minimalism

April 2022

I like minimalism as a life philosophy. It’s about freedom, not deprivation. Focusing on what’s important in consumption, relationships, and learning.

Borrowing from Frank Slootman: narrow the focus, increase the quality.

Consumption

In the last few years, I’ve reigned in my expenses. Cut down on my possessions. Started saying “no” a lot more. And ruthlessly focused on what really matters and adds value to my life.

I guess I realised the shallowness of it all. We don’t really want most things. They may give us short term pleasure. Temporary dopamine hits. But there’s no lasting happiness or fulfilment. Albert Einstein put it nicely (who knew he was a philosopher): “we act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”

Consumption is really just filling a hole. That time (and money) is better spent investing in ourselves. Doing something that lights us up. Experiences are cool. But these are complements. Not the core of our lives. We need meaning. Accumulation (of any kind) will never leave us satisfied. It’s about creating something.

Filling up on consumption is a slippery slope. Society calls it the hedonic treadmill. As you consume more, you acclimate to that level, and it becomes the new normal. Hopping off gets harder and harder. This is how people get trapped in jobs they hate. With every pay rise, they continue ramping up their spending. They end up unable to leave. Money gives you freedom. But only if it’s working for you. Otherwise, you’re working for it. Then it’s a ball and chain. Money working for you means buying capital, not spending on consumption. None of this is original.

Money + maximal consumption = modern serfdom.

Money + minimalism = freedom.

I love Frank Sinatra. There’s a wonderful story about a woman in New York asking him to sign an autograph for her sick husband. She commented on Sinatra’s cufflinks. He took them off and insisted that she give them to her husband. When asked later why he did it, Sinatra replied: “If you possess something you can’t give away, you don’t possess it. It possesses you. It's okay if someone says, 'I like your Mercedes Benz' and you don't give it to them. But, when you're alone in the bathroom shaving, you have to admit to that guy in the mirror that that car owns you because you can't give it away." There’s much wisdom here. If you don’t have the detachment from your possessions to willingly give them up, you’re not free. Owning as few possessions as possible (aka minimalism) makes this easier.

Less is more. Constraints like minimalism don’t enslave - they liberate. To quote Jocko: discipline equals freedom. If you live without any self-imposed limitations, distraction and overwhelm prevail. Ring-fencing the most important stuff and excluding everything else simplifies life and helps focus. I have as few material possessions as possible and cut out noise so I can double down on what matters: earning and learning.

Many people my age are chasing their first home. This is a consumption choice. I have zero interest in it. To me, putting money into bricks and mortar represents a huge financial opportunity cost. As an investor, I’d rather be allocating capital to places with bigger upside. I also don’t want to be tied down by the massive sunk cost of owning a property. It would hamstring my freedom and flexibility.

Minimalism isn’t about scarcity. It’s not frugality and cutting out coupons. It’s about making the most of abundance. Abundance requires focus. I’m not trying to conserve because I’m worried about the future. Au contraire. I want to be strategic with my time and money so that I can maximise the opportunities that are coming.

Relationships

Being a minimalist in relationships means only investing time with people who add value to our lives.

Time is all we have. Wasting it is a tragedy. Relationships should be enriching. Two people who make each other better. This is a high bar. We become who we surround ourselves with. If you don’t want to become like the people around you, you’re paying a huge price.

Breaking up with friends is massively underrated. It doesn't need to be dramatic. But we do need to cut out certain people.

I’ve heard others complain about hanging out with someone, but still do it from a sense of obligation. This is bananas. Time is way too precious. The opportunity cost is extortionate. Every second spent with someone you don’t like and respect is closing the door to someone who could change your life for the better. We have to make space for people to enter our lives. We won’t find our tribe if we don’t have room for them.

Depth beats breadth. I’d take a couple of deep, meaningful relationships with people I love any day. Relationships take investment and it’s hard to make the commitment above a certain (small) number. If you don’t have people in your life that meet the bar yet, don’t settle. Keep the space for people who will.

The other part of relationship minimalism is spending more time by ourselves. Like Naval says “life is a single-player game.” The most important relationship is the one we have with ourselves. To work on this relationship, we need time alone. I make a deliberate effort to spend more time by myself. Long walks and solo trips abroad. Without mastering this relationship, we can’t bring our best to the ones we have with other people.

Learning

Minimalism in learning means sticking to the basics and not overcomplicating. The world can make it seem like we need to understand everything. That’s just hype. Good judgement is based on rock-solid fundamentals.

The most leverage comes from deeply understanding things that are slow to change. This gives you optionality. It means you’re armed with knowledge that can transfer across different domains and hold its value. You always want to build from the ground up. There’s no point trying to skip ahead to the newest phenomenon if you don’t have the foundations for it. 

This shows up in the herd mentality around reading. Everyone wants to read the newest thing at the top of bestseller lists. Minimalism is focusing on foundational books that have stood the test of time. These are pretty easy to find once you know where to look. Follow smart people and you’ll see the same recommendations come up. If you just cycled through these books continually over your life, you’d be in a good spot. I’ve thought about it.

Balancing minimalism with staying on the frontier is a constant dance. Only focusing on the basics can lead to missing opportunities at the bleeding edge of technology. I’m still figuring this out. I think it comes down to doing both: drilling the fundamentals and not getting too far out on your skis on unnecessary advanced stuff, while always keeping one eye on the frontier.

I’ve experienced this with web3. I’ve applied my minimalist focus on the basics as I’ve gone down the rabbit hole. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been focused on understanding blockchains and the principles underlying Bitcoin and Ethereum. There’s so much awesome stuff happening in the space. It would be easy to get lost trying to keep up with the latest projects. I’ve pulled myself back from jumping both feet into some of these areas by focusing on establishing solid foundations first.

Closing

Minimalism is a useful lens for life across consumption, relationships, and learning. It enables focus. In this abundant world, we’re overwhelmed with things we can buy or do, relationships we can have, and things we can learn. Minimalism is about deciding what’s important and tuning out everything else. Commit to quality and let it compound.