Welcome back and a quick note on perspective

Posted on 12/04/2012 by Jonathan

Well, I’m back from a break that I had to take due to some unfortunate life circumstances.

One thing that I’ve started to work on is my health. Due to my recent health problems I’ve gained a bunch of weight, so I recently started to go to a dietician. I’ve had great success with dieticians before (I lost 18kg in 2007-2008), and I’m excited about getting back to where I was.

An interesting thing occurred in my session with my dietician today. She told me that in the 3 weeks I’ve been seeing her, I’ve lost 2kg. My immediate reaction was “no big deal, that’s about a tenth of what I want to lose”. Not exactly a helpful line of thinking.

I decided on my way home to do a little experiment to remind myself of the level of my success. When I got home, I went to the pantry and picked 2kg of UHT milk off the shelf. Holding that 2kg in my hands and feeling the weight of it made my achievement seem much more real and tangible. Looking at that 2kg of UHT milk right now actually makes me realise that 2kg in 3 weeks is actually kind of a big deal. Sometimes all you need is a shift in perspective.

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Minimalism allowed me to take a pay cut of $20,000 per year

Posted on 09/02/2012 by Jonathan

I’ve just quit my median wage, cushy job to work casual part time in a project that I really care about. This means I’ll be earning $20,000 less per year for the foreseeable future, and without the security of full time employment.

Before I found minimalism, this wouldn’t have been possible. The weight of all my stuff, and the desire to acquire more would have kept me trapped in a job that has grown stale. I would have missed this opportunity to do the very thing I’ve wanted to do since I was a child. And all because I wanted to be ‘successful’ in a material sense.

Minimalism has given me a kind of freedom here, a freedom from money in a sense. Of course, some money is necessary for freedom, but that number is lower than a lot of people think. Minimalism has freed me to be successful in a more meaningful sense – to spend my days working on a project that brings me true meaning and fulfillment.

 

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The Omnivore’s Hundred

Posted on 01/01/2012 by Jonathan

One thing I am most definitely not minimalist about is trying new foods. A friend forwarded a link to The Omnivore’s Hundred, so I have decided that this will be my collection for 2012. By the end of the year I hope to have eaten everything on the list that I can source in Australia (so probably no fugu then). I’ve put the dishes I’ve already had in bold (35 in total), and I’ll come back to update this list as I get through it.

  1. Venison
  2. Nettle tea
  3. Huevos rancheros – Completed. Nice but not amazing.
  4. Steak tartare
  5. Crocodile
  6. Black pudding
  7. Cheese fondue
  8. Carp
  9. Borscht
  10. Baba ghanoush
  11. Calamari
  12. Pho
  13. PB&J sandwich
  14. Aloo gobi
  15. Hot dog from a street cart
  16. Epoisses
  17. Black truffle
  18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
  19. Steamed pork buns
  20. Pistachio ice cream
  21. Heirloom tomatoes
  22. Fresh wild berries
  23. Foie gras
  24. Rice and beans
  25. Brawn, or head cheese
  26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
  27. Dulce de leche
  28. Oysters
  29. Baklava
  30. Bagna cauda
  31. Wasabi peas
  32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
  33. Salted lassi
  34. Sauerkraut
  35. Root beer float
  36. Cognac with a fat cigar
  37. Clotted cream tea
  38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
  39. Gumbo
  40. Oxtail
  41. Curried goat
  42. Whole insects
  43. Phaal
  44. Goat’s milk
  45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
  46. Fugu
  47. Chicken tikka masala
  48. Eel
  49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
  50. Sea urchin
  51. Prickly pear
  52. Umeboshi
  53. Abalone
  54. Paneer
  55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
  56. Spaetzle
  57. Dirty gin martini – Couldn’t tell the difference to a normal martini. Not that this posed a problem.
  58. Beer above 8% ABV
  59. Poutine
  60. Carob chips
  61. S’mores
  62. Sweetbreads
  63. Kaolin
  64. Currywurst
  65. Durian
  66. Frogs’ legs
  67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
  68. Haggis
  69. Fried plantain
  70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
  71. Gazpacho
  72. Caviar and blini
  73. Louche absinthe
  74. Gjetost, or brunost
  75. Roadkill
  76. Baijiu
  77. Hostess Fruit Pie
  78. Snail
  79. Lapsang souchong
  80. Bellini
  81. Tom yum
  82. Eggs Benedict
  83. Pocky
  84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
  85. Kobe beef
  86. Hare
  87. Goulash
  88. Flowers
  89. Horse
  90. Criollo chocolate
  91. Spam – Nearly made me puke. I couldn’t even swallow one mouthful.
  92. Soft shell crab
  93. Rose harissa
  94. Catfish
  95. Mole poblano
  96. Bagel and lox
  97. Lobster Thermidor
  98. Polenta
  99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
  100. Snake
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How minimalism helped me to be glad for my debt

Posted on 27/12/2011 by Jonathan

I have a small amount of consumer debt. Nothing outrageous, but it had ballooned to an uncomfortable amount before I found minimalism.

