Be Happy with what you have
jameswatling.com
jameswatling.com
For everyone else on this planet for whom financial security is not a given, it makes sense to keep more things around than needed in a given instance.
So yeah, if you want to declutter your life, go ahead. But don't think that your newly discovered boring lifestyle choices are somehow so good that everyone else needs to make them as well.
Especially if the depth of it is "have and do less things, I promise it will make you happy".
These "do as I say" because "I am the norm" types pf postings are such a drag. A sample of size 1 doesn't have any valid information in it. It is an anecdote - and nothing more. To infer from that is BS imho.
But, if that sample set had been pg or "similar", it would have been received differently.
An entire industry exists that seeks to impart "life wisdom" based on a sample set of one. I've long been over the "here's how I do it, so you should too" books/advice out there, irrespective of the source. But, most people gobble it up if the author is perceived to be successful.
However, when the author is "just some guy like everyone else" it tends to come off as preachy and of limited value.
But, let 'ol James strike it big, and his books on minimalism will sell out.
Not for me. It could also have been Tim Ferriss or any one such entity.
> But, most people gobble it up if the author is perceived to be successful.
Sadly so. Advice from a (percieved) successful person tends to kill critical thinking for lots of people.
>> A sample of size 1 doesn't have any valid information in it. But to be more diplomatic: It might have some inspiration for your own testing, though.
Maybe I should learn to be more diplomatic and less black/white.
Ha! Yeah, especially not that guy. He's one person who helped me to get over the whole "seeking advice" thing, with his highly specific "worked for me, so everyone else should do it too" schtick.
The advice that's funniest is that wherein if everyone actually followed it, then it could not possibly be effective. Yeah, let's all 1.35 million people who bought the book relocate to a small country where the exchange rate is favorable, start a niche business, and test our products by putting up phony websites with "buy" buttons that don't actually work so we can measure demand. That should work out well for all of us.
>tends to kill critical thinking
Indeed. In fact, the act of seeking advice can be a creativity killer. It's a mindset of "let me replicate this other person" vs using my unique experience and knowledge to innovate.
None of this is to say never learn from others or take advice. Just that there is a culture of hero worship and elevation of others over self that I believe is counterproductive for many.
But, you know, don't take my advice. :)
I do agree that if it was being offered as a panacea for all modern woes there'd be reason for harsher scrutiny, but as it stands, it's just some blogger opining that having less might help a bit since they believe it's an unfulfilling task for the amount of time and effort.
Also, it's not as if this blogger is the only person to suggest minimalism; there was an article on HN not too long ago about how minimalism is kicking up in Japan - a casual search for minimalism will show that it's an idea with some following that is a style of philosophy more than anything really.
I'm not sure why this prompted such a harsh reaction, since it's just a fluffy article.
For me as a person decluttering personal relationships and being very selective of people I let into my life is refreshing, freeing and more.
Also when I do buy "stuff" I tend to by tools, not "real stuff". And I tend to watch for quality/value first, not price. Something I also learned from the minimalism community.
Non the less - I just do not like this notion of N=1 has to work for all. I like to be critical and take such things with a huge grain of salt.
But yes - I could have formulated my critique a little bit more diplomatically.
To be honest, I do agree with you that such articles should be condemned when they occur, but I just felt that this was much. And I think you have a reasonable position.
It's well established that poorer people not only have fewer resources, but are generally worse at allocating the resources they do have. This is attributed to a difference in perception of money (something to spend vs something to save).
It's not a difference between being able to purchase an item versus not being able to. It's a difference between being able to invest heavily in each item you own — certainly a privilege of the well off.
In any case, whether the loudest advocates of minimalism are annoying or not, our base level of consumption is far too high for a variety of reasons: environmental, economic, and yes, I think emotional.
There are immense resources poured into making people want/need/desire more "things," and if their ability to acquire "things" doesn't make that possible, there's an inherent damage to a person's psyche.
To be honest I don't think your first point is accurate. People aren't poor, because they spend a lot of money, they are poor because they don't have a lot of money.
To say that you can lift yourself and your family out of poverty by saving money, makes not a lot of sense. And lot's of the items that one would perceive as unnecessary from a financially comfortable position, don't maybe look that way when you're in the situation yourself. Sure, eating beans everyday might save you money, but then you've spent your life eating beans, and in the end that wasn't the deciding factor.
That said, there are many people ( and I agree with you, our society as a whole probably does) who live above their means continually, I just don't think that that's a problem that's confined to poor people. You said
> It's well established that poorer [...] are generally worse at allocating the resources they do have.
Would you mind expanding on that a little, or link me to some material that you've found useful ?
Being poor is a thing you can dig yourself out of but it takes a huge amount of energy to do so. It's excruciating to not spend on comfort when you're uncomfortable but that's what it takes. Which is probably why so few people manage to "pull themselves up by their boot straps"
What's "comfortable" to a person choosing an SUV as their third car because they already have a convertible and sedan is entirely different to someone stuck on public transportation, for example, who'd appreciate anything with a running engine.
