
The Few Things I Own - _chu
http://www.marketmeditations.com/2016/10/owning-few-things.html
======
sandworm101
I don't believe it. I do believe that many of these minimalists are slightly
delusional.

They claim to not "own" things, but they are still using things. Sometimes
that means greater consumption. Not owning a towel is cool, until you start
drying yourself with paper towels at the gym (I saw this today). Not owning
tools is cool, if you are rich/well-connected enough to find someone to fix
all your stuff. I own a small mountain of tools, but also haven't had need of
a professional plumber or carpenter is years. When my office chair or laptop
breaks, I'm able to fix it myself. Reuse is better than recycling. Sometimes
that means owning tools. (I carry a set of screwdrivers even in my laptop
carry-on.)

And all the stuff in the OP looks far too new. It doesn't show much wear and
tear. So either it isn't being used, or these things are being replaced too
soon. I own many shirts. Some are shiny and new. I wear those when I want to
look good. I have other shirts for daily use. Eventually the shiny ones become
daily shirts. I own more shirts, but I consumer fewer because I find uses for
shirts that a minimalist would throw away prematurely. That makes me the
better minimalist because, over the years, I will consumer far fewer.

~~~
kornish
To some, the point of minimalism isn't about minimizing consumption - it's
about minimizing the cognitive and emotional upkeep that comes with owning
things. That mindset is compatible with buying new stuff more frequently if
you shed the old.

~~~
jawarner
Minimalism makes sense for traveling, though otherwise it seems like more work
to constantly borrow and rent things.

~~~
aaachilless
Minimalism just means keeping close to some minimum. It can make sense in any
context, the minimum just changes.

------
cko
I threw out everything I owned. But that is not minimalism. Minimalism is when
I can throw out the thoughts in my head. \- James Altucher

~~~
daveguy
That is a great concept. Did he achieve this? Is there a follow up on how to
throw out all the thoughts?

~~~
csbrooks
"Here is a list of the 10 thoughts I kept in my head, after throwing all the
others out."

~~~
Y201K
"Just give me your e-mail address and subscribe to my podcast."

~~~
cko
Haha. They (bloggers, gurus) are all like that. But I really appreciate his
writing style.

------
bshimmin
I've never really understood this argument: "I'll own very few clothes
because..." _This saves me from worrying about 'outfits'_

Are there really people who are so wracked with indecision about their
sartorial choices that they'd rather just... not make any?

(The whole Steve Jobs single outfit thing was obviously just an affectation.)

~~~
mattnewton
Obama also has commented on his choice to have only one kind of suit. I have a
few friends who do the same. Not saying that it makes you Obama or Steve but
it isn't uncommon to optimize that part of life away once you have a suitable
outfit that looks good.

~~~
chris_7
[http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/media/images/77245000/jpg...](http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/media/images/77245000/jpg/_77245786_aptopixobama_logi.jpg)

Unless he just means "two button, notch lapel", but that's not really one kind
of suit.

~~~
mattnewton
That is funny actually because people made a big deal about it, so when you
are the president and have people paying attention to what you wear that gives
you another reason to just stick to one good choice. My source was this
article, maybe Obama doesn't always follow his own advice:
[https://www.fastcompany.com/3026265/work-smart/always-
wear-t...](https://www.fastcompany.com/3026265/work-smart/always-wear-the-
same-suit-obamas-presidential-productivity-secrets)

------
pmiller2
I am not a minimalist, but literally everything I own except my car fits
comfortably in a 12x15 room. There is plenty of space, and the closet is
nowhere near full. That's simple enough for me. :)

~~~
ASpring
I also find this to be a nicer balance while I'm not traveling.

If I can fit everything I own in a small compact car then I am happy with my
amount of belongings.

~~~
pmiller2
Hmm, I can move all my stuff except my furniture (probably in 2 trips to make
it easier) in a Honda Civic, but it doesn't all comfortably fit.

------
cup
Ah the luxury of having enough money to live a spartan life safely, knowing if
you ever need anything you can just buy it.

