Below, Eric Athas shares five key insights from his new book, Saying No to New: Why New Things Are Stealing Your Time, Money, and Happiness—And How to Take Back Your Life.
Eric 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.
What’s the Big Idea?
Our brains are wired to crave novelty, but today we’re drowning in it. By learning to say no to meaningless new things, we can reclaim our time, money, and attention for the new things that actually enrich our lives.
Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Eric himself—in the Next Big Idea App, or buy the book.
1. Humans are naturally drawn to novelty.
Humans are programmed to pay attention to the new and ignore the old. Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman explained to me that our brains are locked in silence and darkness as they try to make an internal model of the outside world. New things aren’t built into the model, so our brains must take note and tag them as memories in an effort to predict them next time.
Research has shown that when we encounter something new—a shiny car, crisp outfit, or an entertaining video—we get a shot of dopamine that pushes us to explore it. But something even deeper may be pushing us to seek out new things. Studies have found that newness itself may be the reward our brains are driving us to capture. We may be seeking newness, not just for the pleasure of attaining new products, but because they are new.
There’s an evolutionary explanation for this phenomenon. Imagine our ancient ancestors finding new food and new places to hunt. It was useful for them to pay attention to new sounds in order to stay safe. Eventually, they explored new parts of the world and invented new tools. For most of our existence, our infatuation with novelty has been a clear evolutionary advantage.
2. We are facing an ever-growing onslaught of new things.
Today, our brains are still wired for novelty, but new things are no longer scarce. We have access to hundreds of millions of new products and an infinite supply of new information and content. And we can have it all instantaneously: one-click ordering, mobile pay technology, “buy now, pay later” services. These and other retail innovations give us frictionless access to novelty. Right now, you could order and consume something new with a few taps on your phone or a few clicks on your computer.
We have an innate urge for novelty in a world full of it. That is a dangerous combination. It’s why we can spend too much money on new products we don’t need. It’s why we succumb to shiny technology that complicates our lives. It’s why our homes can fill with clutter faster than we can organize it. It’s also one reason why it can be so hard to resist digital experiences—social media apps and AI chatbots feed our novelty-hungry brains.
“We have an innate urge for novelty in a world full of it.”
We may consume new things because we think they’ll make us happy. We chase the feeling of joy we get from ripping open a box or downloading a new app. But that sensation is fleeting. I spoke about this with Laurie Santos, a professor at Yale and an expert on happiness. Dr. Santos explained how new things won’t lead to sustained happiness. She said it’s like we’re on a treadmill, chasing more and more new carrots, trying to capture happy feelings again and again.
3. Businesses influence our choices at every turn.
Businesses are constantly influencing us to buy, download, and subscribe. And these methods are not always so easy to spot. When there is a “flash sale” or something is advertised as “in limited supply,” this is the psychological concept of scarcity at play. Knowing something is in short supply intensifies our interest in it. This is just one of many ways companies use psychology to influence our choices.
Countless strategies like scarcity show up in our daily lives. Like this one: You get to the checkout page, and a countdown clock signals that you only have a few minutes to finalize the purchase. That’s an example of fake urgency. Those clocks stir up stress and anxiety, prodding us to complete the transaction to relieve those bad feelings.
Other times, businesses use deception to convince us to say yes to something new. Companies use false claims that make us believe that a product or service can do something it can’t. Online reviewers can’t always be trusted either. I went undercover to discover how easy it is to get paid to leave a positive review.
Many of these persuasion efforts join forces on social media, where we develop parasocial relationships with influencers who make money by convincing us to buy the new red light therapy mask or AI-powered toaster.
4. We can break free from the grip of meaningless novelty.
It can all feel overwhelming. We’re sold new things every time we log on. New information pings us all day. Businesses hijack our brains to persuade us to keep upgrading, keep buying, keep downloading. But you can break free from the onslaught of new things. You can take back control over the new things you let into your life, and as a result, save your time, money, attention, and overall happiness.
“The key is to widen the new thing gap.”
I spoke to social scientists, psychologists, and decision-making experts about science-backed strategies for resisting the urge to constantly consume the new. One of the most important steps you can take is to rewire the flow of novelty into your life. I call this the new thing gap. The new thing gap is the time and distance between you encountering a new thing and acquiring it. The key is to widen the new thing gap, so you’re putting more time and distance between you and potentially meaningless newness.
In doing so, you’ll rebalance the equation, making it harder to say yes to new things. That will make you more vigilant to deceptive product claims and influence tactics. And on a more practical level, it will give you more time to make smarter decisions. Maybe, in some cases, you realize that you don’t need to upgrade because the version you already have works just fine.
If you find yourself tapping the “buy” button far too often, delete your saved credit card information to make it harder to make purchases. If you can’t seem to pull away from novelty-fueled apps, delete them from your phone. Here’s a creative solution I learned from University of Pennsylvania social scientist Katy Milkman: Make a pledge to rein in your shopping or social media habit. These changes will widen the new thing gap and give you back a little more agency over new stuff.
5. There are valuable new things out there.
The point of saying no to new isn’t to say no to all new things. There are many valuable new experiences, products, and services—they just get lost in the onslaught of needless novelty.
“New products can bring meaning to our lives when they align with our values.”
For starters, we should pursue fulfilling, novel experiences. Travel to new places and try new foods. Learn new skills that challenge you at work. I talked about this with Aaron Heller, a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Miami. Dr. Heller explained that we can improve our well-being by simply exploring new parts of our city.
New products can bring meaning to our lives when they align with our values. A new book can teach you something. A new pair of running shoes can help you reach your goal of running a marathon. A new sweater you bought on a vacation can make you smile every time you put it on. And of course, when something breaks, it may need to be replaced.
It seems counterintuitive, but by saying no to new more often, you can get better at saying yes to the right kind of new.
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