Hacker News Reader

Comment by tapanjk | Hacker News Reader

I consider this problem to be similar to moving homes. When you move, you discover a bunch of stuff that you are no longer using and this presents an opportunity to get rid of those things. You also discover things that you have not been using for a while but now that you are reminded, you would like to start using again. In any case, a move can to be a mindful activity that results in a better setup for you in your new home/machine than it is in the current one, and also an opportunity to curate your belongings and restructure/reorganize where necessary. Get rid of cruft, tidy things up, reorganize, and restart!

View on HN

The Minimalists movement talks about this a lot. The idea is that you pack everything you own into labeled boxes and for 3 months, every time you need X you first think about if you really need X or not, and if you do you unpack. After 3 months you throw out everything that is still packed.

For this reason every few months I start with a clean OS install and for a few days I add what I need, while also taking some time to evaluate other options if needed.

While I'm a big fan of minimalization (minimizing?), it must have some exceptions. If you live in places with very distinct seasons, then you will have some items that stay packed away for 6+ months before you need them. You can't just throw out your winter clothes. Sure you can layer, but you still need the coat, gloves, and maybe even snow boots.

Same applies on your computer. Maybe you need Illustrator or Premiere once in a while, but not often. Some installations are time consuming or network-data intensive, so postponing them until the need arises can be detrimental (maybe when you need it, you are under time pressure... or you're somewhere remote without high bandwidth internet).

That said, reinstalling completely every few months is probably not a terrible idea, especially if you can automate most of it.

I'll bet there are very little minimalist wood and metalworkers then. Tools tend to get used infrequently, a couple of times per year, if that. But when you need them, you need them badly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com