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Simplify your life, overwise things you own end up owning you

Only if you have tons of money like the author of the article. I'm happy for him but I really cannot begin to relate to him. I'm just an average guy. I live an average life.
 
Back when I was growing up, there was no Internet to hold much of our stuff. It was only natural for even people who lived a simple, contemplative life to have a large library. As other forms of media, still photos and video, became "must-have" items, these added to the bulk in our homes. I'm working (slowly) to shift that bulk from my home to the Internet.

Let me illustrate where I'm coming from. Here is an illustration of what I thought of as "my sound system" circa 1980:

Stage%20looking%20over%20the%20Heritage%203000%20at%20FOH.jpg


Today it's more like this:

BimgiAudio%20X5.jpg


Yeah, I have better headphones, but you get the basic idea, right?

Now for my video environment, circa 1990 (this is a dead ringer for one place I worked at):

2075458457_a68aff6d42.jpg


Today it's exactly like this:

DSC_0714a.jpg


OK, that one still needs work. (Actually that half-full 18RU rack takes the place of about 4 full height racks, or 4x44RU, which means that I've downsized by about 1/15. That's not bad. ;)) Notice the VHS VCR at the right. I'm in the process of converting my old media formats (there's a photo scanner out of frame) into formats that I can throw onto a file or stream server somewhere, and get out of my living room. That's progress! Note the absence of my Blu-Ray/DVD player: I never use it! Instead I'm moving to stuff like this:

speck-corner-on-remote-600.jpg


Now that's miniaturization! (Yes it's real, and it works great.)

I've been working in the technology sector for all my life. I have a LOT more stuff that I can't even begin to document. But I'm working on throwing a lot of it out just to be rid of the bulk and weight. And I feel better every time I downsize! :)
 
dontpanicbobby said:
Only if you have tons of money like the author of the article. I'm happy for him but I really cannot begin to relate to him. I'm just an average guy. I live an average life.
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point of it, is to relate it to ourselves. At least in some ways we have complex lifes and we are not getting any better life quality or overall happier because of it.
 
I get what he's trying to say, but I can't really relate. He seems like kind of a douche, really. I like my stuff, probably because I've had to work so hard to get every modest thing I own, then research and compare to make sure I'm getting the best I can afford. Some internet gazillionaire complaining about having too much stuff is borderline offensive. It's almost like he wrote that article to gloat about his wonderful life.
 
Gmash said:
I get what he's trying to say, but I can't really relate. He seems like kind of a douche, really. I like my stuff, probably because I've had to work so hard to get every modest thing I own, then research and compare to make sure I'm getting the best I can afford. Some internet gazillionaire complaining about having too much stuff is borderline offensive. It's almost like he wrote that article to gloat about his wonderful life.
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I get your point. And I agree that "humblebragging" may be involved in that article. I also think that we all reach a certain age when things that were very important to us at one time become more of a burden.

When I was young and very poor, I hoarded stuff because it came hard for me. But as I grew older and less poor, that need to hold onto things slipped away. IJS
 
Gmash said:
I get what he's trying to say, but I can't really relate. He seems like kind of a douche, really. I like my stuff, probably because I've had to work so hard to get every modest thing I own, then research and compare to make sure I'm getting the best I can afford. Some internet gazillionaire complaining about having too much stuff is borderline offensive. It's almost like he wrote that article to gloat about his wonderful life.
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I think that author is a douche too. He mentioned that he has money, but no family what's so ever. I doubt that he lives with his kids and wife in 300ft apartment.

This article relates to many of us especially people who like to whine that they don't have money meanwhile they drive a nice car, wear brand clothing, waste money on useless crap. This article might be an eye opener for them.

What he is trying to say is, we think that having bunch of money is great idea. In reality you can be as happy or happier than some millionaires.
 
unnamedny said:
I think that author is a douche too. He mentioned that he has money, but no family what's so ever. I doubt that he lives with his kids and wife in 300ft apartment.
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If he had a wife and kids, they probably got the big house in the settlement, if you know what I mean. ;)

This article relates to many of us especially people who like to whine that they don't have money meanwhile they drive a nice car, wear brand clothing, waste money on useless crap. This article might be an eye opener for them.
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One of the people who I grew up with is now a television personality. She comes from money, married a wealthy man and gets paid a handsome salary for being on TV. But she's constantly complaining about how she "has to" keep working "to make ends meet". :rolleyes: She makes more money in a year than I've made in my entire life! Yes, I know the type...

What he is trying to say is, we think that having bunch of money is great idea. In reality you can be as happy or happier than some millionaires.
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I don't think the article was about money as much as it was about possessions. You can be worth a fortune and live very simply. The challenges of being noveau riche are pretty mundane, but there is a lesson to be learned in there somewhere.
 
Speed Daemon said:
If he had a wife and kids, they probably got the big house in the settlement, if you know what I mean. ;)

One of the people who I grew up with is now a television personality. She comes from money, married a wealthy man and gets paid a handsome salary for being on TV. But she's constantly complaining about how she "has to" keep working "to make ends meet". :rolleyes: She makes more money in a year than I've made in my entire life! Yes, I know the type...

I don't think the article was about money as much as it was about possessions. You can be worth a fortune and live very simply. The challenges of being noveau riche are pretty mundane, but there is a lesson to be learned in there somewhere.
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This reminds me of a podcast I was listening to the other day. The guy said that here in America almost no one lacks for their needs. Your basic needs are food, shelter, clothing and, maybe, transportation. That's it. Very, very few people in America lack for those things. Yes I know there are homeless people and yes I know people go to bed hungry, but these are the very small minority. Quite a few people in America lack for their wants though and then they make the mistake of thinking their wants are actually needs.
 
What say we keep this on-topic, OK?

If someone wants to start a topic based on their political party's talking points, feel free to do so. But please do it in the section reserved for politics. I for one would like to keep the philosophical discussion about this topic going.
 
A.Nonymous said:
This reminds me of a podcast I was listening to the other day. The guy said that here in America almost no one lacks for their needs. Your basic needs are food, shelter, clothing and, maybe, transportation. That's it. Very, very few people in America lack for those things. Yes I know there are homeless people and yes I know people go to bed hungry, but these are the very small minority. Quite a few people in America lack for their wants though and then they make the mistake of thinking their wants are actually needs.
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I think you right at most part. Most homeless people choose to be homeless, its just a lifestyle. I don't want to go too much into it, but I used to work for non profit organization. We put people on feet and they have gone back to being homeless.
 
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