurrences like sunsets and crickets in a manner that seems to assume the reader has never in their life been outside.
Almost never does he provide any interesting detail about even the simplest aspects of Amish life. Instead he manages to take nearly every experience and encounter and turn it into a larger-than-life lesson about how things should be, usually relying on weakly related quotes by other, more talented writers, or outright assumptions he presents as gospel. The result left me with the impression that he was a deluded, lazy, ignorant asshole who was more concerned with delusions of being treated differently because of his religion, rather than that he was a presumptuous outsider with almost no dedication to mastering the local lifestyle. But then again, who doesn't love a pompous grad student showing up and having to constantly lean on their neighbors' generosity and expertise, rather than making the effort to become at all adept at the kind of skills one needs to subsist?
Perhaps the most despicable facet of his writing is his near-total omission (to the point of disdain) of details regarding his wife's experience as a woman in such a segregated community. Brende offers a few pathetic, foundationless arguments for how egalitarian the community is, conveniently forgetting or brushing aside paltry issues like the complete lack of political or religious power afforded to female community members. His wife is given little more space in his thoughts and writing than the horse he eventually buys.
So if you want to learn about life among American anabaptists, look somewhere else. If you want several hundred pages of introspective, self-congratulatory blather about a hypocritical, boring non-experiment in technological simplification, this is the book for you.
I wanted to like this book. The premise seemed simple and charming: take a person out of the typical 20th century American lifestyle and test their ability to live and work in a quasi-Amish community. But Mr. Brende manages to dodge every opportunity to provide actual insight into that lifestyle, instead ruminating on everyday occurrences like sunsets and crickets in a manner that seems to assume the reader has never in their life been outside.
Almost never does he provide any interesting detail about even the simplest aspects of Amish life. Instead he manages to take nearly every experience and encounter and turn it into a larger-than-life lesson about how things should be, usually relying on weakly related quotes by other, more talented writers, or outright assumptions he presents as gospel. The result left me with the impression that he was a deluded, lazy, ignorant asshole who was more concerned with delusions of being treated differently because of his religion, rather than that he was a presumptuous outsider with almost no dedication to mastering the local lifestyle. But then again, who doesn't love a pompous grad student showing up and having to constantly lean on their neighbors' generosity and expertise, rather than making the effort to become at all adept at the kind of skills one needs to subsist?
Perhaps the most despicable facet of his writing is his near-total omission (to the point of disdain) of details regarding his wife's experience as a woman in such a segregated community. Brende offers a few pathetic, foundationless arguments for how egalitarian the community is, conveniently forgetting or brushing aside paltry issues like the complete lack of political or religious power afforded to female community members. His wife is given little more space in his thoughts and writing than the horse he eventually buys.
So if you want to learn about life among American anabaptists, look somewhere else. If you want several hundred pages of introspective, self-congratulatory blather about a hypocritical, boring non-experiment in technological simplification, this is the book for you.
June 11, 2007
Terrible.
I didn't finish it. The author took a potentially interesting subject and ruined it with trite, cloying, overwriting. His descriptions of his girlfriend/wife are totally ridiculous/insulting/annoying. Dude sounds like a boring jerk, the worst kind.
I didn't finish it. The author took a potentially interesting subject and ruined it with trite, cloying, overwriting. His descriptions of his girlfriend/wife are totally ridiculous/insulting/annoying. Dude sounds like a boring jerk, the worst kind.
July 16, 2011
I have recently learned that this kind of book is called "stunt nonfiction." The stunt, in this case, was author Brende and his wife living in an Amish-like community for 18 months and writing a book about it. The idea was to explore Brende's mixed feelings about technology by trying out life with little or no modern conveniences. It was all a little pat: their supportive community helped them avoid any real suffering as they learned how to live off the land, their experiences were almost entirely positive and uplifting, and their lessons learned were easily translated to their subsequent living situations. The case is made for living a lifestyle that is self sustaining as a family and a community. The end of the book describes how Brende and his family are now living in an urban environment but still easily managing to have a wonderful life financed by selling homemade soap and giving people bicycle rickshaw rides around town. I'm happy for the author that his wife was able to home birth their children with no complications, and that no one in his family needed medical care more expensive than he could barter for with molasses or produce. But I am not impressed that the neo-Luddite lifestyle is really a responsible way to raise a family. I do take from this book a reminder that life with less technology may be a richer and happier one. But I'm not ready to quit my job and start trying to pay the bills through my creativity and/or physical labor.
August 2, 2015
I'm not sure how this book is so split between excellent reviews and poor ones.
The negative reviews often describe the author as arrogant and narcissistic; he's certainly introspective, as is appropriate in a memoir (I wonder what these same reviewers would say about Thoreau), but I don't see the arrogance. The author doesn't shy away from negative depictions of himself. Compared to his new Amish-style neighbors, he's weak, ignorant, and incompetent in his new lifestyle, but he seems to realize this.
He doesn't say explicitly, "I was an idiot", or "I'm full of regret about that." One wonders whether the other reviewers are products of a laugh-track culture that can't figure out for themselves what's supposed to be funny or self-deprecating. For example, one tongue-in-cheek remark occurred when the author and his wife were having their first child and they went to a local store to buy baby supplies. The cash register rang up over $100, a large sum in their circumstances. He says, "Mary [his wife] looked at me. I looked at Mary. Didn't she know that the baby items were the mother's responsibility? 'Can't you use your credit card?' I asked." Do these reviewers actually think that he made his wife put it on their credit card, because it's the "mother's responsibility"? If that were really the case, he wouldn't think it was worth talking about. It's a joke, people, about them not having money. Perhaps a poor joke, but I'd hate to live in a world where every joke has to be explained in great detail, lest it offend.
That said, I would have liked to hear more of Mary's perspective, of what it like being a woman in Amish country. The author does seem oddly incurious about this, as well as silent on what had originally attracted him to Mary. I can't help but compare this book to another experimental memoir which I really enjoyed, The Dirty Life, in which a journalist from New York City marries a relatively new farmer and they start a CSA farm together from scratch. There, the romance between the two and their joint efforts on the farm get much more emotional attention, and poetic nature of that book seems more fitting.
Still, there were some really interesting points made about the roles of men and women. Brende said at one point, "The word house-husband is redundant. Of course! This startling thought came to me as I reached for the hand pump. The 'hus-' from 'husband' is simply the Old English form of the word 'house,' while 'band' means 'bound.' The man who stays at home to work is returning to a long-forgotten calling preserved in the language like a fossil. There is no linguistic need to add the extra 'house.' "
All in all, it's definitely worth reading, but I would suggest reading The Dirty Life and The Unsettling of America before this one.
