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Life through the lens of rationality. Medium: https://medium.com/@egorcentric Quora: theminimalist.quora.com/ Chat: https://t.me/dailyEmChat Feedback& advertising: @zmaznevegor
The Decade of Failed Revolutions
Another decade has come to an end, and yes, I have realized that a bit too late. Therefore, I decided to come up with a theory on why the previous 10-years should have drastically changed the world, yet we have come to another year of stagnation and even higher expectations.
Before I get to the direct formulation of the idea of the missed revolutions, let’s recap the previous decade. For that, we need to imagine ourselves in the post-crisis time of the wild 2010. Back then the world was slowly recovering after the “globalization” crisis of 2008, the word “Bitcoin” was almost unknown to the large public, people enjoyed their iPhones 3GS and Skyrim did not even exist. It was a start not of a new decade but a new era: people had great expectations on how technology is going to change the world, how economic systems will come up with new transparent policies to boost global trade and development and how governments will fight against the rise of monopolies.
Why was that a good start? Well, we had loads of chances to bring the change in almost every sphere of our lives: economic, social, political and technological; people were expecting that the change just has to come and that it has to bring something absolutely new. Moreover, the early 2010s just had to do it, because the decade prior to that has shown that in the new, “digitalized” world, old processes have to be switched to the new practices. It meant that the companies have to become more transparent in their operations, they should be striving for change; that meant that the old political powers had to come up with new directives to address the rising risks of another crisis as well as adopt technological advantages to fight against existing problems. It is important to notice, how closely tied the economics, politics and technological development have become in the early 2010s. We were surrounded by enormous opportunities, that later we refused to use.
dailymoron/the-decade-of-failed-revolutions-49d59a4439fd">Continue reading
Silence
We do not value silence enough these days. Noise is following us everywhere: from the transport and overcrowded cafes to constant music in our earbuds and endless videos on YouTube. Over time we stopped referring to noise as pollution. It got so deep to our lives, and this constant buzz became so comfortable for our minds, that silence for us became an attribute of the scary environment.
We make the buzz ourselves — intentionally or not. We talk just for the sake of it. Words became meaningless, and the gap between the ideas and speeches became much larger. Just like a commodity on a stock market, the value of words has dropped in value. We talk to fill in "awkward silence", without realising that the awkwardness comes from the meaningless talks.
When we finally reach the precious silence — whether it is the end of the workday or comfortably boring weekends — we run from silence. Cause in silence we meet ourselves, and the "ourselves" are scary. Not just scary but also boring, we ran out of the topics to talk about with "ourselves". And instead of changing it, we reach to our phones and start watching another video, or get in conversation on social media, cause we will do everything to minimise the time with ourselves.
Creativity.
Over time concepts have a tendency to evolve and change. They are changing within the ecosystem and changing the ecosystem itself; something that used to be one thing evolves to absolutely different one. If we look into the world of creativity or ask ourselves what is it, more likely we are going to imagine arts, music or some garage-made tech, and if it for real was a creative thing in the early 20th century, now it has become nothing more than just an average thing. Every fifth person is a musician, with every third is a producer and almost every second is a DJ/rapper. They have lost their creativity already in the late 80s, stepping away for some nerdy guys. Arts is not something creative anymore. This concept may have changed, but its core is still “being different” and artists are no longer different than anyone else, they are just average with a slightly better taste. Unexpectedly and more likely unintentionally, something completely “casual” became the ruler of the creative world. Marketing, engineering, IT – you name it - that has over time become more creative than the top charts of iTunes.
The worst part about it is that everyone is trying to be creative and they are driven not by the part that loudly says “create”. They are imitating, copying, changing and doing anything else but creating and usually, it is done with the lack of taste or style. They are either trying to be nihilistic (and failing) or artistic (that is not possible without a sense of taste, so failing as well) and making the world of content just a stinking garbage bin. While the truly creative people are lost somewhere among these garbage bins.
So, what is “creative” today then? It is something that goes step ahead of time, something that bends the limits of standards that inspires. This “something” becomes when it is found is giving you understanding that there is a little number of people with the genius ideas that are worth going through 99% of dumbness and stupidity.
For the last 2 months, my head was overwhelmed with ideas about cryptocurrencies, digital money and blockchain. I am proud of the result and all the past weeks' hard work paid off with the great research and final paper. Thank you for the participation in the survey, by the way, it helped a lot.
