Minimalism does not ask you to dump your stuff. It helps you focus on and enjoy what you love by removing the tangible (things) and intangible (thoughts and distractions) away from it.

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I was walking Laya through Memorial Park this evening. This is an old park built on the river and close to the business hub of Riverside. Many people visit the park during the day. The usual suspects are fishermen, dog walkers, joggers and the occasional photographer. I saw one such photographer today with his subject, a young female model. The young model was perched on the wall against the river and the photographer was using the backdrop of the river and the bridges as his canvas. I paused by the wall to feel the cool breeze coming off the surface of the river and let Laya sniff around. I was only a few feet away from the photographer and heard his directions. “Look Here”, “Look Away”, “Relax”… a typical portrait photographer.

As we continued walking and passed the duo, the girl happened to glance towards Laya and broke out in a simple smile just as a few strands of her hair wandered onto her face in the breeze. The photographer noticing the distraction stopped focusing his camera and waited for us to pass. Then continued, “Look here, relax your face…”. He missed the best moment of his model’s expression, a genuine smile.

A genuine smile is hard to come by. Even more difficult it is to replicate. It is one of my favorite human emotions to capture. I capture it by being patient in a crowd (hence the above picture).

The photographer resisted thinking out of his channeled procedure of work. His procedure: look at light, adjust shutter speed and aperture, focus camera, give directions, take picture, next pose, repeat…
Is your procedure of work interfering with the quality of your work?
Did you create that procedure?
Can you change it?
Even more important, does your manager empower you to change it?

Back in the day when I was considering a drastic career change, everyone told me what to do based on what procedure they have been following for years. My uncle told me this and only this, “Life is like driving a car on the highway. You grip the steering wheel only so tight, not too tight, not too loose”.

Imagine a time before the internet. Random people at a coffee shop or bar read a news article in the evening paper and start a discussion. Sometimes, that discussion gets loud depending on the sensitivity of the issue. This isolated discussion does not have the power to change the course of the topic by itself. It really depends on the people discussing. No matter what the outcome or volume of this discussion, one thing is apparent: each participant can see other participant’s face. They may even know their name. This exposure in identity helps maintain a level of honesty through accountability that anonymous comments in a blog post does not.

The anonymous commentator may or may not share their true views. It is the lack of accountability coming from their anonymity that adds noise to a new reader of the article. At least it adds to the noise when I read. Recently, I got into a lengthy discussion on Bikejax about segregated bike paths. I always sign my comments with my real name and a link to my website. My website shows you my face and gives you a way to contact me directly. The person I was debating with simply signed their name as David. There was no link and no last name. It might as well say ‘Anonymous#1′. I might as well have been talking to a wall!

My Policy

I will switch off comments on all my blogs. You may email me or find me on twitter to discuss each post. On posts not hosted by me that harbor comments, I will comment with my full name and link to my website. I will only respond to those commentators who show some kind of a link to their web presence. Commentators who are either anonymous or have a name that I cant identify personally will be treated as noise.

More Posts about Comments

Seth Godin – Why I Don’t have Comments
Everett Bouge – 7-ways-to-invest-your-time-besides-commenting-on-blogs
ProBlogger – Should Blogs Have Comments?

The Space of Common Reality

Please be tolerant of my mathematics terminology.
The real world is actually a very subjective composition of places, things and ideas that exist as a subset of the general set of reality. We will call this subset “common reality” to avoid confusion. I have not been living in it. My world lies outside this subset, residing more in the greater set of reality. This greater set of reality is not an easy place. In order to live in this greater set, it takes a fair amount of computing to fight numerous constraints that define the space of common reality. External constraints like traditions, religious views, cultural and general upbringing (a priori) etc also define the space of common reality.

What’s in this Space?

Rules and reason reside in this space. Rules like the duties of people, the right time to start a family, the right house to buy, the dress code, the living room set, cable tv, one car per adult are just some of the things addressed in this space. These rules change with location. The more diverse the location, the more different the rules. Rules were created by society to fight biology and improve the welfare of the human race. I dont think they were every supposed to be stagnant.

Why Challenge Rules?

