drupagliassotti @ February 16, 2011 # No Comment Yet
Is our economy stagnant because there are no easily obtained resources to exploit anymore or because an affluent population has turned from primarily materialistic to primarily ephemeral pursuits? NYT Op-Ed columnist David Brooks asks this question in response to Tyler Cowen’s book The Great Stagnation. It could be that in an industrial economy people develop [...]
drupagliassotti @ August 17, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Commodification is a form of sympathetic magic. That is, telling someone that if they buy designer clothes they will be considered as desirable as the celebrities who normally sport the stuff is akin to telling someone that if they put on a wolfskin belt by the light of the moon they’ll turn into a werewolf. [...]
drupagliassotti @ April 26, 2010 # No Comment Yet
The other day, a minimalist I read regularly wrote “screw the people who criticize counting things” with a link over to my post, “Why I’m Wary of 100-Thing Minimalism.” I find myself in good company. He expressed similar sentiments to a number of his readers earlier this month. What struck me as interesting about that [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 24, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Minimalism is not necessarily…. 1. Cheap. People often equate minimalism with the “college dorm room” look; particleboard and plastic. But you could be a minimalist who buys only objects of the very highest quality that reflect your exquisitely refined taste. 2. Frugal. Minimalism is often cited as a great way to save money. However, you [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 23, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Three or four years ago I spent a lot of time and money creating a series of scrapbooks that combined photos, art, and artefacts to describe my life. Last weekend I ripped them all into pieces. Most of the pages and photos were thrown away. The rest will be scanned and then thrown away. Minimizing [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 22, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Yesterday I blogged about why I’m wary of 100-thing minimalism. Despite my skepticism about the “100-thing” practice, however, I still believe it’s beneficial to avoid clutter and overconsumption. I agree with the voluntary simplicity guideline that you should strive to own only those items you (a) love, (b) use on a regular basis, or (c) [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 21, 2010 # 8 Comments
I’m 43; I’ve been practicing voluntary simplicity since 2000, with varying levels of successes and setbacks. This isn’t a minimalist blog, and I’m not claiming to be a minimalism expert. (4/26/10: Welcome, readers from Far Beyond the Stars; if you want my response to the post that sent you here, it’s over here. But please [...]
drupagliassotti @ December 3, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Martin Lindstrom‘s Buyology is a fascinating read, along the same lines as Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, but with more of a marketing-specific, rather than more consumer-general, focus. I found the book both frightening and reassuring at the same time. Lindstrom’s book is about neuromarketing, or using brain-scanning technology to try to figure out why [...]
drupagliassotti @ August 20, 2008 # 2 Comments
Professors keep paper — way too much paper. After ten years of accumulation, this summer I began purging my files of articles I’d saved but no longer used. In doing so, I ran across an article I’d kept called “The Ineluctable Mysteries of Possessions.” The article disputes the assumption that the relationship between people and [...]
drupagliassotti @ May 24, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Predictably Irrational (2008) by Dan Ariely ought to be required reading. Period. At first I considered saying “for students” or “for investors,” but what Ariely’s experiments in economic behaviorism show us is how easily our minds and emotions are swayed, and his findings not only have relevance for financial decisions and policy but also for [...]