Minimalist vs Maximalist

I am not a Frank Gehry fan. I think the Guggenheim Museuam in Bilbao is one gigantic silvery piece of dogshit. This runs counter to what is popular in architecture today with various critics giving Gehry rave reviews. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so I can make no argument saying what is beautiful or ugly. But my own personal tastes are with Mies van der Rohe who issued the famous dictum, "Less is more."

The essence of minimalism is that form must follow function. Gehry's works are very expressive, but if you look behind those flowing swimming flourishes, you see the basic structure upholding the facade. If it weren't for those structures, the buildings would collapse. The fish skin architecture is pure decoration. It is superfluous. It is maximalism reborn. It is audacious and hideous. Consider this Gehry monstrosity:



You can see here that Gehry is attempting to do for architecture what Pollock did for art. The difference between minimalism and maximalism is clear. With minimalism, there is an endpoint. There is a purpose and a function that is fulfilled. With maximalism, there is no endpoint. You can always add more. You don't finish a maximalist project so much as abandon it.

This minimalist viewpoint expresses itself in other avenues. You have Apple with their simple but elegant devices. There is Google with their plain interface and simple Chrome browser. There is 37Signals with their simple but insanely useful software. Microsoft is in the beginning of a death spiral with their "more is more" approach.

Writing also follows the same rules. Most bad writing is maximalist. Hemingway started a revolution with his spare prose. My favorite writer today is Cormac McCarthy who writes with absolute precision and doesn't waste a single word. These men are a pleasure to read, and I do my best to imitate them.

Today, we have lifestyle design, and minimalism has made its impact there as well. Basically, you have two paths to follow. You can follow the maximalist path and acquire the McMansion, the beach house, the lake house, the ski lodge, the motorcycle, the RV, various electronic gizmos and pursue numerous hobbies and what have you. The result is an exciting but very dysfunctional and unharmonious life. Or you can have one home, one car, a wardrobe limited to the essentials, and one to two inexpensive hobbies. The minimalist lifestyle is achievable and sustainable. The maximalist lifestyle is not. The minimalist lifestyle is dictated by design. The maximalist lifestyle is dictated by failure.

It is not easy being a minimalist in anything because it requires constantly saying no. You have to live as a negative to excess. You have to forfeit options and choose not to do things even though those things might be every appealing. On the outside, the lifestyle minimalist lives a boring existence. On the inside, it is very fulfilling. The lifestyle minimalist has more money and less stress. There is harmony and peace.

The essence of minimalism is elimination of the nonessential. Edit out what you don't need. Pare it down and make it elegant but simple. There is no virtue in excess. There is no beauty either.

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