Notes on The Minimalists

Less is Now

Sitting down to watch it on the Netflix. Figured it’d be handy to keep a note of anything useful that pops up.

Been on the list since it came up on a recent Episode of Focused with Patrick Rhone (of Enough et al)

Actual Notes:

Kicks off pretty preachy “how might your life be better with less?”

More about intentionality, lack of clutter, than getting rid of everything. How much of this stuff is adding to my life?

Corporations, focus on increase growth (or growth at all). Yay capitalism.

Ads targeted at us not being enough. “If I had X, I’d be happy then”

So buying stuff to make you happy, then the shame/guilt kicks in, then you buy more stuff, rinse, repeat.

We’re working more, and spending more time along with screens. Endless horizon of aspiration. The ceiling of today becomes the floor of tomorrow.

Need to contract so-called “needs”

We can fall into the trap of trying to buy our way out of hard situations

Our memories are not in our things

Having fewer sentimental items increases the value of each one

Not just the “how to?”, but the more important “why to”?

Simplification can lead to more time (attention) on health, relationships, creativity, etc. Boof guy keeps going on about “contributing beyond myself in a meaningful way”

Suggests getting rid of one thing a day for 30 days.

All these goons have these painfully white houses though.

Every possession should serve a purpose or bring joy.

Still feels a bit ick, like they’re really trying to sell something. Beyond that though, the actual idea has its benefits. I bet I could get rid of something every day. If me and Shiv did just that, we’d quickly run out of “easy” things to get rid of, but would have built a momentum, so maybe by then the “hard” things would have become easy too, and we’d have far less shit to deal with moving to Taunton (and a house that’s more navigable right now)