The negative reviews often describe the author as arrogant and narcissistic; he's certainly introspective, as is appropriate in a memoir (I wonder what these same reviewers would say about Thoreau), but I don't see the arrogance. The author doesn't shy away from negative depictions of himself. Compared to his new Amish-style neighbors, he's weak, ignorant, and incompetent in his new lifestyle, but he seems to realize this.
He doesn't say explicitly, "I was an idiot", or "I'm full of regret about that." One wonders whether the other reviewers are products of a laugh-track culture that can't figure out for themselves what's supposed to be funny or self-deprecating. For example, one tongue-in-cheek remark occurred when the author and his wife were having their first child and they went to a local store to buy baby supplies. The cash register rang up over $100, a large sum in their circumstances. He says, "Mary [his wife] looked at me. I looked at Mary. Didn't she know that the baby items were the mother's responsibility? 'Can't you use your credit card?' I asked." Do these reviewers actually think that he made his wife put it on their credit card, because it's the "mother's responsibility"? If that were really the case, he wouldn't think it was worth talking about. It's a joke, people, about them not having money. Perhaps a poor joke, but I'd hate to live in a world where every joke has to be explained in great detail, lest it offend.
That said, I would have liked to hear more of Mary's perspective, of what it like being a woman in Amish country. The author does seem oddly incurious about this, as well as silent on what had originally attracted him to Mary. I can't help but compare this book to another experimental memoir which I really enjoyed, The Dirty Life, in which a journalist from New York City marries a relatively new farmer and they start a CSA farm together from scratch. There, the romance between the two and their joint efforts on the farm get much more emotional attention, and poetic nature of that book seems more fitting.
Still, there were some really interesting points made about the roles of men and women. Brende said at one point, "The word house-husband is redundant. Of course! This startling thought came to me as I reached for the hand pump. The 'hus-' from 'husband' is simply the Old English form of the word 'house,' while 'band' means 'bound.' The man who stays at home to work is returning to a long-forgotten calling preserved in the language like a fossil. There is no linguistic need to add the extra 'house.' "
All in all, it's definitely worth reading, but I would suggest reading The Dirty Life and The Unsettling of America before this one.
October 23, 2009
Man, this guy is an insufferable prick! That would be my first impression of this book. The second would be that it is false advertising. Just from the cover blurbs, and the description on the back, I was expecting some kind of scientific study that showed how to live on zero net watts, meaning they used some kind of alternative energy source to offset electricity use or something. As a scientist, this kind of thing would have interested me. However, this is not what the book was about. And in fact, I don't think he even mentioned the word "watt" anywhere in the text. And to be completely fair, he didn't truly have zero net wattage, because he cheated occasionally and drove a car.
Before I let the ranting get away from me, here is what the book actually WAS: about one-half was a story on how this guy and his wife (more on her later) lived with an Amish sub-sect as an experiment for 18 months, which actually contained interesting tidbits on how they managed daily tasks and earned a living by being farmers and not using any electricity or fuel-driven motors (except, of course, the car). This half of the book is what earned it its two stars. The other half was fruity, obnoxious philosophizing about Amish culture and religion. NOT what I had signed on for. This is an actual line from the book: "From the ruptured chrysalis of our former habits a new butterfly was emerging." This nearly made me barf in public. True, the author was a graduate student of technological philosophy, and not an English student, so he probably did not know any better than to use such nauseatingly cliched metaphors. Anyway, I accept that it was necessary to discuss how vital the Amish work ethic and community are to an endeavor such as this; in fact, it would be nearly impossible to live such a lifestyle without many like-minded neighbors. However, this probably could have been discussed in A chapter, not half of them. What on Earth made him think it would be a good idea to devote an entire chapter to a 3.5-hour long church service that was so boring in real life that it put all its attendees to sleep?
Also irritating is the author's personality. He is full of himself. I especially love when he attends a conference on Amish issues, raises his hand to contradict the speakers that Amish communities actually ARE feminist because they hold so many womanly values (peace, quiet, etc.), and then proceeds to leave his own wife almost completely out of the story. When he does mention her, it's in an almost insulting manner, or to insert some ridiculously coy and poetic passage about them performing their matrimonial duties. Dude, you guys were having sex. You don't need to beat around the bush with mystical descriptions of a pumpkin patch at night. We get it.
In summary: You may want to read this for the interesting ideas on how to live more simply, but I give you full permission to skip the philosophical chapters. And you probably don't want to read this for a book club focusing on women's issues, unless you're in the mood for a good man-bashing.
Before I let the ranting get away from me, here is what the book actually WAS: about one-half was a story on how this guy and his wife (more on her later) lived with an Amish sub-sect as an experiment for 18 months, which actually contained interesting tidbits on how they managed daily tasks and earned a living by being farmers and not using any electricity or fuel-driven motors (except, of course, the car). This half of the book is what earned it its two stars. The other half was fruity, obnoxious philosophizing about Amish culture and religion. NOT what I had signed on for. This is an actual line from the book: "From the ruptured chrysalis of our former habits a new butterfly was emerging." This nearly made me barf in public. True, the author was a graduate student of technological philosophy, and not an English student, so he probably did not know any better than to use such nauseatingly cliched metaphors. Anyway, I accept that it was necessary to discuss how vital the Amish work ethic and community are to an endeavor such as this; in fact, it would be nearly impossible to live such a lifestyle without many like-minded neighbors. However, this probably could have been discussed in A chapter, not half of them. What on Earth made him think it would be a good idea to devote an entire chapter to a 3.5-hour long church service that was so boring in real life that it put all its attendees to sleep?
Also irritating is the author's personality. He is full of himself. I especially love when he attends a conference on Amish issues, raises his hand to contradict the speakers that Amish communities actually ARE feminist because they hold so many womanly values (peace, quiet, etc.), and then proceeds to leave his own wife almost completely out of the story. When he does mention her, it's in an almost insulting manner, or to insert some ridiculously coy and poetic passage about them performing their matrimonial duties. Dude, you guys were having sex. You don't need to beat around the bush with mystical descriptions of a pumpkin patch at night. We get it.
In summary: You may want to read this for the interesting ideas on how to live more simply, but I give you full permission to skip the philosophical chapters. And you probably don't want to read this for a book club focusing on women's issues, unless you're in the mood for a good man-bashing.