Bicycle versus walking.
Single room apartment by yourself versus multi room apartment with roommates.
Choosing a dwelling versus living in a vehicle.
Eating tastier more expensive food versus cheaper, blander food.
It's comforts all the way down to living in an improvised shelter out in the wilderness.
This is why if you want to stop the cycle of poverty, you need to give people incentives to get off assistance and make it possible to succeed, instead of making it easier to stay on welfare. As humans, we will always take the easier route.
It also sad to think we've made it much easier for people to get on welfare and stay on welfare indefinitely. I have several friends who prefer to work just enough hours to get assistance, but not enough to actually get off of it. What does that say about our culture and society when people are content to live off the government instead of wanting to succeed and get out of poverty??
source: after college, I had several bouts of depression, was homeless for a stint and used government programs to get out of the hole I was in. It wasn't easy, but it gave me perspective on what its like to be really poor, and what it takes to get out of that hole.
You were able to do it, but some folks can't. The system doesn't help, and they don't know how. Some folks, in your situation, might have died. You were armed with a college education, which meant you had more opportunities than the local retail spot. Add a wife and/or children and/or severe health problems into the mix and it becomes much harder.
It's not guaranteed to be so by any means, though.
It's all so much "I don't even own a television" for the modern ear.
That's the point, actually. No article is for everyone.
Once you get past a certain point in wealth/income though, stuff becomes a burden rather than an aid. Realizing that you don't need much of the stuff you keep "just in case" is incredibly useful. Maybe the upper 40% in Western societies fall into that category? +/- 20%.
note: downvoted by mistake while copying the quote. Sorry about that!
Ironically, I probably should be some kind of liberal, but see myself more of a strict moderate. As a Chicagoan, I just saw my property tax rise thousands of dollars a year to pay for public sector union deals signed in the backroom in the 1980s by liberals with a "pass the problems onto the future" attitude. Now my generation is paying for boomer excess. Now "liking what I have" gets harder because I need to work harder to make up for that lost money. My wife and I just cancelled a trip and I'm shopping around for cheaper house insurance and other small things to save money. Considering we're going to be on the receiving end of further tax hikes, which leads to household cuts, how the hell can we even follow his "like what you have" advice? You guys are taking what I have!
I noticed the limousine liberal never talks about tax cuts, helping entrepreneurs, helping create jobs and prosperity, etc. They just seem to idolize poverty and taxing middle-class families and when we complain, they tell us to enjoy being poor. What a loathsome philosophy.
I'm not sure that this necessarily follows. What is the sense is there, let's say, of having a basement full of christmas decorations, far more than you have space in your home to put up? Or of having three 8-person dinner sets? Or of keeping clothes that you haven't worn in years? Like, the natural conclusion of having money isn't to just buy things for the sake of it, but that you can get what you need instead. Minimalism isn't just "have less", it's use less.
See I guess I'm technically a minimalist, but not really by choice - it was a necessity as I moved frequently, always by the skin of my teeth and on my last dollar. I'm "rich" insomuch that I have no outstanding debt (worked full time to pay for University, lived a very frugal lifestyle (lots of eggs+rice for a long time)).
It's really weird to me when a template for minimalists gets created, as if the only natural reason why you wouldn't want a lot of things is because you're rich enough to get them. I wasn't starving as I got more from jobs, but I also didn't immediately rush out to fill my apartment with crap once I had a tiny bit saved up.
> own as little as possible, for a clutter-free, minimalist lifestyle
is not
> keep your basement and your cupboards full of useless junk
It seems reasonable to keep one set of Christmas decoration, maybe one and a half if you don't want it to look the same every year, keep one 8-person dinner set for the three times a year you might need it. Occasionally go through your wardrobe to see if you still want to wear all your clothes, and give those away you don't want, but maybe keep two pieces that you never wear just because you like them.
A persons life is probably full of examples like this, where it's reasonable to keep items that aren't exactly useful every day, or even every month.
These things add up and come to be called clutter, just maybe because they're many pieces, even though they all have their purpose.
And don't get me wrong, there is absolutely junk that's too much, and that one probably doesn't need to keep.
But in the end this minimalist idea always seems a bit juvenile to me, where when confronted with complexity, the solution is to throw everything out instead of organizing it, recognizing that there aren't perfect systems of organization and managing to live with a small bit of actual clutter, but at the same time being able to actually host some friends coming over for dinner or fix something that's broken without first having to procure a screwdriver.
There are many ways to do this. The easiest I found is moving away from toxic environments which, for me (it's personal; other people have different experiences I guess), are cities. You can get everything 'same day', you see many people 'having things' and 'having better lives than you have' (perceived) around you. And a lot of people are showing off their things you don't have; sports cars, new boobs, latest smartphone and so on. And that, even if you don't do it consciously, builds on stress levels, on top of the stress that you 'have to do stuff' otherwise you cannot pay for your tiny, very expensive apartment. Most people I know (exclusively living in cities) don't even dare to invite people in their homes unless they have stuff to show off in there minuscule city dwellings of E800k.
