Minimalism

Minimalists resolve to live with only the essentials, shunning anything nonessential. It was never inspired by poverty and austerity, but real wisdom.
Having what you need or use, not what you want!

Objective is not to clutter my space by having only the most useful, elegant and simple objects. Things should be simple in form and function, devoid of unnecessary frills and pointless decorations.

What is Minimalism

Traditionally, People used to stress on poverty, purity, spirituality, obedience as important virtues. Many great personalities try to act or live like poor. Some wonder, was it expensive to keep them look "poor"? One need not go to these extremes. Minimalism does not mean poverty.
Minimalism is about leading a normal simple life. (Life style based on commonsense, which is uncommon)
Minimalism is a way of avoiding the non-essential in order to focus on what is truly important, gives our lives meaning, joy and value.
Minimalism is a way of looking at things in the age of global warming, large waste creation and resource depletion.

Minimalism - Less is more or better

{Have less and enjoy more} is better than {Have more and enjoy less of it}
Buy what you need, not what you would like or want
Possessions don’t bring us happiness.
Doing something brings about more pleasure than owning something.
Eat what you can digest [It does not matter how much you eat, but how much you can digest is important]
Books one reads matters, not books one has.
Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.
One who is not contented with what one has, would not be contented with what one would like to have.
Most important: Do not Waste

Consumerism is based on the need to possess, which is not needed. The flip side of possession is loss and we fear loss. Loosing things lead to all types of problems. Marketing and sales fill our lives with things we never felt we needed.

Maximalism

Maximalism, a reaction against minimalism, embraces excess and extravagance. Maximalists believe that more is more. They focus on quantity and quality and surround themselves with as many things as possible. They want to have everything they desire, and they want it to be loud, colourful, and sometimes chaotic.

Need, greed and want

The difference between need, greed and want is mostly in the eye of the beholder.
A need is basically definied as anything that you need in order to live comfortably.
Greed is anything that you want it for no reason, when you could still live without it.
Want, is anything that you want to posses for societal purposes, but you could have lived without it.
It is very difficult to distinguish between need greed and want.

Simplicity and KISS

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication [Leonardo da Vinci]
Everything should be kept as simple as possible, but no simpler. [Use with caution]
KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid" as a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960. The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.
Variations on the phrase include "Keep it Simple, Silly", "keep it short and simple", "keep it simple and straightforward" and "keep it small and simple".
The principle is best exemplified by the story of Johnson handing a team of design engineers a handful of tools, with the challenge that the jet aircraft they were designing must be repairable by an average mechanic in the field under combat conditions with only these tools.

Benefits

1) Meaningful life with less stuff. Rid ourselves of excess stuff
2) Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding real freedom.
3) Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Solution to problems created by Consumer driven economy - {Consumer is the King. Consume as much as possible, even if leads to excessive borrowing}
4) Eliminate our discontent
5) Reclaim our time and Live in the moment
6) Live with in your means (can sleep peacefully as you do not owe anyone)
7) Free time to Pursue our passions
8) Discover our missions
9) Focus on our health
10) Grow as individuals
11) Contribute beyond ourselves
12) Discover purpose in our lives

Living Matrix

I have more than I Need: Surplus, waste, Loosing Control, Unorganized, messy (mental slavery)	I use a lot and I have lot: May be Ok for the rich, affluent
My needs are small and I have less: Ideal condition, good for society and community	I need more than I have (Poverty state to be eradicated)

Minimalist living

Better to go for quality, rather than quantity. Minimalism is about quality over quantity.
Instead of cheap items, quality items may last longer and eventually cost effective.

How to implement

Target or Goal Setting

Minimizing alternatives

Many times, we have lot of alternatives and will not know, how to reduce them. Example may be choosing a career, or subject for study, career choice or even a place to visit. Three step approach is presented. Consider an example of selecting subject for study.

This method halves the alternates at every step. This can be modified and used in many cases.

Minimalist solution in Science & Technology

1) Simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones "because their empirical content is greater; and because they are better testable.
2) Among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. Other, more complicated solutions may ultimately prove to provide better predictions, but—in the absence of differences in predictive ability—the fewer assumptions that are made, the better. Occam's razor (W. Ockham 1287–1347)
3) If a thing can be done adequately by means o.f one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments [if] one suffices.
4) Simple working solution is better than complex perfect solution.
5) If solutions is complex, there are more scope for errors and chances for system to fail.
6) For every complex problem there is a solution that is concise, clear, simple
7) A specially designed iron ingot (resembling a fish) added to and left in the cooking pot slowly but steadily releases iron, fortifying each meal. Called, Lucky Iron Fish, this can reduce the prevalence of both iron deficiency and anaemia, costing less than US$1 per family per year.
8) Crew aboard the International Space Station with a toothbrush clear out cursed metal shavings, and get space station power up.