May 20, 2011
I'm an easy audience to please when it comes to 'this is what I did for one year' accounts. I love reading about these forays into completely different worlds and how the author was affected. Heck, someone could write a book about "a year of living off tag sales" and I'd pick it up. So, given that I'm a target audience for this book, I came out of it questioning the author more than enjoying his journey from the MIT campus into an Amish-like existence. (He never names the community he joins 'out of privacy')
I thought this would be an interesting account of how an MIT grad and his wife decided to 'live off the land' with as little modern conveniences as possible. Instead, I have no idea how these two remained married given his odd treatment and depiction of his wife--or lack thereof. She basically remains a card board cut out of a person whereas the author has soliloquies,adventures, grandiose observations and comes off as one of the most narcissistic people I've come across in recent memory. Granted, some of his exploits amused me greatly but at his expense. (As someone who has been on the front lines of haying season, for instance, watching Brende attempt to remain conscious was a somewhat guilty pleasure for me.) All in all, it was a disappointment but a quick read with some amusing escapades so no great loss. I'd love to hear his wife's version of this year.
I thought this would be an interesting account of how an MIT grad and his wife decided to 'live off the land' with as little modern conveniences as possible. Instead, I have no idea how these two remained married given his odd treatment and depiction of his wife--or lack thereof. She basically remains a card board cut out of a person whereas the author has soliloquies,adventures, grandiose observations and comes off as one of the most narcissistic people I've come across in recent memory. Granted, some of his exploits amused me greatly but at his expense. (As someone who has been on the front lines of haying season, for instance, watching Brende attempt to remain conscious was a somewhat guilty pleasure for me.) All in all, it was a disappointment but a quick read with some amusing escapades so no great loss. I'd love to hear his wife's version of this year.
March 3, 2013
The author, a graduate of Yale and MIT, moved with his newlywed wife to an Amish-like community (that he calls “Minimites”) and lived for eighteen months with no electricity or running water. They plowed their field and grew and sold crops, helped the Minimites (but much less than they got help from the community, of course), and learned about themselves.
Brende has written a fairly interesting book about the experience. As Jon Krakauer said in a blurb, he certainly does not come off as a “sanctimonious scold,” which would be boring. Instead, he quietly asks a series of questions about how we use technology and how technology takes from us (in terms of time, money and social skills). He argues that technology is a not a tool, but a sort of organism, because it grows and uses fuel, and therefore we should be wary that it can be a drain on us, or worse, a competition with human endeavor. I liked Brende’s conclusions on labor, on how in its pure state it frees the mind and shapes the body and promotes socialization; in fact, the work was less strenuous than he’d feared it would be, and they had what he calls a lot of leisure time. It’s certainly an interesting line of thought, and Brende lives it, because despite his education he works as a buggy driver and soap maker.
Brende has written a fairly interesting book about the experience. As Jon Krakauer said in a blurb, he certainly does not come off as a “sanctimonious scold,” which would be boring. Instead, he quietly asks a series of questions about how we use technology and how technology takes from us (in terms of time, money and social skills). He argues that technology is a not a tool, but a sort of organism, because it grows and uses fuel, and therefore we should be wary that it can be a drain on us, or worse, a competition with human endeavor. I liked Brende’s conclusions on labor, on how in its pure state it frees the mind and shapes the body and promotes socialization; in fact, the work was less strenuous than he’d feared it would be, and they had what he calls a lot of leisure time. It’s certainly an interesting line of thought, and Brende lives it, because despite his education he works as a buggy driver and soap maker.
May 13, 2010
Better Off is as close to a contemporary 'Walden' as I've come across. And it's author, Eric Brende, is the real deal. This Yale, Washburn, and MIT grad is an expert on the interaction of society and technology. As part of his graduate research, he (and his new bride) takes a sabbatical to live among and study the lifestyle of an Old Order Anabaptist community that limits their use of technology. What he discovers there is told with excellent, evocative writing. With themes like the value of work, living close to nature, community ties, gender roles, and even religion, Brende's analysis is comprehensive and engaging.
The recent glut of project-based wanna-be Waldens on the market has clouded the field with inferior books, but Brende's book (along with Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) stands out. Brende is an expert in his field, the book is well-written and engaging, and the author's thesis (that moderating the use of some types of technology in our lives will enrich them) is calm and reasoned.
The recent glut of project-based wanna-be Waldens on the market has clouded the field with inferior books, but Brende's book (along with Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) stands out. Brende is an expert in his field, the book is well-written and engaging, and the author's thesis (that moderating the use of some types of technology in our lives will enrich them) is calm and reasoned.
September 23, 2012
To be fair and give full disclosure, I didn't finish reading this book. As I was reading it, I supposed there might have been a few things of worth to pull out of it, but I was so overwhelmed by how arrogant it was that I was done with it long before the book was over.
Eric Brende struck me as having such a 'me first' attitude that he didn't even write about other people like they were real. He was the only person who was described as having serious or complex thoughts and everyone else was described as a concept or even a 'thing' or fictional creature of some kind. I suppose his intent could have been that he was just trying to be poetic, but it comes off as his unintentionally demonstrating that that's all he actually thinks of people.
Take how he talks about his wife. It's all about her body, her shape, how she stays slender, how she moves. She's whittled down to an ethereal object of visual delight for him to ponder over. It's gross and degrading and he did about the same to every other "character" in"The Eric Brende Is Great Show" "Better Off"- at least until I felt so frustrated and offended on behalf of the dignified people he was writing about as accessories to HIS experience that I closed the book and returned it.
Basically, if I have to read one more "inspirational" book about changing your life where middle class or wealthy white Americans go to (insert name of country where people have dark skin here) and then talk about how inspirational the 'simple joys' of the 'beautiful native people' are, I'm going to puke. Brende may not have gone to Africa, but as far as the first quarter of the book that I got, he was sure exoticizing the Amish as a means to remind all of us readers how amazing and inspirational and intelligent he is.
Whatever, dude.
Eric Brende struck me as having such a 'me first' attitude that he didn't even write about other people like they were real. He was the only person who was described as having serious or complex thoughts and everyone else was described as a concept or even a 'thing' or fictional creature of some kind. I suppose his intent could have been that he was just trying to be poetic, but it comes off as his unintentionally demonstrating that that's all he actually thinks of people.
