What to read on vacation
May I suggest a Techno Sapiens post?
Welcome back to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist, professor, and mom of three. I live in the Northeast USA, so I am firmly in vacation mode until at least the end of August. My apologies if you live in a place where your children are already back in school (though, maybe, that’s the real vacation?).
3 min read
Last week, my husband and I took a short (childless!) vacation to Kennebunkport, Maine, and I returned home with a few observations.
First, we confirmed my husband’s “dog years” theory of childless vacations: every day spent away from one’s children feels like at least seven. We were gone for a few days and came back convinced that a full month had passed.
Second, Kennebunkport has really—and I mean really—leaned into the “lobster” theme. There were lobster rolls, lobster soups, lobster omelettes, and lobster pizza. On the non-edible side, there were lobster t-shirts, lobster stuffed animals, lobster mugs, and lobster decorative napkins. There was even an entire store called (what else?) The Lobstore. Never have I been so aware of my shellfish allergy.
Finally, the beaches were beautiful, and I was reminded that there is truly nothing better than reading on the beach. I alternated between listening to David Sedaris’ latest essay collection The Land and Its People, and reading David Epstein’s Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better.1 I spent the remainder of the time excitedly reciting the facts I learned in Inside the Box to my husband (there were so many! I loved it!).
Judging by the number of Out of Office messages hitting my inbox recently, I would guess that many of you are also in vacation mode. So, if you find yourself looking for some beach reading, might I suggest a Techno Sapiens post you may have missed?
To get you started, here are our most popular posts of the summer. Happy reading!
In case you missed it…
A short essay that somehow covers: a rock my 2-year-old gave my husband for Father’s Day, the nature of abstract thought, Forrest Gump, and whether AI could ever become conscious. A wild ride, even for me (and I’m the one who wrote it).
Our summer partnership with Light Phone! All about my experience “going Light,” the latest research on dumbphones, and how to make the right decision for you.
This post starts with a quick quiz, in which I describe a technology and you guess what it is. Here’s the description: “Kids are spending hours on this technology every day. A study of hundreds of 6- to 16-year-olds in the Journal of Pediatrics finds that many are addicted to it. There are also concerns about how this technology may interfere with social connection and the development of empathy, and may increase exposure to violence and sexual content. Some evidence links it to anxiety and other mental health problems, yet parents feel powerless to stop it. Got your answer?” That’s correct! It is…the household radio. Exactly what you guessed, right?
This recent study from Common Sense Media surveys over 1200 U.S. children (ages 9 to 17). They find that 86% of kids are using AI in some capacity, with nearly a quarter of them (24%) using it daily. I break down the findings and where we go from here.
And finally, if you’ve managed to pay attention this long, we’ve got our most popular post of the summer. Are our attention spans really shrinking? Are we doomed? And what’s that about goldfish potentially remembering information for months? It’s all here.
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I promise that I also (sometimes) read books by people who are not named David.
Hi Jackie, I am also reading David Epstein's new book, although my scattered approach to wanting to do everything at once is difficult to change. At a panel at APA last week, I had a chance to recommend some books as well on the impact of AI on relationships. Two books in particular are noteworthy. The first is Klara and the Sun, written by Kazuo Ishiguro. The second is a graphic novel, Alex + Ada by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn. I think many of your TechnoSapiens readers might find that selected sci-fi books on AI and other technologies can often be prescient and spur some thinking and creativity. (And can often be good beach reading!)