You make a few reasonable decisions in a row, and one day you look up and you're just a person with stuff and a routine, same as everyone else.

The MacBook Air I sold in Berlin in 2012 was the moment minimalism broke. A new one just arrived. Starting over.

A digital evolutionist assists people in embracing new technological systems as they come into existence on the web.

I recently untethered from most of my hair. This is a brief Q/A about that.

These three things are important to me:

This blog post is important and contains timely information which may not be available at a later date — see below. You might want to read it from start to finish in one sitting. If you need to, save it for reading later

I believe that email is my sanctuary.

Sometimes a year of work can be reduced to a few bits of data.

Information is flowing faster.

Thom has a digital magazine on the future of business on the web at In Treehouses . His two latest stories passed through my filter and into my radar, on how the web is becoming more beautiful with the addition of filter

Blogging is in transition.

There’s been a lot of uncertainty in my life lately, which has made me think about the ways in which I’ve practiced in order to exist in a state of uncertainty without allowing situations to develop into negative situati

[Status Update:] Last week I made a brief mention that the minimalism movement was coming to a close (ahem, “ Fuck Minimalism “.) This caused a whole bunch of interesting reactions from all over the web –dozens of blog p

Boulder, CO. January 26th 2011.

“Minimalism was cool for awhile. Now, it’s simply the echo of a revolution that once was.” –> http://www.fuckminimalism.com

January 23rd 2011, Boulder CO. 7:44am, Trident Coffee.

January 21st 2011. Boulder, CO.

This is an excerpt from the work I’m doing on developing a second self on the Internet that will take care of you (what is a second self? See Amber Case’s Ted talk on cyborgs .)

Everyone who uses Twitter this way is more beautiful/successful and upgrading at an incredible rate:

Try explaining to someone who hasn’t used Twitter that we’re becoming a race of cyborgs, they’ll look at you like you just teleported in from Gallifrey.

January 8th 2011, Brooklyn NY, The School House.

January 4th, 7:04am. O’Hare International Airport

One of the most powerful things you can learn from yoga is the ability to trust feelings that come from your gut. This is the home of your sacral chakra, and the seat of intuition.

Lately I’ve been asking this question daily:

A few days ago (Dec 2010) I met up with one of the world’s wandering angels of destruction/creation in Berkeley for coffee on the street corner, and nighttime yoga in the park.

Throughout all of history, all mediums, all languages there is a common character that I associate with. I’m not sure what to call this character. The diver, the journeyman, the prophet. Frank the mysterious time traveli

This is the second part in a series on some metaphors that I’ve been playing with in my head for awhile. If you missed the first part, it was about the superhuman/drone divide , this article is about hunting zombies (and

When people meet me, they instantly observe that I have achieved an interesting social position within society — one that most people don’t have. I have no schedule, I am required to be nowhere, no one tells me to do any

This post is going to go viral, so if you’re here for the first time let me introduce myself to those of you who are new.

There’s a an old saying that goes something like this “the only way to be truly free is to have nothing at all.”

As many of you know, for the last few weeks (and the next few) I’ve been studying yoga intensively at Yoga to the People in San Francisco .

“Every time I try to create a home, it ends up being a prison. So I stopped trying. I got rid of all of my stuff. Now I live in coffee shops, in the streets, in bars… I come and go as I please. I stay when I want, I leav

“The hydrogen atoms in a human body completely refresh every seven years. As we age we are really a river of cosmically old atoms. The carbons in our bodies were produced in the dust of a star. The bulk of matter in our

It’s been a little over a year since I started writing on Far Beyond The Stars in October of 2009, and my blog has seen incredible growth. Since the CBS Evening News interview aired, I passed 7,000 subscribers, which is

This message is for all of the new readers out there. Over the last few weeks the number of people reading the work that I’m doing has expanded at an incredible rate, peaking recently with an interview that I did with Je

Over the last two months I’ve met a lot of incredibly amazing people who are living with mostly nothing.

When I walk into the world, I walk. I look around, I see the faces. Most of the faces are somewhere else.

One of the most common emails I get is from people who have difficult decisions to make.

