Minimalism

Live a Meaningful Life, Second Edition

By: Ryan Nicodemus, Joshua Fields Millburn

Narrated by: Justin Malik

Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things that clutter our lives so we can make room for life's most important things - which actually aren't things at all.

At age 30, best friends Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus walked away from their six-figure corporate careers, jettisoned most of their material possessions, and started focusing on what's truly important. In their debut book, Joshua and Ryan, authors of the popular website TheMinimalists.com, explore their troubled pasts and descent into depression. Though they had achieved the American Dream, they worked ridiculous hours, wastefully spent money, and lived paycheck to paycheck. Instead of discovering their passions, they pacified themselves with ephemeral indulgences, which only led to more debt, depression, and discontent.

After a pair of life-changing events, Joshua and Ryan discovered minimalism, allowing them to eliminate their excess material things so they could focus on life's most important things: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.

©2015 Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus (P)2016 Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus

Not what I was looking for

Should be titled: 5 values to live a meaningful life. I got this book thinking it would be about the philosophy and practical implementation of living with fewer things, what to get rid of, what to keep etc, there was none of this, instead it read like a life coaching book.

Tight version of stuff you can learn on podcast

As with their other books, you probably don’t need it as the podcast covers the same material. But this is a tightly organized version of their message. I think it has a lot of value that other minimalism books miss because it focuses on the why. Why do you want to live a minimalist life? Just getting rid of your stuff doesn’t help because you'll just replace it, as happened to me after reading the Tidying Up books. This shows you the value of living a more deliberate life and the things you can improve (health, relationships. passions, growth, contributions to the world) with the extra time and money you'll have. Nothing stellar, just nuts and bolts. It was useful to me. Grade: A-

Excellent narration. I’m used to their voices from the podcast but Justin Malik is so good that I hear their voices in him now.

Minimalism?

Let’s see, we get some subjective advice about nutrition, water consumption, relationships, etc. Whatever seems to randomly interest them. Don’t wait around for the topic of minimalism though, maybe they’ve moved on to life coaching & forgot to tell us.

A lot of plugs

It’s hard to escape the fact that the whole thing feels like an advertisement for their website...

Good Book. Narrators voice not so good

Narrators voice took a while to get use to and sometimes was difficult to focus on

Great Book!

I enjoyed the message and the overall authenticity of the authors and their willingness to pay their experience forward. This book is a great opportunity to contemplate what is important in life and re-evaluate priorities. I would highly recommend it.

A more meaningful life

This book is the start to your overall journey to becoming a minimalist. a must read!

Great listen!

I watched the Netflix documentary and really enjoyed it, book was great too. great advise and easy to understand. Anyone who is trying to minimalize their lifestyle this book is great for it!

Good Content, Dismal Narration

I love The Minimalists, and this is a good summary of their core principles. What lets it down is the monotone narration by someone who seems utterly bored by what he is reading; how I wish Ryan or/and Joshua had read it instead

Worthless pop regurgitation

The book says virtually nothing about minimalism. Instead, the authors present a litany of half baked pop ideas about how to live a happy life. What a complete waste of time!

Questionable Advice

Love the idea of the book, but the guys lost me when they mentioned a vegan or paleo diet should be followed and that listeners should stop taking prescribed medications....seriously? You’re not at all qualified to make such advice so don’t. It’s dangerous and irresponsible as an author to do so.

Their points on eating well and looking after your body are valid and outlining that some medications may be unnecessary if the issues are resolved at the root cause. But flatly saying that people should stop taking their medications and take up a paleo first is dangerous and stupid.

Completely lost me after that.

Otherwise a good book that makes some great points.

Insubstantial

I found this book a little, well, empty.

I love the idea of living a meaningful life and extracting oneself from the pressures of an intensely capitalist existence.

The book is really about the transformation of two American men with '6 figure salaries' who just got tired of it all and decided to concentrate on healthier things. That's it.

Whilst the message is mostly positive, It didn't really speak to me. There was a long passage about pull ups, which I really didn't enjoy. They are certainly on to something, but the book seemed a bit muddled and flimsy.

Lifechanging

really great book. full of great ideas and personal challenges. a must read for anyone who wants to change their life around.

Useful

Good, practical content. Helpful if you are starting out towards an uncluttered lifestyle. Ryan and Joshua clearly lay out what has worked for them.

Disappointing

I was expecting a lot more after watching the Minimalism documentary. I felt everything was skimmed over, and I am left disappointed.

Key to true happines

This book will help you identify the key to true happiness which you can slowly progress to by taking steps described in the book.

it's a good listen and definitely worth to listen more than once. I have already watched documentary by the same guys about minimalism, so I kind of new what to expect.

it will be eye-opening for people who never stepped into the life of minimalistic thinking at least. I wish whole world would live like this.

The book is narrated With swift approach, but good.

amazing and life changing book.

it's great to hear Joshua's and Ryan's story of leaving the 6 figure jobs to pursue their passion. something I am at cross roads of doing myself and hoping that every day work, following these steps will help me achieve it. could not recommend it enough.

Great Book

Very easy to follow, great ideas and I love it.
Since I discovered minimalism I kinda started to declutter, buying less and I feel much happier and less stressed.

Awesome

Awesome book and great reader. Shot but essential. Food for thought. A guide for a day by day life.

Overly prescriptive and disappointing

Having watched the documentary, read the other books and listened to many podcasts, I was really disappointed with this one. Not only did the narrator once again talk at break neck speed, which is anything but calming, but the content was super prescriptive and lacks credibility. Example - yes, advise us on the benefits of simplifying our diets, but please don't tell us to such a degree what we should and shouldn't be removing or including! That needs individualised advice from a qualified healthcare professional. I love minimalism but feel in this book the authors are getting a little ahead of themselves with the scope of their advice.