[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac]George Carlin Talks About "Stuff" - YouTube[/ame]
Materialism
- Thread starter conjamuk
- Start date
"“This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” —Steve Jobs, 1982
So you were a bum? Seriously though, did you keep a journal or anything? Any details would probably be interesting.
97 to 99 I couch surfed with a duffel bag and a backpack.
Even growing up, I never really had stuff either. Ironically, my Dad was obsessed with stuff, and it's only been the last year that I have been able to convince my Mom that less stuff = more peace of mind. Now she is selling, giving away or throwing everything out. It's beautiful.
I filled up two entire hard-bound journals with my nightly take on that days' events... And took loads of film too. (Yeah, FILM... Sucked carrying around all those little 35mm film canisters in my bag!)
I don't know what I could share about the trip though; I saw a lot of yuropean stuff, walked around 21 different countries... Definitely some life-changing stuff, but none of the dick-swinging stories most ppl here are likely looking for.
Wow, what a coincidence! Where'd you see? Was it just friends houses? You probably weren't meeting these couches' owners online yet...
My whole family, me included, were the biggest Joneses-chasers out there when I was growing up, but I'm the only one in the whole extended family who 'escaped.' -All because of that backpacking trip, which I just felt irrationally compelled to go on.
I still can't explain why I had to do it, it was quite unheard of in the South to do such a thing... And I had to save up about $12,000 dollars to be able to do it, too. Every one I knew at the time told me I wasted that money... "It could have gone as a down-payment for a house!" ...Morons.
Anyway, I stopped talking to my parents years ago, but I have to believe that today they've got a Second storage rental unit filled to the brim with worthless shit.
I guess the funny thing is that most of you who love minimalism in this thread have gone through the phase when you made a lot of money, bought a crapload of various expensive shit and THEN you realized that you don't need it. A peasant like me, who is still working on making a lot of money, still wants to buy all that shit. You know, just get the feeling of "Holy shit, I can afford these things". But Guerilla is right - money is not the goal, money is instrument.
Wonder if any of these ballers can fit everything they own in the trunk of their
So if all you have is the crap you can throw in a backpack and your laptop I'm going to guess you're not the most social people in the world, entertaining friends, having dinner parties, throwing a BBQ on a Sunday afternoon, or having girls back to your pad. Couch surfing is cool when you're 17 and don't want to move back home with your parents for fear of looking like a failure, but I don't want to live like a teenager in a flop house thanks. To each their own I guess.
Minimalism means something different to everybody. I personally live in a house where there's loads of plastic crap everywhere, and it pisses me off to the point I just want to start a bonfire in my front garden, and start throwing shit out the window.
To me minimalism, is about buying very few things but being very high quality things. Mainly so they last longer and they don't break down. You don't have to be a millionaire to live well, you just have to stop buying crap and understanding how to manage your money and live well within your means.
To me minimalism, is about buying very few things but being very high quality things. Mainly so they last longer and they don't break down. You don't have to be a millionaire to live well, you just have to stop buying crap and understanding how to manage your money and live well within your means.
Minimalism means something different to everybody. I personally live in a house where there's loads of plastic crap everywhere, and it pisses me off to the point I just want to start a bonfire in my front garden, and start throwing shit out the window.
To me minimalism, is about buying very few things but being very high quality things. Mainly so they last longer and they don't break down. You don't have to be a millionaire to live well, you just have to stop buying crap and understanding how to manage your money and live well within your means.
Exactly. If you want to live a backpacker, perpetual tourist lifestyle your entire life, that's fine. There's words for that too, "hippy", "bohemian", "traveller", "nomad", "explorer", "couch surfer", whatever. "Minimalism" doesn't mean "I can fit everything I own in the back seat of my car or my backpack" to everyone.
This is "minimalism" as far as I'm concerned, and the word has existed for several decades...
The Seidenberg House | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
Olle Lundberg California Cabin | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
Hillside Residence by Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
Newtown Residence | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
Castlecrag Residence in Sydney Australia | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
Casa Finisterra by Steven Harris Architects | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
House on Fire Island | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
Casa Mecano in Costa Rica | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
Temple Hills Laguna Beach Residence | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
Bridle Road Residence | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
Mandeville Canyon Residence | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
The Ross Residence | WANKEN - The Art & Design blog of Shelby White
You've also got to think about the impression you want to leave on other people and how they perceive you. The clothes you wear, what you drive, the house you live in, and many other things are branding who you are. I'm guessing most of you are marketers and understand the importance of branding your company. Wouldn't you want to attach the same value to yourself if you've got the money to do so?
