Plain Life: On thinking, feeling and deciding

by Antonia Pont

These days, it’s easy to get the impression that people are really very anxious. Who? you ask. Well, people you hear about. People who tell you they are. Friends. Lovers. Acquaintances. Colleagues. The Youth. The term is around and people are applying it to themselves, or having it applied to them, willy-nilly.
What would it mean to be able to live a plain life? Would a plain life just be an unambitious one – a drab or routine life, without colour, variation, unknowing or luck? Or would a plain life be one in which we’d fret slightly less, suspect ourselves less, and thus listen to ourselves and others in new ways? We may not need to do more and be more – in the quiet spaces already within us, lurking in the interstices of our days and conversations, there are ways and choreographies to nurture a plainer, saner, odder, less reactive and therefore less terrifying life.
In Plain Life, Antonia Pont questions our thinking about capacities, virtue, envy, wanting, love and kindness – suggesting that it might be fine, more than enough, indeed so much, to live a plain life.
‘Read this precise, wild and tender offering, and be sure to ask yourself how you feel after ... Plain Life is challenging and generous.’ – Debra Dank
‘Fizzing with energy and ideas, Plain Life is a practical, philosophical heart to heart with your most spirited friend. Alain de Botton for hot anti-capitalists.’ – Briohny Doyle
‘Deeply alert to the challenges of our times, and extraordinarily well read, Antonia Pont delivers us a handbook for life that is politically radical, refreshingly intellectual, and wholly attentive to embodiment and being. Informed and informing, it is a seriously joyful tour de force.’ – Julienne van Loon

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

256 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2025

Reviews

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are probably only a few hundred people in Melbourne or Berlin who are the right blend of: neurotic but not too unwell, already have critical theory 101 training, and, tolerate this kind of breathless semi ironic late 00s blog era writing style that will benefit from this book, but alas I am one of them.

[Jasper L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome stuff. It is, however, crucial that this book isn’t read as ‘self-help’ - at least not in its usual sense. Its target is change (and not for the self); changing neoliberalism’s infiltration into our daily relations and habits.

The significance of this book though (and I think this is crucial for those of us who recognise structural reasons for our shitty day-to-day), is that we still have an ability (and perhaps even duty) to reduce awfulness at an interpersonal level. However, the last chapter argues (I think) that this is not mere damage control (not an intagrammable-stoic-fatalism), but rather might have a added bonus of opening us up to an encounter with this very change.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Plan Life, Antonia Pont advocates against the current trend of neoliberalisation of all facets of our life and instead asks us to consider a more Plain Life. Antonia makes a point to mention neoliberalisation as the invasion of markets (or market logic) into every sphere of life. However, when explaining this book to others, I don't necessarily need to use the term 'neoliberalisation', I can easily say something along the lines of 'modern society' or 'hustle culture' and people get the idea. Antonia criticises the language and culture that comes with neoliberalisation such as the drive to optimise, chase efficiency and ensure no time is 'wasted'. Antonia also mentions her dislike for the market also influencing areas such as dating with dating apps providing a 'market' where you select partners based on a profile and a list of attributes that would typically be discovered organically. Throughout the book, Antonia discusses and criticizes this world we live in while drawing on many critical theorists who I have never read because they are infamously difficult. As she does this, she advocates for rejecting the neoliberal framing and embracing a more plain approach.

This book is written in a very casual Millennial style. Despite discussing very technical philosophers and ideas, the book is very easy to understand and is sprinkled with jokes, anecdotes and asides (as well as a lot of tangential brackets). I generally quite enjoyed it, although I am a zoomer so some of it felt a bit boomer to me haha. One pattern which I wasn't the biggest fan of was when Antonia would decide to Put Something In Capitals. Sometimes I found this very effective. Particularly when Antonia would explain something complicated by Delueze reading Spinoza or Alain Badiou. Antonia would often explain these concepts in simple English and then give either the technical name provided by the philosophers or her own if she had her own spin on it. This was well done and I was able to follow along. However, sometimes Antonia would capitalise something seemingly out of nowhere as a throwaway or a gag. Sometimes nominalising things like this made it hard to me to understand the wider point, as if I wasn't 100% sure what was going on, then the jump to a Brand New Term could be a bit jarring.

Finally, I should write about the Plain Life so I can remember what it is when I read this in the future. Generally, the Plain Life is a rejection of the neoliberal paradigm which demands that one's life be optimised and presents the false dichotomy of 'motivated' or 'lazy'. It's ok to be inefficient, it's ok to take 20 minutes to yourself and not everything has to be done in service of 'the best you' or w/e. Really, it's ok to be a normal human. I really appreciate this as often I find myself in that rat race mentality where I feel that since I'm not doing the 'optimal' thing or because I won't ever make money off some of the things I enjoy, it is a waste of time. This book really helped me understand that doing that is preventing me from 'finding my middle' in my 'practice'.

There is also some other fun stuff about the inherent dissatisfaction in life and relationships with people that I also enjoyed but won't get into.

Overall, despite the casual language I felt this book was secretly very dense and precise. I am undoubtedly not well read enough to truly take it all in this probably deserves a reread in the future.

Giving it 4.5/5 and bumping it up to 5 because Antonia deserves it.

[BEN PHILLIPS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the first two chapters, life changing, really. Most of what followed was a tad too intellectual and academic for me, but I’m really glad I pushed through. I absolutely loved Antonia’s pithy observations and cheeky sense of humour/life.

[Marlies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps a few too many parentheses for my liking but a fantastic book.

[Caitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really needed this beautifully crafted call out of my perpetual existential tantrum.