If you are interested in cryptomarket or blockchain but didn't know where to start - read my work -it's like a complete introduction and overview of the essential economic and technical aspects of the topic. You can find my thesis here: https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/141520
Feel free to share! If you have any questions regarding the channel or thesis or anything related - share your thoughts in our chat @dailyEmChat
Telegram survey
Lately, I have been working on my thesis regarding cryptocurrencies, more likely I am going to post it here once it is done if some of you will need a manual to the crypto world. During the research, I found out that there are not so many resources on public's familiarity and adaptation, and the ones that exist are partially out of date already. So, I have decided to make my own study and survey (with blackjack...).
So what?
https://goo.gl/forms/vLWfS7BVfTHHbcUT2
This link would be the best answer in this case for the Miles Davis's question.
Why should I participate?
You will not only help me as a researcher but will bring your contribution to your favourite messenger! Such topic as this brings a lot of attention from everyone - from ICO-developers to SMM guys. Just a couple of minutes may make our community even better.
What if I am not so good with cryptocurrencies?
Your answers still matter! If you answer honestly, then you won't get to the hard questions and if you are getting stuck, just skip one.
Are there any specific instructions?
Not really. Basically, it is just a classic survey, however, as soon as you are getting to the survey page, you will get some nicely written section descriptions.
Hey, you promised to post more often but looks like I don't have the posts that I deserve!
Yeah, for real, there were some problems with content lately, in the sense that I don't have too much free time due to the work and thesis. I should be done with this crazy combination in a week and then will get back to two posts per month or even more.
This sounds like a lot of work, maybe I can help somehow.
Yes, share the link with your friends and Telegram users you know. More replies - better survey! The work is for real pretty big but the writer is comfortable with huge loads of work (please, help me, I haven't seen my family because of this paper for months).
P.S. If you really want to help me (actually, I hope so), I wrote a special easy-to-forward short post below. Don't hesitate to share it with your friends, relatives, pets or whosoever.
The whole day I was thinking about what would be the best way of writing this New Year post. Whether should I mention the fact that my channel grew from less than 400 to over 1700, or that from some weird motivational posts I came to semi-philosophical texts that I have started to like. Another achievement that I wanted to mention is our sweet and cozy @dailyEmChat, that brought dozens or maybe hundreds of interesting and original topics and conversations (mixed up with constant talks on Ethereum). I have tried myself in podcasts, lived in a couple of different countries and found a profession that I truly like. Amount of achievements and great moments that I’ve experienced this year is enormous. I wish you all the best in 2018 and be happy!
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Today I have been to the job interview. Unlike my any previous interview experience, I have been on the other side of the screen - I was asking the questions. As far it was my first time on the recruiting side of this battlefield for the work place, there was another HR person. I was not asking most of the questions: main part was conducted by my experienced colleague. By the end of it, my legs stopped nervous shaking and my coworker was pretty surprised about it. "Why have you been so nervous, you are on the decision-making side right now?" - she asked.
- Yeah, that's why I'm so nervous, now responsibility for any decision is on me - I'm the one to blame if he fails after acceptance or succeeding after my "no"; moreover, im the one who can cut the potential at its root or make it grow
- That's why we try to get everything about them during the interview
It is neither a sentimental story, nor a fiction intro but an experience. It gave me some unique feeling that I don't want to loose with time, no matter how cynical I am (haha, cause the name of the channel is the cynic; sorry for that dumb pun).
Life is a sinusoid. It is a repetitive continuous unit of existence that sometimes changes its phase variable or angular frequency. Think of the way you behave. We behave differently throughout the day: easier to work in the morning, more emotional in the evening. We behave differently during the week: fucked up Monday, lazy Sunday, etc. We behave differently throughout our life: starting as a liberal romantics and getting to the conservative pessimists. We experience fucked up situations that are flipped in a moment with the bright lumens of happiness. There are several dependencies and factors affecting our “life graph”, even though it feels like a completely independent formula. Such dependencies are the key trouble for the psychology that is trying to analyze the factors abusing certain factors of your life formula. That is why psychology may seem as a utopia consisting of quite many variables. Such external complexity may lead us to the fatalistic world perception or to the idea of “balance of nature”, something that will make sense for us. Yet we need to keep in mind that we are the part of other’s sinusoids. In this game, you are both – an influencer and a consequence, a killer and a victim. Such graph position brings us to the out-of-time state. We are becoming the part of the past, present, and future of different lines. The problem is we can’t leave the system, can’t play the game. As far as I am my life, I can’t leave the described system. Not acting here means just a passive play, moreover, disproving stoics – suicide will cause the reaction for in terms of this line theory. The issue of this concept is misbalance: one state might be lasting for longer than the other. Neither of the states (or graph values) lasts forever. Yet the routine, repetitive nature of our life may put us in an autopilot status, in which you are functioning but not living. However, understanding the concept of a sinusoid of life brings you the power of actions, help you to turn on your real consciousness. Moreover, seeing life as a simplified graph allows you to overthrow your emotions in the advantage of your brain.
