About Not Owning Sh*t

I find the non-materialistic ideal very appealing. I wish I owned less stuff and spent less time thinking about material possessions.

But every time I read about this sort of thing on-line, I find out that's not what the writer really means:

I just very sincerely don’t give a fuck.

It seems to me that those who really don't care don't bother putting their non-existent thoughts about the things they don't care about into words and then posting them to an international information network. Announcing loudly that one "doesn't care about X" is the way an adolescent shields him or herself from his own overwhelming feelings about X.

I own little, but I try and make sure that this little is reliable and safe. I buy what I want and need, of the best quality I can afford.

And it seems to me that if you truly didn't care about material possessions, you wouldn't waste the time and effort evaluating the quality, reliability, and safety of them before you acquire them, either. On a long enough time-line, everything is ephemeral. How much thought do you put into buying a paper cup?

It's easy for a geek, these days, to imagine that he's living a non-materialistic life, because his television, newspaper, telephone, phonebook, encyclopedia, almanac, dictionary, bookshelf full of books, music system, airline schedules, camera, day planner, calorie counter, robot personal trainer, star charts, robot translator, etc. all fit in one or two pockets.

The fact that those things are all software now doesn't mean you don't own them, or that they're not consuming a share of your awareness. From a certain point of view, the fact that you take this carefully curated collection of stuff with you everywhere you go may make you super-materialistic in a way that wasn't even possible just a few years ago.

Every time I see people like this I am reminded of the Einstein quote, "everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." There is much to be said for living a simple and even frugal life, but this is not a simple life, it's a selfish personal indulgence. It is a life that is only possible if you have money and live in places that have the wasteful infrastructure that is needed to support a consumer culture and economy. He's opted out of the consumer-ownership food-chain and lives in the rental-consumer food chain. If you really want to live with no possessions, move to Laos or Cambodia and become a Buddhist monk, they don't even need a suitcase to hold all of their possessions.

I had a bike stripped of parts from just outside our flat years ago - I almost cried when I saw that all that was left was the very sad looking frame chained to the wall. :-(

If you're doing it right you get to be creative, make something people love and somebody else gets clear-up duty :)

Well, there are varying degrees of 'not owning shit' - I don't own a great deal of stuff, but I own more than I have done in the past, and more than this guy who says he can fit all his possessions in a suitcase. I don't think I'd qualify by his standards - and maybe not by yours.

For example, I have enough clean clothes to go two weeks without doing laundry; four pairs of shoes (trainers, formal shoes, safety boots, dancing shoes); six sets of plates and glasses (more than I've ever needed to use at once); cooking stuff like pots, pans, spoons, whisk, scales etc; a motorcycle; a set of motorcycle maintenance tools; three different coats (regular coat, motorcycle jacket for me, motorcycle jacket for passenger); kit for several different sports; desktop computer, personal laptop and work laptop; soldering iron; digital storage oscilloscope. All stuff I need to get stuff done, but certainly more than I could fit in a suitcase.