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Minimalism conceals the messy realities of society

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Re: Minimalism conceals the messy realities of society

#2
Minimalism's an odd thing. I find it really depends on context. Minimalistic story telling in a video game or some such thing, is awesome, the same thing in a book, not so great and in movies can be hit or miss.

From a ui design standpoint, I can't stand minimalism most of the time. The lack of immediately apparent information and context can be infuriating. Whereas a minimalistic design in some kind of manual tool would tend to make things more straightforward and easy.

Minimalistic music can be great for setting atmosphere under certain contexts, but wouldn't be great for a dance party.

Minimalism is a tool that should be applied.to situations where 'having less is more'. Otherwise it just detracts from whatever you're trying to do and should be used sparingly.

Re: Minimalism conceals the messy realities of society

#3
post #2

Minimalism's an odd thing. I find it really depends on context. Minimalistic story telling in a video game or some such thing, is awesome, the same thing in a book, not so great and in movies can be hit or miss. From a ui design standpoint, I can't stand minimalism most of the time. The lack of immediately apparent information and context can be infuriating. Whereas a minimalistic design in some kind of manual tool w…

Minimalistic dance music (MDM) sounds like exactly what I'm missing in my life. I mean I have a bit already, but sometimes it gets to poppy. Just gotta tug on the right notes, ignore the rest.

Mix it up, but only when you need to. Don't overthink it, yet spend the time needed to make it juuuust right.

As Mark Twain famously said:

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

P.S. `less` is literally `more` on most UNIX systems.

Re: Minimalism conceals the messy realities of society

#4
Two ideas which often I encounter together yet I have grown to find incompatible are self reliance and minimalism. If you wish to become more self reliant i.e. more able to handle for yourself rather than through another's labor the impositions you create in the world, you will find yourself needing to masters, access and eventual own many more tools and material.

My father, a man capable of building or repairing almost anything to his need lives with a shop entirely full of junk. And frequently the scrap iron or 2x4 I have mocked him for retaining has come to the rescue and helped us avoid the 60 mile trip from his home into town.

The reality is, if you wish to combine self reliance and minimalism, you essentially must embrace a life of poverty.

Re: Minimalism conceals the messy realities of society

#5
In Design minimalism should not be confused with simplicity. Which is actually more about being super functional and direct about what you are trying to achieve. John Maeda’s book 10 laws of simplicity define it well. In striving for simplicity you run the risk of oversimplification. So an important element in such a process is always identifying the complexity that you can’t ignore. Simplicity requires a lot of hard thinking that goes un-noticed in the final product or artistic object because its’s been reduced (in a positive sense!) to the essential elements to perform it’s function.

I guess minimalism tries to catch the cool of the real hard work of simplicity by trying to copy simplicity as if it is simply an aesthetic but in the end it turns up empty.

Re: Minimalism conceals the messy realities of society

#7
> “The ultimate minimalist is a hermit, a recluse, or a monk,” he says. “And to me, that’s not gonna change the world.”

chinese historical/wuxia dramas often heavily feature taoist/buddhist “grandmasters”, who typically have (near-)superhuman abilities (from years of meditation on enlightenment, presumably). yet they’re reluctant to use those abilities because they also strive for detachment from the world and its base human emotions (for some reason that’s required to reach immortality).

the tension is often between allowing destiny to unfold without interference and staying on the path to enlightenment, or defying fate and risking heaven’s wrath. there are adverse consequences either way and it’s a test of character which way one chooses.

Re: Minimalism conceals the messy realities of society

#8

Two ideas which often I encounter together yet I have grown to find incompatible are self reliance and minimalism. If you wish to become more self reliant i.e. more able to handle for yourself rather than through another's labor the impositions you create in the world, you will find yourself needing to masters, access and eventual own many more tools and material. My father, a man capable of building or repairing alm…

What is poverty in this respect?
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