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Responsibility.
Most of our choices are bringing a new pack of things we have to do. Buying a new car – keep care about your property and learn how to drive. Deciding to give a birth to a child – stop being ignorant shit and be ready to give all your free time and not expect to have it back. Buying a milk – check the expiration date…
At a certain point, I found out that people are fulfilling their responsibilities only because they are afraid of something. If you are not paying your taxes, you will have to go to jail. If you are drawing your nickname on someone’s property (with the lowest sense of taste usually), then you have to pay a fine. If you killed a person, you may go to hell (or jail – it is up to your gnoseological way of thinking).
But why do you need to be afraid of something in order to be a good person?
Since when it became so hard to do what you just have to do. Or since when you stopped realizing that you are choosing what responsibilities you have to fulfill. Your achievements and goals should motivate you to fulfill the responsibilities, not the punishment for not doing it.
Responsibilities are indicators and drivers of our development. Just remember - “with great power comes great responsibility”. Our times show that we forgot how to follow this life-demanding part of our lives. We started to want more power, better status and a shit load of achievement with no concern about responsibilities it comes with. You may say that I’m hyperbolizing but look who are the presidents of the biggest countries and where does it go.
Duty is an obligatory thing required from us in order to be decent citizens, family members or just persons. The worst thing here is that fulfilling one type of duties won’t make you free from other ones. Being a good citizen doesn’t stop you from being a nice person. Our achievements also do not take off our even basic duties. You may be a great businessman but a complete jerk for your family. It is extremely awesome if you can achieve great results in your career but that has nothing to do with you being a terrible son and not visiting or at least calling your mom from time to time.
Maybe the responsibility is the main reason why most of the people are not getting out of their comfort zones – they found the perfect way to do everything and this “way” is a warm spot. Doing something new means leaving this spot, finding a new way of organizing your time, priorities, life, etc., for all the “must-do” things. Of course, sometimes we do need some time to stay in this warm spot, where your butt feels so comfortable already. However, stopping your Netflix’n’chillin’ at the right moment and hustling towards something better is the only way to develop yourself.
You define your responsibilities and the way you accomplish your responsibilities defines who you are.
Today, my friend at @dailyEm created a group chat to discuss posts, philosophy and ideology (minimalists are welcome). I decided that it might be interesting for you to discuss some thoughts with others. I wrote about this channel before and as far as our themes are quite close (at least sometimes), I hope that you are going to like it.
Rules are quite easy:
- No spam
- No horny stuff
- No dumb shit (please)
- Be active and ambitious
- Suggest themes and criticize our posts!
We don't care about the strong language, by the way, therefore if you are less than 18, keep in mind that curse words are bad.
Please, join @dailyEmChat, you are welcome there!
P.S. new post will be on Sunday (at least I am planning so).
Today, I announce update of the channel.
Pre-story
Year ago, I have decided to start a telegram channel in order to share my experience on becoming a minimalist. Back then I thought that i can write few times a week (and it even started with post per day), however, in a while I understood that the theme is rather narrowed and it limits me. I had a lot of ideas for posts and a lot of different topics to write about (and wrote pretty a lot), however, you haven't saw them due to the fact that it is out of theme of minimalism. More I was writing, tighter limits seemed to me. You might have mentioned that my last thoughts were less connected to minimalism, it fall more to being rational (or just thoughtful).
Now
Pretty a lot of readers and more passion to write. About what? About absurd reality, frightful future and weird past. Do not be afraid that im gonna write about daily news or gonna start posting inspirational quotes - THIS WON'T HAPPEN. It will be more about questioning our actions, way of living - in other words, more ideas and sense (with less phrases "that's why minimalism is awesome").
