Massive personal wealth is the new minimalism.
(Post altered because poster was too damned late in posting.)
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Min-Maxing.
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My friend Helen was like this except she admitted to being homeless. Keeping things meant dragging them around all the time, a giveaway that she was homeless, which is a liability since she travelled on being perceived as not-homeless. Though sometimes she found places to hide things.
She dreamed of a giant tv set, and having the privacy to be naked.
People can get obsessive, so yes, they can keep too much stuff, but it means others can have too little. Itās not the stuff, but the mentality behind it. āMinimalā can be wasteful, having to spend full price because you didnāt keep something around.
We see these āexperimentsā on a regular basis. They work as experiments, precisely because itās not forced. But then you read there was a book planned from the start, so was it about change or writing a book? Thereās a level of removing oneself from the situation if one is writing a book, or experimenting. So the experience isnāt reality. I can spend minimal amount of money one week, but in part because I know it will end.
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I donāt understand all of the contempt and disdain. Heās doing what makes him happy. He doesnāt say that you should do it too. Quite the opposite.
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On the one hand āHow very unobservant and tone deaf.ā
However Iād rather the rich fight over who can make do with the least amount of personal stuff as opposed to buying up entire city blocs/hundreds of acres of land and tying it up as a do nothing playground/monument to self indulgence.
I would like at least one of these idle rich to preface their blog with āI find happiness in this lifestyle, but that joy is mostly because I know at the end of the day I can get whatever i want or just check into a nice hotel. Millions of people just in america and many hundreds of millions more donāt have that. So while I enjoy how i liveā¦ I donāt want to romanticize their struggle as anything other than what it is, absolutely heartbreaking.ā
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Is that a hobo or a bum? I know there was a hierarchy, but I canāt remember the definitions. It seemed to depend on viewpoint to determine which was better.
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No but he wrote 2000 words about it. Also as mentioned itās kind of romanticising homelessness and itās not minimalist at all if you have large bank account.
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As it should, bookstores arenāt libraries.
Yet arenāt books a notorious cause of not being minimalist? (Not that thereās anything wrong with having lots of books around.)
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Youāre old.
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Thatās a fine question to ask! The answer is no. If we are paid to run content, we will make it clear that it is a sponsored post.
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You seem like a smart person. You should email James and tell him how you think he should live his life, and how he should write about it.
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I know someone who made a shit load of money and then basically back packed for several years. Had a lot of fun. Last I heard he is starting up one of those crime scene/suicide clean up businesses.
I am the first to admit that I have too much stuff. If someone gave me a fair value for a lot of it I would sell it. Otherwise my problem is I just am too lazy to sell, but to cheap to just give it away (though I do give stuff as presents to people.)
But anyway, this guy has a nice set up, I guess. But in the real world, we have to go to work. We need a place to sleep to get our 8hrs in so we can get to work the next day. Even if somehow I could live off the kindness of strangers and odd jobs and back pack around, that wonāt last for ever. That computer, phone and ipad? What happens when they break/just become too old? Macbook pros are sweet and super light, but also hella expensive.
Anyway - possessions donāt equal happiness. Itās more being happy with what you DO have. If you are happy with just 3 things, great. If it takes 20 things, great! Some people are never happy with any of their things. So a poor person can have a few items and be happy as a pig in mud - or constantly yearning for something more. A rich person can be the same way.
And more importantly though, for overall happiness in life, it seems that experiences actually trump things.
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Also - more or less have to post this about rich people and possessions:
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Absolutely. By no means am I discounting this guyās journey. I would dearly love to spend an indefinite amount of time backpacking through parts unknown, experiencing interesting things, taking photos, writing a journal, and having all of a half-dozen possessions to think about. Unfortunately, even with my life pared down to what I have on my back, I still have to worry about food, supplies, medical needs, and where Iāll sleep. And for that, my resources would run out pretty quickly. To do what heās doing, you really need a cushion, or it wonāt last long.
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This is how I understand it: the dude doesnāt like a lot of junk around bothering him. He has his reasons and draws some lines. He writes about it. People feel like theyāre being judged or told theyāre somehow wrong or immoral - by a stranger, no less. They then vent it out on a comment board. And with any luck they buy some products at the website store. Balance in the universe is restored.
I assume heās got a large sum of cash and a debit card. In a sense this allows him to rent for a short-term whatever he needs instead of having an apartment or house to store things that are too expensive to rent short-term. Basically he has enough liquid cash and investments to treat the world like his house. It can be difficult sometimes but if you have the money to get a personal accountant and lawyer to write you letters it will all be ok.
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I think living minimally must be hard. Itās not necessarily the not owning of things as most would focus on but the lack of personal space and having a constant, reliable place one can retreat to. Granted even these things are not concepts that bring happiness but i think they create stability that most people like to have.
I think i would enjoy traveling, writing and experiencing life as it comes. But to a point, after a while itād be exhausting. Still we all choose to live our lives differently and i think itās cool for someone to be able to do what they want wherever they want.
I still wonder how well off the author is. Might not be rich but well enough that money is not a huge problem, otherwise heād just be some homeless dude.
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Because of the millions of people living a āminimalist lifestyleā by circumstances rather than choice. People who lack the resources to think of their lives outside of daily activities necessary for bare survival. Heās a tourist through poverty rather than someone who would understand it. Like someone who talks about sex but whose only experiences is whacking off to the internet.
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This does smell like a budding book. I have never heard of nor met this person prior to this BoingBoing post, so I donāt know if he is an author, but itās a safe bet that he is.
Heās a rich guy playing at not having any type of possessions within close reach. But the reality is even though he doesnāt keep stuff around, he can always pick up whatever is necessary. If he needs a place to stay, luxury hotel. If he needs food, he can go to any restaurant.
Its saying, āI donāt carry very much. Just the clothes off my back and these two small pieces of plastic: a bank card and a credit cardā.
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