0:19

Every little thing you

0:22

think that you need. Every

0:24

little thing you think

0:27

that you need. Every

0:29

little thing that's just

0:31

feeding your

0:32

greed. Oh, I bet that you'd

0:34

be fine without it.

0:38

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the podcast

0:40

for rediscuss what it means to live a meaningful

0:43

life with

0:43

less. My name is Joshua Fields, Milburn, and I'm

0:45

Ryan

0:46

Nicodemus. And together, we are minimalist

0:48

here with Alabama. Hi, everybody. CK

0:50

Coleman.

0:51

It's the most wonderful time.

0:54

It's always the most wonderful time of

0:56

the year. Coming up today on this free

0:58

public minimal episode, we're talking

1:01

to some listeners about clinging

1:03

to books as well as some

1:05

writing tips and publishing tips for

1:07

aspiring writers. We also have an outstanding

1:09

lightning round segment and a listener tip

1:11

for you. You can check out the full two

1:13

and a half hour maximal

1:15

edition of episode three seventy five,

1:18

where we answer four times the questions and

1:20

dive deep into several simple living segments.

1:22

That private podcast episode is out right

1:24

now. At patreon dot com slash

1:27

the Minimalists click the link in the description,

1:29

your support keeps our podcast and

1:31

YouTube channel one hundred percent advertisement

1:34

free because advertisements suck.

1:37

Let's start with our callers. If you have a question or

1:39

comment for our show, Give us a call 4062197839

1:43

or email a voice memo to

1:46

podcast at the Minimalists dot

1:48

com We have a question from YouTube.

1:51

Cat Mandyoo says why do people hold

1:53

on to books that they'll never read again?

1:55

I helped my sister move from a two bedroom

1:57

cottage into a one bedroom duplex,

2:00

and she insisted on taking boxes

2:02

and boxes of books with her. Now

2:04

she has to rent a storage locker for all the overflow.

2:07

Isn't a storage locker just a purgatory

2:10

for stuff? Yes. It is.

2:12

I was I was thinking the best stories like her for

2:14

books that might be, like, the library. Oh

2:18

oh, hey, tweet that. Yeah. Right. The

2:21

best storage facility for books is

2:23

the library.

2:23

Yeah. Like that. Yeah. It isn't that nice

2:25

too because then you can obviously, you

2:27

can donate books anywhere if you're

2:29

no longer using them. But the fundamental

2:32

aspect of this question is

2:34

why do people cling? The books.

2:36

Mhmm. That they will never read or that

2:39

they will never read again. Coming

2:41

up later on the private podcast, so

2:43

we're doing the home tour segment.

2:45

And I took a photo of my office and you get to

2:47

see my book collection. You get

2:49

to see every book that I own

2:52

And one of the things that I do

2:55

is I limit the amount of books

2:57

I could bring into my home -- Mhmm. -- because

2:59

I have just one bookshelf And

3:03

anytime I want to bring a new book into

3:05

my home, what happens? I have

3:07

to remove a book from that shelf because

3:09

I just don't have the space.

3:12

For it. And what happens

3:14

is when we hold on

3:16

to books because we have the space for

3:18

them. Mhmm. If we have the space for them,

3:20

we feel compelled to then

3:23

fill up the space more

3:25

and more books. Mhmm.

3:28

The only reason I hold on the books now

3:30

is a, if it's on my reading

3:32

list, I'm going to read it in

3:34

the not too distant future. So ideally,

3:36

within the next days -- Mhmm.

3:39

-- or if it's a book that I regularly reference.

3:42

So my favorite author is David Foster

3:44

Wallace. I often go and I

3:47

will reference a book of

3:49

his or read a chapter from one of his books

3:51

that I've read a bunch of times. So I keep those

3:53

books because I actually

3:55

use them. Of course, I have some

3:57

writing books as well that I reference for

4:00

my how to write better writing class.

4:02

Mhmm. And the these are like textbooks

4:04

that I'll use for grammar or

4:06

for parts of speech, especially

4:09

if I'm teaching lessons on on the how to write

4:11

better YouTube channel. I'll use these

4:13

books so I can teach these lessons

4:15

because I'm not a grammarian. I'm not

4:17

a lexicographer, but I don't need

4:19

to be if I have just a small select

4:22

group of resources I can go back

4:24

to time and time again. However,

4:26

we lie to ourselves. I

4:28

tell myself I will read that

4:30

book someday. So I better hold

4:32

on to it just in case.

4:34

Yeah. And that's a trap. Just

4:37

in case is always a trap, especially

4:39

with books because you can tell yourself

4:41

a story. I'm going to read that someday.

4:44

But then someday never arrives. And the

4:46

only thing that arrives is another bookshelf

4:48

because I need somewhere to put all of

4:50

these books that I'm never going to read.

4:52

One last thing I'll say. Before

4:55

I became a minimalist, I had

4:57

about two thousand books, some

4:59

of which I actually read. Most

5:02

of them I hadn't. Now why did I have them? Why

5:04

every time I would go to a bookstore, I'd buy a

5:06

stack of books -- Mhmm. -- because all this one looks

5:08

interesting. This one looks interesting. This one looks interesting.

5:11

Sound familiar? It happens.

5:13

Right? Because your intention is

5:15

to read the book. Right. Of course. I

5:17

want to read this, but what is what is the

5:19

other part of my intention? I wanna

5:21

look smart. Oh, yeah. And how smart

5:23

will I look if you come into my house? And I've

5:25

got a giant bookshelf full

5:27

of all of these impressive

5:29

books. Well, look how impressive I

5:31

am as a person.

5:34

No. It's far more impressive

5:36

to stop clinging. You could let go.