Not so useful for people who can't afford to keep buying socks , eat out every
single night or live a travelling lifestyle.

~~~
dougmwne
That's a very fair point. This is probably a lifestyle for someone who'd
otherwise be living on middle class tech worker wages. It's for people who
have the luxury to choose their lifestyle. In no way do I view his backpack
and duffel as as a solution to poverty.

Then again, I see your comment pretty frequently in response to minimalism.
Maybe because it can look like a vow of poverty, but really is not even close.

------
xyzzy123
Maybe the total "stuff" burden should be calculated as:

amount of stuff owned * amount you care about it

Owning a small number of things you fetishise seems not so different than
having a pile of crap that you don't care about at all.

The "owning less stuff" movement seems to have a lot more traction where rents
are high and space is constrained. It seems to me that people tend to produce
moral justifications for what are simply practical constraints.

~~~
eiriklv
For me it's about lessening the mental taxation that often comes with the
added responsibility of owning things. Mostly from giving you more choices and
more things to tend to or care about (even if subconscious). Having to decide
what to wear, what to eat for dinner or what to buy at the grocery store might
seem like trivial things, but when all of these small things are compounded
they end up consuming a large part of your mental energy. Owning less things
is just one effort to free up that mental energy to be able to use it
elsewhere.

Edit: wording

------
lifeformed
I used to do this, but then I started to get into cooking. Cookware weighs you
down quite a bit...

It's nice doing this when travelling, while also having a home base. I have a
lightweight setup for short trips, and a bigger one for longer trips (music
production gear that all fits in a oversize check-in bag).

~~~
dougmwne
What good is cookware if you have no kitchen? If you rent a furnished place
with a kitchen there's a reasonable chance it'll have the cookware you need.
If you have a permanent residence then the cookware needed to create thousands
of dishes could fit in a single cupboard.

~~~
lifeformed
Well, once you get into it as a hobby, you want to get your own specific
cookware, and the gadgets start adding up. A dutch oven, pressure cooker,
mixer, wok, cast iron pans, stock pots, etc all start to add up and you have
to commit to having some home-base eventually.

------
rtpg
Does this guy not wash his clothes? I can't imagine a shirt being used 3 days
in a row at the gym not smelling awful.

I'm also a bit fascinated at going out of your way to buy shirts half-off,
then buying a 12-inch macbook. If you only own a couple things, why not just
get the thing directly?

Though maybe this is one of those "the richest people are the stingiest"
things

I am super fascinated by minimalism as a concept though, especially when the
rubber hits the road. What do you do for weddings, for example? How can you
mesh minimalism with trying not to waste things (disposable toiletries are a
bit of a waste).

Bit OT, but I remember some guy who went minimalist after the macbook air came
out. Like just shirts, MBA, and a kindle. I remember the blog being pretty
popular in tech circles, does anyone know what I'm thinking about?

~~~
rosser
The shirt is merino wool. It's magical stuff. As my top level comment said, I
have the same shirt. I've worn it similarly. It truly hasn't stunk, no matter
how long I've worn it, or how long it's gone between washings (not, granted,
that I've pushed it; I think, at worst, it's gone a couple weeks between
washings, being worn perhaps half that time).

~~~
paulcole
Yeah, nthing merino. Amazing as long as you hang dry between wearings. The
thicker the better, even in warm weather (thin merino can wear holes pretty
quickly).

~~~
rosser
> _thin merino can wear holes pretty quickly_

True story. I'm wearing my Icebreaker merino hoodie right now, and have a cat
who likes to drape herself across my shoulders. Holes ensue.

------
nojvek
The minimalism he talks about still largely depends on other people helping
out. I'm far more interested in decentralized minimalism. Growing your own
food, cooking at home, building your own tiny house, solar panels, composters
e.t.c

Like Gandhi says "be self sufficient"

~~~
sopooneo
The tiny house thing boggles my mind. Where I grew up, I had lots of friends
that lived in them. The rich kids made fun of them, called the "trailer
trash".

------
chris_7
I don't see how that chalk bag can be useful without 1. climbing shoes and 2.
a harness and/or a crashpad. I guess he boulders barefoot at an indoor gym?

~~~
_chu
Thanks for reading! I don't climb much anymore; the chalk is for ring work and
barbell lifts.

~~~
chris_7
Have you had trouble fitting your legs into Climbers if you're lifting heavy
enough to need chalk? (I almost exclusively wear SDs)

------
hprotagonist
A chalkbag but no shoes? What are you, tech Henry Barber[0]?

