

Minimalism: It Works - tnm
http://kirindave.tumblr.com/post/2544990560/minimalism-works

======
crux
I don't understand what people like KirinDave are referring to when they
discuss Minimalism. Anything beyond drill-down UX exercises like eliminating
information clutter in visual design seems to immediately break down. Assuming
we're talking about something more general than eliminating the widgets from
our blog sidebars... What ARE we talking about? I guess I could imagine it
going one step higher, into a campaign to stop ourselves from reading blogs
and Hacker News when we should be working, ie., the logical evolution of our
collective obsession with GTD and similar systems from a couple years ago: a
slightly doctrinaire insistence on techniques for productivity. Which is
great, especially if you're a 'knowledge worker' (I'm not).

But I still lose the plot when we start actually using the word big-M
'Minimalism', or when we start invoking Zen. Zen is many things: spiritual
practice, proto-psycho-exploration, a system of psychology, a system of ethics
and epistemology—but I'm not sure it has anything to do with anything that the
leading Neo-Minimalists have deemed worthy of inclusion into their morning
workflows. Keeping a blog, for one, is not a very Zen thing to do. In fact,
the practice of Zen is in part anathema to nearly every technique of thought
that a knowledge worker employs in his job. It's a refutation of the
construction of narrative, of pattern-recognition, of comprehension, and
finally of cognition. It's an attempt to obliterate our own understandings of
the world, to destroy our conceptions of objects, uses, signs, signifiers,
others and ourselves, to be replaced with pure being and hopefully compassion.
And it's DEFINITELY at odds with the all-inclusive rapid-fire content-
association that is at the heart of tumblr culture. But I don't see how the
practice of Zen has anything to do with the way one orders one's workspace, if
one never considers what one is doing with one's mind, or one's content. I
don't see what possible use, that is, it would be to invoke Zen and minimalism
when describing how we choose our text editors if we allow what we're writing
to remain entirely unconsidered.

Which is not to say that I think these Neo-Minimalists are a sort of religious
hypocrite for not practicing Zen in all walks of life. The people whose blogs
I see reflecting the practices of Neo-Minimalism seem like interesting,
intelligent people, writing about the same sort of thing we have been writing
for years: technology, culture, memes, funny videos, food, beer. I just don't
understand what they could possibly think all the fuss is about in any realm
beyond what window manager they've decided to use.

I've heard a couple people talk about getting rid of all the things they don't
use, which seems nice, too. But it's a housekeeping exercise. You can't
possibly expect me to believe that only having five shirts in your closet will
make you a different person, or even a different worker. What is the _there_
here? I haven't heard anyone discuss eating the same thing every day. Or
listening to the same music. Or paring down their vocabulary. What does one
do? What is there besides being able to create uninterrupted expanses of
negative space (which I concede are very nice) and then appreciating their
aesthetics?

~~~
nazgulnarsil
I mostly agree with you except for this "You can't possibly expect me to
believe that only having five shirts in your closet will make you a different
person, or even a different worker. "

stripping away everything that you don't actually use in your day to day life
has a remarkable psychological effect.

~~~
beoba
Those things you threw away also have a 'remarkable psychological effect' when
you need them.

"Where'd I put those snow chains?"

Possessions make life simpler.

~~~
closure
Possessions don't automatically make life simpler.

Possessions that you use regularly, value, and are worth more than the trouble
they bring you might make life simpler. Possessions that are merely things
you're storing "in case you need them", and are moving from one place to
another, certainly don't make your life simpler.

I've known many people (including myself) who have found themselves in a
position where they wanted or had to move and discovered in the process that
when it came down to it, they could happily live without half of the stuff
they had accumulated over the years. I did that in my most recent move, and a
year later I do not miss any of it, and am still getting rid of things (30+
computer science books recently, and am now moving onto the photography
equipment that just gather dust in the closet).

~~~
beoba
The few possessions I don't use regularly also happen to be the ones that are
the easiest to move. Not to mention these sorts of things tend to already be
in a box in my closet, practically packed and ready to go.

