9 ms·

Relentlessly Simplify

148 points by dend 7y ago

akersten 7y ago
It's interesting the contrast between the Sonos soundbar piece and the networking setup - both are described as simple, but I think one is much more complicated to set up than the other. So I suppose it's about the end result being easier to reason about, versus the overall convenience? Minimalism is good in both life and work. The best code is no code, and the next best is as little code as possible.
- loopz 7y ago
  Simple != Easy Like certain stuff looks simple in ie. golang, there's tons of opinionated design decision behind every nuance of the language. For some, simple would be more like Haskell, while for others bash (until they need to understand old code). Each eye of the beholder can argue either way. So what is most simple? Compile linux kernel by hand, or automate it? Automation becomes "simpler" (more valuable) the more it is actually used. The article talks about simplifying, though is more about discipline, something many find hard to find motivation and incentives for in this age of instant gratification!
  - ISO-morphism 7y ago
    > Simple != Easy > For some, simple would be more like Haskell, while for others bash (until they need to understand old code). Each eye of the beholder can argue either way. Certainly simple != easy, but I think in the second part there "simple" should be replaced with "easy". Simple is objective, while easy is subjective [1]. Haskell may be easier for some as they've spent more time with it, similarly bash for others. However, their simplicity, i.e. how many concerns are intertwined, how much global context is required to reason about a program, can be more objectively analyzed. > The article talks about simplifying, though is more about discipline, something many find hard to find motivation and incentives for in this age of instant gratification! Indeed, it takes discipline to maintain simplicity. Simplicity is hard. Complexity is easy. "If I had more time to write, this letter would be shorter." [1] https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy/ https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy/
- ben509 7y ago
  Simple is too vague. The goal is avoiding unnecessary complexity, but not all complexity is the same. For instance, I'm not an audiophile, so I have no investment in audio equipment. A Sonos soundbar is, in absolute terms, an extremely complex device; you could measure all the steps to production and the complexity is pretty astounding. In some ways, a consumer product may be more complex because it'll have additional circuitry to provide the "simpler" interface. But that's counting the wrong complexity. It's the interface that I care about, because I'm trying to minimize the number of tasks and things about the device I have to memorize. So now we're studying a different class of entities: tasks I have to both learn and perform, and some amount of information I have to organize. There's also a degree of risk, as the damned thing can break, and I can sink a tremendous amount of time on the phone trying to remedy it, or have to throw it out, which I don't like. I've only used Ubiquiti products a bit, but they seem to have all their own special sauce. And, I'll bet the design tends to assume you recall things you did months ago or take perfect notes. So while I'd probaby go with the Ubiquiti, especially if the defaults just work, I might find it's simpler to set up a Linux box. How? That's advertising a ton of complexity to me, the entire Unix OS. But... I don't have to learn anything new, any configuration goes into a repo, and updating can be automated. That means the marginal complexity is still quite small. Managing complexity, like risk, cost or time, is very much an economic function. And, of course, since there's a limit to the amount of complexity you can manage in your life, a production-possibility frontier naturally emerges from these choices. When you're overloaded, you're dropping unmanageable complexity, most likely unconciously.
FillardMillmore 7y ago
I've been meaning to put some of the principles laid out here to practice in my personal life. I've always been the guy with the cluttered desk. Though I feel no compulsion to keep it tidy, I must admit that when I do decide to tidy it up, I feel a sense of ease and relief - like some invisible, slightly intangible burden has just been lifted off my shoulders. I think this is the feeling that people get when they simplify things and try to adhere to minimalism. It's easy enough to focus first on your digital life, like the author noted. Get rid of all the unnecessary things on your phone. Then perhaps move to your computer - tidy and organize all those random links and shortcuts on your desktop and organize all those digital photos. Then of course, applying the principles to your own life in physical reality. Automating monthly payments, getting recurring shipments of things you need (I get monthly shipments of coffee, but you could probably get things like toilet paper, soaps, etc.), tidying up your house or apartment. I believe we all heard the stories about how Steve Jobs had multiples of the same shirts/pants to simplify his decision making in the morning and free his mind. Personally, I went and got 10 pairs of the same socks and did away with most of my others (socks of various sizes, colors, lengths, etc.) - now, whenever a sock loses its pair, I can simply pair it up with another sock as they are, after all, the same. Minimalism has quite a few benefits, how you can best implement it in your own life will vary depending on your routine and lifestyle.
