What Nietzsche Can Teach Us About Joyful Living in a Tech-Saturated World

Friedrich Nietzsche is famous for espousing a philosophy that may be a help in wrestling with existential angst and finding meaning in life.

My guest would say that Nietzsche’s philosophy may also be useful for figuring out something else: how to have a healthy relationship with modern technology. His name is Nate Anderson and he’s the author of In Emergency, Break Glass: What Nietzsche Can Teach Us About Joyful Living in a Tech-Saturated World. Today on the show, Nate, who’s a deputy editor at the website Ars Technica, shares how someone who grew up loving technology and has spent his career writing about it, reached a point where he felt disenchanted with its effects on his life, and why he turned to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche for insights on how to approach tech more fruitfully. We then turn to the way tech has made life too safe, easy, and frictionless, and how Nietzschean goals, asceticism, and creative, self-overcoming exertion can help us find deeper fulfillment. Nate unpacks four Nietzsche-inspired guidelines for information consumption, the importance of the physical body in thinking and feeling, and our need to embrace greater Dionysian energy and perhaps live a bit more dangerously.   

Resources Related to the Podcast

• AoM Article: A Primer on Friedrich Nietzsche — His Life and Philosophical Style
• AoM Article: Say Yes to Life — An Accessible Primer on Nietzsche’s Big Ideas
• AoM Article: Nietzsche’s 66 Best Aphorisms
• AoM Podcast #480: Hiking With Nietzsche
• AoM Article: Solvitur Ambulando — It Is Solved By Walking
• AoM Podcast #215: Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction (With Matthew Crawford)
• AoM Podcast #796: The Life We’re Looking For
• Twilight Zone episode “A Nice Place to Visit”

Connect With Nate Anderson

• Nate on Ars Technica

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