If you can hack a computer’s software, can you hack a person’s life? During the first part of the 21st century, a wave of optimistic tech geeks thought so, proclaiming that the way to increase productivity—from sleeping efficiently to removing household stains—was to find and exploit shortcuts in the way we “code” daily life. At a time when our obsession with productivity shows no sign of waning, Kinfolk charts the rise and eventual mutation of this early internet philosophy.

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