New Trend: Minimalistic Living

[Ankesh]

Thanks Gordon, Sandi & Michael.

I agree - the minimalistic lifestyle has always been there (Except books, I'm a pretty minimalistic guy myself). But I'm finding the trend/fad to be growing and getting bigger and bigger... and a lot extreme.

And - it seems to be organizing itself. (People are now coming together and forming groups.)

It may seem that there is no opportunity to be found where people are not willing to buy anything at all... but I got to thinking a bit:

1. Even though these minimalistic people don't buy a lot, they do buy the best of things. There minimalistic lifestyle is not due to lack of money. But due to being stressing out because of clutter.

2. There is room for rental services. Like netflix.com but for other goodies. I recall one website being started for rental of purses. Netflix model can be used for products like women's shoes, ties etc too.

3. When these people stop buying goods, where is all there money going? They're buying experiences. More traveling. More adventures like flying in airforce planes and F1 cars. More massages and other leisure stuff.

People in the early 20th century made fortunes when they found a way to mass produce goods. I think we'll be seeing a lot more companies growing very quickly who figure out how to mass produce - or at least systematize the production of - "once-in-a-lifetime experiences".