Now you're talking about keeping up with the Joneses and being concerned about what people think about you and your appearance which shouldn't be a goal in life. What you wear, drive and where you live shouldn't define you as a person.
I'm surrounded by this crap where we live here on the Costa del Sol, everyone with a big house and a couple nice cars in the driveway, members of the country club, and the kids go to the international school for €10k a year each, when in actuality most of these people are broke ass motherfuckers struggling to keep up for appearances. Not good.
It's important to me to be clean and respectable looking and to conduct myself professionally (although it doesn't always work out that way), but beyond that I don't really give a fuck what other people think. What I care about is my comfort and the ability to do the things I want to do and I couldn't do that living out of a backpack or the back seat of my car.
Agree with this. I am very conscious of only buying things I get a lot of usage out of. I don't want to ever own a lot of stuff, but I do want the stuff I own to be high quality.Minimalism means something different to everybody. I personally live in a house where there's loads of plastic crap everywhere, and it pisses me off to the point I just want to start a bonfire in my front garden, and start throwing shit out the window.
To me minimalism, is about buying very few things but being very high quality things. Mainly so they last longer and they don't break down. You don't have to be a millionaire to live well, you just have to stop buying crap and understanding how to manage your money and live well within your means.
Bookmarking those designs for any time in the future I want to build a house.
That blog is awesome. That's only a tiny number of the posts there. Look in the architecture section.
Or, you could seek to brand yourself by cultivating the personal qualities you value, such as intelligence, experience, wisdom, compassion, understanding, kindness, generosity, humor, awareness...shit like that.
I think I've been a minimalist my whole life, although the times I've made a bit of money have tested that, and made me realize I'm not immune to the constant onslaught of consumerism. Third world travel is a good antidote.
Now, the only reason I really want to acquire wealth is freedom, and to help protect myself and the people I care about from the economic, financial, monetary, political, environmental shit storm brewing out there on the horizon.
Interesting thread, everybody. Thanks.
what is important to me is being able to be happy and healthy without needing "stuff" ... it means deriving a sense of your self, worth, and meaning from something other than your stuff...
once you realize this, you can have stuff...
having or not having stuff is besides the point, its your attachment/detachment to the material that matters.
i like minimalism too... having too much stuff is a burden for sure.
Ps: I'm not advocating being a stinky hippy. I think you can be rich as fuck and have tons of nice stuff and still be less materialistic than someone who is middle class and lives a minimalist life style... materialism is an inner state, not an outer state.
once you realize this, you can have stuff...
having or not having stuff is besides the point, its your attachment/detachment to the material that matters.
i like minimalism too... having too much stuff is a burden for sure.
Ps: I'm not advocating being a stinky hippy. I think you can be rich as fuck and have tons of nice stuff and still be less materialistic than someone who is middle class and lives a minimalist life style... materialism is an inner state, not an outer state.
I drifted around the west coast. I was 22/23 at the time. There are some stories there, but none of them are vacation or world adventure quality.
As a kid we drove to Costa Rica in a truck with a camper 2 different summers. My uncle was a entimologist and we ran around catching cool butterflies and moths. Bathing in rivers, we had a collapsible toilet seat chair to shit from in the jungle, and he avoided cities because of theft. We had a zodiac boat and did tons of diving and fishing along the way, eating fish we caught and stopping at the most populated taco wagons when passing through a town. Other than gas and simple food supplies we hardly spent money and it was the best experience of my life. We did trips around the US collecting bugs, and traveling was always so fun. Camping in the desert, poking around abandoned mines/tunnels, etc exploring. We picked peyote in mexico just south of laredo tx, rented a house on the water, juiced it and made a concentrate that gave me an out of body experience on a tropical beach.
Now that uncle rents his house out in san diego for $3k/mo and lives well in Costa Rica on that money, he has 85 acres and 2 houses down there.
I live in Seattle and often dream of living in a yurt (or structure I can rebuild if it washes away) out in the forest or on a river on the olympic peninsula, working from a laptop. Or from a boat on the water. If I ever get a few grand coming in passively I'll be in costa rica enjoying life. I stopped consuming shit a couple years ago. I buy most shit secondhand.
Now that uncle rents his house out in san diego for $3k/mo and lives well in Costa Rica on that money, he has 85 acres and 2 houses down there.
I live in Seattle and often dream of living in a yurt (or structure I can rebuild if it washes away) out in the forest or on a river on the olympic peninsula, working from a laptop. Or from a boat on the water. If I ever get a few grand coming in passively I'll be in costa rica enjoying life. I stopped consuming shit a couple years ago. I buy most shit secondhand.