minimalism

[Anonymous No.10729245]

Do any of you live a minimalist lifestyle, and if so, to what extent? How has it affected your reading and overall lifestyle? Did you buy an e-reader to horde less books? I'm trying to reduce not only the amount of "stuff" I have but the "wanting of stuff" as well. I'd ultimately like to feel unattached to any material thing.

[Anonymous No.10729323]

>>10729245
I'm living a more and more minimalist lifestyle. I don't have much stuff, the exception being books. I like being surrounded by physical books and buy them regularly to build up my collection.

I don't collect or hoard anything else.

[Anonymous No.10730029]

>>10729245
Is it a minimalist lifestyle if I only keep things for sentimental reasons and not because of financial worth since traumatic memories have given me a disposition prepared for loss and potential grief? Because yes I have an ebook and I don't spend money on anything impractical

[Anonymous No.10730052]

>>10729245
I prefer living a MAXIMALIST lifestyle...

[Anonymous No.10730109]

>>10729245
I hate minimalism. A horde of books is called a library and they are (can be) nice and comfy.

Minimalism is a meme to make people content with being poorfags.

[Anonymous No.10730116]

>>10730109
This man is correct.

Furthermore, most Japanese are not 'minimalist' by choice, even if they reflect the aesthetic. It's because they have no money. The houses of old people I have been inside are filled to the brim with curios and garbage like the houses of old people anywhere else.

[Anonymous No.10730162]

>>10730109
>implying self fulfillment would even be possible with a lifestyle built around material goods
yeah, sure anon

[Anonymous No.10730275]

>>10729245:
This man would probably be interesting to you
>eco-fasist
>been a fisherman since 1949 and a philosopher
>uses rowing boat still today
>got electricity in 2000's, uses only for light
>probably most known and appriciated finnish philosopher

He lives like this to protect the enviroment and has very radcal views and speaks them out loud, but is tolerated even by the radical left. I think you would be more interested in his biography, but it is only in finnish.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6397542-can-life-prevail
This is the only book from him in english.
It is somewhat repeative and revolves closely around finnish forests and economy related, but has some very good universal points. However I don't belive that foreginers would find this useful. Shame that his other works havent been translated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentti_Linkola

[Anonymous No.10730280]

>>10730162
That's not what I'm implying at all. It has nothing to do with material fulfillment. Rather, your home should be full of things that reflect your aspirations, your past, your interests, etc. A personal, physical library can express all these things in a way an e-reader sitting on an ikea side table could never.

[Anonymous No.10730340]

Public library is the way of the minimalist.

[Anonymous No.10730417]

There is a contrast struggle within me. I sway between choosing a life of minimalism and a life rich in material possessions. Ironically, however, is that to live both lifestyles you need a substantial amount of disposable income.
Look at pic related. This room has the minimalist aesthetic, yet building a house like this must cost a lot of money.

[Anonymous No.10730432]

>>10730052

who reads Lolita with pants on?

[Anonymous No.10730434]

>>10730417
expanding on this hypothetical scenario, if I did own enough money to build a house like this, I would also build a completely white empty room with no windows and artificial lighting. It would look like those sets you see in the movies where a "spiritual" character can be seen meditating or reading a book, because the room is devoid of any distractions

[Anonymous No.10730462]

>>10729245
I used to live a minimalist lifestyle when I was a teenager. No TV, everything very orderly, few possessions, a general lack of desire for things or experiences. I was into Buddhism and practicing it as I could, attempting to squeeze out selfish desires as a way of moderating the rest of me.

I didn't have many books at the time, so I just re-read the ones I had. I was pretty much silent at school and at home. Turns out cutting yourself off from the world as a teenager is very isolating, and means you miss out on a lot of experiences. I could use that kind of control now that I'm older, but fuck it I deprived myself once I'm not doing it again.

[Anonymous No.10730494]

>>10730432
women

[Anonymous No.10730507]

Well I do live in a tiny room (I mean tiny) with almost no shit anywhere. I only take books from the library and return them when I'm done.

But that's because I have no money.

[Anonymous No.10730512]

>>10730462
I should add this was the days before social media or smartphones, as well. And I didn't have a personal phone. Or internet service. It was like living in the 1970s.

[Anonymous No.10730566]

I've thrown most of my superfluous stuff away 10 years ago or so and go over my stuff once in a while to remove any new residue. I made an inventory of everything I own, which seems (or is) obsessive but that really gives you a good idea of the shit you drag around with you if you have to acknowledge all of it.

I've found that the desire to own stuff quickly goes away when you find what a relief it is to have so little of it. It also brings piece of mind to have so few things of value that you have the financial buffer to immediately replace anything necessary. All my possessions could burn down and I could find adequate replacements tomorrow. I don't own anything of emotional significance, so there's no attachment there.

[Anonymous No.10730570]

>>10730417
The aesthetic sensibility shown in pic related scrambles my marbles and pickles my dildos. Bourgeouis minimalism is just so aggravating: premium furniture, stuck into a premium house, built into a premium patch of land. This is the ultimate insult unto the world. Nuke every house like that.

[Anonymous No.10730582]

my workshop aint minimalist. i got a ton of tools.

my bedroom is pretty minimalist tho

[Anonymous No.10730590]

>>10730570
>insult unto the world

more like, u jelly.

resentful toad.

[Anonymous No.10730601]

>>10730280
>which props define me as a person :)
you shouldn't have skipped fight club as a teenager

[Anonymous No.10730609]

>>10730566
>piece of mind
I apologise.

[Anonymous No.10730619]

>>10730566
great poast.

[Anonymous No.10730659]

>>10730417
That's a lot of wasted space.

[Anonymous No.10730668]

>>10730601
>define
>reflect

get a dictionary

[Anonymous No.10730671]

>>10730659

[Anonymous No.10730678]

>>10730109
except most people living a minimalist lifestyle aren't poor

[Anonymous No.10730691]

I do but not really consciously. I don't bother with a lot of things that I don't need which is why I don't even have a car or cell phone despite having money in the bank. I get by just fine without them.

[Anonymous No.10730696]

[Anonymous No.10730698]

>>10730696

Burn it down

[Anonymous No.10730734]

>>10730668
It's about as bad.