5:39

You know what would look really impressive

5:41

if you just had a bookshelf and

5:43

all it had had was infinite ingest on

5:44

there. That's why

5:46

David Foster was. Well, that

5:48

looks on a lot of shelves, but very few people

5:50

I've met him already. Yeah. But it's one of these

5:52

books, like, keep it on their shelves though,

5:54

because it is one of those books that's,

5:56

like, you know,

5:59

very different from other works. Mhmm.

6:01

Very hard to understand, but it's looked

6:03

at as, like, a, you

6:05

know, you're an intellectual if you can get through

6:08

Infinite Jess. I remember Josh just getting

6:10

rid of a copy one time and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna try

6:12

a dude. He's like, don't man. Don't do

6:14

it. He's like, you're not ready. You're not ready,

6:16

man. Yeah. It's

6:18

one of my favorite books. I'd never recommended

6:20

it to anyone. Yeah. Yeah. I

6:21

certainly wouldn't battered someone

6:24

by buying it as a gift for

6:26

them either. Mhmm. It it looks like a phone

6:28

book and that it's a million words. So

6:30

it's a

6:30

it's Is

6:31

it a legit million words? Yeah. Oh, wow,

6:33

man. Your

6:33

your research book's about sixty thousand words,

6:35

by the way. So No. It's a very thick

6:38

dense book for sure. For sure. Several

6:40

hundred pages of in notes alone. You

6:42

know, I find on my shelf like

6:44

half the books I have on there, which

6:46

are in the home tour I did, like, a couple weeks

6:48

ago? Yeah. Yeah. They

6:50

are our foreign

6:54

translations of our other books.

6:56

Yeah. And that's like the one thing

6:58

that I probably do collect a little bit

7:00

because, like, I love the difference styles that the

7:02

different countries go with. Yeah. But

7:05

again, I have, like, my container of here

7:07

are the books that, you know, here's the amount of

7:09

books I'm I'm allowed to keep. It's the bookshelves that

7:11

I got off of you. Mhmm. I can even fit a

7:13

couple board games on there because I don't have

7:15

that many

7:15

books. But, yeah, half of those books I have though are definitely

7:18

like the foreign translations of our

7:20

book. Yeah. Yeah. And so t

7:21

k, it's not wrong to own

7:24

books.

7:25

Is that is that, like, narcissistic of

7:27

me to, like, to keep those

7:29

books. No. I keep one I keep one

7:31

copy of of each foreign translation as

7:33

well. I I look at it as art. Like, III

7:35

see wow. It's amazing that

7:37

we have several dozen languages

7:40

that our books are published in now. Yeah. And lot

7:42

of them, I can't even read the characters because it's

7:44

in Japanese, or it's

7:46

in Korean. Mhmm. And it's

7:48

just impressive, but it looks like a a work

7:50

of art. It does. Yeah. And so

7:53

yeah, I'll I'll hold on to those books,

7:55

but I don't have ten copies of each

7:57

either. And I think what is

7:59

important here to understand

8:02

is that it's not wrong to

8:04

have books. The problem

8:06

with books is book clutter. Well, what is

8:08

clutter? Clutter is when anything gets

8:10

in the way. And so if I have books

8:12

that are getting in the way, well, what does that mean?

8:14

They can literally physically get in the way.

8:16

Mhmm. I remember when I was moving, I had

8:18

those two thousand books, Ryan. You'll probably remember this.

8:20

I had a a box of books and I jumped down

8:22

from the truck bed, your truck bed. I nearly

8:24

am. I threw my back out because -- Yep. --

8:26

what a metaphor? This stuff

8:29

literally made

8:31

me throw my back out. I'm

8:34

I'm hurting myself with stuff.

8:37

And that is when I realizing,

8:39

oh, I don't

8:40

need to hold on to all of these. Some of

8:42

them I've read, And I'm not if I'm

8:44

honest with myself, I'm not gonna read them again so

8:46

I can let those

8:47

go. Yeah. And there are others that, if

8:49

I'm honest with myself, I'm not

8:52

actually going to read that. Or --

8:54

Yes. -- if I really

8:56

want to read it in the future, if I make the mistake

8:58

of getting rid of it and I do want to

9:00

read it, the public library is right

9:02

down the street. I can go check it out if

9:04

I want to. Or if I absolutely

9:06

wanna repurchase

9:06

it, I can do that as well. Do you remember

9:09

the the gentleman who came to

9:11

one of our live podcast events. So this

9:13

guy came to one of our

9:15

events. He's asking a question. And

9:17

his question was, I have about

9:19

a thousand articles

9:22

bookmarked on my,

9:24

you know, Chrome or Safari or

9:26

whatever he he was using. Mhmm. And he

9:28

was like, it really stresses me out because they

9:30

are all all things that I'm genuinely

9:32

interested in. Mhmm. But I haven't read

9:34

any of them in the sheer amount of of

9:36

what's bookmarked there. Like, it's overwhelming, so he

9:38

really doesn't go and read a lot anyway because it's too

9:40

overwhelming. And I was like, man, I

9:42

would like challenge you to just like delete

9:44

all of those links -- Yeah. -- and see how

9:46

you feel. And I was like, you know, don't do

9:48

it if you don't wanna do it. I'm like, you know, I'm

9:50

not trying to pressure in in in in

9:52

into anything, but I would like challenge you to

9:54

consider that. Yeah. And

9:57

he's like, yeah, I will consider that he sits down,

9:59

and then he got back up a couple questions

10:01

later. He's like, I just deleted all

10:03

those links. And he's like he's

10:04

like, I cannot tell you. Hufering.

10:07

Hufering it was. He's like, this weight was

10:09

instantly lifted off my shoulders. Yes.