Vicissitude is evident. Rules should change with it. What is the purpose of a collar any more? Why should everyone need to own a car? A culture of abundance is going to fail because the earth is limited in supplies and abundance will not last. I challenged the rules to fight the culture of abundance and improve my welfare. In each step of the fight, I found constraints. Lots of constraints.

The Equation of Life

Life is like an equation of constraints. We can try to find an optimal solution by maximising or minimising the outcome. The sheer volume of variables in life keep the process of finding a solution lengthy. Each constraint renders a solution. That is how I started riding a bicycle, sold my expensive car, moved to another part of town (increased commute), bought a motorcycle, discovered the effects of cross winds on a light motorcycle, decide to purchase a decade old car. Each decision was the solution to a constraint. Each eliminated constraint brings me closer to that optimal solution while generating newer constraints.
The solution to life is a lot easier for an equation with less constraints. It reminds me of monks and sadhus. It points towards minimalism.

“good design is as little design as possible” – Dieter Rams

Lack of subjective design to an objective product makes the use of the product challenging. Look at most powerpoint presentations done by a mechanical/civil/industrial etc. engineer. I look at them every day and more times than not, my eyes hurt.

The iPhone (and most Apple products) find a good balance between the subjective and objective design and thus create a quality product. When I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon in 2009, I thought it was the best thing since the invention of written language. It very effectively put content in the hands of the user. The content became the device while the design stood out of the way. If you did not want to use all its apps and features, you simply didnt launch them. They never bothered you. For example, I never used the native Voice Memos app.

Unfortunately, the iPhone 3G with iOS4 is standing in my way of acquiring content. I will eventually downgrade to iOS 3.1.3. Since I am using less iPhone, I am automating tasks more. I share articles on twitter and facebook straight out of Google Reader. I automated my emails using mmmmail.com instead of mailbucket.org. I now check personal emails only once a day if that. I tweet using SMS. Mentions come to me via a text message using feedtwit. This almost wants me to try going back to a non-iPhone cellular device. I am also tired of planned obsolescence.

I can do most of the work on a simple phone that does text messages and takes decent pictures. I plan to buy an iPad sometime next year, so mobile browsing will be taken care of. iPad does a better at web browsing than an iPhone anyway. I will have to dust off my Creative Zen MP3 player. When my AT&T contract runs out in Feb 2011, I will use a regular phone till the next iPhone launch in Summer.

During that time, I will have to live without google maps though. Maybe I will get lost a little. I hear it is fun.

Technology cloaks the interface between the human touch and the fundamental task. This is not always a bad thing of you consider jobs in the foundry, mining, waste management etc.

Tea bags take the human touch out of brewing tea with tea leaves. The best tea I have ever had was at a tea garden in North Eastern India and it didn’t come from a tea bag. A motor vehicle takes the human touch out of commuting. Rarely do people want to walk or ride a bicycle to a business even though most commutes in USA are less than 2 miles.

A vacuum cleaner is guilty of taking the human touch out of sweeping floors. I have hardwood floors, so a broom is more than sufficient to remove dust, immaterial of what swiffer commercials say. I take a broom, start at one corner of the room and methodically sweep to the other corner, collecting the dust and pet hair in its way. Staying mindful about sweeping helps you not miss any spots. Not rushing through it ensures a high quality job.

As a bonus, a slow mindful sweeping job is very relaxing. It slows the pace down to a constant rhythm forcing the mind to focus on the immediate present. Having a small apartment does not make it a bothersome chore.

My greyhound is deathly scared of the broom. This is the only drawback.

Oil turbo charged the industrial revolution. With discovery of more efficient methods of generating energy than coal and the invention of plastics, the byproducts of oil have been a key player in shaping the face of society we see today. From the more common gasoline, diesel and natural gas to the byproducts like acetone (nail polish remover), oil is a part of every one’s life.

We use oil from the moment we wake up. That alarm clock that wakes us up, the coffee pot, the coffee and bagel transported on a truck, commute to work in a car, the computer made from plastic, jobs creating product that need transportation, foods transported to our lunch rooms and dinner tables using gasoline, sunglasses, shoes… The list is endless. Sadly, some of this list is inevitable to achieve the basic nessisities of the world’s population.