- imglorp 7y ago
  I think that sense of relief, when you clean up a work area, is tangible and has a biological explanation. As David Allen (Getting Things Done) observed, we maintain a physical memory palace in these workspaces. Each item on the workspace is a todo, an unfinished object, a project in progress, or a reference thing in case we ever need it again. The link is works both ways: either brain-to-desk or desk-to-brain. You can probably remember where in the pile a document for some project is. There is tangible stress having all that stuff in your head. The beauty of filing things away where they go, off your desk, is that you get it out of your head, trusting the system, and the stress is relieved! It doesn't really matter what system you use as long as you trust it and it gets it out of your head and off your workspace.
  - 7y ago
vinceguidry 7y ago
Long down this road. More tips: Routinizing your diet can bear more useful fruit than anything else. First prioritize ease of preparation, then taste and enjoyment, then health. Doing it in that order makes the subsequent steps a million times easier. At work, I would go out to eat every day. They clean out the fridge every week and any time I'd start to get into a lunch routine, the fridge cleanout wrecked progress every time and I'd be back to eating out. Eventually I started bringing canned soups to work as they don't need refrigeration. With lunch no longer being subject to the dictates of the fridge schedule, I can start prioritizing taste and enjoyment. I got oil, vinegar, hot sauce, salt and pepper grinders to add to the soups. Canned chicken adds a lot to them as well, and just enough calories so that I don't get hungry again an hour later. I have similar routines for dinner, which allows more flexibility due to a fridge I can control and a stove and utensils and all that. It's still limited by the fact that I can't cook every single night. So I compromise, building on frozen dinners, adding onions, peppers, seasonings, butter, protein, then saving half for the next day. Make things a little better each time while staying within your routine. Eventually it's all muscle memory and your mind focuses on what's new and it doesn't feel like drudgery. Health comes in after you've finished the heavy lifting on the first two. I started noticing little differences in how I feel after meals, and adjusting how much I eat each time. Pounds have been coming off effortlessly, but I don't feel hungry very often unless I get off my routine for whatever reason. Your computing life can be simplified the same way. Build on a foundation, in my case Ubuntu. Years ago I maintained a set of instructions, nowadays my scripts are reliable enough to get a brand new Ubuntu system from just installed to usable in some 10 minutes. I use them more often than you'd think. You learn deeper concepts over time. I kept everything on Dropbox until I found Spacemacs and projectile, now I'm moving it all back to git. I used to keep complicated sync scripts in .bashrc, now I manually run a sync script as a matter of routine. Workflowy is giving way to orgmode. Ruby may never be dislodged from my life, but I've been adding in Crystal for use in keyboard macros. More power is slowly earned and the number of Sorcerer's Apprentice ordeals dwindles.
- 0xffff2 7y ago
  >First prioritize ease of preparation, then taste and enjoyment, then health This seems totally ass-backwards to me. If I followed this order, I'd almost certainly kill myself, either out of boredom from optimizing for ease of preparation or by sheer gluttony by failing to optimize for health adequately. I optimize for health, to the extent that I can with minimal effort, then taste and enjoyment, then health again to whatever remaining possible extent, and only then ease of preparation. Just goes to show that most advice is not one-size-fits-all I guess.
thejohnconway 7y ago
When I think about the successful, interesting people I have known in my life, I struggle to think of one that fitted this zen minimalist model. Most (all maybe?), have messy or at least full offices and houses. They have lots of interest in things, and have artefacts of those interests around them. Lots of half-finished/in progress projects, books, papers, tools, materials and so on. What they have in common is relentless and flexible thinking about their subject(s) of interest, not, like, really nice sound systems. That's not to say that minimalism doesn't work for some, but I don't think all this meta stuff matters much. And I'd like to see some evidence from sorts of people who write about how great minimalism is that it does.
- ta1234567890 7y ago
  Related to your experience, here's a picture of Einstein's office at Princeton: https://time.com/3494553/the-day-albert-einstein-died-a-photographers-story/ https://time.com/3494553/the-day-albert-einstein-died-a-phot...
  - semiotagonal 7y ago
    That's actually pretty minimal. It only looks cluttered because the desk is small. The shelves are only half-used, and mostly in proper stacks.
- nkingsy 7y ago
