Minimalism

Recently, I’ve been pretty interested in minimalism. Also called simple living, it is, broadly speaking the practice of simplifying one’s life in an effort to increase its quality, and one’s happiness. People have different definitions of simplicity—most commonly, minimalism is associated with ridding oneself of as many physical possessions as possible, though, as I’ll soon hopefully show, it is not always so simple.

A desire for a minimal life often stems from religious and spiritual practices. Many religious teachings list some form of minimalism as a virtue; it is (from my limited understanding) a fairly important concept in Buddhism and Taoism, and even in Christianity—Jesus famously decided to forego most luxuries, and lead with his apostles a simple life¹.

Epicureanism, a philosophy name after the Greek philosopher Epicurus, advocated for minimising mental and physical pain as the way for reaching happiness, which was considered to be the goal of life. To achieve this goal, Epicurus recommended living a simple life—he believed that living an extravagant life would bring one more anxiety, and ultimately stress, than pleasure.

To achieve a simpler life is not a simple thing (pun intended). The way in which people try do this most often is, as I’m sure you’ve heard about, is getting rid of things you own, as well as reducing consumption in the future. This isn’t the only things one has to do in order to live minimally, but it is certainly important, and for several reasons.

Having a lot of things is, quite simply, rather stressful. We often feel anxious about potentially losing them, and maintaining, transporting, and storing large amounts of stuff is just difficult. Furthermore, having a bunch of stuff and caring strongly about keeping it can make you start associating your very identity with those things. This can happen, for example, if you grow excessively attached to some brand and make that your personality (I’m looking at you, Apple fans), or if you simply have a tendency to get emotionally attached to the things you own. And that is bad. If this happens, losing a thing you’ve grown attached to would be equivalent to losing part of yourself, which I think we can all agree is… not great.

Minimal, uncluttered spaces can be very nice, increasing your comfort, productivity, and well-being. I don’t have a source other than “trust me bro”, but this has certainly been true for me, some of my friends, and a few people on the internet. If the space you’re in is clean and well-organised, chances are you will feel more calm, collected, and overall better. This applies to all kinds of spaces: your house, your desk, your bedroom, and even things which aren’t necessarily “spaces”, like your bags or shelves.

Getting rid of stuff can be (and often is) very difficult. We are scared to get rid of things, both because we might feel attached to them, and, more practically, because we feel they might be useful later, and so decide it best to hold on to them. However, most people don’t regret getting rid of most things, so I think it’s a good idea to try to make that leap of faith and get rid of what you don’t need.

At risk of stating the obvious, spending less money is good (unless you obsessively save money just for the sake of having money, but let’s not go to extremes). If you reduce consumption by buying less things and making really sure that you do want to buy something before you buy it, you will enjoy all the benefits of having less things, have less of a negative impact on the Earth, and also save money, so that you may spend it on things you actually care about, like experiences or savings.

Apart from simply buying and having less stuff, another way to reduce consumption and increase minimalism is to buy used things. I used to be viscerally opposed to this, even though I could not explain why. It just felt… wrong? But I have now come to believe that buying things used is actually much better than getting them brand new. You can save money, give a second life to something that is perfectly usable but would otherwise have gone to waste, and buy products which are no longer sold by the manufacturer but are more well-suited for you than the alternatives. I have come to greatly appreciate this approach, and strongly recommend you try to overcome that barrier, if you, as I did, have one.

Simplistic, even performative, forms of minimalism tend to focus on this aspect—having less things—of minimalism, but that’s not all that matters. More important than mindlessly throwing away as much as you possibly can is trying to find a balance. Firstly, you obviously shouldn’t get rid of things which you are sure genuinely make you happy and improve your life. If you have doubts it might be that you’re just irrationally anxious about losing that thing, but if you’re sure it makes you happier, keep it. Secondly, having more things in service of being more self-sufficient actually leads to a more minimal life, I (and others) would argue. For instance, owning kitchen utensils is good, because it allows you to make your own meals, which leads to a more minimal life than the alternative—only eating store-bought or restaurant food—even though it technically means you own more things.

Minimalism in technology

Minimalism in technology is something I’m especially interested in, because technology is something I think and care about a lot. Technology is also an integral part of most people’s lives, and one which, in my opinion, has been especially plagued by consumerism, and a general “cult of excess,” so to speak. I believe we should really take a step back and reflect on our approach to technology, because with the way things are going, it looks like it’s only going to get worse.