10:11

And what you're talking about is That

10:14

was

10:14

clutter. He had -- Yeah. -- bookmarked clutter. It was

10:16

getting in the way, not physically, but

10:18

mentally. Mhmm. And that's the other

10:20

place in which all of these books get in the way.

10:22

Yeah. Physically, I can throw out my

10:24

back or it's just taking up too much space.

10:26

It doesn't look great. Mhmm.

10:28

And it's also, though,

10:31

creating all in this mental clutter, the emotional clutter,

10:33

the psychological clutter, and also

10:35

the burden, we start worrying

10:38

like, oh, I'm not reading enough.

10:41

Ironically, when I got rid of those two thousand

10:43

books -- Mhmm. -- I began reading

10:45

more -- Yeah. --

10:46

because the clutter wasn't in

10:48

the way preventing me from

10:50

reading. Yeah. Mhmm. It is crazy how the

10:52

literal clutter of those links prevented him

10:54

from ever going to that folder in

10:56

reading the links to start over with a fresh start, like,

10:58

yeah, I could see where that would be -- Yeah. -- more

11:00

encouraging to read. That's so good.

11:02

Yeah. This question makes me think of a moment in

11:04

the office where Michael Scott says

11:06

to the character Toby, who he hates

11:08

so much, why are you the

11:10

way you are? This

11:13

question is a variation of that. Right? Why

11:15

are you the way you are? And

11:17

the first thing I wanna say is anytime you

11:19

can take another person's

11:21

philosophy or practice,

11:23

and mock it, make it look completely

11:25

stupid and say, how could

11:27

anybody possibly believe that or

11:29

do that? It only proves

11:31

that you don't really understand

11:33

the philosophy or practice.

11:36

Sometimes we say things like, I will never understand people

11:38

who say this. I never understand people

11:40

who do that. And we put that out there

11:42

as if it's a signal of nobility or

11:44

virtue. When reality, it's a weakness, not

11:46

a strength. We should always

11:48

strive for more clarity and more

11:50

understanding even about those

11:52

things with which we disagree. Hey,

11:54

I don't endorse what they do. I don't agree with

11:56

what they do, but I totally get

11:59

it. I can understand why a person would

12:01

be triggered to do that. I can understand why a

12:03

person would be incentivized to do

12:05

that. Because that understanding puts

12:07

you in a position where you can be

12:09

empathetic, not for the sake of saying

12:11

you're empathetic, but that

12:13

empathy gives you influence. Because it allows you

12:15

to speak to people, not from

12:17

a higher up place of being on the pole pit,

12:19

loarding over them, but speak to them as

12:21

an ally, as a person that's truly

12:23

supportive of their success. The next thing I'll

12:25

say is that when it comes to books or

12:27

anything else, letting go isn't just about

12:29

the stuff that we need to sell. It's

12:31

also about the stories we

12:33

tell. Anytime you let go

12:35

of anything, it can be a person, it can be a

12:37

possession, it can be a place, anytime you

12:39

say goodbye, you're also choosing

12:42

to completely walk

12:44

away from those aspects of your life

12:46

that were oriented around whoever

12:48

or whatever you're saying goodbye to, and that

12:50

means you gotta learn how to tell a

12:52

different story. And so it's

12:54

important to be gracious to people who are

12:56

grieving a lot or struggling to say goodbye to

12:58

something. Even if you look at it and say, well,

13:00

that relationship's toxic

13:02

anyway or that book isn't even

13:04

that important. Because there's a story

13:06

behind what they're trying

13:08

to let go of. And that

13:10

story is holding their lives together in

13:12

some kind of way. And if you can

13:14

engage that story with curiosity, you

13:16

can help them evolve that story.

13:18

But you can't help someone evolve a

13:20

story that you yourself don't

13:22

understand. So instead of saying, hey,

13:24

why won't you let that thing go? You

13:26

can say, why is it here in the

13:29

first place? Why did that thing ever

13:31

matter to you? And what is it

13:33

holding together in your life? And once you

13:35

hear that story, you might surprise yourself

13:37

and say, oh, Don't throw that away.

13:39

Hang on to it. Because if that person

13:41

tells you, I got a thousand books because I'm

13:43

opening up a used bookshop, you wouldn't want them to

13:45

get rid of it. You say, hold on to it. That's

13:47

value capital. Right? So that story

13:49

might make you say hang on to it or the story

13:51

might make you say, yeah. I

13:53

still think you need to let it go,

13:55

but now I understand how

13:58

to help you do that in a

14:00

way that's conducive to the role that

14:02

it's played in your life. You can

14:04

only help a person tell a

14:06

new empowering story when

14:08

you stop condemning them

14:10

forever having the old one in the

14:12

first

14:12

place. What I'm hearing

14:14

here has a lot to do with

14:16

letting go. If it's getting in the

14:18

way, let it go. If you have a

14:20

book or a collection

14:22

of books, that are getting in the way.

14:24

It's okay to let them

14:26

go. If you have a living

14:28

room full of excess stuff,

14:31

a closet with too many t

14:33

shirts or pairs of pants or

14:35

shoes, it's okay to

14:37

let it go. If you have

14:39

toxic relationships in your life that

14:41

are getting in the way of your peace, your

14:43

contentment, your happiness, it's

14:45

okay to let it

14:47

go. All of these things are

14:49

clutter. And what we wanna

14:51

do is not completely eliminate all

14:53

the clutter from our lives, but understand

14:55

what is clutter. And

14:57

we can begin to let it go

15:00

one by one by one. The reason I say

15:02

you'll never eliminate all of it is from

15:04

time to time something that serves

15:06

you today will stop serving you

15:08

tomorrow, so it's not clutter

15:10

today. But the thing that is

15:12

serving you today might be clutter

15:14

tomorrow. So we have to keep questioning.

