Design, Literature, Lifestyle: How Less Can Be More
Cut to your essential, even if not to the level of minimalism
I’m hardly qualified to be giving advice on minimalism. After all, long, layered novels and songs energize me like Ms. Pac-Man devouring a power pellet. Marathons over sprints. Formula 1 over drag racing. My basic premise is that learning mines further beneath the surface with time, of course it does, though I’ve learned about the impact of “less is more” over the years.
In my first office-y job, I was the personal assistant—executive admin, whatever—to the guy who coined the slogans “I’m a Pepper, You’re a Pepper” and “Betcha Bite a Chip.” He self-published a string of self-help books and funded a few independent films that he wrote and directed, too. The man stressed brevity regardless of medium, with his advertising campaign copy as evidence, and the lesson has yielded nice returns in my two-plus decades of business writing and editing.
Much of society today is trapped inside the algorithm of convenience and quantity: short-form content. I have issues with the beginning and the ending of that phrase, but because I work with words for most of the day and manage multiple types of media, I need to stay ahead of the curve. So, while I continue to avoid crafting stories as a slew of one-sentence paragraphs, I’m aware that Shorts on YouTube, Reels on Instagram, and Notes on Substack drive subscriptions. It’s not headed back in the other direction anytime soon, either. To my chagrin.
My mother is Swedish. My wife is Swedish. We had Danish modern barstools at the kitchen island in the first home I lived in, but I’ve never lived in a place that was, from floor to ceiling, noted for any kind of minimalism. My reality has been closer to The Burrow than Patrick Bateman’s upscale apartment, the latter of which pushes the sometimes-cold feeling of Nordic design into an icier realm. Still, clean lines, neutral palettes, simplicity prioritized to erase noise in a calm, functional space, this is the essence of intentional living. It ties into hygge, a word from Denmark but a Scandinavian concept that speaks to comfort and coziness, in strengthening social bonds or just reading a book under a blanket on a winter night.
J.K. Rowling and Bret Easton Ellis are worlds away from Raymond Carver, whose influential short stories are often viewed as direct commentary toward the verbosity and postmodern complexity of the 1970s and ’80s. In a similar vein as punk music did, but different. He had touch with what’s not said. Emotional depth through restraint. Sparse language. And we can’t forget the tale of he and editor Gordon Lish: Stephen King reviewed a pair of Carver-related releases in the New York Times in 2009, adding his strong opinion to the debate of where the style credit lies. No surprise, like creatives not wanting to be labeled, Carver didn’t consider himself a minimalist, probably because the moral weight of his output is heavy.
Gabe Bult started his YouTube channel as a destination for personal finance hints and hacks such as how not to overspend or how to retire early. It was two years before the pandemic, great timing on his part, and the money aspect evolved into takes on lifestyle. The theme of streamlining your daily grind emerged and found a path to minimalism—my entry point to his philosophy, though my mindset leans into the practical more than extreme measures. Maybe it’s my age. I’ve become a fan of the one-in, one-out rule on many fronts. Decluttering intermittently or for 10 seconds on your way to the bathroom is sound advice. But I don’t wear black from head to toe, and my shirts tend to have band logos or album covers on them. Oh well.
Holistic connections between these three topics exceed their material aspects: attention, choice, meaning. That’s a holy trinity even if you’re simply looking to pare things down, not evolve into a minimalist. The stuff in your house or in your head can overwhelm like social media consumption, but the commitment to being proactive to change and “less is more” is, once you arrive, a wonder. It’s never easy.
Scandinavian design seeks harmony in the blending of aesthetics with environment. Did you know that Raymond Carver was also an accomplished poet, making him a short-form guru of the day? Gabe Bult and his casual, smart guidance on habits and possessions. All began at different times, but the combo package transmits a multidimensional understanding of minimalism, one that has the sparsity to accommodate your own thoughts and gut instinct. For your own balance.
What is essential? Tough question. With creativity or in life, you’ve got the steering wheel. When I’m presented with an unwieldy file at work and I reduce word count but retain the voice and the message, I’m happy. Addition by subtraction, that’s in Zen teachings or the minimalist handbook, right? Then again, it’s not that the article is long…it just shouldn’t read long.
There’s always a feel, especially in the whitespace.