[Anonymous No.10730738]

>>10730109
Most of the criticisms I've seen are arguing the opposite: That's it's the privilege of the rich to have beautiful empty spaces (it is) and that it's also the privilege of the rich to own very little because you can always outsource things to services. You can not have a toolbox because you just call a guy, you can have live on the go because you can afford eating out and staying in hotels all the time, et cetera.

[Anonymous No.10730739]

you cant truly reduce any of your needs or wants by a purely conscious effort, for they were never the result of such an endeavor. they are the result of an unconscious process of adaption, and it is only like that, that they could be changed.

only by finding yourself in a position where you will be forced to live deprived of all the old habit-acquired needs will you be able to truly leave them behind. anything else will just fuel them even more.

i discussed his in /trv/ a few days back, and some interesting discussion enabled to clear some ideas about it. >>>/trv/1361030

[Anonymous No.10730743]

>>10730691
Are you NEET?

[Anonymous No.10730748]

>>10730116
its not about money it’s about space. If you live in the city you’re “minimalist” because your apartment is 100sqft and if you held on to anything you would have no space

[Anonymous No.10730750]

>>10730739
>only by finding yourself in a position where you will be forced to live deprived of all the old habit-acquired needs will you be able to truly leave them behind.
so dumping your gf doesn't count, only if you're the one who got dumped are you without a gf?

i don't understand this line of reasoning.

[Anonymous No.10730760]

>>10730280
you use material goods to express yourself? There's so many things wrong with that

[Anonymous No.10730762]

>>10730750
i can say the same about yours... seems like your feels are clouding your vision. try another analogy

[Anonymous No.10730786]

>>10730762
Why think you need to be forced by external circumstances to lessen your needs? You can deliberately train this if you have some discipline.

[Anonymous No.10730790]

>>10730743

No I have a job

[Anonymous No.10730813]

>>10730786
>discipline

read again the original comment. our habits are the result of adaptation. only a new adaptation will be the source of new habits that can leave the old ones behind. anything else will be just new forms of manifestation for the old habits.

[Anonymous No.10730840]

>>10730813
Sounds like a needlessly vague way to say something incredibly banal.

[Anonymous No.10730860]

>>10730417
why do you need a home like that? a chicken coop would shield you from the rain just as well

[Anonymous No.10730867]

>>10730840
it is indeed. but what matters is not the phrase but the experience behind it.
the banal can be the most difficult thing to see, for it has no contrast, we take it as given. we only notice that which could be otherwise, but all that takes place on a ground that was not originally there, i was somehow put before anything could take place.

[Anonymous No.10730871]

>>10730867
it*

[Anonymous No.10730889]

>>10729245
I really wish I could but my wife is a hoarder, not even joking. Her work desk is cluttered with mountains of stuff. Papers, trinkets, make-up, dishes, etc. Even her closet is overflowing with things.

[Anonymous No.10730904]

>>10730417
Wrong.

[Anonymous No.10730907]

I’m a poorfag, does that count?

[Anonymous No.10730912]

>>10730462
You practiced isolationism not minimalism.

[Anonymous No.10730916]

>>10730907
Most hoarders are poorfags so no.

[Anonymous No.10730925]

>>10730462
What was the turning point for you? When did you leave this lifestyle behind?

[Anonymous No.10730930]

>>10730590
>take a simple concept relating to freeing yourself from material possessions and bastardize and commoditize it then sell it at absorbent cost to wealthy people in the first world who already have no problems in life
Wonder why people get so upset over it, must be jelly.

[Anonymous No.10730931]

>>10729245
minimalism is a terrible aesthetic. it's nice to have less stuff, but that stuff should be baroque as fuck

[Anonymous No.10730937]

>tfw applied minimalism to possessions, hobbies, work, diet and relationships.

[Anonymous No.10730960]

>>10730052
La creatura pseudointelectual...

[Anonymous No.10730968]

>>10730275
God, now I want to read his biography.

[Anonymous No.10730973]

>>10730275
Not OP, but appreciate it and will look for him

[Anonymous No.10730980]

>>10730925
boipuccy

[Anonymous No.10730987]

>>10730275
he looks like me may have a comfy life but fuck me he does not have clue what he is taking about when it comes to "philosophy"

[Anonymous No.10731000]

>>10730937
>that image
Fucking kek

[Anonymous No.10731003]

>>10730566
This is a good, positive definition of minimalism.

[Anonymous No.10731004]

>>10730417
It's awful, it has nothing in it, you won't feel at peace there for more than half an hour, you will just dive deep into whatever screen you have near you. This comic is absolutely right >>10730671. And it must be a pain in the ass to clean that up, of course the rich pay for it, but in real life you'd have to take a bunch of time to wipe all that glass which would be greasy in no time, sweep the leaves from the porch, take the dust out of all that nothing (and it's extremely visible in nothingness), rub stains from that perfect white cushions and so on.

[Anonymous No.10731075]

>>10730678
This. Most poor folk are hoarders. I remember my dad and grandma used to collect basically anything, because "you never knew when you'd need it". House was full of shit, everything you could imagine.
Now I have a more than decent income and I can afford to live as minimally as possible. I can change adress if need it be and change whatever may break (laptop, phone, the little furniture i have etc ) without drilling a hole in my budget.
Minimalism is mostly being content with as little as possible, no matter your income.

[Anonymous No.10731126]

How is an empty room minimalist? It seems excessive to have an empty room, not minimalist.

[Anonymous No.10731162]

>>10731126
Yes, if the room is empty for emptiness' sake. The point of minimalism isn't to get rid of everything; no one is asking you to become a Buddha.

[Anonymous No.10731179]

>>10730912
Yeh I suppose you're right. But my isolation was minimalist. I lived like uhh, Jean Reno in The Professional. Except instead of milk I drank water and instead of guns I had my dick in my hand.

>>10730925
When I realized it was self-destructive.

[Anonymous No.10731187]

Why would the middle class pretend to be poor? These people must be very bored.

[Anonymous No.10731196]

>>10731187
Dude, the rich pretend to be poor for a day FOR FUN.

[Anonymous No.10731209]

>>10731187
Again, it's not about wealth.

[Anonymous No.10731215]

>>10730109
We need to go deeper.