[0]: [http://enormocast.com/episode-39-henry-barber-enough-
said/](http://enormocast.com/episode-39-henry-barber-enough-said/)

------
tjic
I appreciate the aesthetic of minimalism, and if it's pragmatic for a
particular person, more power to them.

There is, however, an underlying (but not specifically articulated) article of
faith in the Silicon Valley / news.yc / startup / digital nomad culture that a
minimalist life is somehow more moral or sophisticated or something.

This meme goes at least as far 2400 years ago when Diogenes the Cynic lived in
a barrel.

Much of this pride in minimalism is coupled w a only thinly veiled disgust
with how "bloated" and "gross" other people are. I've seen blog posts, coffee
table books, etc. that intentionally juxtapose pictures of a virtuous, thin,
happy minimalist with a unhappy, overweight person and their tons of
possessions.

e.g. the front cover of this

[https://www.amazon.com/Material-World-Global-Family-
Portrait...](https://www.amazon.com/Material-World-Global-Family-
Portrait/dp/0871564300)

seems almost designed to make us recoil from the "wasteful" American family.

The problem I have with this stance is two-fold:

(1) there is no inherent reason why it's wasteful or gross to own a lot of
things. Sure, some people purchase junk too fill a void inside them. But other
people drink to excess, sleep around, or travel to the ends of the earth for
the same reason. Just because some people in category X are motivated this way
doesn't mean that everyone in category X is.

(2) much of the self-congratulation on minimalism is really just disguised
self-congratulation for being upper-middle class and having the "right"
preferences. A lot of people would tell you that there is no reason that rock-
and-roll is inherently better than Indian pop music or African whatever - it's
just different cultures with different norms. And yet many of these same
people would tell you that their upper-middle-class Silicon Valley lifestyle
_IS_ better than, say, that of some family living in the suburbs of Texas. The
fact that the minimalist Silicon Valley is both enabled by and required by
very high incomes is ignored. (What I mean by this: living in SF / Silicon
Valley means that you CAN'T have a huge kitchen or garage full of stuff, and
it also means that you have the means to substitute other people's capital and
labor for your own.)

The family living in suburbs in Oklahoma might have a two car garage, but they
might also have two rolling tool chests in those garages, so that they can do
all the auto maintenance that they need. The minimalist living in SF instead
might take Ubers.

How is the "gross" profusion of junk in the former case less virtuous than the
minimalism of second case?

This leads me to my third point: there is no possibility of true minimalism:
there is only the ability to outsource the ownership of things to someone
else. The SF loft minimalist who only owns two plates and two forks actually
owns a fractional share in dozens of industrial kitchens and hundreds of food
delivery trucks; they're just kept "off the books". Out of sight, out of mind.

A lot of people like to own things, for their own reasons. Some good, some
bad.

Be aware that when you read "ooh, minimalism good!" articles, you're reading
self-flattery. And that's fine - people are allowed to be fans of their own
economic class and lifestyle aesthetic.

...but such propaganda should not be consumed uncritically, or without
awareness of who and what is implicitly being denegrated by it.

~~~
grimoald
> (1) there is no inherent reason why it's wasteful or gross to own a lot of
> things

Really? Maybe I'm a bit naive, but nearly everything you own was produced and
transported by using natural resources and energy, and it will eventually lay
on a garbage heap occupying space. So every existing thing at least makes a
smaller or bigger contribution to environmental pollution and climate change.

~~~
tjic
> everything you own was produced and transported by using natural resources
> and energy,

True.

But natural resources and energy are both effectively infinite.

Further, just because an item USED these things does not mean that it WASTED
these things.

A lot of the minimalist aesthetic is about minimizing the use of things that,
objectively, there's no particular reason to minimize the use of.

------
bikamonki
Always, always, always ask yourself the following: if everyone else in the
world would do what you do, would the world still work?

Yes? Ok, keep going. Maybe you have something to teach.

No? Change, you are wrong.

~~~
majewsky
I see where you're going, and I like the general direction, but I won't agree
with "No? -> You are wrong."

A major strength of human society is its diversity and individual
specialization. Everyone _needs_ a different job, so that all jobs get done.
If I imagine a work where everyone does the same job, it will result in mayhem
because other important jobs don't get done. But that doesn't mean that every
job is wrong.

