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Extreme Minimalism: this guy owns just 15 things

andrewhy.de

11–20 of 197 posts

Re: Extreme Minimalism: this guy owns just 15 things

#11
post #5

Balance. An extreme of "something" is not good...

What do you mean by "balance"? Is it that which you and the culture that conditioned you would consider "normal"?

That's a good question. But such things go together with a certain lifestyle. For example, when you start having children, it becomes terribly hard to have such a lifestyle. Not only do they need toys and more clothes. But you will require a bigger house, a bigger house goes together with tools for fix stuff, etc.

The question is whether you should define minimalism quantitatively or qualitatively. Isn't minimalism to buy what you need to lead a reasonable life, rather than a race to have the lowers number of possessions? The minimum number depends on so many factors: family size, illnesses, hobbies (some people require only a GPS for hiking, others need a climbing gear), etc.

Re: Extreme Minimalism: this guy owns just 15 things

#15
post #10

Headline: guy owns 15 things ... read article, guy owns more than 15 things. New headling: "Guy reaches new heights of extreme minimalism by ignoring a bunch of the things that he owns". But I guess it was a minimalist headline, so that was too long...?

Laptop charger, phone charger, money to own washing powder to wash clothes. "Toiletry kit" is a cheat, so add: razor, shaving foam, blades, toothpaste, toothbrush, towel, shampoo, shower gel, etc. etc. etc.

It may not be physical but he has a blog, that's a thing. Email address, tumbler account, Flicker account, etc, etc.

Re: Extreme Minimalism: this guy owns just 15 things

#16
post #5

Balance. An extreme of "something" is not good...

I consider it a good thing when a person is extremely reasonable. Or extremely thoughtful. Or extremely honest. Or extremely patient. Or extremely gracious.

We don't need balance in all things. A rocket only makes it safely to the moon if the engineers are extremely cautious. Bill Gates is extremely charitable. Einstein was extremely intelligent.

The idea that "extreme X for any X" is bad is some sort of pseudo-wisdom that doesn't even pass the sniff test.

Re: Extreme Minimalism: this guy owns just 15 things

#17
post #6
post #4

I had a boss once who went on at great length about the benefits of the paperless office. His office was indeed devoid of paper storage, his secretary's office however, had loads of filing cabinets stuffed full of papers. Self-regarding parasites like this just offload all their support systems onto other people and then brag about how minimal and self sufficient they are.

Mr. Hyde [...] is currently homeless I don’t have a permanent address Alex Hillman let me crash on his couch So basically: Homeless man has few possessions.

...and is lucky that he know people who do have houses, and houses big enough (with couches) who let him stay.

Re: Extreme Minimalism: this guy owns just 15 things

#18
post #15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laptop charger, phone charger, money to own washing powder to wash clothes. "Toiletry kit" is a cheat, so add: razor, shaving foam, blades, toothpaste, toothbrush, towel, shampoo, shower gel, etc. etc. etc.

It may not be physical but he has a blog, that's a thing. Email address, tumbler account, Flicker account, etc, etc.

I'd disagree, simply because you could take that to the extreme. Does he own the water he drinks, the air he breathes, the life he lives through? As far as I can see, we're talking strictly in physical items.

Re: Extreme Minimalism: this guy owns just 15 things

#19
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may not be physical but he has a blog, that's a thing. Email address, tumbler account, Flicker account, etc, etc.

I'd disagree, simply because you could take that to the extreme. Does he own the water he drinks, the air he breathes, the life he lives through? As far as I can see, we're talking strictly in physical items.

Then let's talk about items that were once physical.

He owns some music. He owns some movies. He owns lots of documents. et cetera.

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