What if minimalism is for the middle class and up, they are full of guilt and shame about being materialistic or narcisistic, "wanting things" and being "self-centered" are considered taboo -- in this mileu you're never supposed to complain -- thus they resort to minimalism or western buddhism in an attempt to feel less guilty. The cherry on top is neuroticism, very common among women, but especially richer ones. The result is throwing out things you don't need, but the guilt that a well-off woman feels is still there because they're unfulfilled.

[Anonymous No.10731325]

>>10730760
That's how the world works

[Anonymous No.10731415]

>>10731325
this is to deny mannerism and affectation, which is to be beguiled by signs and a symptom of psychosis

[Anonymous No.10731422]

I feel it's impossible with the internet around. There is always an endless sea of distractions right at hand.

[Anonymous No.10731431]

>>10729245
the fuck has this got to do with literature?

[Anonymous No.10731439]

>>10731431
Well there is a huge movement related to the style, several books written about the movement at large, and the OP specifically asked about the use of e-readers.

[Anonymous No.10731448]

>>10731126
>minimalism means moderation

Normies always try to make everything lukewarm, middle of the road and uninteresting.

[Anonymous No.10731455]

>>10731431
the literary lifestyle is either bare minimalism or cluttered excess. it's very relevant.

[Anonymous No.10731488]

>>10731415
didn't get it

[Anonymous No.10731788]

>>10730738
A beautifully decorated place is also the privilege of the wealthy. A full book shelf is not a cheap expense, 15 books/shelf at $15 a pop (shut up used fags, you buy two hardcovers the average is destroyed), and 5 shelves per, so 15*15*5=$1,125 per shelf of books, not to mention the time to read them

[Anonymous No.10731846]

>>10731788

>15 books/shelf at $15

This is why I buy books by the foot.

[Anonymous No.10731863]

>>10731788
Sure, having a lot of fancy shit is also generally a sign of wealth. But minimalism as a sort of strange hobby is generally middle class and up.

Actual poorfags tend to hoard stuff 'just in case' and are obsessed with also being able to own a lot of fancy shit, generally speaking. Proles don't get into lifestyle stuff like minimalism or simple living or downsizing or lowering your 'footprint' or tiny houses or anything like that. These are all hobbies of well off white folks and the occasional female Westernised Asian vlogger.

[Anonymous No.10731874]

>>10731863

I'm a poorfag and I don't hoard anything. I just don't bother with things I don't need. Why would you think that minimalism is only a rich person philosophy? That seems like a blind generalization.

[Anonymous No.10731875]

>>10729245

It's becoming a cliche now but a lot can be said for the Swedish ethos of lagom which I've been unknowingly following.

I think finding a large amount of joy in a few single items is better than finding small amounts of joy in lots of items.

[Anonymous No.10731883]

>>10730109

Since when did utilitarianism become a dumb meme. Explain how saving money, reducing environmental damage and saving space is worse than "muh fancy book collection, look how smart i think i am"

[Anonymous No.10731891]

>>10731874
because most poor people hoard things because they can't afford to be wasteful. They accumulate whatever might be useful.

[Anonymous No.10731899]

>>10729245

>reads marie kondo once

[Anonymous No.10731903]

>>10731863

To quote Orwell

"A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn’t…When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit ‘tasty’"

[Anonymous No.10731905]

All I have is a japanese futon (similar to pic), a laptop, and my books. It's an incredibly comfy existence.

[Anonymous No.10731908]

>>10731788

I think what he's trying to get at is that being ostentatious and having lots of fancy stuff is now considered in bad taste, and minimalism is very in among rich white people atm

[Anonymous No.10731916]

>>10731891

Just because you can't afford to waste things doesn't mean you're a hoarder or that you collect things you don't need. The one doesn't follow from the other.

[Anonymous No.10731950]

>>10731874
Just because you're an exception it doesn't make the generalisation blind.

It's a 'rich' person philosophy because every philosophy is. Most poorfags don't deliberately think about stuff like this at all.

[Anonymous No.10731964]

>>10731916
you know what's a great way of becoming a poorfag? buy shit you don't need. Besides, as another poster said, in the contemporary world, excessive displays of wealth are generally seen as tacky and Nouveau Riche. The Old Money now opts for a more simple but opulent aesthetic. But good for you, you're one step closer to not being poor

[Anonymous No.10731965]

>>10731950

A generalization is blind because you have a reason to believe it's true. Everybody has a philosophy whether they can articulate it or not. You may be thinking of the term in its academic sense but I'm using it more colloquially, as in a persons word view which is something that every body has.

[Anonymous No.10731967]

>>10731846
You're the god i wish i believed in
>>10731863
racist and bad
>>10731908
A book shelf full of expensive and or hard to understand books has, and ALWAYS will be, a sign of being cultured, because it indicates three things: Money, time, and intelligence. The most worthwhile things us humans have
If you think intelligence isn't valuable, how much does the average government subsidise plastic surgery?

[Anonymous No.10731971]

>>10731965
>A generalization is blind when you don't have a reason to believe it's true

I only proffread after I post

[Anonymous No.10731992]

>>10731971
smae

[Anonymous No.10732032]

I'm very conflicted about minimalism. I'm totally onboard with getting rid of "clutter" and unnecessary possessions, but I struggle to define "unnecessary". As an example, I enjoy hand writing things and have several different inks I use in my fountain pen depending on my mood, the season, etc. I *could* get rid of most of them and use one ink, but that would just take joy out of my activity. So I suppose my issue is that minimalism's logical conclusion is asceticism, which is not a position I agree with.

[Anonymous No.10732065]

>>10731965
I wouldn't call a vague, incoherent unutterable worldview a philosophy, that would be too generous. Most poor people are neither culturally inclined nor intelligent enough to even clearly think about this type of stuff.

I've spent time with enough menial labourers and welfare recipients to know that most of them are barely sentient. People who consistently live below the poverty line in the West and come from parents who have done so before them do so because they simply lack the capacities to get their shit together in any way. They can't figure out how to eat. They can't figure out how to manage their finances. They lack the impulse control to manage their own procreation rates. They live mostly on their dimwitted impulses and stumble through baby-proofed societies just long enough to see their teen children get pregnant before dying of heart disease.