~~~
eloisant
That's the thing about these people who don't own much more than a MacBook
Pro. They talk like they're some kind of buddhist monk with their minimal life
but in reality they're relying on the consumerist society (dining out, using
only disposable stuff, etc) and have a much bigger environmental impact that
if they owned some cookware to cook their own food for example.

------
bbcbasic
Any Greek-statue wielding maximalists here?

~~~
ashark
It's easy to be a "maximalist" compared to this. Have a spouse, have kids.
Cook. Have pretty much any hobby. Maintain a house (tools, lawn junk). Have
people over sometimes who expect you to, you know, _have things like a normal
person does_.

That said, if I were young, unattached, and traveling a lot, _of course_ I'd
live like this. It doesn't even seem that special or surprising to me to live
this way under those circumstances.

~~~
bshimmin
There's a hilariously ridiculous piece from Dustin Curtis that mixes this
minimalist approach with "only having the best of everything":
[https://dcurt.is/the-best](https://dcurt.is/the-best)

I quite like to imagine him having a few people over for dinner: "Oh, sorry,
I'm afraid my indescribably perfect Japanese flatware costs $8,000 for a fork
so I could only buy two. The rest of you can just use your hands, but you're
welcome to admire my fork for a moment if you wish to..."

~~~
erroneousfunk
Man, that is some ugly flatware.

I have some 10 year old flatware that I picked up from a yard sale in college.
I'm pretty sure it's just as dependable and useful as his...

While I completely understand the maniacal pursuit of "the best" (I've
developed obsessions with mattresses, digital cameras, and shaving razors at
various points in my life) deeply caring about every single one of your
possessions seems way more exhausting than it's worth.

------
simdiab
"I wore this to the gym 3 days in a row. No smell. No itch."

"In a pinch, I can wash things in the shower too."

"I've worn the merino tee for ~10 days straight with no smell though.﻿"

"As a (fragrant) side note, I've haven't used soap or shampoo for two years."

I hate to break it to you dude, but I guarantee that you smell to high heaven
and you've just gotten used to it.

~~~
mercer
While the gym thing seems a bit of a stretch, some people just have less of a
smell than others.

------
CalChris
When I was 20, most of what I had was books and they'd fit in 2 or 3 boxes.
When I moved, I'd pack 'em up and mail them to myself bookrate.

------
Koshkin
In theory, one shouldn't need to get rid of things physically, one could do it
"mentally" instead. But that turns out to be extremely hard in practice.
Still, the true minimalism is just being less concerned with material things
rather than being constantly concerned with their presence around you (or even
in your "possession").

------
dougmwne
I recognize this stuff and the impulse to tell people. It looks well optimized
and easy. I have no doubt you live comfortably.

Right now I've been moving away from the precious few strategy and over to the
durably disposable. My idea is to one day forget everything I own in a coffee
shop, shrug, and rebuy immediately for a day's pay.

------
pvg
There's something to be said for documenting one's experiences and practical
tips for traveling light for the benefit of others. Wrapping them in some sort
of pretense of a moral philosophy seems gratingly contradictory and tone deaf,
though.

"The Zuckerbergs, Bransons, hedge fund managers of the world are wearing the
same few things, eating the same few things and trying to work in the same few
places. [...] My first week on the road, my old laptop broke. I had work to
do, so I went to the first Apple store I could find in Thailand and bought
this guy."

Ok, great but this is not in any conceivable way, as a goal or in practice,
any of this:

"Practice in poverty. Routinely exposing yourself to fear, stress and hardship
in a stable environment to bulletproof your mind for when the proverbial shit
hits the proverbial fan."

~~~
ashark
> "Practice in poverty. Routinely exposing yourself to fear, stress and
> hardship in a stable environment to bulletproof your mind for when the
> proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan."

Yeah, I'm not sure this is what Seneca had in mind. More like visiting the
soup kitchen as a diner while wearing clothes you got for free.

~~~
pvg
It's a little known fact that when Nero asked Seneca to commit suicide, Seneca
consoled himself by going to the nearest Apple Store.

------
faebi
I wouldn't be happy with the clothes decision. I like it to have clothes for 3
weeks so I only need to wash every 3 Weeks. Also we got 6 washing machines in
my building, so totally I spend about 30 Minutes for washing and drying and
wait 2 hours for it to finish in my flat every 3 weeks. Also I found my
favourite brands for T-Shirts, underwear and jeans which always have the same
size cut. So buying clothes once a year is also a nobrainer, I only select the
color which is easily done.

