Existenzminimum
The Minimalists Podcast
I watched this documentary on Netflix called “Minimalism”. Being an architect I thought it was about minimalism and instead it is about a way of life based on minimalism. But let me explain.
It is already said in the title: “A documentary about the important things”. It is in fact the story of how two friends realized that they were pursuing idiotic aims: earn money, then look for a promotion, buy stuff, earn more money, buy more stuff. Where were they headed? They felt sick and unhappy and that’s when they understood their unhappiness came from the fact that they were looking and wanting the wrong things.
Therefore they decided to get rid of all the unnecessary stuff and to live with less. And talk about that all around the US. And do a documentary on Netflix, of course.
While I was watching it I thought it was more about “existenzminimum” than minimalism, being the first something I heard of back at the university: it was an architectural concept and it meant “to live in a house designed and built with everything you need and nothing more”. The rooms you need, the things you need, as big as you need. Things like that.
In some ways this is a documentary on architecture too, but it’s much more about how to live better with fewer things.