Poor people in first world societies are generally poor because they can't think and therefore can't act sensibly either.

[Anonymous No.10732071]

>>10730570
>This is the ultimate insult unto the world
Wrong. This is an insult unto your inferiority complex. Calling something bourgeois is simply name-calling and not an argument.

[Anonymous No.10732083]

>>10732065
poverty and financial stress also causes those behaviors. no doubt some people are poor because theyre dumb, but some are dumb because theyre poor too.

[Anonymous No.10732089]

>>10732032
Not owning anything you don't actually use is a good rule of thumb.

If you put all your stuff in one corner and only take things out of the pile as you use them, whatever remains in the corner after a year is superfluous.

[Anonymous No.10732097]

>>10732083
Yes, but either way they don't spend a lot of time contemplating having few possessions as an interesting voluntary lifestyle choice.

[Anonymous No.10732145]

>>10730417
Ignore the anons that can't see past their ideology. I would love to live in pic related. I am obsessive compulsive so I always prefer plainness. Also I am a big guy (for you) so I always feel slightly claustrophobic in rooms without windows and low ceilings. High ceilings are the ultimate determining factor in what makes a room satisfactory.

[Anonymous No.10733397]

>>10729245
Hey, I have that heater.

[Anonymous No.10733461]

>>10731883
>Since when did utilitarianism become a dumb meme
Utilitarianism has always been a dumb meme.

[Anonymous No.10733498]

>>10729245
i just moved from east coast to west coast 2 months ago and it made me realize how much CRAP i had just living in my parents house. i got rid of two pickup trucks worth of nothing but fucking useless garbage. superfluous clothes and furniture and books i didn't read and shit i just didn't use. at the end, i packed my car up with just the necessities. clothes, toiletries, blankets, computer, tools, and a few sentimental photos.

it felt fucking amazing to have everything i owned in life fit into a footlocker in the back of my car. i felt so free. i hope to never have a like a 3-story house filled with fucking crap, because it really is just more shit to worry about and obsess over and dust and take care of and worry about being stolen.

i forget where i read this, but somewhere, i remember reading how you don't really need much to function in modern day life. everyone LOVES to talk about the latest gadgets and lifestyles and all that bullshit, but the only things you need to actually live are clothes, bedding, toiletries, silverware, cookware, and something to heat food with. that's it, you have those things and you can live a really damn good life with only those things.

>>10731863
this post is sadly 100% accurate. by and large the most minimalist people are upper-middle class blogposters living in san francisco, you're not gonna go to trailer parks in oklahoma and see a bunch of minimalist zen masters, you're gonna find a fuckton of hoarders, because when you're poor you need all the shit you can get so you can pawn it off if need be

[Anonymous No.10734297]

I think most people who take minimalism seriously have some kind of obsessive disorder.

[Anonymous No.10734407]

>>10729245
I only buy books I want to reference while writing or painting. They are mostly non-fiction. I have access to a good public and university libraries so I can just borrow most non-fiction for free. In terms of other stuff I've steadily gotten rid of anything not related to my creative passions. It helps me stay focused and spend less time keeping everything tidy.

[Anonymous No.10734419]

>>10730275
In an interview he told that he had gotten a hearing aid, but only keeps it on when walking in the forest, because only thing he wants to hear is birds singing. This idea makes me

[Anonymous No.10734448]

>>10734297
That's probably true. I've been obsessed with minimalism since I was small child. I remember my parents always fighting and afterwards going for round two with me, picking on whatever faults they could find, which would make me extremely anxious. It was like living with a ticking bomb in the house. I always dealt with it by two means: escapism (vidya and fiction mostly) and "minimalism" so to speak. First I would make sure that everything was spick-and-span and that my clothes were in order. When I was done with rudimentary cleaning my mind would start picking on "obnoxious" furniture and whatever material possession I would think it was in "my way".
Fast forward today, I'm not necessarily a nutcase but I hate clutter (physical and mental). I used to be extreme, at some point I would sleep on the floor and i didn't have anything. Now I'm more of a practical minimalist. I have a cheap bed, a very small writing desk and a folding chair and I always buy plain, monochrome clothes which fashionwise, are in the "basicwear" category.
Minimalists are usually control freaks.

[Anonymous No.10734521]

>>10730275
>He said he was for a radical reduction in the world population and was quoted as saying about a future world war, "If there were a button I could press, I would sacrifice myself without hesitating, if it meant millions of people would die.

Jesus. I don't even disagree with the "radical reduction in the world population" thing but why not just convince people not to have children instead of murdering them?

[Anonymous No.10734673]

>>10730109
>minimalism is a meme
>asceticism is literally thousands of years old

[Anonymous No.10734919]

>>10730462
>I was into Buddhism and practicing it as I could
I presume you haven't developed meditative joy that comes with strong concentration.

[Anonymous No.10735019]

>>10732032
If it's something you use it isn't unnecessary. The argument isn't a purely utilitarian one. Memes aside Kondo does have a whole section about how to determine this.

[Anonymous No.10735024]

>>10732071
>ignores all the arguments already listed to feel superior
>>>/pol/

[Anonymous No.10735042]

>>10733498
>because when you're poor you need all the shit you can get so you can pawn it off if need be
This is a poor argument. The fact is the poor don't need those things either, it's just a toxic consumerist mindset that drives that into them. Yes, they may need to pawn it soon for money but they'd have more money (the full original purchase price plus whatever paltry interest their credit union gives) if they never had it in the first place. As an anon above said, the poor are bad at making decisions, at least in the first world. Being poor is a choice. The problem is people raised in poor families don't know that it's a choice so they never bother to learn the things mentioned throughout the thread, ie. family planning, finances, taxes, etc. Minimalism is actually the perfect thing for the poor but in these western first world countries they're never exposed to it because they don't learn, really, anything. Their knowledge and education is limited to what they see on TV.

[Anonymous No.10735047]

>>10734297
For the people that actively try to "be minimalists," I'd agree. But once it becomes a part of who you are it takes little effort and just is.

[Anonymous No.10735054]

Anyone tried minimalist eating? I want to eat a potatoe and an egg a day, this would save me money and my body would get less toxins.

