Despite many aspects of university education becoming digitalised, students are still not completely free of paper. And it will probably be a long time before we are completely done with it, if ever. Paper – worksheets, assignments, data, sources, references, extracts, forms and letters obtained from professors, coursemates, friends and our own research – can…
In the field of Economics, one of the first things that you learn is that resources are scarce. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean there is little of it. There many things that there are almost unlimited quantities of. Almost. But the one thing there is never an unlimited quantity of is your time. Even with all…
During this time of year, the post offices are getting completely swamped with Christmas present packages, last minute internet purchases and of course, Christmas cards. When I was a kid, I used to love writing and receiving cards, but as I got older I sent fewer cards and received much fewer in return. Now, it’s been a…
In many of my posts, I talk about not getting attached to things, because it makes it harder to let go. In my last post, I talked about trying to not get too attached to people and places, because it makes it harder when you inevitably have to say goodbye (or do you?). But you…
Just because I’m a minimalist, doesn’t mean I’m an early riser. Are you surprised? I used to be a strong supporter of the idea of waking early (I still am) but I have discovered over the years that I have so many reasons not to (even though I very much admire people that do). For…
Take a good look at yourself. What do you see? Would you think that you are a wonder of the universe? If you’re living and breathing, you already are a miracle. Why would you seek to be anything else? Look up at the sky. Watch how the clouds float contently by. A cloud is happy…
This is the third part of a five part series on Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life. Read Part I – Finiteness, Part II – Protecting time and living in the present. What do we want in life? How do we balance what we want to have and what we want to do in life? Are desires and…
Life is what goes by as your waiting for it to happen. It’s too easy to mistake ‘life’ as the moments when we’re having a good time. When we’re doing something amazing like travelling, lying on the beach, sailing on a cruise boat or only when the weather is nice and sunny. It’s also easily…
1. A beautiful lotus flower blooms from a muddy pond. 2. A gardener who wants to grow flowers must also tend to weeds. These are lessons we can learn about cycles of suffering and happiness in our lives. 1. We usually think of mud and weeds as something to be discarded, dirty, a waste. But…
Part of being minimalist is being frugal. But not frugal in the way that you don’t spend money on anything. On the contrary, a lot of minimalist spend a lot of money. Some love minimalist design, and would splash out on modern minimalist furniture. But there’s also a different kind of minimalist, one that likes…