But i want to read about minimalism and that's why i joined at first place.
Here is the deal, i will still continue writing about minimalism from time to time, and as far as I'm still living minimalist lifestyle you can be sure that my thoughts, judging and view will keep the rational manner.
Is it gonna affect me in any other way?
If you are annoyed with posting once-twice per week, then it is better to turn channel to the silent mode. The name is changed (so newcomers wont expect material only about minimalism). Everything else is going to be the same/similar.
Thanks for following and understanding.
Feedback: @zmaznevegor
As you might have understood - video calls testing wasn't real. Hope you won't be mad for the joke we got yesterday. However, I hope we all agree - this is a point of April Fools.
I want to thank all my readers for being interested in Telegram improvements and for being loyal readers.
Have a nice Sunday!
http://telegra.ph/Video-Calls-English-Version-04-02
How I got rid of over 50 books and stopped regretting about it.
When I decided to de-clutter my flat for the first time, the main struggle was clear from the first sight - books. Unlike most of other things, they rose my feelings of regret with every little thought of throwing them away. I must mention — books are my passion — reading for me is one of the most favourite ways of spending time. So getting rid of books for me was like loosing a treasure case - stupid and pity.
Bookshelves de-cluttering was delayed to the very last moment - my flat was getting emptier and my "treasure" problem was getting bolder. On a mental level, it was clear that getting rid of books doesn't mean getting rid of knowledge. However, books gave me enormous feelings of adventures and open a world of different feelings and throwing away books meant some disrespect to the stories and authors.
Here I also have to mention the fact - I cannot read electronic books, mostly due to my eyes problem (monitor reading makes my eyes red), and I love the paper book reading - makes me focus faster. That is why I got comparably more books than others did.
In addition, all my childhood I was dreaming of making a family library at my apartment. Minimalism made me ask myself: “Why do I need this?” I am not type of person who loves re-reading same novels, so what is the point of keeping the books that I already read? This question made me put some actions towards my “stack of adventures”.
I realised that putting books to the trash bin is just impossible, so I had to think of something else. My books were of average edition and most of them were classic literature - selling them is impossible. Some of the books I gave to my relatives, friends, however, still a lot of left.
Here are three most efficient (for me) ways of dealing with books:
1. Public hiding/leaving
This is also what Emma Watson is known for (not photos). You are reading a book and hiding it in a public place: café, park bench, metro seat. You can even come to strangers and give them books directly. I understand that it sounds rather weird, however, in this way you know that your books will be used and someone else will also experience imaginary adventures like you did.
2. Books exchange
There are a lot of different services for the book exchanges – local and worldwide. It is a great and rather unusual way of decluttering your bookshelves. One of the biggest book exchanges that I know is http://bookmooch.com.
3. Local library
If your books are in a good conditions, you can go to your local library and donate them your books. If books are too old/damaged, sometimes they have use for them as well. If they just do not need your books (for different reasons), then ask if they have “give away’s” – most of the libraries are making book checks once-twice a year (even libraries are decluttering), after this procedure they are giving away certain book copies for free. During the “give away”, just come and leave your “treasure” – all the books that are not taken by others are recycled.
Today I want to talk with you about your real interests. Such interests, that makes your life brighter.
In addition, if you like philosophy and ideology – related themes, then I got good news for you. Found the channel @dailyEm, the author is talking about classical philosophy combined with modern ideas (NOT AN ADD, just first philosophy-related channel in telegram that I found).
http://telegra.ph/Perverted-Narcissism-or-Lack-of-interests-02-25
Books to read.
When we are talking about ideology or philosophy, there is usually some theoretical background, showed in non-fiction books. When we are talking about minimalism, I won't be able to name you a single theoretical non-fiction book for two main reasons:
- ideas are broad and simple, and therefore, rather personality-dependent
- movement is comparably "young" and un-shaped
Main principle behind minimalism is "to stop spending and start living". Theory is over, therefore, I came up with the list of fiction books, so they will present the idea of meaningful living not only from rational, but also from emotional perspective.
Please, remember, that it is just a recommendation.
1. Erich Maria Remarque
His novels are great, his approach is rough, his ideas are bright. When I'm talking about this author, it is hard to point out single novel. Idea of living goes throughout every novel. "The Night in Lisbon" - relationship and personality problems.
