November 2010
2 posts
Presents →
zenhabits:
As Christmas approaches though and they are all madly running around still shopping they each secretly admit that they too wish they could stop.
What I believe in.
http://www.elevatedsimplicity.com/2010/10/15-simple... →
What I Believe In
October 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Riding the Bus to Work
One of the consequences of my new job that is downtown is that parking is ridiculous. Any parking lot within walking distance of work is at least $6 for a day. That cost, plus gas, really eats into my income. As a result I’ve decided to ride the bus to work, and despite some initial concerns, it is working out wonderfully. Yes, it does mean I have to leave for work an hour early, and return...
September 2010
3 posts
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to...”
– Anne Frank (via humilitynow)
The absolute best reason for minimalism →
mnmal:
And the answer is… Time.
Minimalism gives us the advantage of being able to ruthlessly eliminate that which does not contribute to our lives in order to more effectively spend our time, the most finite resource of all.
August 2010
12 posts
Regrets and dying →
zenhabits:
Very instructive — good to read now, before it’s too late!
Flood Lite: Apple's Attention to Detail →
In July 2002, Appled filed a patent for a “Breathing Status LED Indicator” (No. US 6,658,577 B2). They described it as a “blinking effect of the sleep-mode indicator in accordance with the present invention mimics the rhythm of breathing which is psychologically appealing.”
The average…
Design lessons from the art of washoku |... →
That’s it, I’m adding Presentation Zen to my blog roll. So many great articles to dive into.
mnmal:
Balance, harmony, restraint, simplicity, and naturalness. These are some of the guiding principles behind the preparation of washoku, and they are also fundamental principles we can apply to design and to the art of presentation in our own world outside the culinary arts.
“An idea isn’t worth that much. It’s the execution of the idea that has value. If...”
– Joel Spolsky (via mnmal)
Be like the bamboo: 7 lessons from the Japanese... →
(via mnmal)
July 2010
9 posts
3 tags
One Step to Work
When I know I should be working but can’t seem to find the motivation, I’ve found there is a simple process that always kicks me into gear:
Turn on music
Work
That’s it. Sometimes all I need to do to force myself to get something done is to turn on some music. I think it’s effective because it limits my activities. If I’m listening to music I can’t watch TV...
2 tags
Business Plan
Been slowly whittling the remainder of my business plan down. It’s almost there, I can feel it. Every time I am about to succumb to how huge it feels, I just remember that I don’t want to spend 9 hours a day in a cubicle until I’m 70. That helps whip me into shape.
My first draft is excessively small, if that makes sense. It is taking me longer than I would like to get this...
Finances
Getting serious about my finances again. Seems like this is my summer-time ritual. Realize I’m screwed and fix it. Let’s hope it last all year.
Why I just sold all of my possessions (and killed... →
I love this. I love the idea of this. Of living out of a backpack, going where live takes you and making money while you’re doing it. Unfortunately, most of us can’t make money while we travel (at least, not the way our lives are structured now). I need to get working so I can do this.
See you on the other side.
“一期一会
(ichigo ichie)”
– literally means “one opportunity, one encounter”: every encounter is once in a lifetime (via mnmal)
May 2010
1 post
4 tags
April 2010
7 posts
3 tags
Dunbar's Number →
3 tags
2 tags
Minimal: Simplify: Tips for clothing layering →
Good introduction to outdoor wear.
4 tags
The Steady-State of Poverty
In macroeconomics class yesterday, we discussed something called steady-state. It’s the phenomenon where an economy invests in its capital structure (K) in order to increase its GDP. As K increases, so does the amount of capital that is depreciated every year. So eventually, all of the savings that economy creates goes towards maintaining the current K, so no more is created. At this point,...
4 tags
Random Apple Thoughts, Loosely Joined
minimalmac:
I don’t think enough emphasis has been placed on the real and advantageous reasons (in their mind at least) Apple might have for creating a Mac App Store and making that the only way to install Apps on a Mac as it is with the iPhone/iPad. This is not only about control for the sake of control – which they clearly prefer. It is also about control for the sake of quality and security....
March 2010
9 posts
5 tags
“The silence of emptiness can be a huge motivator to finding your true calling....”
– Everett Bogue, Far Beyond the Stars
5 tags
“But as we used to say in the 60s, the personal is political. It’s not simply a...”
– Marc Gunther, Can Behavioral Economics Help Save the Planet?
2 tags
“a father of a wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the...”
– Anonymous - A Matter of Perspective, Becoming Minimalist
2 tags
Method to Stop an Impulse Buy in its Tracks
If you have the urge to buy something, run this through your head first:
Multiply the price of the item by 6.7. This will give you the approximate value of investing that money at a 10% return for 20 years.
I ran those numbers on a couple of recent purchases and, needless to say, it freaked me out. That should be sufficient in killing most impulse buy urges!
4 tags
“With only one drawer and inches of storage space for food preparation utensils,...”
– Erin Rooney Doland - Outfitting a Minimalist Kitchen
“A well-designed little house is like an oversized house with the unusable parts...”
– Jay Shafer, Small Living Journal
3 tags
“We must strive to reach that simplicity that lies beyond sophistication.”
– John Gardner (via minimalmac)
1 tag
Shootin' Lefty.: Physical Escapism →
I’ve come to the conclusion that, though I do have a serious case of wanderlust, I don’t know if I consider myself an escapist. People are always accusing me of constantly roaming freely as a means to escape reality.
I constantly wander to escape stagnation. My reality is not my pay stub or my…
Quoted for truth!
2 tags
“Speak only if it improves upon the silence.”
– Mahatma Ghandi (via evanpb)
February 2010
15 posts
3 tags
“our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. our souls are...”
– Harold Kushner (via Becoming Minimalist) (via zenhabits)
2 tags
Cleaning Out the Closet
I have seen this method on a couple of blogs, and I decided to finally implement it today. I’ve been feeling that I need to cut a few items out of my wardrobe (mainly shirts), but find it hard to pick, since I already have quite a bit less clothing that most people I know.
This technique is a very sensible one that will get around a person’s tendency to recall that they’ve used...
4 tags
The Art of Being Minimalist
I recently read Everett Bogue’s The Art of Being Minimalist. What can I say, other than it was fantastic! It covers the areas that a person starting out in minimalism needs to hear. It isn’t dry, merely covering various topics in a formulaic fashion, but rather tips interweaved with his story and some inspirational words. It is sure to get anyone interested in breaking the cycle of...
4 tags
What's It All For?
Yesterday a friend asked me why I was devoting so much time to this ‘minimalist thing.’ I had an answer, albeit a general one, but it made me think more about my own reasons for traveling the minimalist path. Why buck the system? Why try to break the cycle of consumerism countless people have been caught in, myself included? How do the benefits outweigh the costs with my choices. Here...
3 tags
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in...”
– George Bernard Shaw
I now see that unreasonable men like Henry Ford or Steve Jobs are truly the ones that drive progress. Don’t give them what they want, give them what they don’t even know they want.