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“In our research with users, we found that the more information that was displayed on the page, the greater the anxiety.”

“I have a simple philosophy. Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. And scratch where it itches.”

- Alice Roosevelt Longworth

One of the things I love about minimalism is that it doesn’t end. You don’t get to a minimum of things and say, “I’m done.”

It’s a constant paring down. And that’s a good thing.

Why would you want to keep doing it, instead of just completing the process? Because the process of paring down is really the process of asking yourself, “What’s important?”

We tend to forget what’s important in the din and tumult of daily life. We need a mindfulness bell to bring us back to the essentials, and paring down is that bell for me.

There are numerous examples of paring down — I whittle down my clothing collection, for example, on a regular basis. I will look at a room and remove unnecessary objects. I’ll clear out programs on my computer I don’t use.

On Zen Habits, I pare down the design regularly. A couple years ago, the site was considered an example of clean design, but since then I’ve removed most elements.

Recently I removed numerous links in the sidebar and footer, and then removed photos. It was like breathing out a sigh of relief, to be able to let go of photos. No one seemed to mind — I didn’t get any comments. I love it when paring down is met with the approval of silence. As on mnmlist, I’m removing almost everything but the article, which is the only thing that’s important.

Paring down has been a beautiful way to hone in on the essentials, to be mindful each day of those essentials. I think that’s a necessary thing these days.

Minimal Mac: Buy The Shirt!:

Go buy the Minimal Mac tshirt.

The title says it all. You will now see a new (albeit, temporary) addition the the menu items. There, in the menu near “archive” and “rss” is “minimal mac t-shirt”. Click that. Launch the store. Buy one. They are $19.95 with shipping included. There is a $10.00 USD shipping surcharge for International orders. It’s also $3.00 extra for XXL. Sorry for this, but I could not absorb that extra cost into the price.

As stated previously, I’ll keep it open for a bit but will close it and stop taking orders in a couple of weeks (or sooner, depending on sales). I will give fair warning before that happens, so stay tuned.

Also, as stated, these will be printed on a premium, athletic cut, t-shirt. I normally wear a large and the large fits me well but with a trimmer profile then a regular cut shirt. Order a size up if you are used to a looser fit.

As usual, please hit me up with any questions via the methods spelled out on the about page.

Now, what are you waiting for? Buy one!

Geek luddites | Watts Martin:

The model we’re moving toward, though, is premised on the idea that computers shouldn’t require routine tech support. Again, look back at game consoles: an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 is a fully programmable computer with networking capability, offline storage, removable media, the whole shebang, yet all of that is invisible to the user. What file system does a Playstation use and what directories does it put your downloaded games in? The correct answer is: “Who gives a shit?”

And if what you do with a computer is spreadsheets and flow charts and word processing documents and slide presentations, web browsing and media watching and game playing, even recording music and editing photographs and writing text adventures, there’s an excellent case to be made that you should not have to give a shit about any of that, either. But right now—no matter what platform you’re using—you kinda do.

Which is what I’ve been ranting about for a few years and several posts in here. The whole post is really interesting.

Close the Laptop (and Change Your Life) | 3NL:

practicalopacity:

I want to live free, unencumbered, and fully absorbed — fully alive — in every moment I get.

This is a great post about someone who finally woke up and smelled the digital coffee. Be Pavlov, not the dog.