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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday April 08 2017, @02:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the minimalism dept.

Phys.org reports:

The idea of a life lived modestly is gaining traction. Ten years ago, Samantha Weinberg, a mother of two young children, spent a year not shopping. Her aim was to reduce her environmental impact. The next year, Mark Boyle, founder of the online Freeconomy community, embarked on a life without money in order to sever his connection with it. Since then, others have joined this "Not Spending" movement.

Frugality has its limitations. Not everyone is able-bodied enough to cycle, and if we all started foraging for wild food it would deprive non-human species of nutrients and disrupt local ecosystems. While minimalism has found new converts, especially in Japan, this extreme approach is unlikely to go mainstream.

Perhaps a more realistic hope is for a steady rise in the number of people who discover that pursuing non-material riches brings greater happiness than the getting and spending of money. In fact, significant numbers of "voluntary simplifiers" have been choosing and enjoying lives of material simplicity for decades.

Have Soylentils found greater happiness through simplification?


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  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday April 08 2017, @08:08AM (4 children)

    by anubi (2828) on Saturday April 08 2017, @08:08AM (#490760) Journal

    Sounds like a larger industrial garage.

    I am seriously considering renting a small industrial garage in one of the numerous industrial parks in my city. To live in. But not continuously.

    Basically, I want somewhere to keep my tool collection, and my electronic parts collection. Somewhere I have utilities / heating / air conditioning and private toilet.

    Once I have water ( sink ) and drain ( toilet ), I can add an electric hot water heater and a shower stall. And add a cot.

    Kinda have to do this undercover though.... city codes do not permit living in these places.

    I do not intend to live there for long periods of time... as I intend to take that van I bought and have a good time on the road. But have several way-places stashed away with tools and whatever. Somewhere when I am ready to go, just lock the door and go. But if it gets miserable hot or cold out there, I can retreat to one of my hidey-holes and wait it out.

    I have to admit since my layoff out of aerospace, I have massively reconfigured my economic situation, and spend nowhere close to what I used to spend, but have not missed it because I was spending the most money on trivia intended to impress others... By that, I mean things like dinners at fancy restaurants... when I had just as soon eat at DelTaco and have a relaxed time of it instead of constantly messing with the suits and ties and cleaners. Or trying to keep the latest car - keep it clean and free of any tools, etc. just to maintain the image others expected of me.

    I have always loved building stuff, and now I am back to doing it, no longer under the mandates of management telling me I am not supposed to be doing this kinda stuff.

    It pays nowhere near the management skill of telling guys like me what we are allowed to do, but if I had taken much more guff from those young'uns with the MBA, I would have been on liquor and anti-depressants.

    One of our fellow soylentils brought to my attention "The Executive Coloring Book". It perfectly described my anguish at being placed subordinate to one of those young MBA whippersnappers. I found a few pages of it here [openculture.com]. I found all of them in other places, however the illustrations of the gray suits, and pill-taking to try to compensate for feelings of no self-worth to be spot-on. It was that old cappuchin monkey, grape, and cucumber thing. I guess I was shown the guy who could tell me where I could park, put me in a cubicle, tell me what tools I could use, where I was to sit, when I was to come to work, what time I was gonna go home, and evaluate me was one helluva lot more important than I was.

    I was just the guy trying to get something done.

    I guess each level got paid what the people who were paying them thought they were worth.
     

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday April 08 2017, @08:19AM (1 child)

    by driverless (4770) on Saturday April 08 2017, @08:19AM (#490767)

    Sounds like a larger industrial garage.

    I was just pointing out that anything fits in a single room, for suitably large values of single room [youtu.be].

    • (Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday April 08 2017, @08:36AM

      by anubi (2828) on Saturday April 08 2017, @08:36AM (#490769) Journal

      hehe.... the old blimp hangar at El Toro [google.com] would qualify...

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Saturday April 08 2017, @05:08PM (1 child)

    by richtopia (3160) on Saturday April 08 2017, @05:08PM (#490901) Homepage Journal

    Unfortunately living in industrial areas is typically illegal. Specifically, most industrial units prohibit sleeping on-site for fire reasons (firefighters respond differently when people are involved or not).

    The one caveat is if you can find mixed use or residential/industrial land, typically which would have been farm land and never was rezoned. I wanted exactly what you are describing, however buying a typical suburban house is actually a decent investment and provides me a place to sleep also.

    • (Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday April 09 2017, @07:27AM

      by anubi (2828) on Sunday April 09 2017, @07:27AM (#491110) Journal

      I wanted to be able to turn the key and walk away... maybe return in a couple of months. Or spend the winter or really hot summer days there.

      Otherwise, I would kinda like to be out on the road somewhere.

      I am retired now, so it really is not that important to me anymore to be tied somewhere I always have to be concerned with growth of weeds.

      Yup. Living in industrial parks where I live is illegal. So I won't be blatant about it. I'll put away the cot when its not in use.

      All that I have that is valuable to me is my workshop anyway. And that looks right at home in an industrial park building.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]