Take how he talks about his wife. It's all about her body, her shape, how she stays slender, how she moves. She's whittled down to an ethereal object of visual delight for him to ponder over. It's gross and degrading and he did about the same to every other "character" in
Basically, if I have to read one more "inspirational" book about changing your life where middle class or wealthy white Americans go to (insert name of country where people have dark skin here) and then talk about how inspirational the 'simple joys' of the 'beautiful native people' are, I'm going to puke. Brende may not have gone to Africa, but as far as the first quarter of the book that I got, he was sure exoticizing the Amish as a means to remind all of us readers how amazing and inspirational and intelligent he is.
Whatever, dude.
December 1, 2020
The starting point for this book was Eric Brende's desire to actively question a lot of things that most of us in modern America take for granted as "the way things are," particularly with regard to technology. Very much along the lines of Neil Postman in Technopoly and elsewhere, Brende recognized the unthinking acceptance of "technological progress" as a process in which as much is lost as is gained. His questions about technology led him, as he neared the end of graduate studies at M.I.T. to take a break from school--and from electricity--for 18 months, to take a critical look through its absence at the effects of technology on our lives and consider how much technology is "enough" for a good life. To this end, Brende and his new wife went and lived among a mixed community of Amish, Mennonites, and fellow transplants from the modern world. These were largely Amish and Mennonites who thought that their own communities were moving too far from their traditional values, if that tells you anything. While there, the couple worked to make a living just as the other members of this motor-and-electricity-abstinent group did, raising their own food plus some cash crops to make their living. His book explores some of the skills he had to learn, the people he met, and the communal and religious life they shared (Brende and his wife attended some services, even though they are Catholic, while the community as a whole was some form of Anabaptists--a group much persecuted by the Catholics, and other Protestants, once upon a time).
What he found--and to be fair, this seemed to be what he expected to find--was that the technology we take for granted often takes from us as much as it gives to us. Much of our technology serves to insulate--and even isolate--us from the people around us, and our time-saving devices often don't save us that much time when you factor in everything else, including the lifestyle that's necessary to purchase and maintain these things. As he and his wife got into the rhythm of this simpler life, they found that they had more free time, closer interactions with each other and with their community, better health, and overall a higher quality of life. In the course of everyday life, they get the exercise that we go to the gym to get. One of the community's most common sayings--and no doubt an important one because of the lack of technology--was "many hands make light work." As a consequence, members of the community were constantly coming together to share labor and consequently form stronger bonds amongst themselves. Did you catch it the first time when I said "more free time"? As counter-intuitive as it might seem to us, their agrarian, low-tech lifestyle meant, for them, more free time, not less.
All of this said, I am rather more preachy about all of this than Eric Brende is. He's not trying to knock us all over the head with the Luddite stick. In fact, he currently lives in St. Louis. The experiences that formed this book were an experiment, from which he learned a good deal that he and his wife carried forward into their lives back in the modern world. Although it might do many of us some good, it's probably fair to say that Brende lived the life and wrote the book so that we don't have to--we can inspect his account and take from it what we can. I think, in fact, that we could all take a good deal from it.
What he found--and to be fair, this seemed to be what he expected to find--was that the technology we take for granted often takes from us as much as it gives to us. Much of our technology serves to insulate--and even isolate--us from the people around us, and our time-saving devices often don't save us that much time when you factor in everything else, including the lifestyle that's necessary to purchase and maintain these things. As he and his wife got into the rhythm of this simpler life, they found that they had more free time, closer interactions with each other and with their community, better health, and overall a higher quality of life. In the course of everyday life, they get the exercise that we go to the gym to get. One of the community's most common sayings--and no doubt an important one because of the lack of technology--was "many hands make light work." As a consequence, members of the community were constantly coming together to share labor and consequently form stronger bonds amongst themselves. Did you catch it the first time when I said "more free time"? As counter-intuitive as it might seem to us, their agrarian, low-tech lifestyle meant, for them, more free time, not less.
All of this said, I am rather more preachy about all of this than Eric Brende is. He's not trying to knock us all over the head with the Luddite stick. In fact, he currently lives in St. Louis. The experiences that formed this book were an experiment, from which he learned a good deal that he and his wife carried forward into their lives back in the modern world. Although it might do many of us some good, it's probably fair to say that Brende lived the life and wrote the book so that we don't have to--we can inspect his account and take from it what we can. I think, in fact, that we could all take a good deal from it.
August 1, 2008
Brende raises some interesting points about the nature of work and community and how technology can take away our time rather than contributing to it. Overall though, I was disappointed. I had hoped the book would be more of a reflection about the thoughtful incorporation of technology into our lives (which he does get into in the last two chapters). Instead, Brende seems unquestioningly in favor of the "Minimites"'s philosophy and the refusal to use automated machinery. I wish he had been more evenhanded about the pros and cons of living such a low-tech life.
Brende and his wife seem to have divided work among traditional gender lines. This gives him insight and access to the perspective of male community members, but not female. It would have made a much, much stronger book if they had alternated writing chapters. In many ways, hers is the more interesting story. How did going from being a Boston accountant to an Amish housewife affect her sense of self? How did she feel about having her first baby not only far away from her family, but giving birth with no electricity, running water, telephone, or doctor present? What were relationships among female community members like? If you're going to live in a community with such divided gender roles, only presenting the male perspective means you only get half of the picture.
Brende and his wife seem to have divided work among traditional gender lines. This gives him insight and access to the perspective of male community members, but not female. It would have made a much, much stronger book if they had alternated writing chapters. In many ways, hers is the more interesting story. How did going from being a Boston accountant to an Amish housewife affect her sense of self? How did she feel about having her first baby not only far away from her family, but giving birth with no electricity, running water, telephone, or doctor present? What were relationships among female community members like? If you're going to live in a community with such divided gender roles, only presenting the male perspective means you only get half of the picture.
November 22, 2010
I am a fan of this new "a year in the life" movement among memoirs. I get to satisfy my voyeur-like tendencies without having to leave home.
In "Better Off," the author and his wife leave technology and the city behind and live in a Menonnite community for 18 months. I must say, I enjoyed the first half of this book much more than the end. Eric Brende's journey to live with an Amish like group and his trials and discoveries are enjoyable at first. The changes in his life style and the consequences of living without many modern conveniences are fascinating. Quickly, however, the author's story telling turned from his personal experiences to recording the values, politics, and beliefs of the families surrounding him. Then I found his long soliloquies discussing religion and child rearing a bit hard to swallow. I wish this book contained more actual day to day living without technology than the author's hodge-podge philosophy. So many questions were left unanswered. Did they have enough to eat in the winter? How were many household chores accomplished? What was the hardest technology to live without? What was the easiest? These were all things I wanted to know and didn't get to find out.
