Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, Essential Essays by the Minimalists

Essential: Essays by the Minimalists

Metadata

• Author: Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus
• Full Title: Essential: Essays by the Minimalists
• Category:books
• Summary: The text discusses the importance of simplifying our lives by focusing on meaningful pursuits over material possessions. It emphasizes the idea of deliberate living, where we consciously choose what adds value to our lives and let go of excess clutter. By prioritizing growth, contribution, love, and relationships, we can lead a more fulfilled and purposeful life.

Highlights

• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. —Leonardo da Vinci (View Highlight)
• Consumption isn’t the problem: compulsory consumption is. We’ve trapped ourselves by thinking consumerism will make us happy—that buying crap we don’t need will somehow make us whole. (View Highlight)
• Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can make room for life’s important things—which actually aren’t things at all. (View Highlight)
• There are many flavors of minimalism: a 20-year-old single guy’s minimalist lifestyle looks different from a 45-year-old mother’s minimalist life. Even though everyone embraces minimalism differently, each path leads to the same place: a life with more meaning. (View Highlight)
• People will judge. Let them. Judgment is but a mirror reflecting the insecurities of the person who’s doing the judging. (View Highlight)
  • Note: I wonder how they came to say this.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in today’s economy “it’s entirely possible for poor people to have much of the same material comforts—cars, televisions, computers, smartphones—as more affluent people, yet be trapped in low-paying jobs with little prospect of improvement.” (View Highlight)
• According to the New York Times, there is evidence that “money relieves suffering in cases of true material need. But when money becomes an end in itself, it can bring misery, too.” Once our basic human needs are met, money doesn’t buy happiness—and neither does poverty. (View Highlight)
• scads (View Highlight)
  • Note: A large number or quantity.
• these are individual essays. While we organized this book in a deliberate manner, it is not meant to function as a linear narrative; rather, this book is meant to serve as a conversation in two ways: first, as a continuous conversation between the authors (Joshua & Ryan) and the reader, and second, as a conversation starter between the reader and the people in their life. (View Highlight)
• Minimalism is not the end game—it is not the result. Chucking your material possessions does not necessarily equal happiness. You could get rid of all your stuff and still be miserable. (View Highlight)
• the average American household contains more than 300,000 possessions. (View Highlight)
• There is one way out of consumption’s spiral: we must realize the things we purchase do not define who we are—unless we allow them to. (View Highlight)
  • Note: This is one reason why I don’t like the feeling I get whenever I see expensive Nike shoes, as if having them would somehow make me “better”, whatever that might mean.
• The stuff doesn’t make you happy—you make you happy. (View Highlight)
• solipsistic (View Highlight)
  • Note: Very self-centered or selfish.
• Covet that shiny new truck, that next big promotion, that beautiful man or woman, and you will feel unspeakable pain until it, he, or she is yours. When your desire is met, however, your flame is not extinguished—you’re filled with new desires. It’s a never-ending cycle. (View Highlight)
  • Note: This reminds me of an idea from Bertrand Russel’s The Conquest of Happiness where he says we never truly stop desiring more. Zizek also echoes an idea that has the same gist: we never get truly satisfied, because our object of desire should stay as that — an object of desire, because when we get a hold of it, we would end up desiring another thing, which reinforces the idea that more is always a thing, and that we will never be satisfied with what we currently have, unless we eliminate the presence of desire. I’ll have to find that clip of Zizek though. I can’t remember from where I first encountered that.
• jonesing (View Highlight)
  • Note: From Oxford Languages: have a fixation on; be addicted to. “Palmer was jonesing for some coke again”
• It is possible to get rid of everything you own and still be utterly miserable, to come home to your empty house and sulk after removing all your pacifiers. (View Highlight)
• When you get rid of the vast majority of your possessions, you’re forced to confront your darker side: When did I give so much meaning to material possessions? What is truly important in life? Why am I discontent? Who is the person I want to become? How will I define my own success? (View Highlight)

New highlights added May 19, 2024 at 11:07 PM

• colluding (View Highlight)
  • Note: From Oxford Languages: cooperate in a secret or unlawful way in order to deceive or gain an advantage over others. “he accused his opponents of colluding with one another”
• Ultimately, though, organizing is nothing more than well-planned hoarding. (View Highlight)
  • Note: Or is it? I disagree with them at this point since I think organizing really isn’t something that results from hoarding. It could be an effect of hoarding, but I don’t think it functions in tandem with hoarding. A disorganized person can very well be a minimalist, and vice-versa.
• When we get rid of the superfluous stuff, we can focus on life’s more important aspects: we can spend the day focusing on our health, on our relationships, on pursuing our passions (View Highlight)
• Once the excess stuff is out of the way, staying organized is much easier. (View Highlight)
• duvet (View Highlight)
  • Note: From Cambridge: a large, soft, flat bag filled with feathers or artificial material used as a covering on a bed.
• quarry (View Highlight)
  • Note: noun a place, typically a large, deep pit, from which stone or other materials are or have been extracted. verb extract (stone or other materials) from a quarry. “limestone is quarried for use in blast furnaces”
• There will always be life’s excess, always more, always too many inputs bombarding us from every direction. But instead of abhorrent multitasking, instead of trying to get things done, we can make life more beautiful via subtraction. (View Highlight)
• sometimes the best way to build is to subtract. (View Highlight)
• solipsism (View Highlight)
  • Note: the quality of being very self-centered or selfish.
• onerous (View Highlight)
  • Note: (of a task, duty, or responsibility) involving an amount of effort and difficulty that is oppressively burdensome. “he found his duties increasingly onerous”

New highlights added May 20, 2024 at 10:30 PM

• doily (View Highlight)
  • Note: a small ornamental mat made of lace or paper with a lace pattern, typically placed on a plate under a cake or other sweet foods.
• I am not my stuff; we are more than our possessions. (View Highlight)
• Our memories are within us, not within our things. (View Highlight)
• Holding on to stuff imprisons us; letting go is freeing. (View Highlight)
• I think the danger of sentimental items—and sentimentality in general—is far more subtle. If you want to get rid of an item but the only reason you are holding on to it is for sentimental reasons—if it is weighing on you—then perhaps it’s time to get rid of it, perhaps it’s time to free yourself of the weight. (View Highlight)