[Anonymous No.10735059]

>>10734448
You'd really like Muji. Their clothes are very nice quality, good price, and they base their entire company around the idea of reducing waste (they got their start as an in-store brand for a Japanese grocery store selling 'waste' food such as the U part of spaghetti that is normally discarded once it's chopped off and the straight parts boxed for sale). They have now separated from the grocery store and are their own company making everything from furniture to pens to clothes to dustbins. I'm actually wearing a shirt and jeans I got from them a couple years ago as I type this.

[Anonymous No.10735060]

>>10735054
you finna die

[Anonymous No.10735063]

>>10734521
The problem is the people having all the children are third world nations where they won't listen to that message. We really should neuter all men in Africa and the Middle East for at least a generation.

[Anonymous No.10735067]

>>10734407
Why not try to minimize your knowledge? Then you can focus on the important stuff.

[Anonymous No.10735073]

>>10735054
You still need nutrients anon, but that's why Jiro's Sushi is regarded so highly.

[Anonymous No.10735128]

>>10734448
do you have a girlfriend?

[Anonymous No.10735466]

>>10729245
How is an ereader not a sign of materialism? It is an expensive high-tech product of some gargantuan company through which you can easily pirate and hoard thousands of .epub books.

>I'd ultimately like to feel unattached to any material thing.
Look, nobody in their right mind is buying books because they think owning the books will make them happy. It is true that there's an unhealthy consumerist impulse present in many of our book purchases, when we buy books that we'll read once and could've just gotten from a library. But that can be fixed by thinking a little bit before you grab a book off a shelf in a store. You don't have to make your house look like those creepy empty hospitals.

>>10734407
>I only buy books I want to reference while writing or painting.
This guy gets it

>>10732145
>Ignore the anons that can't see past their ideology and instead pay attention to my mental disorder and personal preferences.

[Anonymous No.10735473]

>>10735466
>Look, nobody in their right mind is buying books because they think owning the books will make them happy.

where do you think you are

[Anonymous No.10735492]

>>10735473
In a place where not everyone is in their right mind.
Even so, it's an exaggeration to say that any /lit/izens think this way. People want to become happy through reading books, not through owning them.

[Anonymous No.10735520]

>>10735054
potatoes and whole milk can provide almost all the macro and micronutrients you need. its kind of ridiculous.

[Anonymous No.10735586]

>>10731215
>We need to go deeper.
O..okay:

Having done tons of drugs, from uppers to downers from alcohol to vitamine overdosing and from random psychward pills to pills gotton from old people that threw them in the trash I can say:
Minimalism isn't something you choose, it's something you can be content with. You do not strive to to be minimal, but if you find a better use for stuff other than keeping it around you can (slowly) become one. It's okay to become but foolish to be wanting to become.

[Anonymous No.10735780]

>>10733498
>this post is sadly 100% accurate. by and large the most minimalist people are upper-middle class blogposters living in san francisco, you're not gonna go to trailer parks in oklahoma and see a bunch of minimalist zen masters, you're gonna find a fuckton of hoarders, because when you're poor you need all the shit you can get so you can pawn it off if need be
They don't really need it though, it's just a band-aid for their incompetence. Intelligent people committed to frugalism can live well on less than most of the poor.

Jacob Fisker is a great example, it's a guy who lives for $7000 a year in the USA comfortably and without worry because he's smart about it. He just has the mental capacity to make it work.

[Anonymous No.10735788]

>>10730275
thanks anon

[Anonymous No.10735790]

>>10735042
>As an anon above said, the poor are bad at making decisions, at least in the first world
That's an important distinction. Living on a dollar a day in a third world country actually requires some ingenuity and escaping povery is very diffucult, whereas first world life is playing on easy mode so really only the truly incompetent end up poor.

[Anonymous No.10735797]

minimalism in its actual sense, i.e. having minimal possessions and physical attachments (not just consumer goods/objects but applied to sensory pleasures and sex as well) is very good and healthy. Shit bourgeois-tier minimalism like people have pointed out in this thread is almost a reversal of minimalism in that they are trying to hard to achieve the minimalist aesthetic that they maximize it. If that makes any sense.

[Anonymous No.10735801]

>>10734419
>In an interview he told that he had gotten a hearing aid, but only keeps it on when walking in the forest, because only thing he wants to hear is birds singing.

[Anonymous No.10735808]

>>10735797
That's the problem with using a lifestyle as fashion accessory, you've got to go to extremes and be vocal about it to look cool.

[Anonymous No.10735831]

>>10729245
>Do any of you live a minimalist lifestyle, and if so, to what extent?
yeah, I try to limit my activities to only those which I find truly engaging and avoid superflous entertainment.

my favorite thing to do is laying in bed with the lights off and fantasizing

[Anonymous No.10735835]

>>10735790
>so really only the truly incompetent end up poor.

Where does this fucking meme come from?

>Schools, at least in burgerland, are funded mostly by property taxes
>Poor areas don't raise much property tax
>Schools in poor areas are bad
>Children in poor areas become poorly educated adults
>The cycle continues

And that's just ONE example. Once a family has been in poverty for more than say, a generation, it becomes very difficult to escape. It's not a matter of
>hurr durr da poor are dumb
and if you think it is *you're* the brainlet in this situation.

[Anonymous No.10735863]

>>10735797
>sensory pleasures

a huge one is internet, a lot of nu minimalists might not own very much but you can bet they are on their iphone/macbook using social media constantly which is probably worse for the brain than just having a few too many physical objects

[Anonymous No.10735869]

As a few others here I have a minimalist social life.

[Anonymous No.10735877]

ITT: impoverished autism general

[Anonymous No.10735884]

>>10735869
A minimalist social life would be having a few very close friends, not having no friends at all.

;_;

[Anonymous No.10735886]

>>10735835
Only incompetent/dumb people reproduce when they aren't in a situation to give their children a good upbringing.

Now the reason they are incompetent/dumb may very well (partially) be because of education, but no matter the cause of their incompetence they are in fact incompetent.

If you say that it's not the poor can't help accidentally reproducing you're only affirming their incompetence.

[Anonymous No.10735898]

>>10735863
Regardless of how you feel about his writing I think DFW was really on point when he said many are afraid to read because they are afraid of silence, silence arouses pure dread in the post modern condition, which requires constant stimulation in lieu of self-reflection. That's why the minimalist instagram types don't realize they're the biggest slaves of them all if they can't cut the techno-media umbilical cord.

