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NYT: "Living With Less. A Lot Less."

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Mar 12, 2013.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Good column from the weekend's Times and the most emailed story at the site right now. Written by an Internet start-up entrepreneur who used to be materialistic and has shedded his possessions over time:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/living-with-less-a-lot-less.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0

    I have come a long way from the life I had in the late ’90s, when, flush with cash from an Internet start-up sale, I had a giant house crammed with stuff — electronics and cars and appliances and gadgets.

    Somehow this stuff ended up running my life, or a lot of it; the things I consumed ended up consuming me. My circumstances are unusual (not everyone gets an Internet windfall before turning 30), but my relationship with material things isn’t.


    One of the best aspects of purchasing a Kindle this winter has been that it has decreased the amount of stuff in our home. I canceled two print newspapers, and toss magazines that I still have print subscriptions to right into recycling. I no longer have stacks of books on every flat surface of the house.

    Our biggest problem with material things right now is probably the same one a lot of parents have: Toys everywhere. But, regardless, I hope that our society is really becoming less consumerist and materialistic. I get that feeling. Car companies have certainly been concerned about it for a while now.
     
  2. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    He has the luxury to shed his luxuries.
     
  3. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member

    I read the title, and I thought it was about the kid from the Mets not wearing a cup.
     
  4. Guy_Incognito

    Guy_Incognito Well-Known Member

    My wife sent this to me after we had spent the day cleaning & threw out bags & bags of stuff. I agreed with the sentiment & suggested that we fire our personal shopper.
     
  5. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    The (wealthy) ascetic is a New York Times type.

    Most often found in the Styles section.
     
  6. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    It's pretty cool they let RickStain write for The New York Times.
     
  7. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    Does Whitman get paid to pimp the NY publications here?
     
  8. waterytart

    waterytart Active Member

    I don't have time to read the Times and the New Yorker cover-to-cover, and I'm a SAHM. I don't know how Dick does it, but I'm happy for the links.
     
  9. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Because I'm a train commuter.

    And I sleep like five hours a night.

    When I was on kid duty for two months each of the last two summers, I definitely had less time to read, not more.
     
  10. SixToe

    SixToe Well-Known Member

    Not a new story but often interesting to read the variety of "I have too much shit, I made a lot of money, gave my shit away!" stories.

    OK, we get it. You made a lot, splurged, now you realized probably (hopefully) what your parents told you years ago: You don't need a lot of shit to make yourself happy.
     
  11. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Yahoo does these stories all the time. Usually they consist of people surviving on $12K a year by getting their food at grocery stores' dumpsters.
     
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Yeah, but this story in the Times doesn't seem to be about saving money - it's about saving space and sanity. Even when I was making $10/hour, I still accumulated "stuff" at an alarming rate. Even in college, when I was making $0/hour, I somehow accumulated stuff.
     
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