What Twitter needs to add next
Nothing. Twitter started with a brilliant idea of simplicity: Keep tweets to 140 characters or less, forcing people to be brief and to the point (unlike emails or blog posts). Have one stream to read, as opposed to multiple things to check on. Make it simple and easy to tweet or reply, from anywhere. And people loved the simplicity, and 3rd-party developers used it well to make great apps. Twitter's simplicity is one reason it's a better user experience than Facebook or MySpace. Now Twitter has added lists and the new Retweet feature, and it seems they might be looking to add more. Others are calling for them to remove the

Unfriending: One key to a minimalist social experience
Although I can't claim to have mastered this technique yet, it's something I've been considering and I thought I'd throw it out there for discussion. The technique is "unfriending", which was the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2009 (actually it was "unfriend"). Why is this important to a minimalist? Because some of us would like to participate in the emerging social web of Twitter, Facebook, blogging and the like, without being overwhelmed by the huge stream of information that's almost inevitably consumed when you participate. The trend seems to be to follow or "friend" thousands of people

Learn to love less
"The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." - Socrates In that one little line, Socrates summed up one of the major problems with our modern society, and offered a simple solution. Pretty brilliant, I'd say. In fact, he negated the need for me to write more, but stubborn as I am, I will proceed. I'd like to talk about this capacity to enjoy less. Is it difficult to enjoy less? No, not really, but it takes a change in mindset, which as with many such changes takes time and adaptation. If you enjoy chocolate ice cream, as I do, when confronte

Simplicity is the path, not just the destination
'There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.' ~ Mahatma Gandhi, "Non-Violence in Peace and War" Simplicity, many people think, is an end in itself But they're getting it backwards Simplicity is the path, the means It's not a far off destination, somewhere in the future It's right here, right now It's taking things one at a time It's asking simple questions It's taking simple actions It's doing it slowly It's considering and being conscious, with everything When you find yourself becoming overwhelmed on the path to simplicity Taking a complicated,

The sweet science of less mail
While paper letters (though cool) have become mostly outdated, most people still get a lot of mail. And it piles up, sitting unopened or unfiled or unacted upon. The answer to this flood of mail isn't in better handling methods (though this is also a good thing), it's in getting less mail. So here are my recommendations -- though they won't work for everyone, and they're not comprehensive. It's simply a process of systematically stopping the mail at the source. Look at all your mail, both personal and business, and figure out how to stop it from coming. Some examples: 1. Catalogs. Email or call the company, request to be removed fr