Extreme Minimalism: this guy owns just 15 things
This isn't minimalism in any sense of the word, it's just a consumerist vanity.
OP's 'minimalism' is sustained by a reliance upon huge amounts of infrastructure, most of it environmentally unsustainable. He doesn't carry stuff with him, but uses money to access what he needs. It's like claiming to be a minimalist because you own a second house where you keep all your stuff. OP outsources the burden of sustaining his lifestyle to people poorer and browner than himself.
He eats without pans and plates because he relies on an army of immigrant workers to cook for him and wash his dishes. He doesn't own bedsheets or a sweeping brush because an immigrant maid cleans his hotel rooms. I don't believe that such an economic relationship is necessarily immoral or exploitative, but it certainly isn't minimalist.
OP flew more miles in the summer of 2010 than most people fly in a lifetime. That's hundreds of kilos of Jet-A fuel, a substantial share of the fleet and fixed infrastructure, plus untold amounts of carbon (magnified manifold by being emitted at altitude). He eats meat, which has a vast footprint in terms of land, water and energy use. How minimal is a lifestyle that leads to irrevocable climate change? How minimal is a lifestyle that wastes good soy protein to raise beef cattle?
Real minimalists take less than their fair share, not more.
Curious that he doesn't mention "big bank balance" which makes life a lot more comfortable for him.
He needs food? He buys food. He needs emergency accommodation? (Because his friend's house burns down or some such) He can buy that accommodation for the nights he needs it.
Having just become homeless[1] myself (not through choice) I've whittled down my possessions to something that's easy to carry. Following his rules (stuff that'd be annoying to buy again) I have a computer; a games console; an mp3 player; some headphones; a kindle; one pair trousers.
I have more clothes, but they're easy to replace. The Kindle is odd - one item, with many books on it. But they are easy to replace. Personally, I think that's a flaw in his method.
By a more reasonable counting system I have money (not much, but much more than other people in similar situations in my country, and very very much more than people in other countries); I have the gadgets (and associated chargers / headphones / cases / bags / media / software); I have clothes.
[1] As I've mentioned it, take a look at this website.
It's aimed at people needing "social housing". (I don't; I have no idea why I was given that URL, maybe it's just the script they follow.) IT IS AN APPALLING WEBSITE, AND A DREADFUL FORM. From the broken security mixing secure and insecure stuff, to the weird form flow.
When you go to starbucks each morning, spending $100 a month there instead of owning your own coffeemaker - it's not minimalism.
It's consumerism.
Trying living with just what he has in a 3rd world country and it's minimalism.
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.
My own experience from living out of a max 20kg suitcase is that owning too few things forces you to think about things a lot more than you would like to. Do I keep this? What do I throw away instead? Where do I get this quickly if such and such event occurs? What's the cost of buying this versus keeping/transporting it. Who can I borrow this from? Am I bothering them too much if I borrow this again? Etc, etc.
My conclusion is that owning too much stuff increases complexity, but owning too little does too and it can be very expensive.
In this picture as well as many other such collections, one thing that stands out to me is the fact that no one has any food. The idea put forth here is to keep in ones life only "absolutely necessary" things, ostensibly as a reaction to consumerism, but when creating lists of absolute necessities, somehow food and shelter do not make the cut. How is this possible?
My view is that this "reaction to consumerism" is actually a celebration of consumerism; consumerism boiled down to a pure extract. "Don't do anything for yourself, don't make anything for yourself, don't clean up for yourself: Buy and Throw Away Everything."
Some critics have described this lifestyle as parasitic, but I might also suggest "infantile." Someone who lives this way becomes less and less able to care for themself until... well, until they don't know how to make a cup of coffee! That's not extreme minimalism, it's extreme dependence.
Having been a "minimalism-addict", I've come to the conclusion that the best part is the act of getting rid of things, not the act of having few things.
Getting rid of junk is liberating; living with 15 things is just a pain in the ass.
Minimalism and 'getting rid of your possessions' has been one of those hot internet topics for as long as I can remember.
