
The Clutter Cure's Illusory Joy - RV86
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/opinion/the-clutter-cures-illusory-joy.html
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o_____________o
What did I just read? Is this the entirety of her argument?

> It’s consoling to think that, beneath all these distractions, we’ll discover
> our shining, authentic selves, or even achieve a state of “mindfulness.” But
> I doubt it.

How many fluff articles can be summarized as "this trend is on an upswing, but
I am skeptical"?

As far as material possessions leading to unhappiness, you can find that value
system at the core of nearly every major spiritual doctrine, predating
Christianity. There's also a massive body of psyche theory around behavioral
economics, and the reasons experiential purchases are more satisfying.

This is an eternally well-tread topic that can't be dismissed by a lazy writer
confusing her contrarian doubt with reasoned criticism.

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onnoonno
What do you mean by 'experiential purchases'?

~~~
gumby
Typically 'experiential purchases' is used to indicate purchasing an
experience, like (as in the article) a trip to Bhutan rather than, say, a new
car.

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bitexploder
I will have to disagree here. I vigorously eliminate clutter because I believe
it has a definitive impact. Having a bunch of "things" in my field of vision
and in my house makes it harder to find the few physical things I really need.
I suppose you could argue it isn't clutter, but organization, that is
important. But clutter is the enemy of organization.

The more decision fatigue I can eliminate the more I can focus on what I need.
All of the other existential pains the author suffers from, I do not. I think
"de-cluttering" is an activity many people undertake for a variety of reasons.
For me it is all about eliminating decision fatigue and making it easy for me
to accomplish the real work I want to accomplish.

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davidgerard
1\. Look at your tech pile.

2\. Discard everything you have not used in five years. This will halve the
pile.

3\. Discard everything you have not used in one year. This will halve it
again.

No, you won't put it on eBay. No, the special case it's for won't happen. No,
"generally useful" is another term for "not actually useful", and "potentially
useful" is another term for "not even actually useful".

~~~
chazu
_Looks at big stack of C64 hardware in the corner and shifts uncomfortably_

I'm reading Kondo's book right now, and at first I thought it was going to be
a wash for me, but her criterion for keeping or discarding things is actually
more subtle than "have you used it in the last year?" In her words, you should
ask yourself "does this bring me joy?" This may sound like a cop-out, but for
people like myself - people who have a lot of hobbies, projects and
interests...it makes the problem more approachable.

We'll see where I'm at in six months, though.

~~~
davidgerard
When I applied that rule, I _really_ needed to apply that rule. Threw out six
broken laptops I finally had to admit to myself I'd never get around to
fixing, a zillion obsolete-to-obsolete converter cables, two bags of clothes
that had fitted me ten years and 10kg ago ... Blog rant about it:
[http://reddragdiva.dreamwidth.org/554439.html](http://reddragdiva.dreamwidth.org/554439.html)

I am tempted to apply the "Does this bring me joy?" rule to my stuff again.

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RV86
I've often found myself clearing clutter as the most productive way to
procrastinate, telling myself that I'll do better work once I'm organized.
Unfortunately, that's not usually the true outcome, so in some ways I'm
fooling myself and not really addressing the cause of my demotivation. I
appreciated that this article (rigorous or not) challenged me to take a harder
look at my behaviors.