I'll give it 3 stars because of the concept and the beginning, but it probably averages out to 2 and 2/3rds stars.
In "Better Off," the author and his wife leave technology and the city behind and live in a Menonnite community for 18 months. I must say, I enjoyed the first half of this book much more than the end. Eric Brende's journey to live with an Amish like group and his trials and discoveries are enjoyable at first. The changes in his life style and the consequences of living without many modern conveniences are fascinating. Quickly, however, the author's story telling turned from his personal experiences to recording the values, politics, and beliefs of the families surrounding him. Then I found his long soliloquies discussing religion and child rearing a bit hard to swallow. I wish this book contained more actual day to day living without technology than the author's hodge-podge philosophy. So many questions were left unanswered. Did they have enough to eat in the winter? How were many household chores accomplished? What was the hardest technology to live without? What was the easiest? These were all things I wanted to know and didn't get to find out.
I'll give it 3 stars because of the concept and the beginning, but it probably averages out to 2 and 2/3rds stars.
September 15, 2009
This could have been a really interesting memoir about living off the grid with an Amish-ish community, but the narrator was so smug and self-satisfied that it left me with a really bad taste in my mouth. I don't expect these kinds of books to tiptoe around the readers' feelings for fear of making them feel guilty about their own very-on-the-grid lives. But Brende could barely get a chapter out without congratulating himself for the lessons he was teaching us. And now he's a richshaw driver in St. Louis or something equally absurd and twee. I MEAN SERIOUSLY. (Edited to add that his lame observations about how tiny and precious and slender and adorable his wife was made me want to barf, especially when it turns out that they drop her health insurance just in time for her to get knocked up. Feminism fail.)
December 4, 2023
Andy and I met the author of this book attending St Francis Oratory two months ago and then became good friends, joining each other on our travels for the next week and a half across the Midwest!
At the initial impression, I thought Eric was basically the older version of Andy, but reading his book shows me how much the three of us really have in common, at least through shared, valued experience. It's a very sweet story of a young couple living outside the norm for a year, and learning a lot in the process! Why don't more young couples do this? I know Andy and I will! It's literally the best time of life when you have few responsibilities and debts and restraints. And it could positively impact the rest of your life!
At the initial impression, I thought Eric was basically the older version of Andy, but reading his book shows me how much the three of us really have in common, at least through shared, valued experience. It's a very sweet story of a young couple living outside the norm for a year, and learning a lot in the process! Why don't more young couples do this? I know Andy and I will! It's literally the best time of life when you have few responsibilities and debts and restraints. And it could positively impact the rest of your life!
July 1, 2007
5/18/07- Purchased during a book bender at Powell's a few weeks back. Oddly enough, my profession is in information technology (although I'm more interested in the information side than the technology side when it comes to improving business performance.)
Looking forward to the read.
A review will follow...
6/30/07: I would recommend this book to anyone interested in contemplating their use of (addiction to?) modern "conveniences" and the personal, emotional, spiritual, physical and environmental effects there of. I imagine that the Amish (whom the author spent some 18 months living among) have no real concept of "time flying by", and that's a good thing. The "slow" movement, still in its nascent stage, is gaining speed (yes, pun intended).
The author makes the case that we would be better off without technology. Can't say, after reading this book, that I can toss out any cogent arguments against his assertion. Sure, there may be a few cases where the use of technology have been beneficial to humankind (life-saving devices, for example).
Frankly, I can boil it down to this passage:
"Modern technology, I suspect, far from being neutral in its effects, has more than one purpose or built-in tendency: besides reducing the need for physical effort (a kind of material surrender), it helps us avoid the need for cooperation or social flexibility (a kind of social or metaphysical surrender). All too readily it countermands the uncertainty that goes with Gelassenheit [self-surrender]. Cars, telephones, message machines, caller ID, and email grant us unprecedented powers to associate with whom we want, when we want, to the degree we want, under the terms we want, finessing and filtering out those we don't want - and thin out the possibilities of social growth accordingly."
Looking forward to the read.
A review will follow...
6/30/07: I would recommend this book to anyone interested in contemplating their use of (addiction to?) modern "conveniences" and the personal, emotional, spiritual, physical and environmental effects there of. I imagine that the Amish (whom the author spent some 18 months living among) have no real concept of "time flying by", and that's a good thing. The "slow" movement, still in its nascent stage, is gaining speed (yes, pun intended).
The author makes the case that we would be better off without technology. Can't say, after reading this book, that I can toss out any cogent arguments against his assertion. Sure, there may be a few cases where the use of technology have been beneficial to humankind (life-saving devices, for example).
Frankly, I can boil it down to this passage:
"Modern technology, I suspect, far from being neutral in its effects, has more than one purpose or built-in tendency: besides reducing the need for physical effort (a kind of material surrender), it helps us avoid the need for cooperation or social flexibility (a kind of social or metaphysical surrender). All too readily it countermands the uncertainty that goes with Gelassenheit [self-surrender]. Cars, telephones, message machines, caller ID, and email grant us unprecedented powers to associate with whom we want, when we want, to the degree we want, under the terms we want, finessing and filtering out those we don't want - and thin out the possibilities of social growth accordingly."
September 8, 2008
When did 3 paragraphs of "what I did on my summer vacation" turn into a genre of "goofy stuff I did for a year"? Mix a year (or 18 months) of finding one self and a word processor gets a autobiographical / self help / travelogues all in one. I'll admit, I usually mop it up and this was no exception. Take Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. A lovely, in depth, well written exploration of a year creating new life patterns. In general, the substance Better Off was addressed living off the grid in a Anabaptist community in a fluffy, more cursory manner than I would have hoped. So much more could have been explored, not the least of which was the utterly absent voice of the author's wife. I found myself really hoping the next chapter would offer the wife's perspective on their 18 month social experiment. The historical context was cursory. But viewing the story more personally, as a travelogue and the author's personal coming of age story, I found the writing compelling and the topic thought provoking. What would our lives look like without internet and cell phones, refrigeration and modern laundry facilities, alarm clocks and fast food?
February 22, 2008
Billed as a story of a couple who "flipped the switch" on technology and moved to an Amish community, giving up electricity, running water, and everything else that comes along with it. This book is an interesting look into the Mennonite community and, without question, caused me to stop and think about my day-to-day consumption of technology.
It is, however, predominately from the perspective of a man, with little mention of his wife's experience. I really would like to have heard more about Mary's thoughts and impacts over the 18 months.