Aside from the negligible space they take up, they certainly aren't having a
negative effect on my everyday life, so removing them would have no tangible
benefit. In fact, their loss would deprive me of the artifacts of what's been
a fairly interesting life so far. Any bulky items (eg small appliances,
furniture) that would create any sort of hassle have already been given away
to friends who would find them useful.

But I'm not sufficiently self-absorbed to call this a 'movement'. In the words
of BSNYC^, it's just a matter of categorizing my things under 'Shit I Need'
and 'Shit I Play With'. There's nothing complicated about that.

^ [http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-smugness-
keeping...](http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-smugness-keeping-it-
to-minimum.html)

------
ksowocki
I was wondering when an article like this was going to show up on the HN front
page.

The follow-up article gets it right. Minimalism is at its core a "process of
prioritizing your life and working towards concrete goals without giving in to
distraction", NOT just blindly getting rid of stuff. It is immersion, but only
in one thing at a time. It is about reducing your tendancy to over-extend
yourself, and focusing on the things you really need, both intellectually and
physically.

Can we all just admit that the original article,
[http://vivekhaldar.tumblr.com/post/2525332092/minimalism-
is-...](http://vivekhaldar.tumblr.com/post/2525332092/minimalism-is-not-a-
viable-intellectual-strategy) , was just link-bait intended to elicit a
response and/or rise from the HN community? The original article contains so
little method to it's analysis and represents such a fundamental
misunderstanding of minimalism that it bears little water intellectually. Not
to be rude, but I'm surprised it made it to the front page.

~~~
billswift
"Minimalism" as it is described here is just a personal version of technocracy
- the arrogant belief that you actually know enough to produce explicit,
precise long-term plans. Kept under control, and used for shorter terms (say a
year detailed, and two more sort of general and subject to change as you learn
more) it can be useful; otherwise it often is just a personalized version of
the old Soviet "Five-Year Plans".

ADDED: Rereading this, I think I missed my point slightly; the problem with
minimalism as described here is that it locks you in too much to your current
plan; it reduces your flexibility to adjust your plans as you learn more about
your problem space.

~~~
KirinDave
You're free to change your priorities at any time. For example, I decided to
change aspects of my life so I could lose weight.

We need to be aware of value propositions and how they change. No one is
saying you have to lock yourself in stone. Indeed, the minimalist approach
increases your flexibility; you've invested the minimum to reach your goal, so
if you abandon the goal you've lost the minimum you could invest.

------
treblig
This Museo thing has to stop. It's cute, it looks real friendly in titles, but
dear god, do not typeset an article in it.

~~~
KirinDave
It looks fine on Mac and Linux. If you are using Windows, keep in mind that
entire site is subtly tuned to irritate IE users.

~~~
Deadsunrise
yes, it renders and looks fine but museo it's not the best choice for big
blocks of text. Comics sans also renders great and you wouldn't use it here,
right?

~~~
KirinDave
Ok. I'll change it to comic sans. Thanks for the advice!

------
closure
I agree that the article by Vivek is totally misinformed.

I've taken a couple stabs at minimalism (of possessions) in my life, staring
when I moved from Austin to Seattle in 1995. I'm doing so again after
relocating from Seattle to San Francisco a year ago.

There is absolutely no doubt that I've been happiest during those periods when
I've had the fewest 'things'. I look back at the time when I downsized from a
1000 sq. ft. apartment in Seattle to 500 sq. ft. studio as the most productive
and enjoyable time of my life.

Since moving here to SF, my wife and I have almost halved the space we occupy
from a 1600 sq ft townhouse in Seattle to a very comfortable 850 sq ft. in San
Francisco. I continue to get rid of the stuff and replace it with either
'virtual stuff' (e.g. electronic books) or just happily do without (e.g.
espresso machine).

The main reason I 'upsized' from the small apartment to the large townhouse
was that I felt like at my age at the time (30) I was 'supposed to'. I was the
only one of my friends/work-mates that hadn't gotten married and/or had
children, and bought a house. Oh, what a mistake! Now, ten years later, I'm so
glad I'm back to shrinking the possessions in favor of a leaner, simpler life.
For the first time since I was 16 I do not own a car. I have no debt (and with
the exception of the townhouse and a couple years of credit card debt, I
haven't since 1998).

I'm totally sold on continuing down this path, as she is as well. We don't
plan on having children. We are both 40+ and enjoy the idea of moving around
some more, perhaps even relocating overseas in time.

