
Minimalism is not a viable intellectual strategy - gandalfgeek
http://vivekhaldar.tumblr.com/post/2525332092/minimalism-is-not-a-viable-intellectual-strategy
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wheels
The author seems to be ignorant of the fact that minimalism predates geeks
discovering it. Minimalism has been prominent in art, music, linguistics,
literature, philosophy, etc. for much of the last 50-100 years and no doubt
has reared its head many times over the preceding centuries.

~~~
siglesias
Regardless of the semantics of what minimalism _is_ aesthetically, the author
is referring to the particular idea that creative types ought to have minimal
clutter environments to produce good work. The author countered this notion by
stating that many creative individuals, regardless of the "minimalism" of what
they produce, can have cluttered, messy work environments!

ex, minimalist composer Philip
Glass:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOM_YtP5f0U&t=0m50s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOM_YtP5f0U&t=0m50s)

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keiferski
He's confusing "physical" minimalism (having less physical stuff) with
asceticism (getting by with less/being exposed to less). He starts to draw
this distinction, but for some reason he doesn't quite understand it. His
entire argument falls apart as a result.

The cool thing about "physical minimalism" in the digital age is that my stuff
is digital -- I can have access to a huge variety of things, only when I need
them. I can have innumerable movies, on demand, whenever I want them. Compare
to 20 years ago, when I would have to actually own these physical VHS tapes
(and they would presumably be more difficult to navigate/organize).

This is important for his notion of creativity, too. Digitizing things lets
you more easily access a larger body of objects. If da Vinci had a computer,
he'd probably digitize a lot of his stuff too -- it would allow him to be
exposed to more things, more easily. Plus, he'd be able to travel more easily,
and new experiences are a HUGE part of creative thinking.

~~~
keiferski
On experiences and creativity:

[http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2010/sb20101...](http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2010/sb20101011_324657.htm)

>>>>>>> Psychologists have spent years trying to discover the answer to the
question: "What makes innovators different?" In one of the most thorough
examinations of the subject, Harvard researchers spent six years and
interviewed 3,000 executives to find out. According to the Harvard research,
the No.1 skill that separates innovators from noncreative professionals is
"associating"—the ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated
questions, problems, or ideas from different fields. The three-year Harvard
research project confirms what Jobs told a reporter 15 years earlier:
"Creativity is just connecting things."

This notion of making creative associations through seeking out new
experiences is worth exploring more closely, as it plays a significant role in
the way Steve Jobs has generated one innovative product after another, and
another, and another. Jobs is a classic iconoclast, one who aggressively seeks
out, attacks, and overthrows conventional ideas. And iconoclasts, especially
the successful ones, have an "affinity for new experiences," according to
esteemed Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Berns. >>>>>>

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bluesnowmonkey
What a straw man. Who are these supposed minimalist developers who read no
books, avoid the internet, and just sit on a mountain eating rice and coding
all day?

I recognize this minimalist movement too, and I participate in it somewhat,
but exposure to new ideas is not only compatible with it, it's essential!
Great developers go to meetups, read tech blogs, swim in the Github sea, and
maintain a balanced lifestyle. _Then_ maybe they go sit at bare desk with a
Macbook Air and fire up their minimalist code editor.

~~~
nhangen
I've seen it circulate in the meta blogging and lifestyle design blogging
circles, but not in development circles. It's hip in the same way that nomadic
lifestyle appears to be hip. Not based on the merits of the philosophy, but
because it sounds sexy.

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futuremint
Creativity is an internal endeavor. How your environment effects you
internally seems to be different for every single person. This article seems
to gloss over this fact.

However I do agree that minimalism is certainly a periodic style. "Everything
in moderation" (including moderation) is a motto I try to live by.

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1gor

       The typical creative professional is not a minimalist.
    

Do you want to be a 'typical creative professional'?

...or [http://www.everydayminimalist.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/09...](http://www.everydayminimalist.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/09/062b.jpg)

~~~
smanek
IIRC, that's when he just bought the mansion (which has long since been nearly
destroyed from neglect [1]).

Here's a more recent picture of his home office - which looks relatively
cluttered:
[http://allaboutstevejobs.com/pics/life/2004-2006/08-dianawal...](http://allaboutstevejobs.com/pics/life/2004-2006/08-dianawalker/lightbox-
iframe.html#3)

[1]:
[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/29/inside_steve_j...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/29/inside_steve_jobs_abandoned_jackling_mansion_photos.html)

~~~
Confusion
He may just have had bought that mansion at that time, but it wasn't
minimalist by accident.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/pacman3000/4042368287/>

As to your second point: minimalism and 'clutteredness' are independent
properties. From the photos, I think the office is still much more minimalist
than many other (home) offices you could find.

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joshrule
Minimalism isn't the problem here. Minimalism can be used a number of
different ways, and the author discusses only one of those ways - luddite
asceticism. I rarely encounter that attitude, though.

Instead, many of the better minimalists I've read cut back on most things so
that they can dig in extremely deeply with a few things. They want to be
extremely good at a few (2-5) things, and to do so, they sacrifice being
moderately good at a large number of things.

The author talks about great achievers soaking themselves in things, building
lots of connections, and building great ideas. This 'minimize to maximize'
approach does the same thing. It just tries to build connections where they
are most likely to be helpful. It understands that with our limited capacity,
we should be devoting as much as possible to the most important things in our
lives.

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davidhollander
> _My gripe is with the way they sell it as a way of life._

I think it is fair to classify minimalism as a way of life, because
simplification heuristics are intrinsically broad in scope. In other words, it
is not possible for minimalism to not be a way of life, because adding
information to specify the domain to which minimalism applies would be
decidedly unminimalistic.

If anyone is interested in real debate on this topic simply read the wiki on
Occam's Razor: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occams_razor>

I generally find myself in support of Einstein's Constraint:

> _Everything should be kept as simple as possible, but no simpler._

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whiskers
I only got through the first paragraph or so when I had to stop because the
font is almost unreadable in Chrome on Windows 7.

The descenders on letters are being clipped and it's too decorative to read
comfortably as a body font on screen.

~~~
cabalamat
Are you familiar with Readability? --
<http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/>

~~~
whiskers
I've heard of it - I prefer readability to be the standard choice for a
website though :)

------
Confusion

      Have you ever seen a clean, bare creative space?
    

The home of Steve Jobs. And since the entire essay hinges upon that sentence,
it just came crashing down completely.

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rimantas
An article full of non-sequiturs.

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shawnee_
I think the article is articulate and makes some good points. Mainly:
creativity is a process that feeds on, and thrives amid chaos / disorder /
complexity.

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richcollins
The most creative person that I've ever worked with is an uncompromising
minimalist.

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jsavimbi
As posted to a minimalist blog.

