As I keep saying, good books are just waiting beyond the google search engine. All one needs to do, is walk into a library or a decent sized book shop and search without any aim. You will get something that will be more than interesting. One such book was stuffocation.
A couple of things happened While I was reading the book and post completion of the book
A. Disposed things weighing about 10 kgs, only from my hallB. Disposed about 30 books which I had read and most probably will never read againC. Quietly started planning for a holiday for this calendar year
Any book would be interesting for many of us, if it has interesting stories. This book starts with such a story. It is about a successful young man (Ryan Nicodemus) and his things. He was poor while growing up, with a typical rags to riches story, with a twist. He was under the impression that $50 thousand was all that was needed to stay happy. As days went by, he surpassed his own expectations and was earning close to $100000. Was he happy? Did owning many things help in creating happiness? The answer was a big NO?
What did he do? He then started an experiment where he packed all his stuff into boxes and picked items which we actually used. Slowly over a period of time the overall stuff or things that he wanted were very very minimal. What about his happiness? He claims to be very happy living with very few things. This is one story, but does it actually make any sense? By having too many things, make us less happy or actually sad. There about 2 million people who regularly read his blog, who actually think he is right.
Steve Jobs was the best example of anti-stuffocation advocate. Before Iphone think about the Nokias and other smart phones. the number of buttons and the manual that you might have to use. Think about Apple products. Probably stuffocation does cause issues.
What does the book talk about and what is the flow of the book. (you can watch a video of the talk here)
First is the issue of too much of stuff —> a couple of stories of people who are fighting it out with this so-called stuffocation disease —> How did we get here (Hint: related to economy, patriotism, politics and an ad agency) —> The dark side of having too many things —> experientialists & how experience is the new stuff to show off —> how to be a minimalist
How to define clutter: There was an anthropological study done at few middle class homes. The study was done over a period of 4 years, took 7 years to analyse the data, collected 4 TB of information. (This was before the internet became popular)!!!
The amount of stuff that they recorded was not funny
A. The smallest house measuring 980 sq ft had 2260 items in just 3 rooms!!!
B. On an average each house had 39 pairs of shoes, 90 DVDs, 139 toys, 438 books
The final conclusion of the 11 year study was, that we are literally drowning in things.
As per the book it started with boom in the economy and the fear that there will be an economic downturn if there will be less consumption and the advent of the advertising age. Interestingly did you know the below were purely invented by the advertising agencies and make popular by Hollywood across the world
A. The so called romantic proposal of giving a diamond ring to your beloved. Purely invented
B. All these so called days (valentines, mothers, goats, hens and cocks) Just a marketing gimmick.
What are the key takeaways from the book
Would you show off shirts that you bought or the experiences that you have had.How much is too much, is there a line that we need to draw a line on?Does focusing on experience, result in us not buying stuff? Not necessarilyHow would it help in project management
This helps in project management also, where too many things spoil the broth. The more number of connections, the more number of issues that we have to deal with, the more movable parts the more break downs that might happen.Minimalism is pleasing if done consciously. Best e.g. is mails and managing your data on your laptop. Everyone thinks having too many files on your screen shows one working hard. You will, only because you are confused and searching instead of doing stuffLook at project management as an experience, your point of view on how to go about things will surely change.
What i liked about the book
A. The concept of medium chillB. The stories and case studies of people trying to do various things to stay happyC. The concept of experience and not stuff that makes us happy. This reinforces our effort towards good stuff
What i didn't like
A. it gets preachy towards the endB. The flow is sometimes dull
Some exercises/formula that you can think of applying
A. Go around your house and count the number of things that you can live without. (If they have not been used for the past 2 years or more then you can throw it)
B. Count how many things you have with you in your house. (people with babies and kids this is going to be a revelation)
C. Have the formula "you won't use what you can't see" and a lot of things will be disposed
D. Buy the best, but buy little
Original link
A couple of things happened While I was reading the book and post completion of the book
A. Disposed things weighing about 10 kgs, only from my hallB. Disposed about 30 books which I had read and most probably will never read againC. Quietly started planning for a holiday for this calendar year
Any book would be interesting for many of us, if it has interesting stories. This book starts with such a story. It is about a successful young man (Ryan Nicodemus) and his things. He was poor while growing up, with a typical rags to riches story, with a twist. He was under the impression that $50 thousand was all that was needed to stay happy. As days went by, he surpassed his own expectations and was earning close to $100000. Was he happy? Did owning many things help in creating happiness? The answer was a big NO?
What did he do? He then started an experiment where he packed all his stuff into boxes and picked items which we actually used. Slowly over a period of time the overall stuff or things that he wanted were very very minimal. What about his happiness? He claims to be very happy living with very few things. This is one story, but does it actually make any sense? By having too many things, make us less happy or actually sad. There about 2 million people who regularly read his blog, who actually think he is right.
Steve Jobs was the best example of anti-stuffocation advocate. Before Iphone think about the Nokias and other smart phones. the number of buttons and the manual that you might have to use. Think about Apple products. Probably stuffocation does cause issues.
What does the book talk about and what is the flow of the book. (you can watch a video of the talk here)
First is the issue of too much of stuff —> a couple of stories of people who are fighting it out with this so-called stuffocation disease —> How did we get here (Hint: related to economy, patriotism, politics and an ad agency) —> The dark side of having too many things —> experientialists & how experience is the new stuff to show off —> how to be a minimalist
How to define clutter: There was an anthropological study done at few middle class homes. The study was done over a period of 4 years, took 7 years to analyse the data, collected 4 TB of information. (This was before the internet became popular)!!!
The amount of stuff that they recorded was not funny
A. The smallest house measuring 980 sq ft had 2260 items in just 3 rooms!!!
B. On an average each house had 39 pairs of shoes, 90 DVDs, 139 toys, 438 books
The final conclusion of the 11 year study was, that we are literally drowning in things.
As per the book it started with boom in the economy and the fear that there will be an economic downturn if there will be less consumption and the advent of the advertising age. Interestingly did you know the below were purely invented by the advertising agencies and make popular by Hollywood across the world
A. The so called romantic proposal of giving a diamond ring to your beloved. Purely invented
B. All these so called days (valentines, mothers, goats, hens and cocks) Just a marketing gimmick.
What are the key takeaways from the book
Would you show off shirts that you bought or the experiences that you have had.How much is too much, is there a line that we need to draw a line on?Does focusing on experience, result in us not buying stuff? Not necessarilyHow would it help in project management
This helps in project management also, where too many things spoil the broth. The more number of connections, the more number of issues that we have to deal with, the more movable parts the more break downs that might happen.Minimalism is pleasing if done consciously. Best e.g. is mails and managing your data on your laptop. Everyone thinks having too many files on your screen shows one working hard. You will, only because you are confused and searching instead of doing stuffLook at project management as an experience, your point of view on how to go about things will surely change.
What i liked about the book
A. The concept of medium chillB. The stories and case studies of people trying to do various things to stay happyC. The concept of experience and not stuff that makes us happy. This reinforces our effort towards good stuff
What i didn't like
A. it gets preachy towards the endB. The flow is sometimes dull
Some exercises/formula that you can think of applying
A. Go around your house and count the number of things that you can live without. (If they have not been used for the past 2 years or more then you can throw it)
B. Count how many things you have with you in your house. (people with babies and kids this is going to be a revelation)
C. Have the formula "you won't use what you can't see" and a lot of things will be disposed
D. Buy the best, but buy little
Original link
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