The one thing everyone can do to reduce the possibility of disasters like the gulf oil spill is to use less.

1. Buy clothing and shoes made from sustainable materials
2. Buy locally made products
3. Be a minimalist and buy/use less ’stuff’ to begin with. Reduce!
4. Eat locally grown foods (shop at farmers markets)
5. Buy raw foods in bulk and learn to store them. Buy less processed foods, even if they are cheaper
6. Repair things
7. Reuse and Repurpose before recycling
8. Do a job that creates a product of intellectual value, not just a trinket to sell
9. Sell your car or just drive less
10. Ride a bicycle as transportation, not just recreation
11. Use Mass Transit

Unless you live in Jacksonville FL, mass transit is fairly easy to use. Bus service from my apartment to my job (14 miles one way ) is at a frequency of 1 hour or more and takes longer than a bicycle ride.

“There are no shortcuts to a place worth going” -author unknown

AT&T has no 3G coverage in White Springs. Edge takes longer for data transfer and more battery life. Being on a minimalist overdrive,  I switched email from hourly push updated to manual only.

Friday through Sunday, I proceeded to immerse myself in the fantastic folk sounds of guitars, banjos and harmonicas at the Florida Folk Festival. I rode my xtracycle from stage to stage. Every time I used the phone to take a picture, check the weather or tweet (using twitterlink), the Mail app showed no emails (since it has to be opened to update). This kept the phone usage to a minimum. Feedtwit sent me mentions as text messages.

I checked and processed emails once a day in the evening while charging it. Life was uninterrupted.

Technology sometimes makes us do more things. We should hack technology to make life simpler. I am not going to change the manual email update setting. Life is more peaceful this way.

I have been thinking about having a standing desk for a while.

At work, I am sit on a mesh chair and change my position frequently. I don’t write much, mostly read on the computer screen and work on MS Excel.

NY times posted an article about standing while worrying. It suggests that the body secretes less Lipoprotein Lipase (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-while-you-read-this/) while sitting thereby reducing metabolism. I want to compensate for inactivity since I have stopped riding my bicycle to work for 8 months.

Talking with the folks at Obesity Panaecia, I discovered this other guy who created a standing desk for his iPad. See post here: http://dailymonthly.com/?p=386

I have converted my desk at home to a standing desk. I will be testing this out extensively over the next few weeks. In fact, I am writing this while standing. I will also be looking for more studies about standing while working over the next few weeks while standing at my new desk.

Before

After

Electronics have been moved from the shelf under the desk to a custom made unfinished wooden bench.

Negatives: My feet hurt a little after 15 mins of standing but I am getting used to it real quick

Positives: I have even more room in my already minimalist bedroom and gained a chair in my sparse living room. The large desk area was a collector of clutter. That is not a problem any more.

Update: links (thanks to Travis Saunders)

• Can sitting too long kill you?
• Too much TV reduces the benefit of physical activity
• Paper: Study showing sitting leads to increased health risk
• Paper: Role of Low Energy Expenditure and Sitting in Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease

Usually, when we discard things, we replace them with more stuff. A new bed sheet for the old one, a new printer and a new iPhone. Partly, we are sold things that are meant to break and are either urn-repairable or too costly to repair. It is explained very well in this must watch video about the story of stuff: http://storyofstuff.org/index.php

Some of the righteous few among us tend to find pride in their recycling initiatives to cover for their stuff-replacing habit. Recycling is the last ‘R’ in conservation. The first being ‘Reduce’. A minimalist lifestyle lets one reduce the amount of stuff one needs to live life happily, let alone having to reuse and recycle.

A lot of my friends gripe that they are living with the absolute minimum to live a happy life. Well, the pursuit of happiness is never ending. The objective is to not live with what makes you happy but to not live with what steals your happiness. The pursuit of happiness, a noble aim for the people of America has mutated to the pursuit of stuff.

This is why it is important to travel and see what other people’s minimum living conditions are. Then can we respect the stuff we own and more importantly the stuff we throw away. I am not asking to take from the rich and give to the poor but to use less, whether rich or poor.

It is simple to be happy but so difficult to be simple.