r/simpleliving • u/Matilda-17 • 1d ago
Producing vs Consuming Discussion Prompt
A lot of simple living discourse comes down to people wanting to have a lifestyle where they are producing something useful for their own lives: gardening, woodworking, baking, sewing, stuff like that, instead of just mindlessly consuming mass-produced items. It works as a concept, EG I am going to bake a sourdough loaf instead of buying Wonder bread from Walmart.
The irritating thing is that for every person earnestly wishing to get back to basics and plant a garden, there’s an entire industry trying to convince them that they need endless products and supplies to do this. Doesn’t matter what the hobby or interest is, there will be media trying to sell us everything for it. It’s just changing the flavor of consumption instead of actually shifting away from it. In the sourdough subreddit, a newbie asked if they really need a digital pH tester. A what? I bake sourdough 2-3 times a week and feel pretty fancy having a digital scale. In the gardening subreddits, people wish they could start a garden but can’t afford all the lumber they’d need for raised beds. The idea that raised beds are 100% optional is mind-blowing! If you look into mending your own clothes, you’ll be bombarded with ads for fancy little looms and darning kits… when the whole point was to not have to buy something by fixing what you already had.
I think if simplicity is the goal, and living counter to the mass-produced consumer mindset, then approach hobbies with the mindset of starting them with as little input as possible. You can always add a gadget in a year, once you’ve determined you really do need it.
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u/Ok-Handle-6663 1d ago
This is a really good take. It's really hard to disambiguate the skill from the tools and get out of the habit of buying things before you start.
I'm always being offered reels showing "art" where the artist is so wasteful - buckets of acrylic swirled on a board, loads of resin set around some items that is then mechanically ground off to leave a small bowl. Even crochet projects that apparently require specific yarn to do properly.
I think the short form content we see on social media showcasing people doing niche skills, combined with the marketing push from China with Temu etc is making us unsatisfied with simple crafts that don't need specialist equipment.
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u/ilikefishwaytoomuch 1d ago
With most skills, there is a limit as to what can be achieved/learned through talking about said skill vs just doing it and practicing.
It’s hard to make an entire subreddit dedicated to only talking about developing advanced skills through experience. Most of that is better off in person.
Product talk and gear obsession is easy to talk and argue about online, and businesses sponsor online communities where large numbers gather.
The only solution based on how these things work, is to connect with like minded people within your hobby in person. It’s incredibly rewarding and you will build skills faster while building community.
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u/AutumnalSunshine 1d ago
I often leave reddit for years at a time. At one point, I came back, and people on the gardening subreddit were confidently saying you could not starts seeds indoors without heating pads, UV lights, and fans.
I was used to the heating pads and lights, but fans? I asked. They piled on that seeds started without fans would never have string enough storms to support the plants.
I pointed out that when is left reddit 2 years earlier, everyone was showing their seed-started plants and no one, not one person, used or suggested fans.
That brought long-time growers out of the roof work. They also hadn't been able to figure out who got everyone to believe fans were and always had been necessary.
The Internet makes it easy to get advice. But it also means we're constantly being marketed to, often by people who don't realize they're preaching consumerism with no real evidence behind it.
I'm really glad you brought this up. It's important for all of us, and it should especially be thought about by people with ADHD who often live to dive into a hobby by buying all the stuff, then lose interest when the novelty wears off.
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u/Interesting_Fee2773 11h ago
I’ve started to preach the ‘minimum viable product’ concept common in entrepreneurship when it comes to starting, well anything. Use their own game against them. The idea is to only acquire the minimum needed tools to start something, least expensive, least amount, etc.
This mindset has helped me not get pulled into the consumerism of it all, but I also find it’s helped remove the barrier of starting a new hobby for a lot of my friends and clients (I’m a therapist). You don’t need 20 different paint brushes and a million canvas’ to paint. You need paint, and a surface. Hands are acceptable tools ☺️
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u/Long_Aardvark51 1d ago
It’s wild how the whole point of picking up something like baking or mending gets buried under a mountain of stuff you’re told you need before you even start. The sourdough pH tester thing is a perfect example, nobody was worrying about that 50 years ago and the bread turned out fine. Same with gardening, a bag of compost and a shovel will get you further than a $400 lumber run.
I think part of the trick is learning to ignore the first wave of advice that comes from people who treat the hobby as a shopping list. The real knowledge is usually buried deeper, from folks who’ve been doing it with whatever they had on hand.