One concept from Cal Newport's Deep Work that has stuck with me is that of the any-benefit mindset:

To be clear, I’m not trying to denigrate the benefits [of social media]—there's nothing illusory or misguided about them. What I’m emphasizing, however, is that these benefits are minor and somewhat random. [...] To this observation, you might reply that value is value: If you can find some extra benefit in using a service like Facebook—even if it's small—then why not use it? I call this way of thinking the any-benefit mind-set, as it identifies any possible benefit as sufficient justification for using a network tool.

Many people use social platforms like Facebook because it allows them to stay connected to old friends. And for some people this may indeed be a wholly sufficient reason. But it's also likely the case that many people don't reflect a lot, or at [...]

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First published:
March 15th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rwAZKjizBmM3vFEga/any-benefit-mindset-and-any-reason-reasoning

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“Any-Benefit Mindset and Any-Reason Reasoning” by silentbob

LessWrong (30+ Karma)