I often think of such experiments like this, and it was inspiring to read about someone who actually went through with it. It has really caused me to think about giving up a "technology" for a period of time. Although people already look at me funny when I tell them i don't have cable.
It is, however, predominately from the perspective of a man, with little mention of his wife's experience. I really would like to have heard more about Mary's thoughts and impacts over the 18 months.
I often think of such experiments like this, and it was inspiring to read about someone who actually went through with it. It has really caused me to think about giving up a "technology" for a period of time. Although people already look at me funny when I tell them i don't have cable.
December 31, 2014
I didn't object to the premise of this book. There's a lot of interesting things to be explored about the impact of technology on our society, our health, our sense of community, the environment, etc. Unfortunately, this book doesn't really explore anything.
You know it's going to be a doozy from the first chapter, when Brende describes the gift of passion he brings to the soulless faculty of MIT by playing a disused piano in one of the buildings. I hate to break it to you, Brende, but there might already be an accomplished musician or two within that building. It's chapter 1, and he has already discounted everything about technology- that it doesn't just save us time and effort (an idea he seeks to refute), but that it makes us cold machines with no community. At no point does he consider the actual benefits of technology- such as the ability of the internet to give people a sense of community, to help us keep in touch with those we love, to access information that can help us navigate the world. By blithely assuming this can all be done better with old-fashioned community via horse and conversations over hoeing, he narrows his world view to a ridiculous pinhole and then extrapolates about life in general.
Still, interesting things could have come from this experiment, even if entered with preconceived notions of the downsides of technology. If they did, he didn't write about them in this book. They lose weight, but what about the lack of health care and the injuries one can get from heavy lifting, repetitive motions required in farming, etc? What happens to people in this community when they get old? I get the feeling he's so dedicated to painting a rosy picture of this technology-free life that he can't tell us about the drawbacks.
The gender issue is an extremely serious omission in this book. His wife, described as a pretty little cardboard cutout, doesn't want to spend all her time in the kitchen. Or doesn't want to be *expected* to, or something. So he doesn't expect her to, so she's happy doing it anyway, except that later on he yells at her for not having dinner on the table for him. It's very confusing. He doesn't really describe what she does except when she's helping him, so it's unclear how much work is actually put onto her adorable but oh-so-competent shoulders. We get a picture of men's work in this Amish break-off group, but traditional farming communities mean LOTS of work for women, and lots of it unpleasant. This is all glossed over, and I'm not sure if he left it out (as a necessity for painting a really lovely rural portrait) or if he never even considered it.
We are also given a picture of a neighbor's marriage, which is clearly unhappy, with a husband who belittles his wife, treats her condescendingly, and intentionally makes more work for her. But hey, divorce rates are zero in the community, so that's a plus! You can stay unhappily married because of your religion! Women are given no vote in how the community is run, relegated to traditionally female chores, but Brende points out that that's okay, because when men help in the kitchen women get to tell the men what to do. It's very frustrating.
This book contains only a description of life in the community, and no real discussion of positives and negatives of the use of technology, or how to incorporate less technology into a real life. He also completely discounts the idea that some of might truly hate the things required for a life without technology, and truly love our high-technology jobs- we're not all soulless machines working in offices and overweight and unhappy with our lives. I'd rather work my 9-5 office job in environmental regulation, make a real difference in how things are done in the world, and NEVER have to can vegetables over a wood stove. That's a great trade off for me! To each their own, but by lumping it all together, Brende never considers the complexity of what "technology" means.
This project was part of his masters degree from MIT. I hope his thesis was more rigorous than this book- if not, maybe I should have gone to MIT for my graduate work, because there's nothing rigorous, academic, or even very interesting about this book and it probably would have been a lot easier than my actual thesis work. Brende sounds like an idealistic 20-something hipster- I dated a couple of those guys when I was that age, and reading this book gives me a vision of what my life could have been like if I had stayed with them- boy did I dodge a bullet there! At least I grew up, and I'm glad to be living my more nuanced life.
You know it's going to be a doozy from the first chapter, when Brende describes the gift of passion he brings to the soulless faculty of MIT by playing a disused piano in one of the buildings. I hate to break it to you, Brende, but there might already be an accomplished musician or two within that building. It's chapter 1, and he has already discounted everything about technology- that it doesn't just save us time and effort (an idea he seeks to refute), but that it makes us cold machines with no community. At no point does he consider the actual benefits of technology- such as the ability of the internet to give people a sense of community, to help us keep in touch with those we love, to access information that can help us navigate the world. By blithely assuming this can all be done better with old-fashioned community via horse and conversations over hoeing, he narrows his world view to a ridiculous pinhole and then extrapolates about life in general.
Still, interesting things could have come from this experiment, even if entered with preconceived notions of the downsides of technology. If they did, he didn't write about them in this book. They lose weight, but what about the lack of health care and the injuries one can get from heavy lifting, repetitive motions required in farming, etc? What happens to people in this community when they get old? I get the feeling he's so dedicated to painting a rosy picture of this technology-free life that he can't tell us about the drawbacks.
The gender issue is an extremely serious omission in this book. His wife, described as a pretty little cardboard cutout, doesn't want to spend all her time in the kitchen. Or doesn't want to be *expected* to, or something. So he doesn't expect her to, so she's happy doing it anyway, except that later on he yells at her for not having dinner on the table for him. It's very confusing. He doesn't really describe what she does except when she's helping him, so it's unclear how much work is actually put onto her adorable but oh-so-competent shoulders. We get a picture of men's work in this Amish break-off group, but traditional farming communities mean LOTS of work for women, and lots of it unpleasant. This is all glossed over, and I'm not sure if he left it out (as a necessity for painting a really lovely rural portrait) or if he never even considered it.
We are also given a picture of a neighbor's marriage, which is clearly unhappy, with a husband who belittles his wife, treats her condescendingly, and intentionally makes more work for her. But hey, divorce rates are zero in the community, so that's a plus! You can stay unhappily married because of your religion! Women are given no vote in how the community is run, relegated to traditionally female chores, but Brende points out that that's okay, because when men help in the kitchen women get to tell the men what to do. It's very frustrating.
This book contains only a description of life in the community, and no real discussion of positives and negatives of the use of technology, or how to incorporate less technology into a real life. He also completely discounts the idea that some of might truly hate the things required for a life without technology, and truly love our high-technology jobs- we're not all soulless machines working in offices and overweight and unhappy with our lives. I'd rather work my 9-5 office job in environmental regulation, make a real difference in how things are done in the world, and NEVER have to can vegetables over a wood stove. That's a great trade off for me! To each their own, but by lumping it all together, Brende never considers the complexity of what "technology" means.