The trend I notice is that the articles preaching the extreme end of this are almost always written by 20-something bloggers who are so much happier now they're couch surfing the world care free rather than 'working 9-5 to pay for that TV'.
Obviously, there is a large truth in there. We all take only a few things on holiday with us and enjoy it. But sleeping on other peoples couches, using their kitchens, bathrooms and towels, and freelancing to get some money to your paypal account now and then isn't a particularly sustainable lifestyle.
I suspect if you came back in 10 years you'll see a different picture. If you want to think about having children or living a generally western lifestyle as opposed to a '3rd world' or really homeless lifestyle then there's a sensible balance point.
I believe rejecting materialism is about giving your energy, focus and love to your passions, your family, and enjoying the experiences life gives you over material things. Not blindly aiming to own 10 or 20 objects while you're basically renting or borrowing everything else to keep living in a western style. All things in moderation :)
Most Buddhist monks could easily get under the "15 things" limit-- the standard list of possessions is: three robes, an alms bowl, a cloth belt, a needle and thread, a razor for shaving the head, and a water filter.
If you happen to be interested in more "minimalist porn", I too made a list of the things I was living with at one point last year.
http://raviudeshi.com/2011/02/75-things
With hindsight, I can say it's not at all about the number, but more the mentality. I don't know about this guy, but so long as you find a hostel/apartment/friend with some basic cooking utensils and Internet, it's not too hard to keep your costs very low.
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...?
It's always interesting how people define what is a thing. He's got a good definition but he should take it a step further. Expand it to anything that you have that you would feel bad if you had to replace. The digital clutter weights on your mind just like physical objects (files on the macbook, email in gmail, all of it).
Also although he list the items that he'd be pissed if he lost he'd probably be a lot less angry them a lot of people if he was robbed. Simpler and cheaper to only have to replace 15 items.
There are a bunch of comments that this guy actually owns more than 15 things, and that others cope with less, and he isn't in the 3rd world etc. All true; his system isn't as extreme as the headline would have you believe.
However, I see the takeaway is that he gets by with a lot less stuff than the average person in his demographic, and I think that is something to be applauded. I know I wouldn't relish doing it like he has, but it has made me think I could get by with less.
There is also the hipster version of this: http://theburninghouse.com/
"If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It's a conflict between what's practical, valuable and sentimental."
My wife and I were were struck by something recently while standing at the checkout line at a Nike store, looking at a display case full of specialized, expensive, pedometers.
Not a one was a useful as the jogging app I have on my phone.
And when we're out jogging, I listen to music, or streaming radio...on my phone. And oh yeah, if it's late and I'm going through the local woods, my phone has an app that turns it into a flashlight.
And now suddenly a bit of enlightenment hit us. A modern smartphone replaces a great many discrete devices that we used to have to carry around, or at least store someplace:
Common uses for our phones:
1) A portable phone
2) A small portable computer
3) An address book (yes, I used to carry one around with my old non-smart phone)
4) A map book
5) A GPS
6) An mp3/music player
7) A radio (fm tuner, but more importantly streaming radio, flipping through global stations on my phone reminded my of being 9 with a shortwave receiver and picking up broadcasts of Voice of America going into Europe)
8) A flashlight
9) A pedometer
10) A portable book (actually a library)
11) A thumb drive
12) A portable translator
13) A portable gaming device
14) A camera
15) A videocamera
16) Alarm clock
17) Portable calculator
18) Barcode scanner
19) A wifi signal scanner
20) Portable movie player
21) Starbucks card
And a few others...
And suddenly all that junk is in one device, a backpack full of stuff.
Coming up this year they're going to be useful as credit cards, business cards, some have projectors on them, better optics and I can junk my binoculars, a decent way to hook up a keyboard and monitor (it can already act as it's own trackpad, oh I forgot to mention that, I can use it as a trackpad on my computer) and I can junk my laptop for 85% of what I do.
These aren't phones, these are some kind of sci-fi multi-tool. We're ending up in a measure of minimalism de facto just by having more versatile stuff.
