Re: "The Small Stuff" book review

On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:26:10 -0000 (UTC), Tara <[email protected]>
wrote:

>On Jul 31, 2026 at 12:13:40?PM EDT, "Noah Sombrero" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:35:45 -0000 (UTC), Tara <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Jul 31, 2026 at 11:07:43?AM EDT, "Noah Sombrero" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:53:13 -0400, Noah Sombrero <[email protected]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 14:12:02 -0000 (UTC), Tara <[email protected]>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> (I haven't read this book yet but I heard the author interviewed on CBC this
>>>>>> a.m and liked what he said).  Just another self-help book or one of that ilk?
>>>>>> Nah, I don't think so.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-small-stuff-how-to-lead-a-more-gratifying-life-ian-bogost/bb5309da15426d51?ean=9781668062630&affiliate=12476
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> And -
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The Small Stuff
>>>>>> How to lead a more gratifying life
>>>>>> -Ian Bogost -  Atlantic Columnist
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Out summer 2026.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>    ?The world tells us that the path to happiness is to go bigger in
>>>>>> everything: experiences, success, consumption?all of it. In The Small Stuff,
>>>>>> Ian Bogost shows us why this is the wrong approach to the good life?that the
>>>>>> true secret lies in discovering life?s little delights.?
>>>>>>    ?Arthur C. Brooks, #1 New York Times bestselling author
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>    ?Brilliant
>>> I loved this profound, witty, and quietly revolutionary book.
>>>>>> Ian Bogost makes the liberating case that the material world is teeming with
>>>>>> unexpected opportunities for life-enhancing sensory pleasure?and that all we
>>>>>> need to do is to allow ourselves to experience them.?
>>>>>>    ?Oliver Burkeman, New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks
>>>>>>    ?The Small Stuff is a clarion call to rediscover the quiet joys woven into
>>>>>> everyday routines. Bogost argues that in our rush toward efficiency and
>>>>>> digital convenience, we?ve lost touch with the tangible world?and its simple
>>>>>> gratifications that bring real contentment. This wonderful book reminds us
>>>>>> that happiness isn?t out of reach. Rather, it?s right under our fingertips.?
>>>>>>    ?Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of Supercommunicators and The Power of
>>>>>> Habit
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> About the Book
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> In an era dominated by convenience and efficiency, one would think that life
>>>>>> would be simpler, easier, and most importantly, happier. After all, shouldn?t
>>>>>> all the time saved with machines and technology leave us with more time for
>>>>>> ourselves? The Atlantic columnist Ian Bogost thinks not. From QR code menus
>>>>>> and digital tickets to automated self-checkout counters, he argues that the
>>>>>> simple pleasures of daily life have been stripped away, replaced by sleek, but
>>>>>> soulless, design.
>>>>> 
>>>>> In other words, why well off people are not happy.  So they pine for
>>>>> the good old days, forgetting that they were not happy then either.
>>>>> 
>>>>> "sleek, but soulless, design".  Of course that is not satisfying.  On
>>>>> the other hand, if a person has a satisfying fulfilled life, it won't
>>>>> matter what knickknacks one includes or not.  Who notices such things?
>>>>> 
>>>>> On the other hand, "automated self-checkout counters"?  Who puts up
>>>>> with such emptiness?  As if people needed another way to avoid
>>>>> interacting with each other.  But if you have plenty of human
>>>>> interaction in your life, maybe those counters wouldn't matter so
>>>>> much.  There it is, we are so isolated from each other in our cars,
>>>>> and lockable houses that we need to interact with clerks in stores.
>>>>> 
>>>>> How do we feel?  Lonely and bored.  Scared of each other, and out of
>>>>> patience with ideas we don't want to listen to (from other people).
>>>>> Simple, huh?