15:16

We have to figure out what that story

15:18

is because the story we told

15:20

ourselves before about the thing

15:22

isn't necessarily the true

15:24

story. Today. And

15:27

therefore, it's okay, to let

15:29

go. We have a question from

15:31

Instagram, Steven has something for

15:32

us. I have been an aspiring writer for

15:34

some time, and your fifteen ways to write

15:36

better ebook and how to write better YouTube

15:39

channel have given me the final push to

15:41

actually get started. After

15:43

accumulating a bunch of ideas on a notebook,

15:45

I'm finally turning them into a

15:47

book. Once the book is done and I'm happy

15:49

with it, how do I go about getting

15:51

it published? First

15:52

off, Steven, congratulations on

15:55

finally getting up the courage to

15:57

sit in the chair. To

16:00

do the writing itself, you're no

16:02

longer an aspiring writer, you're

16:04

actually writing. Folks

16:06

who are listening to this, if you wanna check out free

16:08

ebook. It's called fifteen ways to

16:10

write better. That's the one he's talking about. It's

16:12

just how to write better dot or you can download

16:14

it for free. And then the

16:16

YouTube channel he's talking about is

16:18

youtube dot com slash hell to write better. I do

16:20

some pre lessons over there.

16:22

I also teach you a four week writing

16:24

class And in there the

16:26

fourth week, we talk about publishing,

16:28

but let's just say this, don't get ahead of

16:30

yourself. Now, I know the reason you're asking this question

16:32

is because you're looking toward the horizon,

16:35

and we often want to have

16:37

the perfect life,

16:39

the perfect book, the

16:42

perfect publication, and you're

16:44

so worried about the outcome

16:46

that you forget about the process.

16:49

Mhmm. I will tell you this, Steven. The most

16:51

joyous part of writing

16:53

a book is not publishing the book. Mhmm.

16:55

In fact, there's a whole lot that goes

16:57

into publishing the book

16:59

where That's the business, the

17:01

administrative side, the formatting,

17:04

the alpha readers, the beta

17:06

readers, going through the editing process,

17:08

and cover design. All those things can

17:10

be fun and joyous and exciting, but

17:13

the most joyous part

17:16

of writing. Sitting down in that

17:18

chair and focusing and

17:20

losing sight of the rest of the

17:22

world because that story

17:24

begins to come alive on

17:26

the page or that blog post becomes alive

17:28

on the page. You could sit down with Teekay

17:30

does with his tweet storms.

17:33

There It's not just

17:35

poetic and beautiful. It's

17:38

communicative and expressive, but

17:40

also what you do t k is I

17:42

can tell how focused you are on

17:44

something. This is a writing exercise

17:46

for you that you use Twitter

17:49

to express yourself.

17:52

And it's just another medium. I don't

17:54

care where and by the way,

17:56

that's publishing. What what is

17:58

publishing? Mhmm. And in fact, even on Twitter, there's little button

18:00

that says publish. Right? Yeah. And so the

18:02

same with the blog. Whenever we post

18:04

a blog post, it says publish.

18:06

Mhmm. Now we think about publishing, it's

18:08

how do I find a traditional publisher? Mhmm.

18:11

Mhmm. And then how do I go through the

18:13

nine months of all the

18:15

rigmarole of once my book is

18:17

handed in, I get it.

18:19

That's what a lot of people want.

18:21

But as an author, this

18:23

is a great term, our friend Colin Wright

18:26

coined He's a arthur manure.

18:28

Mhmm. I like that. Mhmm. I

18:30

like that. Because, yes, it is

18:32

important for you to promote

18:34

your book to get it out there. You write to

18:36

be read. There's no question

18:38

about that. Otherwise, you just be

18:40

keeping a journal. is

18:42

fine too. Yeah. But that's not what we're

18:44

talking about here. What we're talking

18:46

about is writing for publication. But

18:48

there's so many different ways

18:50

to be read now that

18:53

doesn't involve going the traditional

18:55

route. In fact, Brian and I have four

18:57

books together. I also wrote

18:59

a novel. And those

19:01

four books, three of them

19:03

are independently published. Mhmm. And

19:05

there's a difference between self published and

19:08

independently published. We started our own publishing

19:10

company back in twenty twelve with Colin Wright,

19:12

Mason Metrcorpress. We published books

19:14

for nine different authors. Was a

19:16

beautiful experiment. We don't still publish

19:18

books for other authors, but we learned a

19:20

lot about that. In fact, we wrote an entire

19:22

six part series called How to publish

19:24

an indie book. And the way I look at it is sort

19:26

of like a a garage band

19:28

versus an indie rock band. Self

19:30

publishing is like, fine. It's just

19:32

a it's a garage band. You're in there

19:34

with your friends and you're just

19:36

jamming. Right? Mhmm. Indi

19:38

publishing is doing all the same stuff that

19:40

a major publisher would do. quality

19:43

control, the distribution, all of those

19:45

things. But doing it on an

19:47

independent level, doing it on

19:49

your own. And it's incredibly rewarding.

19:51

And gone through traditional publishers for all of our

19:54

foreign books, obviously, but also for our last

19:56

book. A lot of people use things. And what I

19:58

learned from that process, even I really

20:00

enjoyed the book, I don't like being

20:02

beholden to major publishers. Yeah.

20:04

And I I don't see a world in which I

20:06

continue to do that. I much

20:09

rather go the independent

20:11

route and retain ownership,

20:13

control, and the flexibility

20:15

of doing it on my own.