[Anonymous No.10735924]

>>10735898
'digital sabbaticals' are actually a thing in to memeimalist subculture though

[Anonymous No.10735962]

>>10735869
>>10735884
more like social undeath amirite?
haha

[Anonymous No.10735977]

>>10735898
>>10735924
Holy fuck. Have you ever tried to sleep without checking your phone until 3 in the morning? The existential dread that sets in once you switch off the lights and are ready to sleep but aren't asleep yet, staring at the ceiling, alone in with your thoughts is terrifying

[Anonymous No.10735986]

>>10735977
But I already know I won't have any notifications, so why get so stressed about it?

[Anonymous No.10735996]

>>10735977
Sounds like you're mentally ill

[Anonymous No.10736001]

>>10735977
I actually spend hours every day just daydreaming without a device and often put away my phone because it's less interesting and holding my arm up is tiresome. I enjoy lying awake in bed both before I fall asleep and at least an hour after I wake up.

[Anonymous No.10736020]

>>10735986
>why get stressed out?
Because once you put the phone down, you're alone in the dark with only your thoughts to keep you company. These thoughts will inevitably turn to an examination of your life, how you have no friends, no gf, your dad divorced your mum and you never see him anymore, your failed career/how you dropped out of college. You start thinking about the state of the world, how car-sack everything seems, your crappy and immovable position in society, the cabals having more control over your own life than you do. Then your mind wanders into the realm of human existence. You realize that you wondered outside of Plato's cave and pic related is what you saw. A barren wasteland that extends to the horizon where nothing of value can grow and no-one can find truth. You realize that the problems that humanity can never be resolved because they are an inherent part of human nature. So you desire Death, but death presents uncertainty, and so you naturally fear it. You want to shove off this mortal coil but you're too cowardly to do it. And so you realize that the next morning will come, nothing will have changed and this cycle will repeat as long as you live

[Anonymous No.10736047]

>Look on these two pictures — the life of the masses, one long, dull record of struggle and effort entirely devoted to the petty interests of personal welfare, to misery in all its forms, a life beset by intolerable boredom as soon as ever those aims are satisfied and the man is thrown back upon himself, whence he can be roused again to some sort of movement only by the wild fire of passion. On the other side you have a man endowed with a high degree of mental power, leading an existence rich in thought and full of life and meaning, occupied by worthy and interesting objects as soon as ever he is free to give himself to them, bearing in himself a source of the noblest pleasure. What external promptings he wants come from the works of nature, and from the contemplation of human affairs and the achievements of the great of all ages and countries, which are thoroughly appreciated by a man of this type alone, as being the only one who can quite understand and feel with them.

[Anonymous No.10736075]

>>10736020
I can relate to that anon, it's just that those thoughts for me start right around sundown and I'm usually over it by the time I'm going to bed.

[Anonymous No.10736099]

>>10736020
fuggggg I didn't ask for that feel anon

[Anonymous No.10736106]

>>10736020
The sooner you face all those thoughts and work through them the sooner you can get on with life at the other side of them.

Existential procrastination doesn't work.

[Anonymous No.10736130]

>>10736106
But I already worked through them. I tried to find a solution to the problems but there just isn't Nihilism is the endgame of all philosophy. Once you become a nihilism, you never stop being one. I just wish I hadn't become a nihilist when I was 19

[Anonymous No.10736137]

>>10735835
This line of logic doesn't work anymore. With the internet being entirely ubiquitous there's no reason why anyone can't look up the basics on how to save money, how to stop impulse buying things they don't need, how to manage credit/debt to your advantage, how to use birth control to stop early/unwanted pregnancy. Again, in the first world, being poor is a decision. All it takes is to look around and say, "Wow, my situation is very bad compared to others in this country, I should change that," and then go to the myriad of free public internet points to find even a simple YouTube guide on the basics of saving money and what it takes to become middle class. I would hardly say that that is an advanced line of thought but it's one that they seem to miss.

[Anonymous No.10736144]

>>10736130
i have become nihil
destroyer of purpose

[Anonymous No.10736145]

>>10735877
>I literally haven't read a single post in this thread
K.

[Anonymous No.10736181]

>>10736130
I sort of agree, but you can stop having a dramatic reaction to nihilism. If you try to repress those thoughts all the time you remain sensitive to them.

Think of it as exposure therapy. The longer and more often you dwell on your nihilistic conclusion the more normal they get and ultimately it just becomes the new paradigm. The ideas themselves no longer disturb you, and you can start building your worldview and life up again upon this, this time a house built on rock instead of sand because there are no precious desireable illusions left to shatter. You're already on the ground floor so you can't fall any more.

Even with a nihilistic worldview you can still carve out an agreeable life for yourself. You still have likes and dislikes, there are still choices to make on a personal level that lead to a more or less agreeable existence. You just have to accept that you're playing in sandbox mode from now on and get away from the idea that sandbox mode and the loss of a prescribed mission is necessarily something negative to be mourned. Then you can get over the death of your ideological babbies and start to enjoy Nihil Reich. Stop being attached to the kind of meaning you already know is lost.

[Anonymous No.10736203]

>>10736020
>>10736130
can anyone redpill me as to why eastern spirituality is not the solution to this? i've read the blue cliff record, sayings of joshu, some basho and ryokan, etc and it seems to me that no better answer exists to the question of the immense suffering of life

[Anonymous No.10736210]

>>10736181
there is a tiny sliver of optimism in me that hasn't died yet and doesn't want to let go of hope. I still believe, even unconsciously, that I might be wrong and things will change around for the better. I am a coward after all, I desire yet fear death.

[Anonymous No.10736252]

>>10736210
Just look at your life on a small scale and see what little things you can implement within your control to make it better regardless of grand narratives. There's no hope needed for that, it's obvious that there is room for improvement.

If you know that you fear death enough to not kill yourself just accept that you're going to be around for a while and try to make the best of it. There's no use on dwelling on desires you're not going to act on.

[Anonymous No.10736281]

>>10736252
guess i have to try, but the thoughts come to haunt me every night

[Anonymous No.10736470]

>>10736281
Why are you still haunted by them if you're so familiar with them? Haven't they become ordinary by now?