You do not need the newest devices. Many people seem to believe that they should always be getting the newest devices available on the market, replacing the ones they already have (and it’s no wonder, considering how much effort and money tech companies put into making them believe that). However, in most cases, you absolutely do not need the newest model of a smartphone, laptop, or whatever else. Yes, there are reasons why someone might need bleeding edge technology, and if you’re one of those people you probably know it, but I am confident that most things an average person might want to do on a computer could be done on a 10 year old laptop. Truly, almost none of us need the newest iPhone or the newest MacBook, or the most expensive ThinkPad, and it won’t do us any good to think that we do.

This goes back to the idea of only buying the things you need. If you’re sure that a new device, or a newer version of a device you have, would make your life better, easier, or more enjoyable, then by all means, buy it. But before you do, you should be absolutely certain that you genuinely need this device, and are not only interested in it because you think it will make you look cool, or some other similar reason.

And if you do end up deciding to get a new device, again, consider buying it used. Yes, it could be damaged, yes, it could be in less than perfect condition, but chances are you’ll get a working device, and at a much reduced cost. And, if you’re interested in learning more about technology (or are already skilled and simply want to enjoy yourself), I think it’s really fun to find slightly broken devices and fix them up. As of writing this post, this very website is hosted on a laptop which used to be broken that I got from a family member and fixed up (and had a lot of fun doing so).

As you may or may not have noticed, the internet is awful right now. It isn’t a tool for us to use, a source of information and a medium of connection; it is a hellish landscape full of ads, unwanted and unnecessary AI features, trackers, cookie banners, videos which nobody likes but almost everyone watches, and a plethora of other obtrusive and annoying stuff. Isn’t all of this horrible? Wouldn’t you prefer to look up information quickly, read articles and consume content easily and without getting distracted and annoyed with ads, and connect with people genuinely, without getting pushed to anger by deliberately polarising algorithms? I sure would. And an internet like what I’ve tried to describe is, I would say, in line with the principles of minimalism and simple living.

But this isn’t only the case with the internet. Have you tried using an application recently? If it is not already a web app—and as such full of the same issues as the internet itself—it is likely that it is also, to put it mildly, very bad. Apps have got extremely slow, weighed down with millions of features most people don’t want, and they are also packed with ads and (warning: opinion) stupid AI features. I hate this. When I use an app, I want it to be a tool, a tool that helps me perform a task as well as possible. An ad won’t help me do that, so I don’t want to see it. A slow app will slow down my work, so I want apps to be fast. Unnecessary features will distract and annoy me, so I don’t want them there.

That is why I choose to, whenever possible, use minimalist software. The exact definition of minimalist software is nebulous (if you know a good definition, please let me know), but the general idea is that the software should be, well… minimal. It should do what you ask it to, be as fast and responsive as it can possibly be, and it should primarily be interested in helping you achieve your goal. While, like I said, a solid definition is hard to come by, there are some characteristics that—while not required—are commonly seen in minimalist software.

Such apps often have TUIs. A TUI (Terminal User Interface) is, as the name implies, an interface for using the application based entirely in a terminal. And if you don’t know what a terminal is, it’s basically an application where you type in commands and… stuff happens. Using TUI apps is not for everyone, and is probably not even for most people, but I personally love it. I find them very easy and convenient to use, and I really like that I can use such apps entirely via the keyboard, without ever needing to use a mouse, which is also usually faster.

Minimalist software often comes with very few features out of the box, with configuration required to enable more advanced features. This can be very annoying and hard to get through when you’re first starting to use an application, because you have to do a lot of work to make it useful, but once you get through that initial stage, it’s actually pretty great. Once you’re done, you end up with an application which you configured yourself, and as a result, understand thoroughly. This also means that such software is also usually very, very, customisable, so you can make sure if fits your needs perfectly.

Minimalist apps are also often rather visually unappealing. That might be off-putting, especially at first, but it is usually the case only because these apps focus on function over form, which I would argue is good (at least in the case of computer programs). They usually don’t include animations or other bells and whistles, and are usually not very visually polished. This might be a downside for some people, and that’s completely okay, but I’ve personally grown to quite appreciate this as its own kind of aesthetic.

Conclusion

I find minimalism quite appealing, and I think about it a lot. I primarily use minimalist software, and I’m making a conscious effort to put myself in a situation where almost everything I care about is digital, and backed up—that way, I could lose any one of my devices or things, and still be completely fine. I want to try incorporating minimalism more deeply into my life, because I think it could significantly improve my life.

I would like to urge you to consider minimalism. You don’t have to become a monk, and you don’t even have to do anything—if you decide you don’t like it—but just think about it. See how it feels in your head, try to imagine if it would make your life better. And if you think it might, maybe try it out?

If you have any thoughts or comments please feel free to contact me.