Before minimalism, this debt played on my mind a lot. Debt meant I was living beyond my means, but I didn’t want to give up all this stuff I’d gotten. In fact, I wanted more. And the debt repayments just made it harder to get more. I ended up feeling really stressed because I wasn’t going to be able to afford all the cool new things because I was still paying off all my old cool things.

But now it’s different. I don’t want a whole bunch of new stuff. In fact, there’s very little I want. Now when I look at my (rapidly decreasing) debt, I just feel a little silly that I managed to accrue it in the first place. I don’t feel anywhere near as financially stressed.

There’s another aspect to this too. I’ve decided to pay off this debt quite aggressively, so about 40% of my income goes towards it. This means that I’m currently living quite comfortably on 60% of my income. I now know that once this debt is gone, I can continue to do that. I can use that money that once went towards feeding the monkey to build an emergency fund, invest, or save for a holiday. Or I could decide to work less and spend more time doing the things I love. Learning this lesson the hard way has actually opened my eyes to the possibilities of what can be done when you step off the consumer treadmill. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I’m glad for it.

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Happy Holidays

Posted on 25/12/2011 by Jonathan

I’m not religious, but I wanted to wish everyone a happy Agnostica, Anastacia of Sirmium Feast Day, Chrismahanukwanzadan, Christmas, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, Festivus, Flying Spaghetti Monster Holiday, Hanukkah, Hogswatch, Holiday Number 11, HumanLight, Kwansolhaneidmas, Kwanzaa, Malkh-Festival, Mōdraniht, Pancha Ganapati, Quaid-e-Azam’s Day, Sadeh, Saturnalia, Signature of the Constitution of the Republic of China, Slapsgiving, Snowflake Day, St. Yorick’s Day, Starlight Celebration, Wintersday, Xistlessnessmas, Yalda, Yule, and Zamenhof Day.

I hope you have great experiences, don’t accrue unwanted stuff, and enjoy time with people you care about.

 

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I’ve yet to learn the secret to packing light

Posted on 22/12/2011 by Jonathan

I’ve just returned from a quick holiday overseas and I have to admit that my luggage was over weight each time. Not by just a little either – my carry on was 10kg instead of the allowed 7kg*. If it wasn’t for a lovely woman behind the counter I would have been in trouble.

The thing is, I actually used everything I took. Sure, I probably didn’t need two pairs of jeans for a week long trip, but it sure was nice to be able to switch jeans when the old ones started to get a little manky. Apart from the jeans, I’m having trouble seeing how I can cut down without being single point vulnerable. Does anyone have any tips? I’d love to get to the point where I feel comfortable with carry on only travel.

 

*In my defense, my checked luggage was a single mountain bike and tools.

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Dropbox

Posted on 14/12/2011 by Jonathan

Scanning and storing important documents online has become part of my general plan to reduce clutter. I usually opt to receive any correspondence electronically, but there are always going to be companies who insist on sending a physical letter. For the times when it’s important to keep these letters, I scan them and store them on my computer rather than having the physical copy sitting around.

I use Dropbox to simplify this whole process. Because I scan the documents at work, I’d normally have to email them to myself or use a flash drive to get them onto my home computer. Instead, I have Dropbox installed on my work, university, and home computers. That way, when I scan a document at work, I simply have to save it in the Dropbox folder on my work computer and it automatically syncs to my home and university computers. It’s also saved to the cloud, so even if all three computers went down, my documents would be saved.

You can get a free account with Dropbox that will give you 2GB of online storage. If you use my Dropbox referrer link you’ll get an extra 250MB of free storage on top of the usual 2GB. If you’re working at multiple sites, or simply want a set and forget way to back up your files, then Dropbox is the program for you.

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Explanations versus Excuses

Posted on 29/11/2011 by Jonathan

I hurt someone recently.

It sucks, and although I didn’t mean to hurt them, I feel terrible for it. In retrospect I can see how my behaviour did unintentionally lead to them getting hurt.