  I think it’s a personality thing. Some people think a lot about their space. Some don’t. I like having a nice space but don’t put thought into it. My wife cares deeply so I have active work in progress in my spaces (garage, storage) but keep it out of the house.
  - thejohnconway 7y ago
    Some people think about their space and don't want it to be minimal. The way a lot of people talk about minimalism feels like propaganda to me. It's _assumed_ to be good, in and of itself. Well, I don't want to live like that, and I see no evidence that it helps.
ta1234567890 7y ago
This is a video of a slime mold finding food: https://youtu.be/GwKuFREOgmo https://youtu.be/GwKuFREOgmo It seems to be operating in something like 2 main phases: an initial exploratory phase in which it expands almost in every direction and then a second "optimization" (simplification) phase in which it just keeps the links between the food sources. I think we operate in a similar way. We learn by exploring and then we optimize when "exploiting". Everyone is different though, some like exploring more, others like optimizing more, and there's a big range in between. It also depends on the subject or activity. I personally almost exclusively enjoy the exploration part (learning about things), and don't have much interest in the optimization part (executing repetitively the same thing for gain).
berelig 7y ago
For a blog post about simplifying there sure are a lot of links embedded in the text to take your attention away.
- dend 7y ago
  [Author of blog post here] Good feedback - thank you! Probably would be easier to include them as reference to the end of the post for those that want to dig into it.
cutler 7y ago
How about reducing the need to know a dozen programming languages leading to being a master of none?
mouzogu 7y ago
I first need to have the realisation that things have become wasteful or complicated in some aspect of my life. Simplifying things becomes clearer at that point. However, I still often need to go through that wasteful, trial and error process of figuring out that I need to simplify. I always admire those people that seem to have a kind of common sense or self awareness to realise that they don't need something in the first place. There's a kind of directness of thought and clarity of execution which seem totally natural.
Cougher 7y ago
How does someone with such a complicated life have the chutzpah to title an article "Relentlessly Simplify"?
asdfman123 7y ago
Getting a 40-hour-a-week job and not having kids is my strategy. I don't have to relentlessly optimize my time management strategies.
- carlivar 7y ago
  Not having kids is BY FAR a simpler life. I wish these articles were bucketed into life's various phases and situations. Though most suggestions still apply, there's something about the time commitment and in-your-personal-space-ness that makes simplification more difficult.
  - dend 7y ago
    [Author of blog post here] Totally fair observation - the article I put together naively skips through some of the most complicated aspects of life. Someone that has kids, a different commute, a job that requires different effort, health-related concerns, etc. may not have an easy time at all with the approach of "simplifying" things around them. The post itself is not meant to be some sort of a universal, "you should do this and your life will be peachy" advice, but rather a reflection on what worked best for me personally, that will hopefully get people thinking about what works for them in their own stages of life.
  - asdfman123 7y ago
    Yeah, that's why I wouldn't have kids in this day and age. Maybe I'd do it back in the seventies when parents could say "Go play at the creek all day and be back before dinner", and you could actually have your own life, and usually only one parent worked.
taurath 7y ago
Which of the bolded points are not like the others here? Are you really gonna get a lot of mileage out of a better router vs removing distractions from your life? Cmon.
- dend 7y ago
  [Author of blog post here] Depends on what causes friction in your life, so YMMV. To me, if I have a bad network at home, and I constantly have to fiddle with a router and reboot it whenever the ISP deploys some changes, that's time I can spend on other things.
aj7 7y ago
Left out the most important thing. ONE bank account, probably a brokerage account with bill paying, free transactions, checking.
FridgeSeal 7y ago
> hassle-free Sonos system at home instead of trying to fiddle with custom soundbars, connectors, sub-par applications I found this kind of funny, given my experience with the Sonos at work: * it seemingly can’t stay on the wifi * the app crashes frequently, often mid song, leaving you with something that can’t be controlled (without the buttons) for a few minutes while the app starts back and and lazily attempts to reconnect. * both the app and the device apparently need to do updates all the time, and it will nag you relentlessly if you don’t do the update before eventually not letting you use it at all. * It doesn’t appear to support airplay, but sometimes iTunes and Spotify can cast to it in a rickety kind of way? * The app UI/UX is also downright horrible. It’s quite literally the opposite of what I’d consider simple.
- dend 7y ago
  [Author of blog post here] I'd say it probably varies and depends on a lot of factors - sometimes I have issues with the Play One connecting over AirPlay, but overall it _significantly_ reduces friction compared to all other audio systems I've used.
