Top all-time · #3238
Becoming Minimalist
Personal blog · becomingminimalist.comproductivityculture
Becoming Minimalist is a personal blog at becomingminimalist.com about productivity and culture. Since 2010, 24 different Hacker News readers have linked it 26 times, most often “The Man Who Quit Money: An Interview with Daniel Suelo”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers mostly link this blog for its 'recognizing happiness' fisherman parable, which commenters cite as an illustration in several threads, and for its minimalism explainer.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Own less. Live more.
Most-linked posts?
- /recognizing-happiness/5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2017-12-25
- The Man Who Quit Money: An Interview with Daniel Suelo3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-02-08
What Hacker News says?
I'm an engineer living in the UK who likely _could_ move to the US and take a larger salary, but actively choose not to pursue that option. As I've said many times on this site, it's likely that after paying rent for an apartment in SF, health insurance, and all my living costs, my pay after that would be more than the gross pay of an engineer in most parts of the UK, I still decide not to move for a few reasons. Th…
Comment linking /recognizing-happiness/
on “Actual is going open-source”Submitted The Man Who Quit Money: An Interview with Daniel Suelo as a story · 34 points
HN discussionIt took about 3 seconds to check. Pop open the case the tapes came in and look at the plastic window and you can easily see both reels. If the tape was all on the left reel, it was rewound. Just about all rental places did this when you returned the tape. Audio cassette tapes were the same way. The VHS cassette was basically just a larger version of an audio cassette with wider and longer tape. Pic of rewound VHS: h…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2008/07/vhstape.jpg
on “Blockbuster Video VHS insert template”Submitted Becoming Minimalist: Enjoying Life in the Slow Lane as a story · 31 points
HN discussionThis reminds me of the story of the fisherman and businessman, https://www.becomingminimalist.com/recognizing-happiness/
Comment linking /recognizing-happiness/
on “Not raising funds to stay small and happy”Submitted Why Millennials Are Trending Toward Minimalism as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAs illustrated by this story (retold in countless ways): https://www.becomingminimalist.com/recognizing-happiness/
Comment linking /recognizing-happiness/
on “Taikyoku Shogi”Submitted The Underappreciation of Rest in Today’s Society as a story · 3 points
HN discussionYou might be interested in this 10 year old (well, ancient, but rebranded for millennials) trend called "minimalism": https://www.becomingminimalist.com/what-is-minimalism/ https://www.theminimalists.com/archives/ And relevant vloggers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrf_dMnatW0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVcwvCL2C2c https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCZ40QwZtFs_7h5MZ0ZTTwg and so on...
Comment linking /what-is-minimalism/
on “There Is Too Much Stuff”Submitted 8 Reasons Successful People Are Choosing to Wear the Same Thing Every Day as a story · 3 points
HN discussionhttps://www.becomingminimalist.com/recognizing-happiness/
Comment linking /recognizing-happiness/
on “India's artisanal fountain pens are making their mark”Submitted If You Are Looking for Reasons to Be Happy, You’ll Probably Find Them as a story · 2 points
HN discussion>I'm finding that the rewards in mental health are more than sufficient to justify the astronomical opportunity cost. The opportunity cost is that obiefernandez is not working to earn money? Or not studying to improve their income? Earning money to be able to spend it later on things like overseas travel. Reminiscent of Heinrich Böll's parable of the fisherman: https://www.becomingminimalist.com/recognizing-happines…
Comment linking /recognizing-happiness/
on “Being basic as a virtue”Submitted The Opportunity of Limited Curiosity as a story · 2 points
HN discussionFrom [1], we already allocate roughly $6k per person per year in the US, enough to fork over $25k/year to the poorest 20%. (This doesn't account for the potential savings of reduced crime (prisons are expensive!), improved health/nutrition, reduced administrative overhead of replacing all welfare systems with a single basic income, etc.) Also: not all value is neatly captured on a W-2 form. If turning my backyard in…
Comment linking /the-man-who-quit-money-an-interview-with-daniel-suelo/
on “The great reversal in the demand for skill and cognitive tasks (2013) [pdf]”Submitted 10 Unconventional Habits to Live Distraction-Less as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe original link instead of the brevity spam. http://www.becomingminimalist.com/diderot/
Comment linking /diderot/
on “The social phenomenon that can make you go bankrupt (Diderot effect)”Submitted The Man Who Quit Money: An Interview with Daniel Suelo as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 7 Life Misconceptions Portrayed in the Super Bowl Ads as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Our Rationale for Purchasing a Smaller Home as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Addressing minimalism’s misconceptions as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 7 Life-Changing Perspectives to Overcome Your Family’s Obsession with Stuff as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Simple Guide to Start Saving Money as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Owning Less Is Great. Wanting Less Is Better as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Thoughtful Guide to Gaining Self-Confidence as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Minimalist Connoisseurs as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
