You have enough.
2009-06-05
I love my Kindle and E71 but you won't hear me rave about them. I don't want you to want them.
Companies spend a fortune begging you to want their stuff. I won't add to that noise.
Retail therapy is the worst kind.
I'd like to get 100 parrots and teach them to say “It won't make you happy!” - then let them loose in shopping malls, big electronics stores, and car lots.
Then, when people are considering spending thousands of dollars on a giant TV, or going deeply in debt with a new car, a surprising squawk might shock them back to their senses.
The quickest way to double your income is to halve your expenses. Any study of happiness will tell you it's best to actively appreciate what you've got.
I feel a responsibility with my PA system of blog, Twitter, and Facebook to only put helpful thoughts into the world.
So, no product raves here. You already have more than you need.
At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut tells his friend, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.
Heller said, “Yes, but I have something he will never have: Enough.”
Very well said!
Wow, get out of my head! I have been saying something similar for a long time now. As a society we have become grasshoppers, not ants. We want way more than we need and have forgotten how to be thankful for what we have.
Derek, thanks. This is a thought we all need to hear--maybe some of us more than others--but certainly, every single one of us at some point or another in our lives.
And I think the recognition of "enough" extends beyond money and material goods. As much as we get frustrated or even frightened by the current state of the music business (and every other business!), and how hard it can be to "get somewhere"...it's good to remind ourselves how lucky and privileged we are, just to be able to call ourselves musicians. To gig, to compose...hell, even just to be alone at home making beautiful sounds...when you step aside from the constantly striving mindset for a moment, isn't all that enough, too?
When looking at the dismal state of the country I can't help but think that two of the major culprits were "lower prices everyday" and "brand experience". Cheap thrills to satisfy the monkey on people's backs, emptiness.
If we really only use what we need maybe we can regain our dignity in nature.
I just came back from Vegas and was alarmed at the extremities of the place, The wealth of the strip and the poverty of the Native Indians. The extent of the Artifice and the extent of The Natural Desert.
We seem to have lost our way.
Some of us don't have enough... of the basics. Food. A place to live.
"Enough" is different for everyone. Someone who doesn't play guitar might not need even one guitar. Someone who does play it might need more than 5 for it to be "enough" and actually _use_ all of those guitars rather than having them sit around gathering dust.
In North America, it's completely possible to be drowning in too much stuff, and still not be able to pay rent or buy enough fresh vegetables each week. Other people's overconsumption leads to a surplus of secondhand clothes, old electronics that aren't useful anymore, books about how to use windows 3.1, etc.
We don't all have more than we need - not in the things that really matter.
The whole point of the simplicity movement is to decide what is enough for yourself. It's also a lot easier to go from overconsumption to a state of "enough" than it is to go from not having money for food to having enough.
This is all thanks to marketing. "People buy what they want...not what they need." as Seth Godin would say.
In Italian there is even a verb to express this idea.
bastare: to be enough, be sufficient.
"Basta!"= that's enough, that will do
(also the name of a great restaurant in New Haven, CT)
Buona basta! = good enough
And it sorta sounds like a swear word if you say it right.
D: Perfect advice and perfect timing. I am halving as we speak and grateful for all the excess I have around me.
This is so simple yet profound. Derek - you are the best!
Clean and concise - we express our loneliness in our consumerism - we need culture, not more toys.
"The quickest way to double your income is to halve your expenses."
But why?
I think Chagall hit the nail on the head perfectly with their reply.
Why halve your expenses if it's your version of "enough?" What would you do with all that extra income you freed up? The most important advice I try to impart to the musicians at each IMC is to TRULY define what "success" means to you personally, not the idealized, mythical success that the media pounds into our ears, but the REAL success that is yours and no one else's. Discover your true idea of "enough" and then make that your goal. You can never hit the target if you don't really even know where it is.
ok, but I need one last thing before I succumb to enoughness...
..one of those parrots
great post Derek!
Great thoughts Derek, I agree 10000%.
Funny you posted this today, I just watched a terrific independent movie last night where this was the EXACT moral of the film...it's called Amal, I highly recommend it!
Blog, Twitter & Facebook as a giant PA. Wow, there's a great song concept in there. And now I understand your life's current work. A lot like my own. thank you Mr Fabulous.
http://bit.ly/OPxMS Indian man moves mountain all alone.
You made me want an E71 for 38 seconds and then I saw the price.
I'll stick to my system of hand claps and grunts for communicating.
And for long distance (roaming) - I'll use extreme facial expressions like they do in the theatre.
Thanks for your posting Derek. At the beginning of the year I was going to buy nothing new for a year, and I kind of forgot about that now that we're mid-year. I definitely don't want to be swimming in a sea of stuff at home, and now that we're expecting our first child in October, I'm worried about swimming in a sea of unplayed with baby toys.
I am glad you only "love" your devices, I can't imageine how you would describe something you "rave" about. I guess we all love our technology, maybe just a little too much.
I don't know Derek.
There are some days at work when my Ipod makes me really really happy.
My Kindle makes me really really happy. -- Derek
Derek,
do you mind people using your "blog" writing in other blogs with references and acknowledgement?
Anything I post on my blog is free for the taking, quoting, re-posting, etc. Just credit Derek Sivers and link back to sivers.org. Thanks! -- Derek
When I was leaving work last week, I was coming up with the old Hindi saying by Kabir Das:
"
"Lord give me enough so that I don't go hungry and if I have a guest neither does he"
I translated it as "As long as I have my rent money and a bit left over for beer, I am cool
Sometimes it's not until you have it all that you realize that posessions are a burden and anxiety is generated by desire.
For me, spending money on a big screen TV & making a lovely "den" for enjoying dinner & a movie with Hubby is bliss. I never simply spend money. It's not the things I buy that matters it's why I buy them.
thank you for that
I agree. KISS: keep it simple stupid. In other words more is not always more. But that is because I don't have the cash. I wonder what I would do if I had the cash. I'm not saying it would be better. Maybe it would be worse but sometimes it's fun to waste money and try something different.I'm sure I'm happy walking or dancing but if I had the cash I would try a balloon ride not that I need to but it might be fun once.
Derek this is TOO TRUE.
I never talk about a) what gear I use b) what friggin' phone I just got - you know, "this week" and even particularly c) what work I'm doing (to impress people) because it's far more interesting to speak about other things, things that cause happiness for example.
Sam McNally
Musician
Australia
yeah exactly..so much stuff is not necessary..good products should sell themselves