This project was part of his masters degree from MIT. I hope his thesis was more rigorous than this book- if not, maybe I should have gone to MIT for my graduate work, because there's nothing rigorous, academic, or even very interesting about this book and it probably would have been a lot easier than my actual thesis work. Brende sounds like an idealistic 20-something hipster- I dated a couple of those guys when I was that age, and reading this book gives me a vision of what my life could have been like if I had stayed with them- boy did I dodge a bullet there! At least I grew up, and I'm glad to be living my more nuanced life.
October 14, 2024
loved this & now i wanna throw it all away and live in the middle of nowhere with some pals
February 21, 2011
I am choosing a more & more sustainable, less consumerist life, so books like this interest me a lot. I am discovering that systems for doing necessary tasks sustainably in an urban techno world are often what's lacking -- and then each person/family has to re-invent the wheel in their own home. That was the big attraction for me in reading Better Off. Eric and Mary are joining a community that already has many of these systems figured out. Too much milk from your cow? Get a pig. Canning, cooling the house, heating, building, lack of insurance, seasonality, responding to the many factors of the environment... I found much here that interested me.
I appreciated Brende's focus on the centrality of community for making it all work and exposing the lie of self-sufficiency. (I think self-sufficiency is just another iteration of American Individualism.) The self along is not sufficient. Without the ties, help, education, check and balance of the community surrounding them, their experiment would have failed miserably.
Like many others, I was disappointed that Brende didn't address gender roles more. This was a serious lack in the book -- perhaps the men took many breaks during the farming day, but did the women? I am reminded of the Housewife's Lament:
"It's sweeping at six and it's dusting at seven
It's victuals at eight and it's dishes at nine
It's potting and panning from ten to eleven
We scarce break our fast till we plan how to dine"
I found the best part of the book (addressed by the way much more deeply in Jerry Mander's book In the Absence of the Sacred) is Brende's daring to question and evaluate technology. In our culture this is the gravest of transgressions -- we are always presented with technology in strictly the most positive possible light (never any drawbacks or costs), not to mention as an natural result of"progress," which is unavoidable, inevitable, and A Given.
I appreciated Brende's focus on the centrality of community for making it all work and exposing the lie of self-sufficiency. (I think self-sufficiency is just another iteration of American Individualism.) The self along is not sufficient. Without the ties, help, education, check and balance of the community surrounding them, their experiment would have failed miserably.
Like many others, I was disappointed that Brende didn't address gender roles more. This was a serious lack in the book -- perhaps the men took many breaks during the farming day, but did the women? I am reminded of the Housewife's Lament:
"It's sweeping at six and it's dusting at seven
It's victuals at eight and it's dishes at nine
It's potting and panning from ten to eleven
We scarce break our fast till we plan how to dine"
I found the best part of the book (addressed by the way much more deeply in Jerry Mander's book In the Absence of the Sacred) is Brende's daring to question and evaluate technology. In our culture this is the gravest of transgressions -- we are always presented with technology in strictly the most positive possible light (never any drawbacks or costs), not to mention as an natural result of"progress," which is unavoidable, inevitable, and A Given.
June 2, 2015
(b>Can I rate this book 0 stars? I guess not...
Better Off is a book about a man who lives for 18 months without technology. Let me just say this: if I was not forced to read this book for school, I would have been very happy knowing this terrible book did not exist.
Characters:
The characters of this book can be classified into two types: boring and whiny or pretentious and preachy. Eric Brende is one of the most reprehensible authors to every exist. On almost every page, he is either scolding you for using technology or explaining Amish life in the most stuffy, boring way with unnecessarily big words.
Plot:
Boring. Boring, boring, boring. This is the only over-300 page book where nothing remotely exciting happens. Only read this book if you are low on sleeping aids.
Pacing:
This book was so slow. This could have been a ten page essay on why you should not use technology, not a slow, boring book about a guy and his wife living in an Amish community.
Artwork:
There are two illustrations in this book: the front cover and a drawing of an Amish man building a house.The cover photo looks like a stock photo, and the drawing inside could have been drawn by my eight year old cousin.
Best Parts:
When this book was over.
Worst Parts:
Everything in this god-awful book.
Conclusions:
I'll wrap it up with a quote from the author:
"We must set time aside for it, in our churches, in our studies, in our hearts. Only when we have met the last requirement will technology yield it's strength and become a helpful hand servant."
If you thought that was pretentious, just read the rest of this book. You will not be disappointed.
Weirdest Part:
The author and his wife make money by running a bed and breakfast, driving a rickshaw, making soap, AND playing the piano at weddings.
Recommend to: All your masochistic friends.
Better Off is a book about a man who lives for 18 months without technology. Let me just say this: if I was not forced to read this book for school, I would have been very happy knowing this terrible book did not exist.
Characters:
The characters of this book can be classified into two types: boring and whiny or pretentious and preachy. Eric Brende is one of the most reprehensible authors to every exist. On almost every page, he is either scolding you for using technology or explaining Amish life in the most stuffy, boring way with unnecessarily big words.
Plot:
Boring. Boring, boring, boring. This is the only over-300 page book where nothing remotely exciting happens. Only read this book if you are low on sleeping aids.
Pacing:
This book was so slow. This could have been a ten page essay on why you should not use technology, not a slow, boring book about a guy and his wife living in an Amish community.
Artwork:
There are two illustrations in this book: the front cover and a drawing of an Amish man building a house.The cover photo looks like a stock photo, and the drawing inside could have been drawn by my eight year old cousin.
Best Parts:
When this book was over.
Worst Parts:
Everything in this god-awful book.
Conclusions:
I'll wrap it up with a quote from the author:
"We must set time aside for it, in our churches, in our studies, in our hearts. Only when we have met the last requirement will technology yield it's strength and become a helpful hand servant."
If you thought that was pretentious, just read the rest of this book. You will not be disappointed.
Weirdest Part:
The author and his wife make money by running a bed and breakfast, driving a rickshaw, making soap, AND playing the piano at weddings.
Recommend to: All your masochistic friends.
July 15, 2009
To follow up the book Ecocities w/ Better Off at first seemed like it would be too much 'reality' reading for the summer, but Better Off was a surprisingly light read focusing on the people's story - then interweaving the less technology ideals.
The writing and story was good, but the ideas better. The highlight for me was the final chapter and epilogue. Especially since it had so many references to which I am familiar, "one night it was Henry Louis Gates going to a Spanish restaurant on the Cambridge-Sommerville line." Which is my favorite Boston area resturant - proof of which is hanging in my kitchen in Germany.
