For the last few months, I have reduced my media consumption, mainly from the audio: I was using my running and commuting time listening to podcasts, but paused all subscriptions. The tech stuff these days made me nervous, and I couldn't resolve that discomfort by myself.

Do I get the peace of mind I wanted after the plug-off? Not really, objectively speaking. There is a Fitbit metric called Zone minutes. When I was listening to podcasts I occasionally had it recorded. I have had none since I paused. It looks like I was distracted by my own thoughts.

So I started wondering if maybe I should start listening to something again.

That's when my spouse and I had a parent-teacher conference with the kindergarten teacher of my daughter.

In the session, we talked about recommended reading materials related to parenting. The teacher suggested some to us. To my surprise, I already had read half of them. But I also found that all my readings happened more than a few years ago. I haven't read that kind of book since COVID, and the balls were still on the floor.

Now I got a plan: Tune to recommended parenting books instead of tech commentaries. My literacy stopped at the ones for toddlers but my daughter is going to start at an elementary school this summer. It was long overdue.

I hope they are more actionable than, say, the news telling the employer being threatened by an uprising startup. That actionability, I hope, makes me less nervous. The Fitbit will tell.