The Problem with Zen Habits

Self improvement is masturbation.
TYLER DURDEN

Leo Babauta writes a blog called Zen Habits. Zen Habits is about personal development. It is chock full of advice on fitness, finance, work, simplification, etc. It is very popular. It is also very wrong.

All of Leo's advice can be summed up in one word--SIMPLIFY. Cut out the clutter. Eliminate the unnecessary. Quit buying stuff. Blah blah blah. The articles are straight out of the magazines which is why they are so popular. Magazine articles and blog posts on ZH are identical. Identify a problem and then give a numbered list of tips to solve the problem. I mock this sort of thing with my "how to" articles. I don't think there is a magazine that exists that would publish them.

I don't have to follow Leo's advice because I already do what he thinks we should do. I live in a simple apartment furnished with objects I either rescued from the trash or bought very cheaply from a thrift store. I own one car. I work one job. I am not married, and I have no kids. I have two to three days of free time each week that I spend reading or watching TV or writing posts for this blog. I don't exercise or clean my house because I spend all my free time goofing off. My problem is not that my life isn't simple. My problem is that my life is too simple. I am bored out of my fucking mind.

You know Leo doesn't follow his own advice because his blog keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger as he writes more and more articles. How complicated can simple advice be? He also has six kids and two jobs and trains for triathlons. This is not simple living.

Most people's bad habits can be linked to one single bad habit--LAZINESS. For me, I'd rather sit on my ass than go work out or clean up my apartment. Laziness eliminates stress for awhile until things get out of control because of neglect. The stress of the neglect prompts me to get off my ass and correct the problem. Then, I return to sloth. Taking the quaalude of Zen Habits is not the answer to my problem. If it wasn't for stress, I would accomplish nothing. I am not recommending this lifestyle, but I can say that what people lack in life is not simplicity but motivation.

Boredom is not a lifestyle. It is living death. This is why people's favorite real hobbies are not rock climbing, mountain biking, and making pottery but surfing the internet, watching television, and imbibing intoxicating substances. This is because these things require little effort and are relatively cheap unless you are into cocaine.

People are bored which is why they hate their jobs, working out, cleaning house, balancing their checkbooks, and all those other good habits they are supposed to practice. Put those same people in front of a glowing box, and they will spend hours with it until they are exhausted and fall asleep. Eliminate that glowing box, and those other problems magically disappear. This is because the sheer boredom motivates people to activity.

Zen Habits creates boredom. Simplifying your life leads to living in a spare apartment staring at the walls you refuse to decorate. (It took me four years to hang a picture in my apartment when my girlfriend bought me a V for Vendetta framed picture from Blockbuster.) Minimalism might be great for a guy with six kids, but for a guy like me, it isn't.

I am all for decluttering and living below your means and all that. I live minimalism. What I have learned from minimalism is that it sucks the life out of you. You become bored and depressed and crave stimulation. It is not natural. Even the most primitive people will decorate the walls of their dwellings and their bodies and weave elaborate cultures to amuse themselves.

The reason people like me spend so much time on our glowing boxes is because the worlds contained within those boxes are rich and varied. They change constantly and present new challenges. You learn new things and explore new worlds. The variety is unending. The only problem is that all this stuff exists inside of the box. To have a life outside of the box requires variety not simplicity. You have to pursue new and different things, and these things require both time and money.

For Leo, the Zen master is the ideal. For me, the Renaissance Man is my ideal. I admire people who don't live simple lives but rich lives. This is the life most people aspire to, and this is for natural reasons. It is what makes us human and leads to flourishing. This Renaissance Ideal also requires no motivation. If anything, you become frustrated because you want to do more than what your finite resources of time, money, and energy will allow you to do. I think this is why Tim Ferris has become so popular because he crafts strategies to allow people to overcome these limitations. Those strategies are hit-or-miss, but they are insanely more useful than anything you will find on Zen Habits.

The reason people retreat to their glowing boxes is because that is the simplest and most economical way to fulfill these desires for a fuller, richer, and more flourishing life. The reason Zen Habits is so popular is because that lifestyle is very doable. Abandoning your dreams and wishes for a fuller life feels good for awhile. It is liberating for a short period. Then, the boredom sets in. Even Leo had to go after new projects.

My advice is different from the Zen Habits philosophy. I think you should complicate your life a bit, and I don't mean with drugs, financial problems, or troubled relationships. Instead, you should sit down with a notebook and write out everything you want to do with your life, and then figure out ways to accomplish those dreams. Be as grand and maximal as possible. Don't let time, money, and energy dictate your list. Craft that list as if these things did not matter. Then, pursue these things. It will fill you with a greater sense of life and purpose, and you won't be bored anymore. Your "problems" will be multiplied, but those problems are what invigorate us in our living.

Simplicity aims to eliminate problems as if a problem free existence is what we crave. This is the teaching of Zen practitioners, Stoics, Epicureans, etc. All of these paths lead to boredom. They employ negation instead of creativity. The Renaissance way inspires creativity and action and motion and life. The way of simplicity is seen as austere and arduous, and it is. Put a man in solitary confinement, and he will go insane. The Zen way is no different.

The Renaissance path is not simple, but it does require balance. This requires wisdom and skill. Going to extremes is actually easier than achieving this balance. You don't have to think to throw away all your belongings and simplify. But to create harmony is another thing altogether. It is not unlike a painting. You can paint a simple blue square on the canvas, and you have created an elegant but boring picture. Or you can fill the canvas with every conceivable thing that comes to mind which results in a chaotic mess. Or you can paint something beautiful. That middle path is hard.

Zen Habits might be the antidote to people in high stress situations, but the solution is a temporary one. Human beings always crave more. Simplicity is not the answer. The answer is balance. Unfortunately, they don't have a blog for balance.

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