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I applaud his lifestyle, but the post reminded me of an insightful joke.

Q: How do you know when someone doesn't own a TV?

A: They tell you.

Again, I like his decisions. I hope I don't sound like other posters putting him down or defensive things like he must be rich to live poor, which miss the point. He just seems to be bragging about it. Why not just not have a lot of stuff and leave it at that? If you want to inspire others, a post of a few sentences would probably suffice:

"I avoid having things I find useless and I'm aggressive about considering things useless. Some people might think I'm cheap, but I'm not. I do this on principle. When you cut out crap, you find yourself."

Did I miss anything important? Whatever those four sentences left out in content I feel they made up in brevity and punch.




Now contrast that with how often TV-less people hear about what everyone else is watching. A "fish doesn't notice it's in water" scenario.


Yes. My family has one television and we maybe watch one or two hours of television a week using rabbit ears. It's not even about what shows they are watching, it's "have you seen that commercial for X where Y?" No, I haven't.


So true. I've "missed out" on so many products, services, movies, games, and the like that I will never notice passed me by. I'll just have to find solace in my fuller wallet. :)


And also applicable to this blog post:

Q: How do you know when someone has something from Apple?

A: They tell you.


I tend to refrain from telling people how much TV I don't watch until they ask about a show or commercial they have seen or are following and wonder if I follow.

Please don't downvote me but what's that saying again?...

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

I would place discussing TV shows / commercials, unless they spark discussion about ideas (like "that's an awesome marketing strategy/use of psychology" or "do you think the world could really be headed towards that scenario?"), somewhere between average and small minds.


There's no space in your world for small talk and chatter then?

You're missing out.

Not that you're missing out by not watching tv, that's pretty irrelevant, but your attitude there is pretty judgemental.


[deleted]


Hey, it's nobody's right to make you hang out with them if you don't want to!

But small talk and chatter are part of the glue that bind friendships in my world. Perhaps our worlds are very different.


> I tend to refrain from telling people how much TV I don't watch until they ask about a show or commercial they have seen or are following and wonder if I follow

Same here. It's not until the conversation would falter that I offer up that I don't own a TV. The moment is pretty clear: when people are relishing their recounting of a bit and start looking frustrated when I have no nonverbal feedback to help fuel the exchange.




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