zentiggr 7y ago
"Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler." I have a Google Sheet that lets me track items as calendared, with a priority increasing as the date approaches "done at this time", with a repeat timeframe, and again ramping priority Set priority project / reminder, so I can get to it when all the other priorities above them are clear I've added some extra features on top of that (a column that lets me do a one time +/- to the priority) and it just works the way I think now. Plus Simple Notepad on my phone so i'm two clicks away from typing down anything that comes up.
michaelbuckbee 7y ago
I've always sort of chafed at the "simplification" model of things, the term I like is "deliberateness". Have a lot of stuff or a litte, but make sure you're not just mindlessly accumulating or pushing away things.
iamaelephant 7y ago
So just to re-iterate, here are the products you need to purchase to simplify your life * A notebook * Some phone apps like Flow * Bulk toothpaste * Duplicates of utilities like USB cables * UNIQLO t-shirts * A Sonos speaker system * Ubiquity networking equipment Gosh it sure seems expensive to live a simple life.
- uxp100 7y ago
  Except for the last two, the rest are cheap items. I feel like this is a canned response that is valid for some types of self help articles, but this is a personal blog, and the "article" is just a list of some cool stuff the author likes. Maybe the title is over the top for someone with a sonos setup, but again, it's a personal blog.
  - dend 7y ago
    [Author of blog post here] YMMV may vary - what works for me and saves me time is not necessarily something that will work for others, so very much spot on observation about this being a reflection on a personal approach that helped me. It's by no means a universal mantra.
- coldtea 7y ago
  I'll ignore the snark (and purposefully missing the point), and just say this: Those are expensive? You know what kind of crap the average American (and not even the richer ones) spends on? E.g. compared to the average "fast fashion" items, chased by many even dead-broke people (from sneakers to whatever), UNIQLO t-shirts are almost as cheap as it gets this side of buying balk from China. As for the rest, a notebook is like $2, toothpaste you'll buy anyway and balk is cheaper, usb cables you'll buy anyway (and they'll live longer if you have duplicates for the home and office compared to carrying them every day, straining them, and losing them), and the Flow app is free. That leaves us with a speaker (around $300 and some wifi router). This is cheaper than what many people pay for coffee over 2-3 months...
ppeetteerr 7y ago
>there is no reason to preserve those beyond a couple of weeks or months I find preserving TODOs to be an important part of yearly evaluation of work. I can quickly go over my notes for a year and see all of the items that I did over the year. If I didn't have a rolling todo list, I'd have to maintain a separate list of accomplishments, which is actually the TODO list.
- dend 7y ago
  [Author of blog post here] To me those are different things. TODOs on a daily basis can contain mundane tasks - e.g. "Send a Christmas card to cousin Terry" doesn't strike me as something I need to keep a record of. For things that I've accomplished, e.g. launched a new site, reached some milestone, I can just keep it on a separate page/note.
dwild 7y ago
I love how almost nothing in his blog post seems simple... yet that's was his goals. I guess it's "simple" for him, but then it would means it's learned and anything can become simple considering that. To me that sounds more like, finding what's works for him, and has nothing to do with simplifying. He seems to get to the same conclusion at the end.
- dend 7y ago
  [Author of blog post here] Bingo - this is a reflection on my own process. It's not a recipe for others to follow as much as it is food for thought and maybe a push to figure out what works for you.
ptcampbell 7y ago
I wonder if the author has stopped to examine the structural influences that make him feel that the onus is his to relentlessly simplify. Presumably the author eats alone at his desk every lunchtime. Hopefully his sex life has been spared from this austerity.
- dend 7y ago
  [Author of blog post here] Appreciate your concerns, thank you :)
aonsager 7y ago
I think that "simple" rather than "minimal" is an important distinction that is sometimes overlooked. Sometimes adding something new will let you reduce a lot of friction. For example, a paper journal or a plain text to-do list is very minimal, but I've found that having a dedicated to-do app is the best way for me to simplify my workflow. * I can dump in new tasks with a quick keystroke as they come up and manage them later * I can set a date for upcoming things and get automatic reminders * I can make recurring tasks repeat automatically * I can keep a backlog of completed tasks out of sight until I need to refer to something Or, when my room is messy that usually means things are left out where I use them and are usually within reach. When I tidy up and put things away, I need to spend effort thinking about where something is, go get it, and put it away again when I'm done with it. Messy can be simpler than clean.