20:18

Yeah. Yeah. By the way, I'll put a link to that

20:20

series, how to publish an indie book in

20:22

the show notes. You can find the show notes at

20:24

Minimalists dot com slash

20:26

podcast if you're interested in reading

20:28

about the entire soup to nuts process.

20:30

Yeah. You know, and if you

20:32

do go a traditional publishing route,

20:35

it's important to keep in mind that that

20:37

publishers look for evidence of momentum.

20:39

Mhmm. Sometimes when we're in the middle of the

20:41

creative process, we want to wait

20:43

until we have something really

20:45

beautiful and then we can show it with the world because

20:47

the last thing we want is for people to see the

20:49

messiness of our creative process.

20:52

But it can be very helpful

20:54

to adopt some form of

20:56

working out loud so that you are

20:58

teasing it out and letting the

21:00

audience know. Something good is

21:02

coming. Something cool is coming so that

21:04

by the time you drop it, people have

21:06

been prepared for it. And when publishers

21:08

evaluate your book, they can look you up and they

21:10

can say, oh, here's someone

21:12

who has some momentum. They're already doing

21:14

cool stuff, saying cool things. We're

21:16

not gonna be the only ones doing the

21:18

work of marketing this. They already have

21:20

an audience. They already have a habit of putting

21:22

themselves in their work out there.

21:24

Lastly, I think of the words of Zig Zagler

21:26

who said sales is a transference

21:29

of filling. Anytime you're promoting

21:31

something, the way you feel

21:33

about it is going to affect the attitude

21:35

of the people you're promoting it to, more than

21:37

anything else. So one of the best things you can do to get

21:39

that work published is to

21:41

actually write something that you feel

21:43

passionate about. Everyone says to

21:45

the point of it being a meme, I hate

21:47

sales. What that really means

21:49

is I hate pushing products

21:51

on people that they don't want and that I

21:53

don't believe in. I hate feeling like I'm

21:55

twisting other people's arms to get them

21:57

to buy something that I and they know

21:59

they don't actually need. But when

22:01

it comes to recommending things that we

22:03

believe in, everybody turns

22:05

into a salesperson then, you see a

22:07

movie that blows your mind, you read book that's

22:09

amazing. You eat a milk that's delicious.

22:11

What do you do? You grab your friend by the arm and

22:13

you say, yo, you gotta you gotta

22:15

check out this place. You gotta read this book.

22:17

You gotta watch that movie. And

22:19

that feeling transfers. And so if you

22:21

want to sell well, don't

22:23

focus on the money. Don't focus on the

22:25

I need people to read my book so I can pay my

22:27

bills. Mhmm. Write something that makes you

22:29

feel like, I can't wait

22:31

for the world to read this. Oh,

22:33

man, I'm so excited. Everybody needs to read this

22:35

even if I gotta give out a few copies because

22:37

that feeling will ultimately transfer.

22:39

And you'll be like that teacher in school who

22:41

even though they teach a boring subject

22:43

makes everybody pay attention because they're fired

22:45

up about

22:46

it. That's the the world. Yeah. I mean,

22:48

yeah, I love what you're saying because

22:51

I think we're all selling something.

22:53

The question is is, what are you selling? And do

22:55

you believe in it? I remember our first book

22:58

tour stop in Orlando. We were

23:00

with a bunch of couchsurfingers.

23:02

And what an awesome group

23:04

it was. And someone asked

23:06

a question and and we were torn with minimalism

23:09

of a meaningful life. And he asked the question. And I was like, you

23:11

know what? I was like, I'm gonna give you, like, a high level. I'm

23:13

like, and I'm like, and

23:15

I'm like, but, you know, in our book, like, we we

23:17

literally write exactly about what you're

23:19

talking about you know, much more in-depth. You

23:21

might find value in that book. And he's like, why

23:23

are you so trepidation is to sell your own book,

23:25

man? And I'm like, I just don't want you to feel

23:27

like I'm pushing something on you. He's

23:29

like, but if you believe in it, like, it's okay to

23:31

to be excited about something that you

23:33

truly believe in. And it shifted

23:35

my whole context. Like, I

23:37

mean, just that first tour stop.

23:39

Thank God. Because we've been on a

23:41

million tour stops since then. That's

23:43

right. But, yeah, it's all about, like, yeah, what what are you

23:44

selling? Because we're all selling something.

23:47

For sure. And how how do feel about

23:49

that thing that you're creating? If you

23:51

just wish you washy, it's why I don't have a problem

23:53

talking about our books

23:56

on this podcast. And

23:57

the reason I don't have a problem

24:00

with it is because these are books

24:02

that I believe in that -- Yeah. -- we put

24:04

our blood sweat and tears and

24:07

oftentimes spent a year plus on

24:09

a book with a lot of people use

24:10

things. It was over two years

24:12

writing that book. And so

24:14

I feel great about the book. And,

24:16

yes, I write to be read. It

24:18

doesn't mean that I think you should read

24:20

the book. But if

24:23

this topic interest you,

24:25

that's exactly why I wrote this

24:28

because if I could simply like, Ryan,

24:30

if I could answer the

24:32

question in one paragraph,

24:34

then I wouldn't write the book. You write

24:36

a book because you have something more

24:38

to say. Yeah. And I think

24:40

that's key for Steven, anyone else

24:42

is considering writing is

24:45

sometimes it doesn't require a book. Sometimes

24:47

a blog post is sufficient. In fact,

24:50

it's better as a blog post. I've

24:52

seen this quite often where someone writes

24:54

this viral article for The

24:56

Atlantic or The New Yorker, and it's

24:58

awesome. And then they get some great publishing deal to

25:00

expand that into a book. And it's

25:02

like, oh, no. You sort of lost the

25:04

essence of the thing. Because it's

25:06

no longer that thing that really resonated

25:08

with people. And so

25:10

sometimes a tweet will do.