"Heaven has no favorites" - living with sense.
"Three comrades" - love, death and friendship.
2. Ernest Hemingway
"The Sun Also Rises" - enjoying the moments
3. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"Strange Pilgrims: Twelve Stories" - time and changes.
Happy New Year!
I wish you all the best in the upcoming year and I am very thankful that you keep reading my thoughts from time to time.
Have a great holiday and spend this time with your close friends and family.
Simplicity
The modern world has everything we need — from automatic vacuum cleaners to cars in space (as you can see this post was written a while ago). Materialistic oversupply brought us to the understanding of the value of information; this is how we basically entered the age of information economy, where data and knowledge became the key assets of success. Yet this world full of information, and tech has taken away one important thing — simplicity. We started to lack simplicity in the way we think, make decisions, work and live. With the simplification of the living process, people are still trying to make the life itself more complex.
The life is the same though. The complexity of the world is slowly but surely trying to get in our heads from the rather early stages of life. First we are learning some social norms and values, then we grow up a little and getting piles of knowledge in school that we do not really value sometimes, then we are getting to university where knowledge gets more specialized, so when we get to the first real actions we have so many things in our minds that we do not even know where to start. At certain moment simplicity appears to be lost.
Even in the art that is supposed to be a space of feelings complexity has its effect. Today you cannot just be amazed by the black square or abstract colorful lines; you need some Mona Lisa that is closer to your inner complicated world. Inner world, by the way, should hit the records of complexity, otherwise, you do not compile with the social norms. Even though we admire something complex, we value more something simple.
The idea is easy, we lack simplicity. Clearness of thoughts and directness of actions are inspiring. A simple idea makes great things, while simple action makes a living.
Art.
Have you mentioned that art goes beyond its time? The world, as the artist sees it, is absolutely different from our reality. It is not just an image, sound or text - it is a statement, idea or "innovation" of mind. And when the century of certain ideas is over, it looks at the artistic world and follows it with a deformed adaptation. It works as some sort of a loop, where reality creates a new mind that creates a new image. To simplify, it works as an AI at its literal understanding - it sees the world differently with the different values, norms and standards, therefore, with the different judgement structure, and when this AI starts to create something new - it goes according to different principles rather than an "average"/normal perspective.
If you are familiar with Russian literature, you could have mentioned that trendy ideas of nihilism were created by Turgenev. Female rights, or feminism, as we know it, was completely developed by Chernyshevsky. Constructive and "effective" thinking were successfully brought to life by Kandinsky and Malevich. If we turn away from Russian literature and art, we can name even more examples - Balzac has masterfully described the end of the 19th century, while Dreiser has depicted the reality of America. As Wilde mentioned, "art deforms life according to its needs". The list of examples can go on and on, frightening you with its fatalistic behaviour. Yet, amusement from these correlations may get you away from the "heart" of the theme.
Art lives in its unique world. However, we can't judge modern art in an objective manner, simply because we need to understand it according to its own rules, that comes to a "normal" mind only over time. Art is questioning our norms and judges our time. It expands our understanding of life overall, showing lack of perfectionism in natural things. It brings its aesthetic touch to environment and human.
Fuck Facebook.
I do not know how can a person create such a nice thing as a social network that becomes one of the most used things in the world. An application that made thousands of people stick to their phones. An application that is simple and useful. At least, it used to be like this 10 years ago. Every positive adjective you can use with "Facebook" has been lost during the past 10 years.
From the project that could have been monetised without dumb, getting all of your data, advertisements, it just became an app full of dull and stupid shit. And it is not only about the application but a whole company - anything they make, anything they buy is becoming a pile of advertised shit. The worst thing about it is that people are still using it. No matter how slow is it or how bad in terms of optimisation/UI/UX. From a simple "a bit more than a messenger" it has become a nightmare for any designer or just any person with a good taste. Marketing managers and SMM-ers will still spend thousands and millions of dollars just for buying advertisements.
Facebook alone could have become the key competitor (or if done right - the key market monopoly) as a video-hosting platform, blogging platform, messenger, photo-sharing network. Every time you want to defend Facebook just think about their "could have" and also wait until WhatsApp, Instagram and other applications are slowly dying in pain. The pain caused by a complete lack of optimization, good design and lack of change management.