148 points by dend 7y ago

It's interesting the contrast between the Sonos soundbar piece and the networking setup - both are described as simple, but I think one is much more complicated to set up than the other. So I suppose it's about the end result being easier to reason about, versus the overall convenience? Minimalism is good in both life and work. The best code is no code, and the next best is as little code as possible.

loopz 7y ago
Simple != Easy Like certain stuff looks simple in ie. golang, there's tons of opinionated design decision behind every nuance of the language. For some, simple would be more like Haskell, while for others bash (until they need to understand old code). Each eye of the beholder can argue either way. So what is most simple? Compile linux kernel by hand, or automate it? Automation becomes "simpler" (more valuable) the more it is actually used. The article talks about simplifying, though is more about discipline, something many find hard to find motivation and incentives for in this age of instant gratification!
- ISO-morphism 7y ago
  > Simple != Easy > For some, simple would be more like Haskell, while for others bash (until they need to understand old code). Each eye of the beholder can argue either way. Certainly simple != easy, but I think in the second part there "simple" should be replaced with "easy". Simple is objective, while easy is subjective [1]. Haskell may be easier for some as they've spent more time with it, similarly bash for others. However, their simplicity, i.e. how many concerns are intertwined, how much global context is required to reason about a program, can be more objectively analyzed. > The article talks about simplifying, though is more about discipline, something many find hard to find motivation and incentives for in this age of instant gratification! Indeed, it takes discipline to maintain simplicity. Simplicity is hard. Complexity is easy. "If I had more time to write, this letter would be shorter." [1] https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy/ https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy/
ben509 7y ago
Simple is too vague. The goal is avoiding unnecessary complexity, but not all complexity is the same. For instance, I'm not an audiophile, so I have no investment in audio equipment. A Sonos soundbar is, in absolute terms, an extremely complex device; you could measure all the steps to production and the complexity is pretty astounding. In some ways, a consumer product may be more complex because it'll have additional circuitry to provide the "simpler" interface. But that's counting the wrong complexity. It's the interface that I care about, because I'm trying to minimize the number of tasks and things about the device I have to memorize. So now we're studying a different class of entities: tasks I have to both learn and perform, and some amount of information I have to organize. There's also a degree of risk, as the damned thing can break, and I can sink a tremendous amount of time on the phone trying to remedy it, or have to throw it out, which I don't like. I've only used Ubiquiti products a bit, but they seem to have all their own special sauce. And, I'll bet the design tends to assume you recall things you did months ago or take perfect notes. So while I'd probaby go with the Ubiquiti, especially if the defaults just work, I might find it's simpler to set up a Linux box. How? That's advertising a ton of complexity to me, the entire Unix OS. But... I don't have to learn anything new, any configuration goes into a repo, and updating can be automated. That means the marginal complexity is still quite small. Managing complexity, like risk, cost or time, is very much an economic function. And, of course, since there's a limit to the amount of complexity you can manage in your life, a production-possibility frontier naturally emerges from these choices. When you're overloaded, you're dropping unmanageable complexity, most likely unconciously.

FillardMillmore 7y ago

I've been meaning to put some of the principles laid out here to practice in my personal life. I've always been the guy with the cluttered desk. Though I feel no compulsion to keep it tidy, I must admit that when I do decide to tidy it up, I feel a sense of ease and relief - like some invisible, slightly intangible burden has just been lifted off my shoulders. I think this is the feeling that people get when they simplify things and try to adhere to minimalism. It's easy enough to focus first on your digital life, like the author noted. Get rid of all the unnecessary things on your phone. Then perhaps move to your computer - tidy and organize all those random links and shortcuts on your desktop and organize all those digital photos. Then of course, applying the principles to your own life in physical reality. Automating monthly payments, getting recurring shipments of things you need (I get monthly shipments of coffee, but you could probably get things like toilet paper, soaps, etc.), tidying up your house or apartment. I believe we all heard the stories about how Steve Jobs had multiples of the same shirts/pants to simplify his decision making in the morning and free his mind. Personally, I went and got 10 pairs of the same socks and did away with most of my others (socks of various sizes, colors, lengths, etc.) - now, whenever a sock loses its pair, I can simply pair it up with another sock as they are, after all, the same. Minimalism has quite a few benefits, how you can best implement it in your own life will vary depending on your routine and lifestyle.