I keep talking about saving the human race on this blog, and I realize that a certain number of you don’t really realize what that means.

Without a doubt, every single person I’ve met who has a command of the ability to make their own money is more charismatic.

A lot of people don’t know what’s going on, so I thought I might try and convey it to you.

“There are no strangers here: Only friends you haven’t yet met.” -William Butler Yeats

People keep on bringing up Infinite Jest when they talk about my work, which kind of scares me.

This is an important post, probably one of the most important that’s ever been written on this blog.

The hardest day in the world is the one when you realize that you’re a leader.

You can’t reach everyone in the world.

Tammy runs the super-popular small living blog Rowdy Kittens . She was recently featured in not just The New York Times, but also MSNBC.com, Yahoo Finance, and a bunch of other places. Why? Because she’s one of the pione

The American Dream was always a lie, it just took us awhile to figure that out.

[Note, before you read this: Far Beyond The Stars is written for digital nomads and vagabonding minimalists (see sidebar), not necessarily academics with huge libraries -- though they are welcome to read.

We all know that time is your most important asset.

We sometimes forget why we’re here, we aren’t looking where we’re going, or even where we’ve been.

Kevin Kelly believes that the human race is building the planet into one giant brain with our technology.

The Internet has fundamentally changed the way that we distribute media.

What is Minimalist Workday?

Long time readers of this blog, and anyone who’s picked up a copy of The Art of Being Minimalist know that I’ve had a storied relationship with the personal possessions that I own and acquire.

If you’ve been reading about minimalism for long, you know Joshua Becker and his family. Joshua started blogging about minimalism two years ago, and quietly gathered a large following on his blog Becoming Minimalist .

My girlfriend and I took a three-day mini-vacation last week, driving over to Lake Tahoe and down through Yosemite. We camped for two days on the banks of the Truckee river and enjoyed s’mores’ and wine by an open fire.

Here’s an exercise that’s super important to do every couple of months, at least once a year. Take a moment and imagine your ideal life.

This week (July 15th 2010) it will have been exactly one year since I quit my day job photo editing New York Magazine’s blogs, and started on an unexpected adventure in self-employment via minimalism.

“If money were no object for me I’d…”

Me, on a not-so-average day, sailing

A number of people emailed me after the last post to say that there was no way for them to stop checking their email 35 times a day. I hope this follow up blog post can help.

A few days ago I read Glen’s post on Viperchill about how he passed 10,000 subscribers by choosing what not to do with his business.

Editor’s note: I’ve been sitting on this article for a week or so because I was honestly afraid it would offend a good portion of the readers here. Tammy Strobel’s article on The Moral Imperative to Drive Less convinced

One of the biggest challenges of minimalism, especially when you apply it to the idea of creating a minimalist business, is avoiding the inevitable pull and pressures to scale up your life expenses with the rise of your

“Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner.” – Warren Buffett

A brief history of being minimalist.

This is the second part in the series leading up to the re-release of Minimalist Business on June 15th at 10am PST. The first part was on paying your fans to support you . Don’t miss out on release day, sign up for free

This is the first article in the series leading up to the re-release of Minimalist Business on June 15th. The second part will be on how I was able to make $2,300 in one day last month by supporting work that matters.

Karol Gajda is a globe-trotting minimalist rockstar –he even brings his hand-made guitar with them anywhere. He lives a simple life, has traveled through India, Thailand, and is currently in Poland. He’s dedicated to hel

Around two months ago, I made an announcement on Twitter that blew some people’s minds: I decided to live with less than 50 possessions .

It’s been a little over two weeks since Alix and I (and Lola the cat) moved to Oakland, CA. and one of the things that struck me recently was how good life is out here.

It’s Monday morning in Oakland, California, as I’m writing this. I’m sipping a cup of coffee, looking at the rolling hills behind Berkeley from a coffee shop in Rockridge. Clouds are rolling in from the Bay, it’s absolut

One of the biggest questions that has been swirling about since the release of Minimalist Business is very simple:

Ten years ago, if you were an artist or creator or any sort, you needed to one thing to get your work to a large enough audience to support yourself: suck up to a gatekeeper.