My work led me to analyze and look into the countries' policies regarding new technologies. As you might know, I am a pretty big fan of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, so during the analysis, (that is also a part of my thesis work) I'm usually looking into the ways of the countries handling it. Cryptocurrency is a relatively new concept and the way governments are coping with that allows me to understand not only their approach and vision of the technological disruption but their ambition about the future and their trust to their own citizens.
Analysis conclusion is sad: as soon as you do not know something, you ban it and try to forget it like it was a bad dream. This is the way many policy-makers approached revolutionary technology, without giving it a single chance. Some sophisticated readers may debate with me, claiming that "blockchain is not the same as cryptocurrencies and you are mixing those two", and partially they would be right. Moreover, this is the key defensive argument, the government will use. However, preventing people from use of cryptocurrencies give them fewer opportunities to understand this whole new economic model. Crypto is like a new application and when you want to understand the application, less likely you will check its code first.
So what do the countries that wish "the best they can give to their citizens" actually achieve with limitations to the digital money? Nothing else but a selfishly missed opportunity: the opportunity of flipping the system by finally making the last hit to already broken Bretton Woods system, the opportunity to become the digitalisation adopters rather than conservative idiots, opportunity to bring the future to the people.
Made a short article relating the recent discussion in @dailyEmChat on future of money.
egorcentric/future-currency-9d0f08fbc0da" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@egorcentric/future-currency-9d0f08fbc0da
Quick updates about the channel.
- I owe you articles for September and October, so far fully loaded with my work but expect several articles striking your notifications list
- Due to my personal overload (thesis, work and all the stuff) but will to write articles will become shorter (not the ones that I owe you tho) and more idea-focused
- Amount of my grammar mistakes may rise due to the lack of time
Thanks for following, reading and understanding.
Today we are announcing our brand new website dailyemm.com!
Why?
We got pretty excited about all of you joining our channel, so we thought that we need to improve. As far as quite many of you asked for the telegraph posts and website will allow us to post more (and in different manners as well), we decided to set it up.
So are you going to forget about telegram?
No, the telegram is one of our priorities. We have already set up telegraph instant view, so it will be more comfortable for you to follow and read us.
Wait, you said, "we"?
That is right. A while ago I found the @dailyEm channel, I got pretty excited with the posts that I found there. So we have decided to team up at a certain point and created a website. Also, there are going to podcast in his channel, where I will take part from time to time.
Where is my high-quality content then and why does it take you so long to write them?
I have a new article for you today, you can find it below. Usually, I have two posts per month. I tried making it more frequently but don't like making "cheap" posts.
/channel/iv?url=http://dailyemm.com/system-glitch-planned-goal/&rhash=fe8f4479f0f89f
Damn, guys, you are so awesome, maybe I can do something for you?
Thanks for the compliment, bud, we are glad you like it. Just keep following us, give us a feedback, and please, check out our dailyemm.com - it would be great!
We are living in the days where dystopia became a scary reality and 1984 is just a mainstream handbook. You may try to argue with this but do not hurry – think about what is going on in the political world around the globe. I know that you are waiting for me to compare absurd with a presidency of Trump, but do not stop here – Brexit, French elections, rising nationalism over the globe (Japan, Finland, Russia, Turkey, etc.), causing the growth of mercantilism, terror attacks showing the world’s unstable development… There are many other examples, we just try to skip them and focus on the ones that are going to drive us crazy faster.
The present is bringing us such “geniuses” of culture as Beyonce and Drake, which are showing a real progress – from “Kind of Blue” to “Single Ladies”. In a technological world, we also haven’t gone that far if we assume that the main “jump” of everyday life technologies is the iPhone (and that Kickstarter just in a couple of years went from being the place for ambitious start-ups to wallet e-shop). In a political sense, countries that were united and inspired with the idea of common prosperity are falling apart (yeah, EU, I’m talking about you). In an economic manner, time-breaking theories of Krugman, for example, are fading away passing to the retarded ideas of neo-mercantilism (was not aimed to insult disabled people). Of course, there are some exemptions; however, they are so minor that counting them will make this post even more depressive.
In 1926, “The Castle” by Franz Kafka was published. Book, written in style of absurdism, showed a satirical image of the bureaucracy and society. If you are going to read this book now, this will not look like a satire, but normal habits. The atmosphere of being a single thinking person surrounded by the bunch of “living meat” will not seem unfamiliar.
