Length2h 17m
About this audiobook
In 1845, Henry David Thoreau built himself a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond. Walden was never really about a pond. It was a clearing a man made so he could hear himself. He wasn't running a survival test. He was running an attention test.
There is no pond far enough anymore. I could build a cabin on the shore of anything, and the anxiety about my inbox would build a smaller cabin next door. I was diagnosed with ADHD in my mid-forties. I fled before I had a phone. Thoreau's noise was outside him, so distance worked. Mine is inside.
It isn't a memoir. A memoir says here's what happened to me. This book says here's what I keep learning and keep forgetting. Think of it as a user's manual I'm writing for a future version of myself.
This is a book about going to Walden. It is not a book about going to the woods. My answers are just for me. But the questions transfer perfectly, because you already have them.
Audiobook details
GenreBiography and Memoir
Length2 hrs 17 mins
Narrated byRecorded Track
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 25, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
22Chapter 3 Facing It
2Chapter 1 I Did Not Go to the Woods
23The Clutch
3Walden, Updated
24Hold Thoughts Lightly (Defusion)
4I Fled Before I Had a Phone
25Befriend the Roommate (Self-as-Context)
5I Want to Stay
26Build for the Brain You Have (Acceptance)
Show all chaptersShow less
6The Accidental Pilot Study
27Being Present (Presence)
7The Terms of the Experiment
28The Phoenix
8A Personal Philosophy
29Manual Entries
9Anxiety Was My Happy Place
30Chapter 4 Building the Good Life
10You Have to Be Inside It
31The Four Facts
11Mixing My Own
32Endings (Including Death) Make It Matter
12The Pain of Rebirth
33The Next Move Is Yours
13The Same Four Problems
34We’re Here for Each Other
14Chapter 2 Running Away
35Nobody Hands You the Answer
15Important Means Interesting
36Make the Ordinary Holy
16The Engine
37Manual Entries
17Sitting Still
38Appendix: The Manual
18The Smart Kid
39From Chapter 2, Running Away
19I’m Too Busy to Think
40From Chapter 3, Facing It
20The Canary
41From Chapter 4, Building the Good Life
21Manual Entries
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