imglorp 7y ago
I think that sense of relief, when you clean up a work area, is tangible and has a biological explanation. As David Allen (Getting Things Done) observed, we maintain a physical memory palace in these workspaces. Each item on the workspace is a todo, an unfinished object, a project in progress, or a reference thing in case we ever need it again. The link is works both ways: either brain-to-desk or desk-to-brain. You can probably remember where in the pile a document for some project is. There is tangible stress having all that stuff in your head. The beauty of filing things away where they go, off your desk, is that you get it out of your head, trusting the system, and the stress is relieved! It doesn't really matter what system you use as long as you trust it and it gets it out of your head and off your workspace.
- 7y ago

vinceguidry 7y ago

Long down this road. More tips: Routinizing your diet can bear more useful fruit than anything else. First prioritize ease of preparation, then taste and enjoyment, then health. Doing it in that order makes the subsequent steps a million times easier. At work, I would go out to eat every day. They clean out the fridge every week and any time I'd start to get into a lunch routine, the fridge cleanout wrecked progress every time and I'd be back to eating out. Eventually I started bringing canned soups to work as they don't need refrigeration. With lunch no longer being subject to the dictates of the fridge schedule, I can start prioritizing taste and enjoyment. I got oil, vinegar, hot sauce, salt and pepper grinders to add to the soups. Canned chicken adds a lot to them as well, and just enough calories so that I don't get hungry again an hour later. I have similar routines for dinner, which allows more flexibility due to a fridge I can control and a stove and utensils and all that. It's still limited by the fact that I can't cook every single night. So I compromise, building on frozen dinners, adding onions, peppers, seasonings, butter, protein, then saving half for the next day. Make things a little better each time while staying within your routine. Eventually it's all muscle memory and your mind focuses on what's new and it doesn't feel like drudgery. Health comes in after you've finished the heavy lifting on the first two. I started noticing little differences in how I feel after meals, and adjusting how much I eat each time. Pounds have been coming off effortlessly, but I don't feel hungry very often unless I get off my routine for whatever reason. Your computing life can be simplified the same way. Build on a foundation, in my case Ubuntu. Years ago I maintained a set of instructions, nowadays my scripts are reliable enough to get a brand new Ubuntu system from just installed to usable in some 10 minutes. I use them more often than you'd think. You learn deeper concepts over time. I kept everything on Dropbox until I found Spacemacs and projectile, now I'm moving it all back to git. I used to keep complicated sync scripts in .bashrc, now I manually run a sync script as a matter of routine. Workflowy is giving way to orgmode. Ruby may never be dislodged from my life, but I've been adding in Crystal for use in keyboard macros. More power is slowly earned and the number of Sorcerer's Apprentice ordeals dwindles.

0xffff2 7y ago
>First prioritize ease of preparation, then taste and enjoyment, then health This seems totally ass-backwards to me. If I followed this order, I'd almost certainly kill myself, either out of boredom from optimizing for ease of preparation or by sheer gluttony by failing to optimize for health adequately. I optimize for health, to the extent that I can with minimal effort, then taste and enjoyment, then health again to whatever remaining possible extent, and only then ease of preparation. Just goes to show that most advice is not one-size-fits-all I guess.

thejohnconway 7y ago

When I think about the successful, interesting people I have known in my life, I struggle to think of one that fitted this zen minimalist model. Most (all maybe?), have messy or at least full offices and houses. They have lots of interest in things, and have artefacts of those interests around them. Lots of half-finished/in progress projects, books, papers, tools, materials and so on. What they have in common is relentless and flexible thinking about their subject(s) of interest, not, like, really nice sound systems. That's not to say that minimalism doesn't work for some, but I don't think all this meta stuff matters much. And I'd like to see some evidence from sorts of people who write about how great minimalism is that it does.

ta1234567890 7y ago
Related to your experience, here's a picture of Einstein's office at Princeton: https://time.com/3494553/the-day-albert-einstein-died-a-photographers-story/ https://time.com/3494553/the-day-albert-einstein-died-a-phot...
- semiotagonal 7y ago
  That's actually pretty minimal. It only looks cluttered because the desk is small. The shelves are only half-used, and mostly in proper stacks.
nkingsy 7y ago
I think it’s a personality thing. Some people think a lot about their space. Some don’t. I like having a nice space but don’t put thought into it. My wife cares deeply so I have active work in progress in my spaces (garage, storage) but keep it out of the house.
- thejohnconway 7y ago
  Some people think about their space and don't want it to be minimal. The way a lot of people talk about minimalism feels like propaganda to me. It's _assumed_ to be good, in and of itself. Well, I don't want to live like that, and I see no evidence that it helps.

