Wanting Less

Wanting less is one question, asked at the moment of wanting: what is this purchase supposed to say, and to whom?

Much wanting is a signal. The object is there to show someone, sometimes yourself, what you are worth. Naming the signal usually ends the wanting. A jacket that you still want as a jacket after the question can be bought. That purchase was never the target of the question. The test looks at the motive for a purchase and ignores the amount.

Core takeaways

• Wanting less is one question, asked at the moment of wanting: what is this purchase supposed to say, and to whom?
• Much wanting is a signal of worth to someone, sometimes to yourself. Naming the signal usually ends the wanting.
• The test looks at the motive for a purchase and ignores the amount. An object you still want after the question can be bought.
• A signalling purchase does not do its job. The audience is mostly not watching, and the identity the object was meant to prove still has to come from what you do.
• Every object not bought skips its later costs in space, attention, maintenance, and exit. That skipped cost turns directly into money, time, and mobility.
• The check is the next non-routine purchase impulse. Name the signal before deciding, and count how often the naming ends the wanting.

The question to ask

Naming the motive at the moment of wanting turns an impulse into a decision you can state. The question is: what is this purchase saying, and to whom? Holding the want down without naming it leaves the want in place, and the day goes to resisting it. Naming what the purchase is for is what removes the want.

What naming does and does not do

Seeing the motive does not remove all spending, and it does not replace all discipline. Naming turns an impulse into a decision. The want often goes away after naming. It does not go away every time. A jacket that you still want after answering the question is not a failed test.

Why a signalling purchase does not work

A signalling purchase does not do what it was bought to do. The people it was meant to impress are mostly not paying attention. The identity the object was supposed to prove still has to come from what you do. Owning the object does not supply that identity.

What a non-purchase skips

Every object not bought skips every later cost that Ownership Cost lists: space, attention, maintenance, exit.

Wanting less turns directly into money, time, and mobility. Those gains are the reason to do it. The practice itself is the question, asked at the moment of wanting.

Wanting less works on the demand side of the savings rate. The gap that the savings rate measures widens at the moment of wanting, before the budget records any transaction.

Wanting less and spending

Wanting less is not a rule against spending. Purchases that pass the life-energy test, meaning the fulfilment they give matches the hours of work traded for them, are what money is for. The test looks at the motive and ignores the amount.

The check is the next non-routine purchase impulse. Name the signal before the decision, and count how often the naming ends the wanting. Of all the points where spending can be cut, the want is the one that costs least to act on. Wanting less is the prevention step inside the Minimalism as Systems Design cluster.

How to practice this

1. On the next non-routine purchase impulse, ask what the purchase is supposed to say, and to whom. Answer before you decide. Notice whether the want is still there after the answer.
2. Keep a count of how often naming the signal ends the wanting. Notice that naming ends the wanting often, and that it does not every time.
3. When a want stays after the question, check whether its fulfilment matches the hours of work traded for it. If it does, buy the object. Notice that the amount was never part of the test.
4. Compare this with a want you held down without naming it. Notice that the held-down want stayed in place and took the day’s effort to resist.
5. For a want you named as a signal, ask who the audience is and whether they are watching. Notice that they mostly are not.
6. For each object you did not buy, list the costs it skipped: space, attention, maintenance, exit. Notice that the skipped costs turn into money, time, and mobility.

Related pages

• Minimalism as Systems Design: the parent hub. Wanting less is the cluster’s prevention entry, reachable from the front of the hub.
• Ownership Cost: the costs a non-purchase skips, space, attention, maintenance, exit. The seven-cost table is on that page.
• Exit Strategy For Objects: the leave-path for objects that still get bought. A purchase that passes the motive test still needs an exit.
• Investing & Budgeting Mindsets: where the published-book money takeaways live. Pointer only.

Sources

• Sasaki, F. Goodbye, Things. Possessions as a broadcast of worth. Buying the book is not needed to use the question.
• Belk, R. W. (1988). Possessions and the extended self. Journal of Consumer Research.
• Gilovich, Medvec & Savitsky (2000). The spotlight effect in social judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Source for the claim that the audience is mostly not watching.