So yeah, looking around my house, I could probably ditch a ton of stuff (I mean literally, I have several full bookshelves I could potentially replace) and not miss it.
OP here. I've updated the items I own list (now 39!) and written a bit more about it here. http://andrewhy.de/minimalism-project-update-39-things/
The linked post up top is from May. Lots has changed since then.
Great discussion here. Always interesting how people look at the project.
This guy is clearly a professional attention whore. It's good to contrast him with "early retirement extreme" who lives in the RV in the East Bay who gets posted from time to time.
"15 things" isn't sustainable. It's fake minimalism. It's like saying you're a minimalist after your house burns down and you escape with nothing but your cell phone and credit card. He imposes a significantly higher load on the infrastructure around him (whether he pays for it, or just the kindness of friends letting hin crash on the couch).
In contrast, "East Bay RV" really has whittled down his life to just the things he needs.
Amazing how offended some people seem to be by him omitting a few thing - who really cares
That's actually more stuff than most of the middle class Indians have. Hmmm
Minimalism - asceticism for rich people?
Did I get it?
If he can group things together like his 'toiletry kit', then I'll do the same with my clothes (though I have toiletries, too). Aside from my clothes, I have 10 books, a laptop and a cell phone. If we're going off of things I'd be pissed if someone stole then that'd be my MBA and all of my clothes...so I guess I kind of own two things.
I've lived like this for 10 years.
Though Andrew is not a perfect minimalist, there are things that we can learn from him. He has a angle on using minimal stuff and they are pretty much valid. Shopping for fun is a plague in US and increasingly so in the rest of the world too.
Here in the bay area, we were given free BART tickets [at the BART stations!] to shop during the holiday season. The kind of minimalism that Andrew has written about needs to be approached from that angle. Of course there is travel, non vegetarian food, use-n-throw things and so on that we need to fix. But this is a step in the right direction.
Btw,
Why do we need to be hyper critics here on HN? The blog was posted on his own site. Not directly on HN. There is no attention seeking in it. I learn a lot from the comments of each post in HN. The information is great and often eye-opening. I just hope the tone of a comment doesn't fend off its readers.
If he didn't have friends or family willing to give him a place to stay then he would have to increase the number of things that he owned.
Which isn't a bad thing.
Certain objects are worthwhile owning. I'm particularly fond of robots which decrease my need to do menial labour.
My washing machine and dishwasher saves me at least 30 minutes a day.
I'd like to know how many things he has on that Macbook air.
In May 2011 I sold nearly everything I owned and traveled for 6 months with just a small backpack. My list was similar to Andrew's with a few more clothing items.
I should write a blog post but DL;DR version is that it was well worth it. I don't want to live that way continuously but it made me think a lot more about consumerism.
For the most part I lived in hostels and cooked my own food. My living expenses stayed about the same since I wasn't paying rent or maintaining a car.
The biggest problem with owning so few items is convenience. You sacrifice the convenience of doing laundry once a week (or less) and having everything you need at hand.
Looks like CNN did a piece on him back in September 2010: http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-17/tech/gahran.blogging.ipad...
Interesting that he left his laptop behind and used only an iPad then, but is back to a MacBook Air now.
Next step, extrem bootstraping, define the kernel to rebuild everything you need.
Living From Scratch v1Bit of a success for Apple that this guy pared his life down to 15 things and 2 of them are Apple products.
Balance.
An extreme of "something" is not good...
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In terms of software... very bloated.
"Headline: guy owns 15 things ... read article, guy owns more than 15 things."
Haha exactly how I felt when I read it. This is a good blog post of gear for this kinda travel or lifestyle http://tynan.com/2010gear.
The 14 things I own and the cost of each item. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsFrsoFjrGmgdFB...
This guy still owns too much. When I was in Nepal with a friend studying migration, we saw many guys wlaking to India with:
Their clothes (2 pieces)
Their plastic slippers
A cloth bag with, inside:
One toothbrush
A few rupies.
It's really really weird to me that someone who wants to own as few things as possible (i.e. be unmaterialistic) is so focused on brands. (which to me is the height of materialism owning/valuing/recognizing something for it's label rather than substance).