There’s always an urge to defend yourself when you realise that someone else has been hurt by your behaviour, to explain away your role in their pain. To provide an excuse and ameliorate your guilt. However, I think it’s important to acknowledge the reasons why you’ve done something, without offering those explanations up as excuses. Consider the following examples.

“It’s not my fault because I was brought up to do this”
“I was brought up to do this, but I acknowledge that I’m still responsible for my behaviour”
The second line may sound cheesy, but note the difference between the two. In the first example, the speaker is saying that the cause of the behaviour is completely outside of their control. The latter locates the cause of the behaviour in the speaker (If I may take a moment to get really nerdy, this is really about proximate versus ultimate causes).
This is primary difference between an explanation and an excuse. We all make mistakes, and there are reasons for these mistakes. It’s tempting to act as though those reasons absolve us of responsibility, but they don’t.
Explaining rather than excusing is all about owning your behaviour, apologising and accepting blame where appropriate. It’s hard and you’ll want to defend yourself, but there’s a freedom in letting go of that need. When you let go of the need to protect yourself with excuses, you’re free to focus on what has really happened, what needs to change, and how to move forward.
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“That’s just the way it is”

Posted on 24/11/2011 by Jonathan

Have you ever been in a negative situation and found yourself saying “That’s just the way it is”, or something similar?

“I hate my job, but that’s just the way it is.”
“I’m an alcoholic, it’s just the way I am.”
“I’m unfulfilled, but this is just the way relationships are.”

It’s a pretty common thing to say, and often we receive this sort of advice from well-intentioned friends and family who are hoping to make us feel better about the ups and downs of life. But there is a huge downside to this line of reasoning. It’s disempowering.

When you say “That’s just the way it is”, you’re also saying “There’s nothing I can do to change this situation, I’m just along for the ride.” Of course, this can be true. If you’ve had a spinal injury, you may have paraplegia, and that’s just the way it is (at least until there are some medical advances). But few things are as clear cut as this example.

Take the relationship example above. Sure, relationships will have their ups and downs, that’s just the way it is. But does it make sense to say that all relationships must be unfulfilling? Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic, but I don’t believe so. I think that if you’re unfilled in your current relationship (or job, or hobbies, or whatever), you can take measures to change things. You can talk to your partner, or look into changing your job. Even someone with paraplegia gets to choose what they do from there on in. They still have the choice to try climbing Kilimanjaro, skydiving, or swimming the English Channel.

It might not work. Your partner might fight against change, or you may have trouble getting a new job. But it’s better to try and fail than not to try. If you try and fail, the worst thing that can happen is that nothing changes. If you don’t try, you guarantee that nothing will change. It’s scary to try, but worth it.

So next time you find yourself thinking “That’s just the way it is”, ask yourself: “Is it really? And what do I get out of thinking this?”

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Geocaching is a fun minimalist hobby

Posted on 14/11/2011 by Jonathan

Most hobbies lead to the accrual of a whole bunch of related Stuff. Some people of a minimalist bent get around this by only engaging in activities that don’t require so many accoutrements, such as yoga and barefoot running. But what if you’re looking for a relatively minimalist hobby that isn’t yoga or running?

I’d suggest geocaching as an alternative.

Geocaching is “a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices“. This means that you use a combination of GPS coordinates and clues to find a hidden ‘cache’ (usually a tupperware container) with a log book in it. While some people out small toys in the caches, there is generally nothing special in them. It’s the journey that counts.

This might not sound particularly minimalist given that the entire game is based on the use of a piece of technology. But given the ubiquity of smart phones, it is entirely possible that you already have everything you need to start geocaching. You can simply download an app (I use c:geo), join up for free and start playing. Caches can take anywhere from as little as ten minutes up to hours to complete.

I’ll admit it’s all very nerdy, but I’m totally fine with that. I think of it as an excuse to see parts of my local area that I would never have come across independently. Just a week ago, a friend and I were led by a cache to an abandoned orchard in the middle of a national park. It was a beautiful and surreal place, as the orderly rows of mossy orange trees resisted the chaotic approach of the surrounding bush. I never would have seen this place if not for geocaching.

I strongly suggest you give geocaching a try. There are caches all over the world, and it’s a great excuse to go for a walk in a new location. There’s also a bustling online community of geocachers, with plenty of opportunities to meet new people. If you’ve got the smartphone, you’ve got everything you need.

Posted in Minimalism, Tech | 2 Comments