ta1234567890 7y ago

This is a video of a slime mold finding food: https://youtu.be/GwKuFREOgmo https://youtu.be/GwKuFREOgmo It seems to be operating in something like 2 main phases: an initial exploratory phase in which it expands almost in every direction and then a second "optimization" (simplification) phase in which it just keeps the links between the food sources. I think we operate in a similar way. We learn by exploring and then we optimize when "exploiting". Everyone is different though, some like exploring more, others like optimizing more, and there's a big range in between. It also depends on the subject or activity. I personally almost exclusively enjoy the exploration part (learning about things), and don't have much interest in the optimization part (executing repetitively the same thing for gain).

berelig 7y ago

For a blog post about simplifying there sure are a lot of links embedded in the text to take your attention away.

dend 7y ago
[Author of blog post here] Good feedback - thank you! Probably would be easier to include them as reference to the end of the post for those that want to dig into it.

cutler 7y ago

How about reducing the need to know a dozen programming languages leading to being a master of none?

mouzogu 7y ago

I first need to have the realisation that things have become wasteful or complicated in some aspect of my life. Simplifying things becomes clearer at that point. However, I still often need to go through that wasteful, trial and error process of figuring out that I need to simplify. I always admire those people that seem to have a kind of common sense or self awareness to realise that they don't need something in the first place. There's a kind of directness of thought and clarity of execution which seem totally natural.

Cougher 7y ago

How does someone with such a complicated life have the chutzpah to title an article "Relentlessly Simplify"?

asdfman123 7y ago

Getting a 40-hour-a-week job and not having kids is my strategy. I don't have to relentlessly optimize my time management strategies.

carlivar 7y ago
Not having kids is BY FAR a simpler life. I wish these articles were bucketed into life's various phases and situations. Though most suggestions still apply, there's something about the time commitment and in-your-personal-space-ness that makes simplification more difficult.
- dend 7y ago
  [Author of blog post here] Totally fair observation - the article I put together naively skips through some of the most complicated aspects of life. Someone that has kids, a different commute, a job that requires different effort, health-related concerns, etc. may not have an easy time at all with the approach of "simplifying" things around them. The post itself is not meant to be some sort of a universal, "you should do this and your life will be peachy" advice, but rather a reflection on what worked best for me personally, that will hopefully get people thinking about what works for them in their own stages of life.
- asdfman123 7y ago
  Yeah, that's why I wouldn't have kids in this day and age. Maybe I'd do it back in the seventies when parents could say "Go play at the creek all day and be back before dinner", and you could actually have your own life, and usually only one parent worked.

taurath 7y ago

Which of the bolded points are not like the others here? Are you really gonna get a lot of mileage out of a better router vs removing distractions from your life? Cmon.

dend 7y ago
[Author of blog post here] Depends on what causes friction in your life, so YMMV. To me, if I have a bad network at home, and I constantly have to fiddle with a router and reboot it whenever the ISP deploys some changes, that's time I can spend on other things.

aj7 7y ago

Left out the most important thing. ONE bank account, probably a brokerage account with bill paying, free transactions, checking.

FridgeSeal 7y ago

> hassle-free Sonos system at home instead of trying to fiddle with custom soundbars, connectors, sub-par applications I found this kind of funny, given my experience with the Sonos at work: * it seemingly can’t stay on the wifi * the app crashes frequently, often mid song, leaving you with something that can’t be controlled (without the buttons) for a few minutes while the app starts back and and lazily attempts to reconnect. * both the app and the device apparently need to do updates all the time, and it will nag you relentlessly if you don’t do the update before eventually not letting you use it at all. * It doesn’t appear to support airplay, but sometimes iTunes and Spotify can cast to it in a rickety kind of way? * The app UI/UX is also downright horrible. It’s quite literally the opposite of what I’d consider simple.

dend 7y ago
[Author of blog post here] I'd say it probably varies and depends on a lot of factors - sometimes I have issues with the Play One connecting over AirPlay, but overall it _significantly_ reduces friction compared to all other audio systems I've used.