Does “our present” suck then?
Debatable, however, it seems to me to be a pot with a water that is slowly heating, and right now, we are in the condition of boiling. This nonsense got to the maximum, forcing neo-nihilism and futurism to rise and make it cooler, so living now is like coming to the theater – something is about to start and you can be sure that it is going to be tremendous.
Such shift brings us enormous possibilities – in science, economics, society. However, it should start with something, so right now we are at the moment, where the world is running around crazy to start such shift.
I hope that my point is clear – we are living in a giant anti-utopia (or just a shithole), that is about to burst out like a bubble. How are you going to deal with it? This is your choice, but we can generalize it a bit – one way is to continue living absurd life and read inspirational talks instead of following science or at least classic literature; another is to create something new. If the world (social, economic, political) needs a reason to start something new, and therefore, waiting for something, that does not mean that you should follow the same manner. You can divide people in different manners; I will do it in a bit primitive way now: some people are ready to make responsible moves, ready to risk and do; others are followers, trying to avoid facing the reality as an enemy and crying about its complexity, but more important waiting for something. So what are you going to do in this boiling pot? Stand against imaginary faith and take action or wait for such people to come? The choice is yours.
Culture - reason to be unified and separated at the same time. Like a native code that is leading our minds throughout our lives, it is developing us and then prevents any interference into our personalities. It has become a central (or causing) factor of many discussions related to politics, society, economics, etc. But do we really need this barrier of the past in our integrated society in a hopeful future?
Like most of the people that I know, every time analyzing the reality makes me feel sad and scared at some point. Not only the things that are happening in a political arena are making everyone rather disappointed but also ideological and philosophical terms show that our aims and preferences had switched and final destination is not as bright as it should be.
So much weird stuff happened in past few years. Trump vs Clinton choice (that is not normal even on the stage of choice), Brexit, threat of French exit (even though it is just a threat, it still shows the level of decreasing adequacy), Syrian conflict that is a bunch of several national problems, Chinese market development decrease (even thought the problem of political limit is bold), Islamophobia, terror attacks, Putin dictatorship (and for everyone it has become normal), etc. And perspectives are even more frightening.
Think of the trends that happened 20 years ago. And I do not mean CD-players, wide jeans or long cuts - think of the global trends. World integration, internalization, and unification were the main trends of the diplomatic world, MNE and internet market were central themes of the economic world, EU and Russian problem took over the political sides. For youngsters, these ages may seem like a disaster, for millennials - grass was greener, mountains were higher and Trump was not a president of the US - so almost perfect. The culture was seen as invisible part of borders between two countries and we were aimed to change it.
But why do we need it?
Traditions and values? - You may have some holidays during the year without praising your own culture. Why cannot you value common human things like love, family, friendship without the ideas of loving the motherland? During the Era of globalization, we stepped on the path where motherland is just a piece of land where you were born and nothing more. You family, friends is not the same as the motherland. They are just people that you love and if you are going to move to a different country, you will continue loving these people.
National identity? If you are american, then you just the part of country where slavery was so normal for a while that people decided to have a civil war to keep it, country that treated women unequally during its whole history (and still though), country of constant racism and intolerance, country that picks douche as national leader.
And culture is not just about it. Culture is developing our fears, stereotypes, mentality, way of thinking. So, when we are talking about cultural upbringing, we should think about the thinks we fear and cannot understand. Name me one culture that values philosophy or science over emotions and religion. Name me one nation (out of first-world countries) that makes us stop fearing death. Name me one culture where racism is taken out of society completely and people value global prosperity over current bargains.
It is sad to admit but culture, the one that made you feel unique a while ago, has now become just a parasite of our behavior. This parasite got stuck so deeply in our minds that it is hard to analyze certain situations objectively.
So, break the system, focus on science and start a revolution... or just do not let culture manipulate you, be rational and stick to philosophy rather than uniqueness defined by the land, where you were born.
Island of simplicity in the ocean of overconsumption.
Since our childhood we were taught to own more things, reasons behind it vary, however, the results are going to be the same. In the past months, I have started to mention how I was raised to consume (and preferably with no limit). Ideas of getting more were everywhere – cartoons, movies, stories, novels – every part of culture was drowning in the ocean of materialism. Moreover, things have become sign and support of morality and values. I see your scepticism here, but think about – what do most of the Christians wear on their neck? –Cross. And for religious people throwing cross to the trash bin will be unacceptable – that is next level merchandise (holy level).
