思考与写作paulgraham.com
物品
Stuff
2007 — 2013，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
Paul Graham 在这篇文章中反思人们为什么积累物品，指出物品会带来心理负担和隐性成本，并探讨购买与丢弃之间的权衡。他提出书籍可能是例外，但总体上建议减少不必要的拥有。
为什么经久不衰：它触及消费社会中物质积累与内心自由的普遍矛盾，观点简洁而深刻，持续引发对消费习惯的反思。
HN 评论精选
穷人囤积物品源于对未来无力购买的担忧，而非富有。
我有太多东西了，大多数美国人都是。事实上，越穷的人似乎东西越多。几乎没有穷人穷到买不起一院子旧车。哇，Paul，你真的不了解贫穷是什么滋味。穷人院子里有很多车不是因为他们买得起很多车，而是因为他们从不扔掉。富人扔掉很多好东西，但穷人永远保留一切，因为他们不知道什么时候才能再买得起。当你需要一件曾经拥有却扔掉的东西时，那种后悔感非常强烈。
fnid2查看英文原文
I have too much stuff. Most people in America do. In fact, the poorer people are, the more stuff they seem to have. Hardly anyone is so poor that they can't afford a front yard full of old cars. Wow, Paul, you really don't understand what it is like to be poor. The poor people don't have a lot of cars in their yard because they can afford lots of cars. They have lots of cars because they never throw them away. Rich people throw lots of fine stuff away, but poor people keep everything forever, because they don't know when they can afford to buy another one. I've been rich and poor and most of my family is still poor. While they don't have lots of cars in the yard, they are pack rats and worry constantly about a time in the future when they won't have anything anymore. Poor people keep stuff because there may be a day when they'll need it but won't have the money to buy it. The regret of, "Oh... i had one of those but i got rid of it" is pretty strong when you need something you don't have but once did.
物品数量取决于获得与丢弃的差值；穷人保留东西是因为替换成本高，且人们不愿丢弃还能用的物品。
你拥有的物品数量等于你获得的物品数量减去你出售或丢弃的物品数量。文章很好地讨论了前者，但很少谈后者。穷人往往拥有更多东西的一个原因是，丢弃或出售后再替换的成本高于仅仅储存它们。如果你收入不错，扔掉一个20美元的旋转电话很容易，因为你知道随时可以再买；而人们也不愿丢弃仍然能用的东西。
kylec查看英文原文
The amount of stuff you have is the difference between the amount of stuff you acquire and the amount of stuff you sell or discard. This essay does a pretty good job of covering the former, but the only mention of the latter is the following: And yet when I got back I didn't discard so much as a box of it. Throw away a perfectly good rotary telephone? I might need that one day. I wish this idea was expanded upon more. One of the contributing factors as to why poorer people tend to have more stuff is because the cost of discarding or selling and subsequently replacing stuff is higher than simply storing it. If you have a well-paying job or are otherwise independently wealthy, it's easy to throw away a $20 rotary phone because you know you can just go out and buy a new one without inconvenience. There's also the compunction against discarding something that still works or is still useful. For example, I know quite a few people that have old computers gathering dust because their owner has subsequently replaced them with faster machines, but hasn't discarded the old ones because they're still operable and might be useful for a side project or something. I'm not really sure what the solution to either of those things is. Perhaps we need some sort of market where stuff is more of a liquid commodity than it is now - if there's less of a financial penalty to selling and repurchasing, and if it's easier for perfectly good items to be sold for another's use, it might enable people to have the option to have less stuff.
对于真正热爱的爱好，保留并组织好工具能提升日常享受，这不违背极简主义；但除此之外应保持极简。
从某种角度看，我要么拥有两万零五件东西，要么只有两加五件东西。我花大量时间并从中获得巨大乐趣的两件事是烹饪和木工/金工，我精心组织了两套物品：设备齐全的厨房和工具齐全的工作室。我保持它们井井有条，因为这提升了日常享受，而且我不想精简它们。不过厨房和工作室之外，我杜绝杂乱。我完全同意Paul说的最大开销之一是维护物品目录的心理成本。我的建议：如果某件事你真的喜欢且需要工具，就买来用；但除此之外，保持极简。
tjic查看英文原文
Depending on how you look at it, I either own 20,000 plus five things, or just two plus five things. I'm exaggerating, but I've got a core point: There are two things that I spend a LOT of time on and get a lot of enjoyment from: * cooking * wood and metalworking I've got two meticulously organized sets of things that reflect that: * a great kitchen with all sorts of implements, frozen stocks, a hundred spices, etc. * a great workshop with all sorts of tools and supplies I keep those two areas perfectly organized, because this increases my enjoyment of them on a daily basis. ...and I have no desire to prune them. My workshop has a long tail: I may not need the #3 dental pick every month, but when I want it, I really really want it. So it's in a drawer with a label. I may use it just three times a year, but I use SOME long-tail item every day or two. Outside of my kitchen and shop, though, I abjure clutter. I own one coat, one sweater, five shirts, etc. I entirely agree with Paul that one of the biggest expenses is the mental expense of keeping things cataloged. My advice: if there's something you really enjoy that requires tools, get them and use them. ...but aside from that, yes, be a minimalist. My two cents.
书籍并不特殊，拥有大量书籍成本高昂且使用频率低，高质量物品常用而不易坏。
我以前也认为书籍是特殊的。拥有数千本书很昂贵：它们本身就贵，需要书架，占大量空间，搬家极其痛苦，需要整理，还要在心理上记住拥有哪些书。而且你并不经常使用它们，几分钟内就能获得电子版或纸质版。另外，你把质量和脆弱性混淆了；高质量的东西常用而不易坏。
cottonseed查看英文原文
I used to think books were special, too. Having thousands of books is expensive: they are literally expensive, you buy or build shelves for them, they take up a lot of space, they're extremely painful to move, you have to organize them, and you keep mental space for them -- I own this book, I don't own that one -- otherwise, you might as well not have them. You don't use them constantly. Moreover, you can get an instant electronic copy or a physical copy in minutes, or at most a day (Amazon prime). Also, you confuse quality (good) and fragility. Most of the stuff I have is very high quality, which is why I use it every day and I don't have to worry about it falling apart.
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