25:13

Sometimes it takes an

25:15

entire book length project. You can't do

25:17

Infinite Jess in a tweet. It's a

25:19

million words. Mhmm. I can tell you my

25:21

favorite line from Infinite Jess.

25:23

It's everything I've ever let go of has call

25:25

marks on it. Yeah.

25:27

Yeah. That's a good one.

25:29

Ryan, what time

25:31

is it? Oh, you know what time? And is

25:34

this time for the Landing Round where we answer

25:36

your questions from TikTok? Yes.

25:38

Indeed. You can follow us on TikTok. Also,

25:40

Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at

25:42

the minimalists

25:43

during the lightning rounds for Ryan and TK

25:46

and I do our best to answer question of the short,

25:48

shareable, less than a hundred and forty

25:50

character response We put the text to

25:52

these minimal maximums in the show notes

25:54

over at the minimalist dot com

25:56

slash podcast, so you can copy

25:58

and share our pithy answers on

26:00

social media if you'd like. And now you

26:02

can find all of our minimal maxims in one

26:04

place as well, minimal maxims

26:06

dot com. Looks like

26:08

Tatiana has a question from TikTok.

26:10

When you talk about developing habits for writing,

26:12

are these methods specifically for writing

26:14

books or writing in general?

26:18

Well, I'm gonna put

26:21

some time on the clock. We got sixty

26:23

seconds here. Maybe we

26:25

start with CK

26:28

Coleman. What what Kitty

26:30

Latimore lyrics are you gonna

26:33

today. Wanna be

26:35

a good writer. Listen to Brian

26:37

McKnight and read the lyrics.

26:40

My writing comes from voice a minute.

26:43

Let's see

26:46

here. Okay. That

26:49

writing is the initiation ritual

26:51

into good writing. Mhmm. When it comes to

26:53

writing, the question isn't, do you wanna be

26:55

good or are you already good? The

26:57

question is, Are you willing to be bad? Long

26:59

enough to become good.

27:01

I forget who the writer was, who said it, but he

27:03

sent something to the effect. It was it

27:05

was actually whatever the writer's name is the

27:07

one who wrote Tarzan -- Mhmm. --

27:09

and also the princess of

27:11

Mars. But he says that that every

27:13

writer has thousands of words of

27:15

bad pro's and their soul in

27:17

writing is the process of purifying

27:19

your soul of all the bad pro's that

27:21

you have. And so

27:23

whether you're writing in general or writing

27:25

a book, ultimately, writing

27:27

begins with a confrontation

27:30

with the truth of who we are and a

27:32

willingness to allow the world to see

27:34

us for who we are in that

27:36

vulnerability, in that honesty, before

27:38

we become beautiful. That's how you get beautiful. It's

27:40

like being physically fit, unless you're willing to

27:42

look out of shape, you don't actually get

27:45

into shape. Right in time, c

27:47

k Coleman. Yeah. Yeah. Brian

27:49

Nickademas, you got sixty seconds. What do you

27:51

got for us? Oh, man. My pithy

27:53

answer is this. A pleasant

27:56

life is composed of

27:58

unpleasant habits. So it doesn't matter if

28:00

you're writing, it doesn't matter if you're

28:02

playing guitar, you are going to have to

28:04

put in the work to be an

28:06

expert at whatever it is that you're trying

28:08

to do. Mhmm. So with your

28:10

writing class, Josh. Yes. It's about

28:12

writing fiction. It's about writing non fiction.

28:14

It's about writing emails. It's about

28:16

writing, you know, social media posts,

28:18

whatever it is. If

28:20

you wanna be good at something, you've gotta put on the

28:22

work. And here's the thing about a purpose.

28:24

We're all looking to to have

28:26

a purpose. Mhmm. Where's

28:28

my purpose? TK, where's my purpose? I need to

28:30

have a purpose as if we wanna, like,

28:32

possess a purpose -- Mhmm. -- and you cannot

28:34

possess a purpose. You can

28:36

serve a purpose. But there is no ownership with

28:38

the purpose. But here's the thing. When

28:40

you serve a purpose and

28:42

you serve it well, that purpose

28:44

will have you. And all those unpleasant

28:46

things that are a little bit

28:48

unpleasant makes them just a little bit more pleasant

28:50

when it's driven by the purpose you're

28:52

serving.

28:52

Come on, baby. That was a half quick

28:54

shot at the buzzer. TikTok that

28:57

Danny unknown. What I love about what you're

28:59

both saying here before you put sixty seconds

29:01

on the clock for me, you're both touching

29:03

on something that I think

29:05

is is crucial here. We

29:07

often want to possess something.

29:09

Mhmm. But when writing becomes another

29:12

possession. Mhmm. Yeah.

29:14

Well then it be can become clutter.

29:16

When you have to do

29:18

it, That's what we're talking about

29:20

here. You get to do it. However, what

29:22

Ryan is illuminating, there will

29:24

be resistance. I don't feel

29:26

like sitting down in the chair do the

29:29

writing because there are all these other things that

29:31

are easier to do. I have all these other

29:33

excuses. I used to have a

29:35

checklist of fifteen different things I had to do before I

29:37

started writing. I have to fold the laundry. I have to

29:39

make sure the dishes are washed. And

29:42

then all of these things. Of course, I'd do thirteen

29:44

or fourteen of them, but there was

29:46

always something else to do so I

29:48

never actually wrote How

29:51

did I start writing? I decluttered

29:53

the checklist. I decluttered

29:55

the to dos. You can

29:58

make only you can make only one thing priority.