This book also linked well to other recent reads including Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The City in Mind- which discuss selfsustaning practices and the need for walkable, community oriented cities (sighting Boston as the only big American city ready for the new wave of ideals)respectively.
I definately recommend this book for those who are too wrapped up in modern technology and moving through life too fast. It really is amazing how much more you accomplish (on your to-do list and for your wellbeing), how many more friends you see, and how healthier you are when just omiting the TV for a week.
Better Off has imprinted thoughts about life and how to participate in it that I will reference going forward. Will I get rid of all forms of technology, no, but I don't think I'll ever upgrade to things like an electronic mixer when it's just a simple to make cookies w/ a wooden spoon.
The writing and story was good, but the ideas better. The highlight for me was the final chapter and epilogue. Especially since it had so many references to which I am familiar, "one night it was Henry Louis Gates going to a Spanish restaurant on the Cambridge-Sommerville line." Which is my favorite Boston area resturant - proof of which is hanging in my kitchen in Germany.
This book also linked well to other recent reads including Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The City in Mind- which discuss selfsustaning practices and the need for walkable, community oriented cities (sighting Boston as the only big American city ready for the new wave of ideals)respectively.
I definately recommend this book for those who are too wrapped up in modern technology and moving through life too fast. It really is amazing how much more you accomplish (on your to-do list and for your wellbeing), how many more friends you see, and how healthier you are when just omiting the TV for a week.
Better Off has imprinted thoughts about life and how to participate in it that I will reference going forward. Will I get rid of all forms of technology, no, but I don't think I'll ever upgrade to things like an electronic mixer when it's just a simple to make cookies w/ a wooden spoon.
July 22, 2015
I've been reading a lot of books about simplifying, reducing waste, and becoming a more conscious consumer. I enjoyed this book for its ideas - and thought the best overarching concept to be drawn is that, for the most part, everything that we've added as a labor-saving/technological device, can actually wind up costing more work/less time in the long run - because of the costs involved in the purchase, maintenance, repairs, etc. (For example, the automobile is supposed to make it easier to get places quickly, but actually - the cost of owning one is a major drain on most finances, once the payments, insurance, maintenance, etc are added in - then the negative health benefits of not being active, and needing to spend more time working to pay for gym memberships etc)
I loved that it wasn't preachy, and wasn't completely anti-technology - just a reminder to be mindful that the gadgets we add to life are really necessary.
The end result of a lot of our gadgets, is they take away our physical involvement, cost lots of money for the upkeep, and finally isolate us from our neighbors and community in our self-sufficiency.
I loved that it wasn't preachy, and wasn't completely anti-technology - just a reminder to be mindful that the gadgets we add to life are really necessary.
The end result of a lot of our gadgets, is they take away our physical involvement, cost lots of money for the upkeep, and finally isolate us from our neighbors and community in our self-sufficiency.
May 18, 2018
It is strange that of all my recent forays into memoir and autobiography, this one stands out. Previous entries for those genres, from theological and pastoral luminaries such as Richard Lischer or Barbara Brown Taylor, seem more up-my-alley; and, yet, I found myself enamored with Eric Brende’s little family- / life-story. It speaks to the part of my soul devoted to Wendell Berry and John Howard Yoder; it speaks to the joy I have in my garden.
Moreover, this memoir of life spent living amidst the “Minimites” points to a critical reality of our late-modern existences: our addiction to technology is killing us. And not simply killing us, but also dehumanizing ourselves, and our capacity to imagine different horizons of human well-being.
It is the recovery of the Anabaptist imagination that most thoroughly convinces me about the prophetic sagacity of this memoir, and it leaves me with the question: how, too, can I learn to do more without? is it possible in my context? what would such a lifestyle look like *for me*?
I leave with these questions, thankful to Eric for raising them.
Moreover, this memoir of life spent living amidst the “Minimites” points to a critical reality of our late-modern existences: our addiction to technology is killing us. And not simply killing us, but also dehumanizing ourselves, and our capacity to imagine different horizons of human well-being.
It is the recovery of the Anabaptist imagination that most thoroughly convinces me about the prophetic sagacity of this memoir, and it leaves me with the question: how, too, can I learn to do more without? is it possible in my context? what would such a lifestyle look like *for me*?
I leave with these questions, thankful to Eric for raising them.
May 24, 2017
If you have ever admired old-school agrarians or even outright Luddites like Chesterton or the Nashville Agrarians, but wondered whether a de-industrialized, low-tech lifestyle is even feasible in modern times, this is a good book to read and ponder. Having lived in a shack without electricity or running water while apprenticing on an organic farm, I was reminded while reading this of many of my own trials. I wish I had read Brende first, however, because many of his (quite spiritual) reflections on the value of work and community might have helped sustain me through the more difficult hours. The writing can be clunky at times, and Brende makes many assumptions about others' thoughts and attitudes that can seem less than generous; still, his refreshingly undogmatic approach to the question of technology and finding the right balance in our lives is quite valuable food for thought.
March 24, 2019
Similar to No Impact Man (except not as good), in that a family decides to live lightly on the land for a period of time, in this case, without technology.
I suppose, since the religion of the community doesn't allow for women to have much say, I shouldn't have been so surprised that I heard so little of his wife's voice in what was written. In fact, the author at one point disrupts a feminist lecture to point out that the authors of the lecture have got it all wrong about the Amish and their treatment of women. Which is a little hard to swallow, given the "well-defined spheres of activity" he is quite happy with (he: outside, doing 'manly things'; she: in the kitchen and laundry room).
Rather more religious than I had expected.
I suppose, since the religion of the community doesn't allow for women to have much say, I shouldn't have been so surprised that I heard so little of his wife's voice in what was written. In fact, the author at one point disrupts a feminist lecture to point out that the authors of the lecture have got it all wrong about the Amish and their treatment of women. Which is a little hard to swallow, given the "well-defined spheres of activity" he is quite happy with (he: outside, doing 'manly things'; she: in the kitchen and laundry room).
Rather more religious than I had expected.
June 25, 2009
This was a good book that shed light on some really interesting points. It really makes you think- and that's the point! However, sometimes it started to sound a bit like a college essay...and to be honest, I think it would have been more interesting if the wife's POV was used. There was a lot of room for emotion and drama--- a home birth in a amish-like community when she had just left her office job not too long before--- it was all handled a little too "oh yeah, I'll tack this on" for me. But it was interesting and worth looking at.
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