Saying No to New
Why New Things Are Stealing Your Time, Money, and Happiness—And How to Take Back Your Life
Coming September 15
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Preorder a signed and personalized copy of the book from Community Bookstore in Brooklyn. The store can ship to anywhere in the United States. Preorder your signed copy today.
New things are everywhere—and they keep pulling us away from what matters the most in our lives.
New York Times journalist Eric Athas's fresh, revelatory guide shows us how to rewire our impulse to consume new things and reclaim control of our time, money and attention.
One of the biggest lies of modern times is that new is always better. An upgraded phone will always outshine the one from last year. A new pair of sunglasses is always better than the one you wore last summer. The new fitness app is the only thing that will finally motivate you to reach your goals.
Influencers constantly promote the latest trends, while retailers make the check out process more seamless than ever. For many of us, the next new product, trend, or fad is getting too good to resist.
But Saying No to New recognizes that instead of improving our lives, new things often drain our resources and distract us from achieving our goals. We're tricked into thinking that the only way for us to feel satisfied is by getting cheap dopamine spikes from the next new thing.
Early praise for Saying No to New
Saying No to New offers a guide to resisting the pull of endless novelty and unneeded innovations. Blending journalism, psychology, and practical wisdom, this book explores why we're so drawn to the new—and how ignoring that instinct can give us back our time, money, and joy.
Charles Duhigg Bestselling author of Supercommunicators and The Power of Habit
Eric Athas helps us rediscover the richness of the familiar and stay grounded in what truly matters in a world always urging us to want more simply because it's new. You'll never think about newness in quite the same way again.
Gloria Mark, PhD Author of Attention Span
Brilliant and timely! A wake-up call for anyone caught in the endless chase for more—and a persuasive case for enough.
Shira Gill Author of Minimalista
Eric Athas gives us the whys and hows to saving ourselves from the pulls of our consumerist society. He provides a valuable road map to finding a life of being instead of having. Collectively applied, this book can save our civilization from self-destruction and offers us hope for a brighter future.
Bea Johnson Author of Zero Waste Home
A smart guide to reclaiming your attention and intention, and defining what is enough for you.
Cait Flanders Author of The Year of Less and Adventures In Opting Out
Saying No to New offers something increasingly rare in the world of ideas: an original angle, based on real science, that gets at the root of why modern life so often feels like it's working against us — in our finances, our attention, our happiness. And because Eric Athas's take is genuinely new, so are his solutions. My life is better for reading this book.
Leidy Klotz Author of Subtract and In a Good Place
About Eric
Eric Athas is an editor at the New York Times, where he helps journalists learn new tools and skills they can use to tell stories. Before joining the Times in 2016, he worked at NPR and the Washington Post. His work has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and the Nieman Journalism Lab. Athas lives with his wife and two children in Brooklyn.
His first book, Saying No to New, goes on sale September 15. Preorder it today.
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