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Through engaging anecdotes and sharp analysis, Bogost uncovers how modern
>>>>>> conveniences not only fail to deliver on their promises but also rob us of
>>>>>> small, satisfying tasks and moments that keep us grounded and human. He
>>>>>> challenges us to rethink our daily interactions with the material world and
>>>>>> illuminates how the loss of these tangible interactions has contributed to
>>>>>> widespread feelings of disconnection and dissatisfaction.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> But all hope is not lost. Bogost guides us to identify and appreciate the
>>>>>> overlooked joys hidden in everyday life. By reforming how we approach ordinary
>>>>>> tasks, we can rediscover the gratification embedded in the tactile world
>>>>>> around us.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Humorous, thought-provoking, and practical, The Small Stuff reveals that
>>>>>> finding joy isn?t about achieving monumental happiness or prolonged
>>>>>> satisfaction. It?s about doing small things, deliberately and with attention,
>>>>>> to unlock the basic pleasures that flavor our daily lives.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> A Note from Ian, before publication
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I wrote a new book! It will be my first new book in 10 (!) years. I guess I
>>>>>> needed that long to figure out what was worth sharing in this many words, in a
>>>>>> way that I felt good asking my readers to buy and carry and so forth.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> It all started when I wrote about the end of the stick-shift transmission for
>>>>>> The Atlantic in 2022. Millions of people read that story, which I didn't
>>>>>> expect! I wondered What It Meant, what signal that interest meant to send.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> After thinking about that question for six months or so, I realized that the
>>>>>> manual transmission is just one of many more ways people have become
>>>>>> disconnected from their own lives. I don't even start my car with a key
>>>>>> anymore, I just press a button. Heck, you can't even turn on a restroom faucet
>>>>>> or dispense a towel by yourself. The sensory world, the world we share with
>>>>>> things of all kinds, living and human-made, has been withdrawing from our
>>>>>> contact for years, and for lots of reasons. That loss feels bad?and you
>>>>>> probably didn't even notice it happening, because it happened so slowly.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> This book explains many of those reasons, among them automation, computation,
>>>>>> regulatory change, and shifting habits of work and home life. It also offers a
>>>>>> way out, and one that you can actually achieve, and one that's easy besides.
>>>>>> If you're thinking, wait, Bogost wrote a happiness book?, then, yeah, I did,
>>>>>> but I promise it's like no other such book.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The key idea in The Small Stuff is gratification, a kind of contentment that
>>>>>> is different from happiness and satisfaction. I rescue this concept from the
>>>>>> psychologists and economists who have misunderstood or ruined it, and I
>>>>>> explain how gratification can help make every day of your life just a little
>>>>>> better. All those little-betters will add up.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> If you've been following my work at all over the years (and decades) I've been
>>>>>> writing and making stuff, this book is sort of a summation of everything I've
>>>>>> learned from games, computing, philosophy, design, and the built environment.
>>>>>> And more. If you've wondered where I took my game-design interests, this is
>>>>>> the answer. If you wondered what was next for me as a phenomenologist, this is
>>>>>> the answer. (If you don't know what phenomenology is, don't worry, the word
>>>>>> does not appear in the book, nor do any other scary words). If you wondered
>>>>>> what someone who writes about AI, toasters, and lemon-lime soda thinks all of
>>>>>> those things have in common, this is the answer. It's helpful, and hopeful
>>>>>> (for real), and useful, and fun and super chill besides. Anybody can read it,
>>>>>> and I hope everyone will.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The Small Stuff will be published by Simon & Schuster / Atria in the USA and
>>>>>> Penguin in the UK in summer 2026
>>>> 
>>>> How about this little ditty I came across somewhere:
>>>> Frustrated desire causes sighs, and nobody sighs more than contented
>>>> people.
>>> 
>>> Deep lol
>>> 
>>> and then there is this from The Guardian
>>> 
>>> A sigh's not just a sigh - it's a fundamental life-sustaining reflex
>>> 
>>> Research reveals that sighing is more than a sign of depression or despair:
>>> it?s a reflex that happens several times an hour and helps preserve lung
>>> function
>>> Tim Radford
>> 
>> Now, about that other kind of sigh, which is also not a sign of
>> depression or despair, in fact it can even be a metaphorical sigh.
>
>Weariness
>Relief
>Exasperation

Frustrated desires.

>
>
>
>> 
>>> Californian scientists have identified the source of the sigh. It is not just
>>> a response to sadness, depression or despair: it is, also, they report, a
>>> life-sustaining reflex that helps preserve lung function.