30:01

Right? And so writing became the

30:03

priority. The first thing I do when I get

30:05

up is I write. I

30:07

don't have to worry about anything else. I have no other

30:09

rules. The first rule is to wake up.

30:11

The second rule is to write, and that is it.

30:13

It is that simple.

30:15

Give me sixty seconds I got something fifty for you.

30:18

A habit is a byproduct

30:21

of doing something compelling.

30:24

And so if you hate writing, I wouldn't

30:26

suggest sitting down every day to do

30:28

the writing. However, if you feel the

30:31

resistance because you know it's going

30:33

to be a little bit more difficult than

30:35

folding the laundry. Say

30:37

yes. That resistance is

30:39

actually a beacon. It shows

30:41

you the direction. In which

30:43

if you find writing compelling,

30:45

then you're also going to be

30:47

resistant to it. Anything that

30:50

is worthwhile you are experience

30:52

a little bit of resistance.

30:54

It's almost like your body is saying, no, no,

30:56

no, no, there's something easier

30:59

out here. Well, simple ain't

31:01

easy, but it is simple to get up every

31:03

day, to sit in that chair for one

31:05

hour, put the words on

31:07

the page, stare at that

31:09

blinking line and

31:11

do the actual writing. I don't care about

31:13

you being a writer. I just wanna

31:15

see you writing. Yeah,

31:17

baby. My man. Yeah. Simple. Ain't

31:20

he's No. No. It ain't. No. It

31:22

ain't. You know what you're talking about? Makes me

31:24

think about our really good friend, Matt

31:26

Diavella, who directed both of our

31:28

documentaries. Remember he

31:31

because he wanted to talk about

31:34

his version of minimalism and talk about his

31:36

story. And remember, like, he started the

31:38

blog. Yep. And he was, like, you

31:40

know, just typing away, typing away,

31:42

posting away. And he got to a point where he

31:44

was like, I don't thoroughly

31:46

enjoy this. Like, this isn't my medium. This

31:48

isn't my medium. And and we're like,

31:50

no, dude. Like, you're film guy. Like, that's

31:52

your media. So that's where, you know,

31:54

he started his YouTube channel and stuff, and that

31:56

was so compelling. To

31:58

do the video aspect that he couldn't not

32:01

do it. Right. And now

32:03

he is way more popular than

32:05

us. Congratulations

32:07

to Matthew Bella. Let's check it with

32:09

our Patreon livestream in a moment, but

32:11

first real quick for right here right

32:14

now. Here's one thing that's going on in the life of the minimalist since

32:16

we're talking so much about writing today.

32:18

Just real quick, my four

32:20

week online writing class is called How

32:22

to Write Better. I only open it two

32:24

or three times a year, forty eight hours

32:27

only, one hundred students only.

32:29

It opens up February seventeenth.

32:31

So mark your calendars If head on

32:33

over to how to write better dot org, put your email

32:35

address in there. We'll notify you

32:37

when the course opens. You can be one of the

32:39

one hundred people sign up for

32:41

that. It's only open forty eight hours and you can interact

32:43

with the other students and it's an interactive

32:46

class four weeks

32:48

and we will show you how to build the writing habit, how

32:50

to write, how to rewrite. There's

32:52

a whole week on editing, and there's

32:54

a whole week on publishing as

32:57

well. How to write better dot org

32:59

for more details. Let's check-in with

33:01

the Patreon livestream,

33:02

Alabama. What do you got for us? We've got a

33:04

question here from Amy. She says clean

33:07

to books is a very timely topic. I made a first pass

33:09

at my bookshelf over the weekend.

33:11

I know I have more to release, but I'm

33:13

not sure where to go with

33:15

them. Calling the local library is on my

33:17

to do

33:17

list, but what other ways can I intentionally

33:20

give away my books? I'd

33:22

say how I do it typically is I

33:24

will go to those free local

33:26

libraries, the neighborhood

33:27

libraries. Yeah. Mhmm. The little

33:28

libraries. Yes. Adorathos. The little

33:31

libraries. Yeah. Remember when our last book came

33:33

out, Ryan? Love people use things. did

33:35

these little libraries, I think, in two

33:37

hundred cities across

33:40

across America. Yeah. And we even autograph

33:42

some books and went and put it

33:43

in, like, people did a scavenger hunt to try

33:45

to find advanced copies of Love

33:47

People used things.

33:48

Yeah. It was fun. I love

33:50

the little neighborhood, little

33:53

libraries, and there are websites. In fact,

33:55

I don't remember off top my head, but we'll

33:57

have podcast Sean put a

33:59

link to there's a a website that shows you where the

34:01

closest little library is to

34:03

your home. So they're just these like

34:05

giant mailbox looking things.

34:07

Mhmm. They usually have a

34:09

see through window and and there are a bunch of books in but quite often they get

34:11

depleted really quickly. And so you

34:13

can donate your books

34:15

to your neighborhood So

34:18

your community can now get value from those books. I picked one

34:21

up the other day from maybe about two weeks

34:23

ago. It was a Kafka book.

34:26

The metamorphosis. And I was like, I

34:28

haven't read Kafka since, like, my mid

34:30

twenties. And I was able to dive back in.

34:32

I was just walking by it, and I

34:35

saw it a cop my eye

34:37

and there it was. And so you can declutter

34:39

but also add value to other

34:41

people's lives, whether it's donating

34:43

to the library, selling

34:46

books to your local bookstore. It's another place that I

34:48

do. Local bookstore up in

34:49

Ohio. Yeah. They have

34:51

they allow you to sell your books

34:53

to them. Now You don't get a

34:55

whole lot, but I saw a bunch of books enough to buy one used book

34:58

from

34:58

them. And I'm not spending any money.