The style decision is also none, a good fitting jeans matches any t-shirt,
shirt and hoodie.

------
bryanp
I'm always fascinated by how people choose to live while traveling, so thanks
for sharing! Curious though how you handle food. Do you prepare your own or
eat out? Judging from the lack of utensils, etc I imagine the latter.

~~~
abgawrv
If he's in Thailand (which I'm assuming from him having a Thai Macbook), then
it's actually much cheaper and more convenient to eat out, at least anywhere
outside Bangkok. Same situation in Cambodia -- I initially attempted to cook a
lot here but gave up since it's cheaper to eat the food in my alley and around
the market near my apartment and it tastes better than anything I can cook.

------
rosser
I bought (among other things) the Wool & Prince merino button-down for a hand-
luggage-only around-the-world trip last year. It is every bit as amazing as he
suggests, and then some.

~~~
bergie
Same here (I spend roughly half of the year on the road). The shirt is not
super durable (was too frayed to be presentable after maybe 250 wears), but
amazing enough that I immediately got a new one.

------
ams6110
No toothbrush?

~~~
_chu
The small toiletries I just buy on arrival. As a (fragrant) side note, I've
haven't used soap or shampoo for two years.

~~~
knowaveragejoe
So what do you do, just rinse with water?

~~~
tzs
Generally, the only places that may regularly need soap are the armpits and
groin. So why do we think we need to soap up all over every day?

The same reason we do a lot of unnecessary things: advertising. Soap
manufacturers spent many years promoting the idea that unless you bathed daily
using soap everywhere you would be more smelly than a skunk and people would
shun you.

That's also why we use mouthwash daily, by the way. Listerine was first sold
to consumers as a floor cleaner. To boost sales the manufacturer invented the
word "halitosis" (because that makes it sound much more serious than "bad
breath") and promoted Listerine as the way to prevent it using scary ads
proclaiming that you might not even know you have it but your friends will
know. It worked, and in under a decade revenue went up by nearly two orders of
magnitude.

There's an excellent "Adam Ruins Everything" episode on hygiene that goes over
these things and more.

~~~
zeveb
> Soap manufacturers spent many years promoting the idea that unless you
> bathed daily using soap everywhere you would be more smelly than a skunk and
> people would shun you.

I have had occasion to be near people who believe as you do on a regular
basis, and yes — they have a strong odour. I do not find it pleasant, although
I suppose it is not completely and totally _unpleasant_ either. It is
definitely present, and not something I would choose to invite into my own
personal space.

And whatever one calls bad breath, it can be so bad as to cause one to retch.

I won't propose that modern washing & mouthwash measures are the best
preventatives to these issues, but I do insist that these are actual issues.

------
thinkMOAR
"The pen and paper, well... that's the most important thing I own."

Without explaining why a cellphone or that thai notebook wouldn't work there
is a bit odd while claiming its the most important thing you own. If it's the
most important, i think it deserves a few lines on why.

~~~
rco8786
Especially since he _also_ describes his Macbook as his "most important item".

Neat writeup though.

------
gexla
In the Philippines, I could add another item to the list. In certain areas,
you don't have trash services. When people want to get rid of something, they
burn it. Whenever I buy something, I put great thought into how I eventually
get rid of it.

------
gandolfinmyhead
macbooks are not minimalistic in any sense of the word, the concept, it's
utilities, etc. Not sure how this would be a part of anyone's minimalistic
arsenal.

~~~
combatentropy
Apple products have always been minimalistic. Minimalism has nothing to do
with being cheap. Minimalism is doing things like removing the floppy disk
drive at the turn of the century, carving a laptop out of a single piece of
aluminum, or removing all jacks except one or two.

Besides, it doesn't matter. The writer isn't saying that any one of his
possessions is minimalistic. He's saying that his number of possessions is
minimalistic.

------
developer2
> Pop-ups are annoying, but that's the point.

Indeed they are; so annoying, in fact, that the tab containing your webpage
gets closed before I get to read the first word of your article.

~~~
rdeboo
On iphone, there is no way to close the popup. The only way out is the back
button.

~~~
cookingrobot
I was going to give up but found a way to pinch zoom to get the close button
visible. I guess I hacked my way to the news. :)