~~~
_delirium
I'm also sold on the minimalism of possessions, but somehow I'm not as sold on
the aesthetic and cultural/work-habits stuff that articles like this tie in,
which I don't think necessarily have to go together. I don't want to own tons
of stuff that I have to spend money on, haul around when I move, etc., _but_ I
actually like clutter, distractions, etc. The way I combine those preferences
is by outsourcing the clutter: for example, instead of owning a huge library
of books, I spend my time in libraries that other people own (universities,
public libraries, the occasional book-heavy coffee shop). I couldn't imagine
_working_ in a minimalist environment!

I haven't made much use of it myself yet, but hacker spaces do that with
offices to some extent as well. You can have a minimalist apartment, but still
work in a hectic, filled-with-stuff place like Noisebridge.

------
trotsky
No big surprise that a disciple of neo-modernism would present their arguments
with a title straight out of an apple marketing campaign.

~~~
KirinDave
Sorry if you feel this way. I have no control over what title someone will
submit my story as. My title was the counter-claim of the article I was
rebutting.

------
beoba
Read a few of these to know everything you need to know about minimalism:
[http://www.google.com/search?q=minimalist+site%3Abikesnobnyc...](http://www.google.com/search?q=minimalist+site%3Abikesnobnyc.blogspot.com)

------
yason
I think there are basically two reasons why one maintains a minimal set of
possessions.

One is dumping out most of your stuff because while part of you would still
like to have them you think you'll be happier that way. (And because others
are doing it also so there must be something on to that.)

The other one is having learned to _not need_ that stuff any longer.

------
johndcook
The original article criticizing minimalism was written with more depth and
more sense of humor than this article written in response.

My take on the two articles:
[http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2011/01/01/periodic-
minimalism...](http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2011/01/01/periodic-minimalism/)

------
astrofinch
Each author is using their own definition of minimalism. There's no point in
arguing over whose definition is better.

~~~
KirinDave
The argument isn't "What is minimalism." The argument is, "What are these
people doing that they call minimalism?" Vivek's criticisms are mostly valid
for his perception of the movement, and I think he's a reasonable guy, so I
tried to update and correct his perception.

This is not a sisyphean task unless Vivek has a very strong motivation to
ignore my explanation.

------
noonespecial
Minimalism is not necessarily about doing without, its about maximizing
utility in the things you do have.

Minimalism is having one very good screwdriver instead of a whole drawer of
lousy ones that you're "meaning to go through one of these days".

------
ljordan
To me applied minimalism in whatever endeavor just means finding the simplest
possible thing that works. I think most of us can see the value in that.

------
bayareaguy
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans - John Lennon

------
anigbrowl
tl;dr

~~~
anigbrowl
But seriously, this is why I don't especially care for minimalism: '[a]t its
core, Minimalism is about being aware that every decision you make is a value
proposition, and that you need to judge how the consequences fit with your
goals.'

Focus is good, but an excess of it results in tunnel vision. It also leaves
little room for whimsy or humor.

~~~
pavs
Another way to think about it is when you do something all the time it becomes
a second nature. You don't always have to ponder hard on every decision you
make, some decision becomes default choice.

I don't know about minimalists not having a sense of humor (actually first
time I heard this) but I agree you are less likely to do things just for
_shitz and giggles_ ; but I don't know if thats such a bad thing. Some people
just don't enjoy doing things for _shitz and giggles_. I guess it boils down
to personal taste and preference?

