Comments on: reFocus of the Site and Upcoming Plans

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:30:32 +0000

Charley, understand your sentiments. The minimalist community appears very incestuous, with a lot of people rehashing basically the same ideas, pushing the same e-books, using the same blog software etc. Now, that’s not to say that the message is not important, that the ideas don’t work, and that there aren’t some great ebooks out there, but it can all feel a bit samey. Hopefully you won’t get too much flak!

By: Damien

Damien — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:11:48 +0000

I just discovered the minimalist blog community this week and have found my home! While it has been an inspirational week, I had to chuckle when I saw every blog reviewing the same eBooks on the exact same day. I wondered if you all live in a communal group or something.

Keep the inspiration coming!

By: Mara

Mara — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:30:16 +0000

lost track of how many minimalism blogs are on my blogroll, but did notice a large number of them promoting each others’ ebooks. can’t blame you one bit for opting out of the reviewing. i read your blog to see how things are going for you in your journey toward simplification.

By: RowdyKittens

RowdyKittens — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:07:29 +0000

Charley – another great article. Seriously – I love your writing. And thank you for this post! There have been so many ebooks coming out, which is awesome. I love to see so many people following their dreams and shipping out good products.

But like you, I’m unable to do reviews and try to write my own stuff. That’s why I do the simple living news update. I’m able to link to cool stuff and peeps can make their own decisions if they want to buy products, read certain articles, etc.

Re meetings: I totally agree with you. My work experience has mainly been in the non-profit world. But there is NO way I could blow off meetings. It would have been disrespectful to my co-workers and I would have been fired. Can meeting be run better? Of course. I think peeps would be better off talking about how to run meetings more effectively and efficiently versus blowing them off entirely. People in any organization have to communicate and not all of that communication can be accomplished by email alone.

I agree with Karol and Caitlin’s comments. This line, made me laugh out loud. “So, to recap, less ads of someone else, more of me. If you don’t like me, then go visit someone else.”

And thanks for the link love and kind words.

I’m excited to read your next book! Yay!

By: SimplyJo

SimplyJo — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:19:41 +0000

Life simplification for families is most definately something I want to read about. The balance between living the life you want to lead but acknowledging that there are other considerations when you have responsibility for children’s emotional and financial wellbeing/stability. Had I found ‘minimalism’ in my teenage years perhaps my life would have been very different – but then perhaps I wouldn’t have had children which is an unbearable thought (they are the rerason I get up in the morning and do all the crappy jobs/chores I hate but do through love). All I can hope to do now is reach a compromise in my simplification aspirations and do it ‘well enough’ to enrich my life whilst embracing the life I have and love.

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:31:29 +0000

“So, to recap, less ads of someone else, more of me. If you don’t like me, then go visit someone else.”

Best line ever. ^_^

Your decision seems sound for you, so go for it! Doing your own thing is great. ^_^

By: Charley

Charley — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:44:54 +0000

So many terrific comments on this article, thank you everyone. I really do appreciate the encouragement, and perhaps SimplyJo has it right, my niche may be minimalism and life simplification for families…now I’m gonna write an article on gratitude that has nothing to do with minimalism or simple living.

- Charley

By: simple saturday links 2/28/10 (sunday edition) | thesimplerlife.net

simple saturday links 2/28/10 (sunday edition) | thesimplerlife.net — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:45:43 +0000

[...] you, simplifed: refocus of the site and upcoming plans– Charley writes about how he is going to treat the ebooks he is sent to review. This strikes a chord with me because I’m in a similar boat. I’ve had several excellent ebooks sent to me in hopes that I will read them and review them on my site. On the one hand I want to help out those writers that I’ve met by promoting their books while at the same time I don’t want to turn thesimplerlife.net into a book review site. As a compromise, I think I will start doing short reviews during my Simple Saturday Links posts. That way I don’t use one of my normally scheduled posts for review while still promoting those books I think are helpful. simple saturday links 2/28/10 (sunday edition) [...]

By: Karol Gajda

Karol Gajda — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:06:49 +0000

Removing the ads = minimalism, no?

By the way, this “So, to recap, less ads of someone else, more of me. If you don’t like me, then go visit someone else.” made me laugh out loud.

By: SimplyJo (aka 356girl)

SimplyJo (aka 356girl) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:50:15 +0000

Can I echo Ang’s words – I totally support your decision on the reviews. I too am an aspiring minimalist but one with a career and kids…. your blog works for me…. perhaps that’s your thing/niche speaking to us guys who have minimal values/ethics but still have commitments…