zentiggr 7y ago

"Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler." I have a Google Sheet that lets me track items as calendared, with a priority increasing as the date approaches "done at this time", with a repeat timeframe, and again ramping priority Set priority project / reminder, so I can get to it when all the other priorities above them are clear I've added some extra features on top of that (a column that lets me do a one time +/- to the priority) and it just works the way I think now. Plus Simple Notepad on my phone so i'm two clicks away from typing down anything that comes up.

michaelbuckbee 7y ago

I've always sort of chafed at the "simplification" model of things, the term I like is "deliberateness". Have a lot of stuff or a litte, but make sure you're not just mindlessly accumulating or pushing away things.

iamaelephant 7y ago

So just to re-iterate, here are the products you need to purchase to simplify your life * A notebook * Some phone apps like Flow * Bulk toothpaste * Duplicates of utilities like USB cables * UNIQLO t-shirts * A Sonos speaker system * Ubiquity networking equipment Gosh it sure seems expensive to live a simple life.

uxp100 7y ago
Except for the last two, the rest are cheap items. I feel like this is a canned response that is valid for some types of self help articles, but this is a personal blog, and the "article" is just a list of some cool stuff the author likes. Maybe the title is over the top for someone with a sonos setup, but again, it's a personal blog.
- dend 7y ago
  [Author of blog post here] YMMV may vary - what works for me and saves me time is not necessarily something that will work for others, so very much spot on observation about this being a reflection on a personal approach that helped me. It's by no means a universal mantra.
coldtea 7y ago
I'll ignore the snark (and purposefully missing the point), and just say this: Those are expensive? You know what kind of crap the average American (and not even the richer ones) spends on? E.g. compared to the average "fast fashion" items, chased by many even dead-broke people (from sneakers to whatever), UNIQLO t-shirts are almost as cheap as it gets this side of buying balk from China. As for the rest, a notebook is like $2, toothpaste you'll buy anyway and balk is cheaper, usb cables you'll buy anyway (and they'll live longer if you have duplicates for the home and office compared to carrying them every day, straining them, and losing them), and the Flow app is free. That leaves us with a speaker (around $300 and some wifi router). This is cheaper than what many people pay for coffee over 2-3 months...

ppeetteerr 7y ago

>there is no reason to preserve those beyond a couple of weeks or months I find preserving TODOs to be an important part of yearly evaluation of work. I can quickly go over my notes for a year and see all of the items that I did over the year. If I didn't have a rolling todo list, I'd have to maintain a separate list of accomplishments, which is actually the TODO list.

dend 7y ago
[Author of blog post here] To me those are different things. TODOs on a daily basis can contain mundane tasks - e.g. "Send a Christmas card to cousin Terry" doesn't strike me as something I need to keep a record of. For things that I've accomplished, e.g. launched a new site, reached some milestone, I can just keep it on a separate page/note.

dwild 7y ago

I love how almost nothing in his blog post seems simple... yet that's was his goals. I guess it's "simple" for him, but then it would means it's learned and anything can become simple considering that. To me that sounds more like, finding what's works for him, and has nothing to do with simplifying. He seems to get to the same conclusion at the end.

dend 7y ago
[Author of blog post here] Bingo - this is a reflection on my own process. It's not a recipe for others to follow as much as it is food for thought and maybe a push to figure out what works for you.

ptcampbell 7y ago

I wonder if the author has stopped to examine the structural influences that make him feel that the onus is his to relentlessly simplify. Presumably the author eats alone at his desk every lunchtime. Hopefully his sex life has been spared from this austerity.

dend 7y ago
[Author of blog post here] Appreciate your concerns, thank you :)

aonsager 7y ago

I think that "simple" rather than "minimal" is an important distinction that is sometimes overlooked. Sometimes adding something new will let you reduce a lot of friction. For example, a paper journal or a plain text to-do list is very minimal, but I've found that having a dedicated to-do app is the best way for me to simplify my workflow. * I can dump in new tasks with a quick keystroke as they come up and manage them later * I can set a date for upcoming things and get automatic reminders * I can make recurring tasks repeat automatically * I can keep a backlog of completed tasks out of sight until I need to refer to something Or, when my room is messy that usually means things are left out where I use them and are usually within reach. When I tidy up and put things away, I need to spend effort thinking about where something is, go get it, and put it away again when I'm done with it. Messy can be simpler than clean.