[Anonymous No.10736866]

>>10735128
Why?

[Anonymous No.10736950]

Ignore chart threads on /lit/
Ignore share threads on /mu/
That's step 1

[Anonymous No.10737356]

>>10730696
i have horror vacui too, and i`m proud of it

[Anonymous No.10737494]

im a minimalist to the extent that i dont do anything with my life

[Anonymous No.10737526]

No. I used to be that way, and felt very guilty when I bought luxury items. I ate simply and owned little. I like my life more now that I allow myself to enjoy things. I thought I was gaining some kind of purity by acting otherwise I suppose.

[Anonymous No.10737550]

>>10737494
the most patrician kind

[Anonymous No.10737688]

>>10734521
As if some nogs in Africa will listen.

We should just kill the worst of prisoners across the world, easily slag a good amount.

[Anonymous No.10737696]

Maximalist in all I do excepting a social life.

You wankers. Exercise, Learn, and Breathe. This is all a man needs.

[Anonymous No.10737728]

>>10734521
>why not just convince people not to have children
Because you can't talk people out of their biological drives.

[Anonymous No.10737749]

>>10737728
Yet Japan exists.

>>10737696
What are you even trying to say.

[Anonymous No.10737773]

>>10734521
>>He said he was for a radical reduction in the world population and was quoted as saying about a future world war, "If there were a button I could press, I would sacrifice myself without hesitating, if it meant millions of people would die.
Sounds pretty comfy desu. I'd do the same. WORLD IS A FUCK / 410,757,864,530 DEAD THIRD WORLDERS

[Anonymous No.10737787]

>>10737749
Japan doesn't have a low birthrates because people gave them a few convincing environmentalist arguments to have less kids, they have low birthrates because the very structure of their society disincentives breeding.

[Anonymous No.10737795]

>>10737787
But the point still stands that entire populations CAN stop having children.

[Anonymous No.10737803]

>>10737795
Yes, but not by convincing them but by creating structures that punish breeding and reward not doing so.

[Anonymous No.10737874]

>>10737803
lmao that reminds me of an article a "friend" of mine (we worked for the same environmental ngo) posted saying that concerns about overpopulation were raycis and that the solution was "female empowerment" in the third world instead of raycis population controls.

[Anonymous No.10737923]

>>10737874
I mean birth rates go down when you allow women to use birth control, which in a third world country is probably "empowering" when compared to the cultural norm. I know there's work being done in India to promote this because they're dangerously close to spiraling out of control population wise.

Measures like this do seem to be working despite the amount of "muh dumb third worlders won't stop having children"-posting going.

[Anonymous No.10737925]

>>10737923
*going on in this thread.

[Anonymous No.10738206]

>>10737923
We're out of time for that kind of shit faggot. We need a near extinction event to get humanity back to sustainable levels of population. But I'm all for airdropping millions of condoms and birth control pills over the third world, if only it would make much of a difference at this point. The damage is already done.

[Anonymous No.10738233]

>>10729245

I don't have many possessions because I don't find that many items worth owning beyond tools.

"Minimalism" is now a commodity to be sold, by the way. It's absolute stupid to see some "minimalist" websites/blogs posting Amazon links for shit that looks absolutely retarded and bland. It's a racket. "Buy more shit to conform to what we are!"

[Anonymous No.10738805]

>>10738206
>We're out of time for that kind of shit faggot. We need a near extinction event to get humanity back to sustainable levels of population.
Every species is at a sustainable level all the time until they go extinct. There's always a population eb and flow going on. There is no balance or harmony in nature that can be disturbed or recovered.

[Anonymous No.10738865]

>>10729245
I more or less try to have as little personal relationships as possible. Of course some acquaintances at work and the like are inevitable but there isn't a single person I would freely invite to be a part of my life on an ongoing basis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_M73MoxJE

[Anonymous No.10738891]

>>10736210
forget optimism, forget good feels
get to work
do do do
no matter what no matter how
there is something that's needs to be done and you know
fuck motivation, you don't need it
fuck logic, and the reasons fuck out with it
do work

( never mind me, just shit posting for my own sake )

[Anonymous No.10738901]

>>10736950
care to share your 10 step program?

[Anonymous No.10738911]

>>10738891
You jest yet your post might hold some truth. Perhaps overthinking paralyzes my actions.

[Anonymous No.10739077]

>>10738206
>sustainable
Wew lad, it's almost like you have no idea what you're talking about at all.

[Anonymous No.10739096]

>>10738901
2: Only go on social media either when you wake up, or before you go to bed, or when you get an invitation to an event
3: Do away with things you haven't used in months and will not use for months into the future.
4: Limit the number of hobbies you partake in and focus more effort into fewer ventures. This helps cut down on random junk you don't need.
5: Plan your time, ahead of time. Make time for hobbies, friends, entertainment, travel, work, etc.
6: Stop eating junk food. Only sweet thing should be fruit.
7: Stop apologizing for who you are and what you want to be doing. If your friends are against you focusing on one hobby, or your family is upset that you live with more empty space than them, push them out of your life. Do this for all toxic people around you.
8: Quit social media all together, only talk to friends face to face or by phone call
9: Having been living life with more focus on one particular hobby and with fewer general needs find all those extra things that again, haven't been used for months. Throw them away.
10: Take full inventory of yourself. Is there anything missing? If yes, find it whether it's a need to travel, a book, a chair, whatever it may be. If not, live in contentment.

[Anonymous No.10739109]

>>10734673
this

[Anonymous No.10739251]

Minimalists seem like they're even more enslaved by materialism, since they concern themselves so deeply with their possessions. None of the people I've respected seem particularly troubled or enamored by what they own.

[Anonymous No.10739388]

>Oh, maybe I won't feel so unfulfilled and empty if I just get rid of all my stuff?

It's a meme. Just another new age therapy technique for the fatherless generation that's endlessly stuck examining its own ass.

[Anonymous No.10739763]

>>10737494
t. Emil Cioran

[Anonymous No.10739769]

most "minimalists" are actually materialists. It's hilarious to see the "minimalist" bedrooms and houses on reddit which are just expensive white desks, white walls, white furniture, the newest apple laptop, all arranged neatly. no books on shelves or food in cupboards.

an old person with clutter around the house lives a more "minimalist" lifestyle than these materialists do.

