Ditching their car, electric stove, refrigerator, running water and everything else motorized or "hooked to the grid," the Brende family conceives a real life experiment to see if in fact all our cell phones, wide screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier and better--or whether life would be preferable without them. By turns, the query narrows down to a single question: "What is the least we need to achieve the most" With this in mind, the Brendes begin an 18-month trial run which will dramatically change the way they live and prove entertaining and surprising to readers.

Better Off is a smart, often comedic, and always riveting book that also mingles scientific analysis with the human story, demonstrating how a world free of technological excess can shrink stress--and waistlines--and expand happiness, health, and leisure. Our notion that technophobes are backward gets turned on its head as the Brendes realize that the crucial technological decisions of this "Minimite" community are made more soberly and deliberately than in the surrounding culture, and the result is greater mastery over the conditions of human existence, not less.