The Art of Things
John Scott Steenburgh
Cyber Security, System Administrator, Blogger, and Cloud Business
I started to see the benefit of having less stuff and the benefits of a more minimalist approach to life. But I have not been strict about it. For me it was more about less but better things, understanding the underlying behaviors of buying stuff, and the purpose of the things we do have.
I think that we need a lot less stuff than most of us have, but there are reasons for the things we have. If your hobby is baking, I am not going to fault you for having three mixers. If you have three or more but never bake, that is where objects become stuff. Likewise, if you are a reader and have a lot of books, to me in my definition of the Art of Things, is OK. If you have 1,000 books and have read 2, maybe you should just have a Kindle and buy less books.
The Art of Things gets into the behaviors why we may have 1,000 books but do not read; as well as why we have one fountain pen that we love and use every day. One, the fountain pen is for me that I love to write with it. I journal and writing with it means a personal activity.
Such is The Art of Things – why I love and have the fountain pen.
And I have one very good fountain pen. That is one of the principles of the Art of Things – less but better. Rather than having a dozen cheaper pens, I have one nice one. Thus, a stuff becomes a thing and a useful thing at that. There is a purpose and use in my life a nice fountain pen does. It is not having a nice pen just because it is a nice pen. A nice pen will have a gold nib and write much better than a steel nib. And I nice pen does not go bad they will last a lifetime if you care for it properly.
The Art of Things is something I am developing and putting out here. And you can learn more on my web page and YouTube channel (InProgress), and Instagram.