First of all, I just wanted to say thank you for everyone who came out to support the launch of Minimalist Business .

[UPDATE: The limited release of Minimalist Business is now over. I'll be relaunching the guide in a month or so, be sure to sign up for free updates via RSS or EMAIL so you don't miss out!]

I have a long standing tradition here at Far Beyond The Stars of doing my best to be as helpful as possible to the readers.

Moving doesn’t have to be difficult, unless you make it that way.

As I’m writing this, I’m flying high above Lake Michigan towards Chicago, where we’ll stop over for a few minutes before heading on to Denver and then Boulder, Colorado.

I’ve spoken before about the idea of creating a minimalist business — a zero-overhead location-independent business that practically runs itself.

I practice yoga regularly. On most days you’ll find me either on my mat at home, or at Yoga to the People — a donation-based yoga studio in Manhattan.

This entire post is based off of Leo Babauta’s “Society, Reimagined” on Mnmlist . You should read Leo’s post before this, or you’ll be a little lost.

Colin Wright is one of my favorite minimalists. He’s built a sustainable design studio with a 6-figure income, while moving to a new continent every 4 months. He blogs at Exile Lifestyle about lifestyle design, minimalis

Yesterday I took Yoga from a teacher who was simply reading the manual.

Our mind, body, and spirit are intimately connected.

There’s a reason zombie movies are so popular. They have an uncanny resemblance to modern reality.

There comes a point in every movement when you have to tell certain people they can’t come along for the ride.

There’s a decision that everyone has to make at a certain point in their lives. After toiling for years searching for the modern myth of job security, you wake up to the reality that is.

At some point at the end of last month we silently passed the 6-month mark since I began writing this blog. It’s time to celebrate!

This is the 3rd part in a now 4-part series on leaving your day job. The 1st was on preparing to leave your day job the 2nd was on how to make money online .

The inconvenient truth of entrepreneurship.

This is the second post in a series on quitting your day job in order to live and work from anywhere. The first post was on the challenge of preparing to quit your job .

Here’s a simple meditation:

This is the first of a three part series on using minimalism to leave your day job in order to live and work anywhere.

20 years ago it was incredibly difficult to create a reality that you could effect.

A few days ago I had a brief muscle spasm in my left arm. It stopped after a short while, but not before I remembered Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight . I’m having a stroke (I thought!)

Some people are content to live their lives in three places 95% of the time.

Adam Baker and his daughter Milligan

Over the last week the popularity of Far Beyond The Stars has skyrocketed (again). I don’t pay attention to stats often, but needless to say, they’ve gone way up. My traffic and subscriber count continues to double every

If you caught me a year ago and asked me whether I could have left my job, started a very small business, and would be earning enough passive income to live in New York City in only one year’s time, I would have told you

The idea that time is your most valuable commodity is not new, but it is often overlooked. I’ve done a lot of research on the importance of focusing your attention in the last year.

It occurred to me yesterday, as I was doing the laundry (slowly, without rush, because I didn’t have to be anywhere), why minimalism is becoming so popular:

One of the most common comments I receive on my work is very simple:

The last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind of activity. I’ve released an e-book, I’ve had the honor of being featured on a number of amazing blogs, such as my article on creative flow at Zen Habits recently.

Chris Guillebeau is one of the more remarkable people on earth. He’s risen to ‘overnight’ blogging fame , inked a book deal, visited over 125 countries, and he wants to teach you how to achieve world domination.

It’s been awhile since I counted how many objects I own, so I was surprised when I got everything out today.

I have a guest post up at Leo Babauta’s brilliant blog Zen Habits .

Every day more people decide to start publishing. More voices enter the web, all frantically crying out for attention.

One of the hardest battle any of us will fight is the battle for creativity. Countless books have no doubt been written about the war of making art, and many more will be written in the future.

This is the first part in a series of articles focusing on the key elements of being minimalist. At the end of the series I’ll be packaging the whole deal and releasing it as a free e-book.

It’s been a few days since the release of Google Buzz, but it’s already very clear that the way we interact with each other on the Internet has changed on a fundamental level.