In my village people are down to earth, no-one shows off, you get a villa + pool + huge garden for a fraction of what you had in the city and you can survive there for a very long time with very little money because it is much cheaper AND there is a barter economy as well (I fix old computers for people and get food for instance).
I would never go back. I think a lot of younger people (me in my younger years) think they cannot live without the 'liveliness' of the city while burning themselves out. Not sure about the numbers obviously but most my friends have since moved and everyone regrets not doing it earlier.
Edit: rereading I notice my negative tone about city dwellings; that's because I cannot imagine / phantom that anyone would want to live in a cramped apartment ever and definitely not for that price. While I did when I was in my 20s and I was convinced I would never leave. But I was wrong; in hindsight I was just scared. Once we did try (my wife being a HUGE ex-city living fan, far more than I was) we literally turned 180deg.
Social circle; most people here live on the coast which is what you would expect of Spain as per expats and tourism which is what we really don't fancy; most 'beach and sun' people seem to dislike the mountains, at least driving up them. So we are left with people who do and that seem to be people with a same-ish mindset as us; entrepreneurs and generally educated people. Our village is a steaming pile of social when you want it and if you don't, you just go home. Next to that, ofcourse, we have a part of our social lives on internet, which works fine for people who don't mind typing. I met some of my now best friends online (via entrepreneur and tech communities) and we have better discussions than I usually have in person via text chat.
We did not save up; both of us being entrepreneurs, we just left. We sold the stuff we had left in NL after a few years later.
20-something here, living in a 50 m² flat. I can't relate. It's the opposite for me: I would be rather scared about having to maintain a whole house. If I had to make a change, I would rather downsize, but I would have to get rid of a lot of junk first...
That's the first time I hear about that though; most 20somethings I know, even in cities, dream of larger, preferably free-standing, places (in the city possibly).
First, you better get good enough internet to work, and that's extremely dependent on the village. In my favorite one, for instance, high up on a mountain in eastern Asturias, the best connections are ancient DSL. Megabytes a second? Gigabit? Nope.
Then, there's work and personal networking. Getting a new job in my American suburb is easy. There's meetups, local conferences... all of that is gone in the village, where I'd probably be the only programmer. Being limited to just remote jobs adds quite a bit of insecurity.
The large houses with land take a whole lot of work. For instance, in that village, my mother keeps a large village, what in Asturias would call a 'Casa de Indianos'. It requires year around help for cleaning and groundskeeping.
You also need to be in the villagers' good graces: The smaller the place, the more isolated you'll be if you are not exactly like everyone else. This is already a problem in small Spainish cities, which feel a lot like villages. The larger the city, the more likely it is to find people that are a lot like you, for almost any definition of you. If you don't like your social circle, you can find another! Also, hope that you found a spouse while you were in a city, because village dating pools are pretty shallow in comparison.
In my experience, that toxic environment you mention has little to do with cities in general, and a lot to do with people well off, especially in Spain. I was born and raised there, and I sure couldn't stomach it. I disliked it enough I put an entire ocean in between.
Here in the US, I have seen similar things from high society circles: When looking for a good school for my son, I found that most of the top private schools are full of those social games I remember from my childhood. But the city is more than big enough that I could just choose a different school, full of kids of engineers and scientists as opposed to lawyers and doctors, and just not participate in those social games, or have to expose my son to them.
Not finding a job in a city is far worse imho. But ofcourse, it is far easier to find one if there are ones you are qualified for. Our goal however was to never need a job, never have to sit in an office and to never have to commute to work. No matter what happens. I will never stop working nor will my wife (until our minds or we are dead) but we don't have to do what we do; we have the freedom here to just to almost stop working for N years and read books in the sun, working a few hours a week to have money for food etc; our brewery (bootstrapped completely with 2nd hand materials and our own work) makes enough for that by now. Most people in cities cannot do that unless they are quite rich (and/or own their house which is paid off/inherited).
It is not for all and we're not married to Spain; we'll probably move on. Not having kids was a decision of us that makes that easier as well.
> the best connections are ancient DSL. Megabytes a second? Gigabit? Nope.
That's with being happy with what you have, right? :) If you are a programmer, like me, what do you need a fast connection for? I never needed one.
> The large houses with land take a whole lot of work.
Well you can get something smaller ofcourse if you like that (we have something small; still is bigger than our apartment in Amsterdam). Doesn't require too much tbh.
For the rest; I am foreign here which might be a difference from your experience. We will always be foreign so we don't get into that good graces stuff. They find us weird anyway. We have some local friends (Spanish, born and raised) and they don't have that either. But yes, the elderly all hate eachother and we just are friendly but as we are not from Spain we don't really get treated in the same way I guess?
I was listening to his audio-book and in the end he tells his story where he gave all of his money away (I think it was like 95% of the money away to create an institution for up and coming artists). It's just truly inspiring.
obs: please, come to brazil.