However, it is not only for religious people – materialism became a cornerstone of our culture. In movies, successful guys are multibillionaires with fully packed up closets. Women are depicted as naturally born shopaholics, who cannot wait to be grabbed by the credit cards. Smart guys have flat full of trash and books, fancy ones – full of suits and accessories.
And what about these amulets and accessories trash that people started believing more than themselves. Any sort of shit on your hand or neck can bring you like. For real, it can be anything – rabbit’s foot, stone from the random cave, fake Egyptian amulets, dead jesus – anything will be better “luck magnet” than you are.
Then, all the culture makes us dream the same. If I tell you, describe a happy life, most of you will start telling me about living separately from the parents with a beautiful wife, kids in a nice cottage/house and maybe have dog/cat, car and stable work. In other words, you will start describing me classic American dream (where “having” is something seen as a final aim). That is normal – in standardised culture dreams became standardised as well.
Right now, this culture of happy things and sad people is like an ocean. It surrounds us, it is trying to wave us down, and minimalism is like a boat that tries to keep values of “rationality and thinking” safe, hoping to fight back one day.
Today I won't talk about minimalism or anything connected to it. However, I want to give you a nice offer.
@videocalls is conducting beta testing of video calls in Telegram and only fastest out of you can test it.
So, subscribe for @videocalls asap and hope that you are going to be lucky enough.
I feel like I lied to you, cause it is connected to minimalism - you can now delete all the other messengers (and I am talking about Wha...any app).
Good luck!
What is truly a waste of your personal time?
Using your phone (in following):
1. Bed
Seriously, bed is just for sleeping or sex, stop taking time from yourself.
2. While you are in a company
It is annoying or even rude for others, there is no need in doing this
3. While you are eating
Common, just enjoy delicious food, f*ck the likes in Instagram/Facebook/[insert social network here]
YouTube
I guess many of us have faced the problem, when you went to watch some blog, that entertains you and ended up watching hydraulic press smashing metal ball. YouTube is great sometimes (f.e. I like watching stand-up shows and can’t call it a waste of time), but keep control over “autoplay”.
Email
Spam, random subscriptions, HOT DISCOUNTS UP TO 70%, etc. - Just a waste of time. Install some “un-subscription” tools and spam blockers, it will save a lot of time.
Also, your working email has the same timetable as your work. As soon as you are leaving your working chair - your email is also having a break. UNLESS, you are not a CEO or SME worker.
TV
21st century, guys, you can download, watch online, find on Netflix. Enjoying a nice movie or series is great, but you do not need to spend your time on commercials or adapt to TV schedule.
Social Networks
Facebook, Twitter - straight in a bin. LinkedIn - just for updates and job search.
Exclusion is blogging, then Quora, Telegram, Wordpress, etc. are almost unavoidble and rather beneficial.
People
Spending time with people, who bores/annoys/ makes angry/ doesn’t make you feel good is just a total waste of time. Hope you will not consider me rude, but people like your assets - there are useful/less.
Shopping
Buying things that you need is ok, but buying stuff just for a f*ck of it is a waste of time and money.
News
In a past few months I feel like I heard the name “D. Trump” more than my own. Sometimes you need to know the freshest news, for example, for your job. However, do not spend too much time for this. Minimalism and Mass Media - here you can find ideas on how useless it is to follow the MM. Reading top headlines once a week is usually enough to keep a track on global changes. Or maybe stop reading/watching news at all.
Also…
If you do not get any enjoyment or use of the process, then, usually, it is a waste of time.
In the western culture, "having less" looks more like an exclusion out of common trend. However, in the East, its gaining popularity: some of people are inspired with wasting less money/time, some - with the attractive concept of simplicity. Minimalism fits into the common culture and philosophy of the eastern world.
Simplicity (and beauty of its concept) was one of the main things I got inspired with at first place. Article, which is attached below, is a great inspiration tool for the early adopters and a great reminder for the minimalism mastodons. Enjoy!
https://goo.gl/jV5vMF
Let's imagine that you have a second chance to live your life.
Will you buy the same things?
Will you go for the same job? Will you continue spending time with the same people?
If the answer for at least one of those questions is "no", then it's time to get rid of it. Change it now, you won't live forever.