Don’t miss anything! Sign up to receive free updates via RSS or Email .

The difference between high-impact and low-impact income.

In the modern age we think we have to constantly rush from this to that. We think we have to wake up and work every morning. We think we have to constantly respond to e-mails.

Around two million years ago, we humans evolved the absolutely stunning ability to see things that were going to happen in our heads.

[Update February 2: Thank you so much everyone. The free link is now closed.

As many of you know, I’m putting the final touches on my e-book The Art of Being Minimalist .

There is a moment when we decide we can’t handle one more trip to Target, when we can’t buy another McChicken nugget. This is the moment when we begin to accept the unconventional truth of being a minimalist.

We are faced with unlimited choices in modern society.

From an early age you’ve been indoctrinated into a society that values things above people.

Every once in awhile I interview an important person on the subject of being minimalist. A couple of prominent minimalists I’ve interviewed in the post: Leo Babauta on the liberation of being minimalist, and Colin Wright

In the modern age we’ve managed to find hundreds of thousands of ways to use as much time as possible.

Over the last couple of months I’ve received a number of comments and tweets from people who want to share their minimalist ambitions with their spouse or their entire family.

It’s incredibly hard to let go. I know so many people who have so much trouble with letting go that they have houses full of stuff they haven’t used in ten years. They’ve stayed in a job they don’t enjoy, just because. O

I asked many people over new years what they would like to do in ten years. I got a lot of ‘I don’t know…’ answers.

I’ve been writing exclusively about The Minimalist Workweek for the last couple of days. If you haven’t read these articles already, I definitely suggest that you do. On Monday I listed 21 ways to live a more minimalist

On the path to becoming a minimalist, it’s important not to overlook your desk drawers.

This is the first of a series of three articles on minimalist workplace philosophy. Check back on Wednesday for a guest post by David Damron of T he Minimalist Path .

Far Beyond The Stars is a series of stories about how to achieve freedom. That much needs to be clear. When I write these stories, the immediate product may be a clean kitchen counter or an uncluttered schedule; the ulti

Have you seen Leo Babauta’s new project, 6 Changes ?

I know how hard it can be to make the decision to give up material possessions.

Many people I meet have a story about someone they know who failed.

I recently spoke to a reader who was thoroughly overwhelmed with the idea of embracing minimalism. While he was well aware of the high level of clutter in his life, trying to wrap his head around how to solve the problem

One of the most important changes you can make in your life, to reclaim your time and get important things done, is to adopt Inbox Zero is a regular habit when dealing with your email.

Being minimalist is having the flexibility to do what you want, when you wish to do it.

My backpack

Why do I do this? Because a person’s kitchen sink is a fundamental judge of their character.

A few days ago I had a conversation with a friend who recently started a blog. She eventually wants to take her blog to a professional level, but was getting distracted by all of the bells and whistles that surround the

Every week on Far Beyond The Stars I interview an important person on Being Minimalist. Last week I interviewed the author and minimalist legend Leo Babauta . Do you want to be interviewed? Drop me a tweet .

Yoga is one of the most important things you can do for the balance of your body mind and soul. It’s also one of the most minimalist forms of stretching and exercise tools that exists.

I believe were all pursuing this minimalist life because somewhere, deep down below the surface, we know being minimalist is the only way we’re going to save the planet.

Every week on Far Beyond The Stars I interview an important person on the subject of being minimalist. Last week I spoke to Colin Wright about what you take with you when you work from anywhere . Next week I’ll be speaki

Mind-clutter is one of the biggest obstacles that I encounter daily on the path to my goals. I imagine you know what I’m talking about, the constant chatterbox that is our human brain.

Productivity is such a popular concept. Everyone is trying to streamline their lives so they can get more and more done during their 40-60 hour workweek.

There are a lot of reasons to be thankful for living a simple minimalist life. Here are the five that came to my mind just now.

Every Wednesday on Far Beyond The Stars I interview an important person on the subject of being minimalist.

Uh oh , it’s almost Black Friday.

I just read a story over at Get Rich Slowly about a frugal man who is trying to live a minimalist life, but was being made fun of by his peers for not owning a TV.