[Anonymous No.10739809]

>>10730109
You're opinions are a meme based on your biasis and overly high opinion of yourself. Unless your family is worth 8 figures, your entire family is poorer than me, so sit down and shut up.

[Anonymous No.10739816]

>>10738865
Sucks to be you.

[Anonymous No.10739845]

There’s an arrogance to today’s minimalism that presumes it provides an answer rather than, as originally intended, a question: What other perspectives are possible when you look at the world in a different way? The fetishized austerity and performative asceticism of minimalism is a kind of ongoing cultural sickness. We misinterpret material renunciation, austere aesthetics and blank, emptied spaces as symbols of capitalist absolution, when these trends really just provide us with further ways to serve our impulse to consume more, not less.

[Anonymous No.10739865]

>>10739769
>>10739845
propose solutions then

[Anonymous No.10739875]

>>10739865
be humble

[Anonymous No.10739881]

>>10739875
sit down

[Anonymous No.10739903]

>>10739865
Employ a pragmatic form of minimalism whose purpose is not aesthetic nor is it simply to represent anti-materialist values. This doesn't mean throwing everything out except your macbook and iPhone as if to say "look at me, I hate consumerism, but I throw away my clothes every week instead of washing my dirty ones because FUCK WARDROBES".

I consider myself a minimalist. I keep spares, I keep things "just in case" in order to avoid buying things twice. My apartment isn't empty, it's actually quite cluttered, but everything has its purpose. The only purchases I make are food, toiletries, books, and replacing things that break or are worn out. Unlike most minimalists today, I upgrade my technology as needed, not as dictated by the marketing team at Apple.

[Anonymous No.10739906]

>>10739881
like ur children

[Anonymous No.10740173]

>>10739251
>>10739388
>>10739769
Full retard

[Anonymous No.10740250]

>>10739809
xD !! EPIC

[Anonymous No.10740341]

>>10730734
perhaps if you don't like what you see

[Anonymous No.10740401]

>>10731967

[Anonymous No.10740459]

>>10733461
Utilitarianism is the only sensible thing at all. It's basically altruism combined with egoism, valuing self and others in turn.

It's only when people overreach with dumb thought experiments that it retards thing.

[Anonymous No.10740472]

>>10740459
>it makes sense as long as you don't think about it!

[Anonymous No.10740512]

>>10740459
>basically altruism combined with egoism, valuing self and others in turn.
It's not about valuing someone as an individual or rational being, but valuing their capacity for pleasure. This is why utilitarianism is so appealing to people with autism, because it puts all pain and pleasure on the same level and turns morality into a mathematical equation to be solved. It's fundamentally at odds with how people actually reason about ethics, and that's why it falls at the slightest scrutiny.

[Anonymous No.10740607]

Minimalism is a god-tier way of living. My life currently:

>no smartphone, only flip phone that is hardly ever turned on
>rent house with loving gf of 4 years in rural town
>only possessions we have are those that have use
>work wageslave job part time but its what I get for not taking life seriously when I got out of high school, probably going back to college this fall
>my money pays bills and groceries and any left over just goes to savings
>just started waking up every morning at 5AM to read and write and practice music
>no internet, posting this from public wifi

That last one is the real key. Return your mind to its natural state and you'll be simply amazed at how much better life is. I've written more, consistently, in the last week than I have in years. It also frees up so much time to read. No point whining about "man I really should get to reading that" when you never actually set the time aside to do so. Life is wonderful when you let it be.

[Anonymous No.10740734]

>>10740607
Real talk. Curtain to my bedroom window broke and fell off (plastic shit), and until I could get a new one to put up I wouldn't use my desktop computer since my back was to the window and I'm too self conscious and worried people are spying on me. My quality of life went up, I was more focused, found more time to do important shit, and had a much easier time going to bed and falling asleep at a sensible time. As a result I'm now capable of limiting myself to browsing the internet 1 hour on weekdays instead of the usual 6-8.

I still like to hoard shit. Minimalism is too bourgeois for my taste.

[Anonymous No.10740756]

>>10740607
you just made this story up

[Anonymous No.10741289]

>>10739816
>responding exactly like the normie in the video

poetry

[Anonymous No.10741420]

>>10740756
>anon lives better than me it must be fake >:(((

[Anonymous No.10741495]

>>10739769
There are different types of minimalism. Girls love the whole aesthetic style of minimalism (white everything, apple products, etc), then there's the real functional minimalism which is having only the bare necessities of life.

[Anonymous No.10741581]

>>10740607
>>10740734
does this work if you're a friendless virgin? quitting the internet would leave a lot of hours in the day to be faced with loneliness

[Anonymous No.10741635]

>>10741581
It would leave you with a lot of hours to read.

[Anonymous No.10741683]

>>10741635
This guy gets it, sadly no one here has ever read a book. (Including me, I can't read, I use text-to-speech)

[Anonymous No.10741762]

>>10741635
Is it actually practical to read for 8+ hours a day though? I'd imagine after a while you'd stop absorbing the information effectively.

[Anonymous No.10741801]

>>10741762
Don't you have job? And you could spend that time doing other shit as well.

[Anonymous No.10741914]

>>10740734
>mfw realizing how many years of my life have been wasted with my desktop on 24/7 and every waking moment outside of school and work spent online

i think i need to hard break from it all and start filling my time with gardening and other wholesome activities

[Anonymous No.10741973]

>>10741581
You're a friendless virgin because the internet is a well enough substitute for friends and sex to keep you passive.

If you get cut off from shitposting and porn you will need other ways to channel those needs.

[Anonymous No.10742011]

>>10735977
>>10735986
>>10736001

All my notifications are on mute and I turn my phone to airplane mode when I go to bed. Checkmate ADHDtheists.

[Anonymous No.10742036]

>>10742011
>mfw i change my phone number every two years to throw people off the trail
>mfw i don't use social media so they can't get in touch if I haven't given them my new number
>mfw i keep my phone on do not disturb just in case

[Anonymous No.10742078]

>>10742036

sehr gut mon green amie!