35:01

Yeah. What what did

35:02

we do when we were up there? We have, like, a first line

35:04

battle. Like, a random book. It's

35:06

one of my favorite things to do. I've got

35:08

a bookstore with friends and we'll

35:11

just grab a book off the shelf and we we

35:13

read the first line. It and some of

35:15

that teaching the writing class called

35:18

narrative urgency. Does this first line make me want to read the second line? Mhmm.

35:20

And if so, that's a great first line. But a

35:22

lot of first lines are like, oh, in fact, we did

35:24

a video. Put a link to this in the

35:26

show notes. Bill

35:28

Clinton's boring from the

35:30

guy. Yeah. And it it came from that

35:32

that trip up to the bookstore up in

35:34

Ohio. It did. You remember

35:36

the line? That's so boring, but I I remember the line. I remember

35:38

how I would have rewritten it. Mhmm. And so

35:40

-- Yeah. -- he talks about in

35:42

nineteen forty four, I was born in

35:44

a beige of

35:46

the just like, it's all

35:48

communication, no expression. Mhmm. He taught

35:50

but he was born in Hope

35:53

Arkansas. Think about this. Here's a great

35:55

first line for for

35:58

Brooklyn. It's on whatever

36:00

the date was. On December fourteenth

36:02

nineteen forty four, I was born

36:04

on the outskirts of

36:05

Hope. Yes. Dude,

36:08

a beseech law That's oh, yeah. Then

36:10

here's the thing, though. No no

36:13

serious stinker or writer ever dreams

36:15

of sounding like someone who's

36:17

running for office. Because when you're

36:19

running for office, you neutralize yourself and be as universally

36:22

appealing and offensive as possible. I'm

36:24

not arbitrarily hating this isn't the

36:26

anti government

36:28

No. We No. You gotta always

36:30

appear polished and you you can't admit what kind

36:32

of music you really like. You gotta hide

36:34

behind classical and jazz because

36:37

It has the least amount of obviously offensive con you

36:39

know, content. Nobody's gonna be like, you know,

36:42

my favorite music artist is, you know,

36:44

m and m or not. And if they're running for office,

36:46

even if they really believe that. And so

36:48

this goes back to you gotta bring your

36:50

personality to it and not just follow prescriptions. You

36:52

hear it in public speeches all the time. I mean, how

36:54

many public speeches have you heard where

36:56

it's like, We live in a society.

36:58

You know, in the year nineteen fifty

37:00

five. It's like, come on, give

37:02

me you. Give you something

37:04

that could possibly be wrong. Yes. You

37:06

know? No. That's a

37:07

good observation. Like, you gotta be more

37:09

vanilla when you're Yeah. Running for

37:12

office. And it translates to the

37:14

book, but it doesn't make the book compelling. And

37:16

if you start the book with, I was

37:18

born on the outskirts of Hope, Yeah.

37:20

I want to read the next

37:22

line. Mhmm. And I I think that's

37:24

what compelling writing does. It propels you

37:27

to the line. The second line propels you to the third,

37:29

so forth, and so on. We'll get back to the

37:31

Patreon live stream here in a little bit. But

37:33

first, Malabam, what do you got for us?

37:35

Here's a

37:35

insight from one of our

37:38

listeners.

37:39

Hi, so a minimalist. I just

37:42

wanted to leave this tip because it

37:44

has been a

37:46

recent shift in my way of

37:48

thinking on the podcast when I

37:50

used to hear people or even Josh and

37:52

Ryan discussing,

37:54

like, consuming, consciously, and thinking about the companies

37:56

where they purchase things, I felt

37:58

like that was too much work to

38:00

do the research behind companies. And

38:04

recently, I've kind of realized that my

38:07

power and a way

38:09

comes from the things that I'm

38:11

spending my money on.

38:14

In our current society. And so

38:16

it actually seems like a very

38:18

small price to pay to

38:20

do the research and purchase

38:23

products from places that care about the

38:26

environment and that treat their

38:28

employees well.

38:30

Because I suppose the alternative is

38:33

spending money on goods.

38:38

And places that maybe don't care about their

38:40

employees and don't treat the environment

38:42

well. And then if I am purchasing

38:44

from them, then in a way I am

38:48

supporting those behaviors, which

38:50

don't align with my

38:53

values. Alright, Kjell. That

38:56

is our minimal episode

38:58

for today. We'll see you on Patreon for the full

39:00

two and a half hour

39:02

maximal edition of episode three seventy five, which includes four

39:04

times as many questions from our

39:06

listeners, a private, minimalist home

39:08

tour, our absolute

39:10

objects segment. Of course, t

39:12

k's tweet of the week. Got

39:14

an outstanding added value segment for

39:16

you as well. As well as an

39:18

argument with one of our listeners.

39:20

Teekay sets him straight.

39:22

Don't worry. Unless

39:24

you get access to all of our archives there on Patreon, all

39:27

the way back to episode 001

39:30

and much much more of

39:33

less. And if you wanna hear all that, patreon

39:35

dot com slash the minimalist.

39:37

That's where you find the minimalist

39:39

private podcast. Subscribe. You'll get

39:42

your personal link So our private

39:44

podcast plays in your favorite

39:46

podcast app. Alright,

39:48

Kjell. Give me here today with just one message.

39:50

Let it be this love people

39:52

and use things because

39:55

the opposite never works. Thanks

39:57

for listening. Yo. Peace.

40:04

Every little thing, you

40:06

think that you need Every little

40:09

thing you think that

40:11

you need. Every

40:14

little thing that's just

40:16

feeding your greed. Oh, I

40:18

bet that you'd

40:20

be fine.