Re: "The Small Stuff" book review

On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:51:58 -0400, Noah Sombrero <[email protected]>
wrote:

>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.

are felt more keenly in a context of general contentment.

>
>>
>>
>>
>>> 
>>>> 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