Minimalist Arts, Architecture and Space

During 60s, minimalism influenced artists in rejecting the lavish, highly-decorative styles of the past. Minimalists asked the question: How much can you strip away from an item — paintings, scupltures, buildings, furniture — without losing its essential purpose and identity?
1. A school of abstract painting and sculpture that emphasizes extreme simplification of form, as by the use of basic shapes and monochromatic palettes of primary colors, objectivity, and anonymity of style. Also called ABC art, minimal art, reductivism, rejective art.
2. Use of the fewest and barest essentials or elements, as in the arts, literature, or design.
3. Music marked by extreme simplification of rhythms, patterns, and harmonies, prolonged chordal or melodic repetitions, and often a trancelike effect.
Minimalist architecture simplifies living space to reveal the essential quality of buildings and conveys simplicity in attitudes toward life. It is highly inspired from the Japanese traditional design and the concept of Zen philosophy.
The concept of minimalist architecture is to strip everything down to its essential quality and achieve simplicity. The Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-sabi values the quality of simple and plain objects. It appreciates the absence of unnecessary features to view life in quietness and reveals the most innate character of materials.
The Cool Hunter - Architecture - www.thecoolhunter.net/architecture
Home Designs - freshome.com/2013/07/08/best-minimalist-home-designs/
Minimal Interior Design Inspiration - theultralinx.com/
Projects of Japanese architect - http://curbed.com/archives/2014/04/16/17-projects-proving-nobody-does-minimalism-quite-like-japan.php

Minimalist solution in Science & Technology

There are too many unnecessary things every where. Good design is:
innovative; that make products useful; aesthetic; makes product understandable; honest; unobstrucive; long lived; consistent in every detail; environmentally friendly; Last but not least: good design is as little design as possible. (Dieter Rams).
Do not work in vacuum. Designers are not pure artists. Live with business people, so that industries hould take it seriously.

Industrial Commercial Applications

1) Matching supply and demand
2) Input matched output to avoid traffic jam
3) Just in time – Low inventory and avoid storing lot of items locking up cash
4) It is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer"

Value Engineering

It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Minimalism is all about removing distractions.
Value Engineering or value analysis - a systematic and organized approach to provide the necessary functions in a project at the lowest cost. Value engineering promotes the substitution of materials and methods with less expensive alternatives, without sacrificing functionality.
The concept of value engineering evolved in the 1940s at General Electric, in the midst of World War II. Due to the war, purchase engineer Lawrence Miles and others sought substitutes for materials and components, since there was a chronic shortage of them. These substitutes were often found to reduce costs and provided equal or better performance.

Minimalism (computing)

Minimalism refers to the application of minimalist philosophies and principles in hardware and software design and usage.
In the post-PC era it is no longer necessary to buy a high-end desktop personal computer merely to perform common computing tasks. Mobile computing devices such as smart phones and tablet computers are sufficient.
Some Linux distributions mention minimalism as a goal. Arch Linux, Puppy Linux, Bodhi Linux, CrunchBang Linux, and Damn Small Linux are examples.
Promoting gadgets requiring little-or-no learning curve and do not require the user to read manuals. User Interface researchers have performed experiments suggesting that minimalism bolsters efficiency and learnability.
Less is a one-page theme that lacks any unnecessary decorations. This allows to concentrate on the text and the messages you want to convey than on complex structures and tons of images
www.smashingmagazine.com/.../principles-of-minimalist-web-design-wit...
In a study by Google in August of 2012, researchers found that not only will users judge websites as beautiful or not within 1/50th – 1/20th of a second, but also that “visually complex” websites are consistently rated as less beautiful than their simpler counterparts. In other words, the study found the simpler the design, the better.
The basic idea behind cognitive fluency is that the brain prefers to think about things that are easy to think about. Cognitive fluency stems from another area of behavior known as The Mere Exposure Effect, which basically states that the more you’re exposed to a stimulus, the more you prefer it.
Every Element Communicates Subtle Information
The average adult brain is able to store between 5-9 “chunks” of information within in the short term, working memory. On a website, the working memory tries to process are things like guarantees, product descriptions, prices or offers. Adding more, does not help

During designing a website:

Identify (or narrow down) user base and Research your user requirements.
Put things where your visitors are accustomed to finding them.
Use colors, logo, and typeface to communicate clearly and do not add copy images unless it adds some extra information.
Reduce number of items and one large image is better than a bunch of little ones, one column, instead of three – utilize as much white space as possible.
Meet user expectation in pricing, aesthetics, speed, etc.
No need to fit into standard model.
Make it a composite of all the best possible features.

Contentment and Minimalism

Learning to be Content, which is the secret for happiness.
We have a limited capacity and can only do so much, only handle so many tasks and possessions and social commitments, and filling ourselves to those limits means we stress our breaking points. Courage to say NO.
Find the little things that can give you simple joys, like taking a walk, spending time with a loved one, reading a book, eating some berries, drinking tea. These cost very little, but can make me very happy.
Do things that you are happy with. Do the same with others in your life.
For self image, compete with yourself. Do not compare with perceived objects of perfection
Relationships are more important than any thing.
Physical and mental health is more important than wealth
The overload of possessions in our lives comes from unhappiness
Much of our busyness comes from fear that we should be doing more and more.
Simplify everything by: reducing commitments and possessions; Schedule time for what is important; Getting outdoors; and Start each day empty-handed, and full-hearted.
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. ~Lao Tzu