Seems like it's just a gimmick, something to fill blog posts with.
To move out of my rented flat without having anywhere to go - besides hotels, I mean - I gave away most of my belongings and it amazed me watching how many items I owned which were sitting there consuming space.
Then, after leaving my country with just hand luggage, I've been living minimalistic for the last two months. Yes, it can be done, but it's either time-consuming or expensive, depending on how much you are going to outsource. I have to wash my laundry by hand each other day instead of once a week, and lacking many kitchen items means I spend more time preparing my meals.
There is a trade-off to be made between space and time. When you see someone who's consuming little space, it may be that they are consuming either a lot of time or a lot of money.
EDIT: Thus, don't feel uncomfortable about owning a lot of things. If you feel so inclined, feel uncomfortable about owning things you don't use. For those who haven't read PG's essay about this issue, which played a part in making me superfluous-aware: http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html
There's well over 15 things in the picture. Not shown: toothbrush, soap, wash linens, contacts fluid, deodorant, etc. This seems like vanity over minimalism/utility, much like the EDC "every day carry" crowd with their $150 flashlights and $50 pens.
Focus on frugality, not brands and numbers.
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I also own practically nothing apart from my clothes (all bought at discount stores) and the food in my fridge.
All my tech needs are met by work , my furniture came with my (rented) house and my TV etc are mostly other peoples cast offs.
[tl;dr] Money is fungible.
Similar, longer article with a ton of similar discussion can be found here:
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Never heard of NAU shirts, so I did a minimal look-up, and the minimum price appears to be $72, but they claim to be sustainable, whatever that is.
Scheme vs Common Lisp
I don't have any issue with the way he counts his things. But seriously, he must eat at resturants most of the time.
Well first he has one more thing of value in addition to those mentioned.
He owns andrewhy.de domain name which has links and traffic.
And he can sell that because the traffic and links have value. According the the dubious compete.com numbers traffic spiked to about 25k visitors in Sept. of 2011. (It's less now.) According to alexa.com he has 351 sites linking in.
Oh one more thing.
What he is doing is known as a publicity stunt. I've done them and I know one when I see it.
I remember reading somewhere that S. Jobs was of a similar mentality; at times he only kept a Tiffany's lamp, a chair and a bed in this apartment.
It's still too many ugly blue shirts.
Does he have health insurance? I'm guessing that's a pretty big thing.
MacBook Air and iPhone? C'mon!
This reminds me of an old joke:
What do you call a man with no material possessions?
A man without a girlfriend.
my first thought was: "I bet three of them are macbook pros :)." seriously though...
Where are his toiletries? Stuff for the kitchen? more socks? everyday bag as opposed to that travelling one? a single book he's reading right now, or a reader like a kindle or whatever?
This guy doesnt't look like he's actually living with 15 things, which makes the point kind of moot. He doesn't even have a towel.
Let alone anything like a dress shoes.
I don't think it's possible to get ownership down to 15 things.
Each of the following is an absolutely minimal thing:
1) laptop
2) power adaptor for laptop
3) phone
4) power adapter for phone
5) toothbrush
6) toothpaste
7) underwear
8) underwear
9) underwear
10) pair of socks
11) pair of socks
12) pair of socks
13) shoes
14) jeans
15) jeans
16) everyday bag
17) towel
18) bodywash/shampoo/and shaving cream in one
19) which reminds me: razer BZZZZZZZT over the 15 :) and you're just getting around to being able to shave.
20) shirt
21) shirt
22) shirt
23) sweater
24) sweater
If you add some moisterizing cream and maybe a watch and blazer, maybe a second pair of shoes, you're pretty well set though to move to a new city. You don't need a wallet, that's why jeans have pockets. a belt wouldn't kill you either.
"Headline: guy owns 15 things ... read article, guy owns more than 15 things."
Haha exactly how I felt when I read it. This is a good blog post of gear for this kinda travel or lifestyle http://tynan.com/2010gear.
The 14 things I own and the cost of each item. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsFrsoFjrGmgdFB...