New Trend: Minimalistic Living

[Ankesh]

Guy decides to live with only 100 things for one whole year:
http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge.html

I see this minimalistic living a lot these days. Its a trend that seems to be gaining momentum.

A local Mumbai blogger is moving to USA for a year. Before moving, he decides to give everything he owns away.
http://www.gauravonomics.com/offcons...-lucky-reader/

There is a Yahoo group of people who decided to buy nothing for a year.
Member count: 9291!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thecompact/

An author also wrote a book on her one year experience:
"Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, by Judith Levine"
(Amazon reviews are not too good for the book though...)

What do you think of this trend? Is it a fad? Or a reaction to modern marketing and consumerism?

Do you see any opportunity or need here?