>>> 
>>> And a control system in the brain keeps humans sighing about a dozen times an
>>> hour, even when they aren?t thinking about the future of the NHS, the European
>>> referendum or the latest pronouncements of Donald Trump.
>>> 
>>> Researchers report in Nature that two tiny clusters of nerve cells in the
>>> brain?s stem ? the region that, unbidden, automatically takes charge of
>>> breathing, sleeping and heart rate ? orchestrate the sigh. They do this in a
>>> response to an unconscious command to reinflate as necessary the myriad tiny
>>> sacs in the lungs called alveoli, which control the body?s traffic in oxygen
>>> and carbon dioxide, and which sometimes collapse.
>>> 
>>> ?Unlike a pacemaker that regulates only how fast we breathe, the brain?s
>>> breathing centre also controls the type of breath we take,? said Mark Krasnow,
>>> a biochemist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and one of the
>>> authors.
>>> WP hiccup graphic
>>> Has science solved the mystery of the hiccup? Don't hold your breath
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ?It?s made up of small numbers of different kinds of neurons. Each functions
>>> like a button that turns on a different type of breath. One button programmes
>>> regular breaths, another sighs, and the others could be for yawns, sniffs,
>>> coughs and maybe even laughs and cries.?
>>> 
>>> The research illuminates a puzzle about ventilation for patients with injuries
>>> or chronic lung disease: unless clinicians get the mechanical breathing rates
>>> exactly right, the patient is at risk of further injury. The new study
>>> delivers a better understanding of why a sigh ? in effect an extra breath for
>>> an already inflated lung ? is an important survival mechanism. The surprise
>>> lies in its simplicity.
>>> 
>>> ?Sighing appears to be regulated by the fewest numbers of neurons we have seen
>>> linked to fundamental human behaviour,? said Prof Jack Feldman, a
>>> neurobiologist at University College Los Angeles and another author. ?One of
>>> the holy grails in neuroscience is figuring out how the brain controls
>>> behavior. Our finding gives us insights into mechanisms that may underlie much
>>> more complex behaviours.?
>>> 
>>> The research team worked with laboratory mice, which sigh as often as 40 times
>>> an hour: they screened 19,000 patterns in the mice brain cells that could be
>>> linked with genetic activity, and zeroed in on 200 neurons in the brain stem
>>> that make and release one of two peptides, protein fragments important in
>>> brain signalling. The same family of peptides is at work in human brains, and
>>> known to be important in breathing and sighing: what the mouse research
>>> exposed was the genes and the nerve cells that controlled them.
>>> Swimmers can train themselves to last more than five minutes without
>>> breathing.
>>> What?s the secret to holding your breath?
>>> Read more
>>> 
>>> The two laboratories co-operated to discover that the peptides triggered
>>> another set of nerve cells to activate the mice muscles and heave a sigh. If
>>> the scientists blocked one set of peptides, the animals sighed at half the
>>> rate. If they silenced both, the sighs stopped altogether. Since the function
>>> of the sigh was to reinflate collapsed alveoli with twice the normal intake of
>>> air, sighing becomes part of the survival machinery. ?If you don?t sigh every
>>> five minutes or so, the alveoli will slowly collapse causing lung failure.
>>> That?s why patients in early iron lungs had such problems, because they never
>>> sighed,? said Feldman.
>>> 
>>> So a kiss may be just as kiss, as the song from the Hollywood classic
>>> Casablanca has it, but a sigh is not just a sigh. However the Californian
>>> study offers no answers as to why people might sigh when anxious, melancholy,
>>> or exasperated.
>>> 
>>> ?There is certainly a component of sighing that relates to an emotional state.
>>> When you are stressed, for example, you sigh more,? said Feldman. ?It may be
>>> that neurons in the brain areas that process emotion are triggering the
>>> release of the sigh neuropeptides ? but we don?t know that.?
-- 
Noah Sombrero mustachioed villain
Don't get political with me young man
or I'll tie you to a railroad track and
<<<talk>>> to <<<YOOooooo>>>
Who dares to talk to El Sombrero?
dares: Ned
does not dare: Julian  shrinks in horror and warns others away