As I write this I’m sitting in the lounge car of the Empire Builder Express, cruising through the middle of rural Montana. It’s pretty sweet.

I’m excited to present the first in a series of interviews on being minimalist. Every Wednesday on Far Beyond The Stars, for the foreseeable future, I’ll be publishing an interview with an authority on living the minimal

Writing and photography by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter

It’s almost Thanksgiving! Wow, crazy, this year flew by. To clear time for all of the festivities, –so I can spend time with my family during the holidays without constantly thumbing my iPhone,– I’m trying to wrap up as

Being minimalist is about having an honest relationship with your life.

Hey blogaudience! I’ve got a lot of work to do this week.

Writing and Photography by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter

Let’s face it, the world can be terrifying. Do you know what you’re going to be doing next month, six months from now, or even a year? At the moment I certainly don’t.

Writing and photography by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter Phil, a dedicated FBTS reader, had an interesting question in the comments last week. I’m re-posting it here:

I recently read Twyla Tharp’s Creative Habit , and she starts the book with this line: “I walk into a large white room.” She then explains how she’s expected to create something beautiful out of nothing. All dancers have

We live in a reality that’s filled with deception. Every day when you step out on the street, when you log onto your computer, you’re being attacked.

Prior to my downsizing journey, I read a lot of fitness and health magazines. Most of the magazines and books advocated buying more stuff, joining an expensive gym or promoted diets that were not healthy. I walked away f

I’m going to get a little scientific on you, and let me tell you in advance that I’m no scientist, so forgive me if I have this all wrong. I was reading My Stroke of Insight this afternoon, which is a brilliant book abou

Written and photographed by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter

When people think about minimalism, some of them think that it’s really hard and it involves throwing out all of their stuff and being a freegan or something. It doesn’t. Minimalism is about small steps toward a simple g

I had a conversation with someone last night that ended up trapped in my head for the entire night, even after meditating and staying in sarvangasana for fifteen minutes–a yoga pose which is supposed to clear your head!

It’s Friday! Which means that it’s almost the weekend, for most of the working world. I want to leave you, at the end of this week, with one observation that I had this morning.

I’m going to say a slogan that you have probably heard before: spend less than you earn . It’s the only way to get out of debt. We nod, we get it. It makes sense, right?

Leo Babauta just blogged at Mnmlist.com about a hypothetical minimalist society where no one owned anything, I think this is an outstanding idea.

We’re living in a society that is rapidly evolving to point where we won’t have to live in any one specific place. I’m currently working on a website for a woman in New York, I’ve been illustrating for a company in San F

Yesterday, I discussed some of the fundamental problems that are associated with clutter. How we get it, where it comes from, why we have it, and how to get rid of it.

This is the first in a series of articles I’m doing on reducing clutter in your life. Tune in tomorrow for the next installment!

Right now I’m pretty pared down, with only a bag of clothes, a Macbook, a camera bag, a hard-drive, a sleeping bag, and a yoga mat. I know, that’s pretty minimal, but at this moment in time it’s where I need to be.

I’ve been doing Yoga daily since I arrived in Portland, almost to the point of having my practice be the focus of my day, and it’s had some interesting effects:

My blog buddy Tammy Strobel , over at RowdyKittens, recently went on a media diet , which got me thinking about the subject.

It’s Wednesday, it’s raining lightly, it’s a bit chilly here in the Pacific Northwest. Inevitably my mind is going to wander to…. the subject of sex. Yes folks, we here at Far Beyond The Stars are taking it there, and we

I went for a hike in the forest on Mt. Hood yesterday, where I learned how to find, identify, and harvest wild Chanterelle mushrooms . It was such a great experience, that I thought I’d share it with all of you.

One of the things that I’ve been focusing on exclusively, since quitting my job in July and moving across the United States to Portland, has been focusing on what’s important.

One of the habits that I’ve adopted since moving to Portland, nearly three long weeks ago, has been the daily practice of Yoga. I was doing a lot of Yoga in New York, at the amazing donation based center Yoga To The Peop