/Interview/ The brains behind: The 100 Thing Challenge
16/09/2008 | Filed under Discover > Interview
San Diego-based internet entrepreneur Dave Bruno is trying to reduce his possessions to just 100 items by 12 November and aims to live like this for a whole year. Here he explains the 100 Thing Challenge
.net: How are things going at the moment? Are you making progress?
DB: My project is going well. Probably the main observation is just how hard it is to get rid of lots of stuff. If you don’t just throw things away and waste them, it is not simple to give them to charities or friends or sell them on eBay. It takes quite a bit of effort. Overall, though, it is a positive experience and I feel like I’m on track to get down to 100 things by November.
.net: How did you come up with the idea for the 100 Thing Challenge?
DB: For many years I’ve attempted to downside my possessions, to not collect stuff and want stuff and be consumed by stuff. Even so, I’d often clean up a room in the house and think, “How do we have so much stuff?!” Even after purging and being proactive about not getting more stuff, I often felt overwhelmed by the amount of things in our home. Finally I cracked in the summer of 2007. I decided something more drastic was needed, and so I started the 100 Thing Challenge.
.net: How much is the 100 Thing Challenge influenced by other projects that created a buzz on the web in recent years (like the One Red Paperclip project)?
DB: I’m not sure if people will believe me, but I can say with honesty and integrity that I was not aware of other projects when I came up with the 100 Thing Challenge. It didn’t take long for friends and some Google searching to inform me that my project is kind of trendy. I’m not sure how to respond. In one way I want to resist that sort of thing. But then again, maybe there is some value in doing something that catches people’s attention with the purpose of communicating a point.
.net: You seem to count your library as one item. How strict are you with the rules?
DB: Right now I’m going through a process of tightening the rules. The truth is that the ‘exceptions’ I’ve had to my 100 Thing Challenge have mostly come from not wanting to offend family and friends who have given me things. By far this is the hardest thing for me to deal with. I really want to do this project. But it has taken me several months to come to grips with the reality that it’s going to cause frustration for some people who are close to me. So I’m making less exceptions now. My library is ‘one thing’ for now. In general, though, I think that books are different from most things that we tend to think of when we think of consumerism.
.net: What’s been the most difficult item to get rid of so far?
DB: My daughters have asked me to sing them some of the songs I’ve written. So getting rid of my guitar (which I didn’t play much) has been a bit disappointing. And now that I plan to get rid of my woodworking tools (which I don’t use much), I know it will be hard to let them go. But I would say that the hardest thing to date is just getting rid of things in general. One thing I’ve learned is that our culture of consumerism is set up to get stuff. But it is not set up so that we can easily get rid of stuff.
.net: What will you do with the things you get rid of?
DB: I’ll give some away to family and friends. Some I’ll sell. Some I’ll give to charity. And some I will even just throw away, though I’m trying not to do that much.
.net: What will be the biggest challenge of living with just 100 things for one year?
DB: What I anticipate is that it will be difficult to keep the number at 100. I know I’m not going to go on a shopping spree. But things make their way into our lives. People give you gifts. Sometimes people just unload stuff on you. So I think it will be tough to live a normal life for a year without stuff finding a way into my possession.
.net: What kind of feedback are you getting about the project?
DB: All sorts. People are cynical. Many people are positive and encouraging. I would say that the feedback that has most surprised me is the overwhelming amount of interest. Call it the world economy. Say it is that people tired of clutter. Maybe in our over-advertised world filled with so many gadgets, people just want more personal space and quiet. Whatever it is, a lot of people are interested in my project. And I think it is because I’m an average guy. Most people don’t want to become a hermit. Most people don’t want to live socially removed from family and friends. So I think people want to see if this nutty guy in America can live a ‘normal’ life without tons of stuff.
.net: What do you think about the army of copycats you’ve inspired?
DB: Ha! Here’s what I hope. I hope that people will not whittle down their personal possessions to only 100 things. What I’d love to see more than that is for people to start resisting unnecessary consumerism. It would be great if more people would not turn to stuff to make them happy. Let’s face it. We all know that things don’t really make us happy. So it would be great if I helped motivate some people to act on that knowledge.
.net: How do you think this challenge will alter your life?
DB: It already has altered my life this way, I’ve met and talked with so many wonderful people who want to live for more than stuff. They want to prioritise their relationships. They want to do things that are meaningful for the world. It’s great to be able to get to know people like this. My life is much better when I get to interact with people who want to do good things.
.net: What’s planned afterwards? Are you going to write a book about your experience?
DB: Yes, I am planning on writing a book. If all goes well, I will be able to continue to be a voice promoting the importance of relationships over stuff. I hope I can be one more person who has good things to say about resisting consumerism. Our world needs less people focusing on getting more stuff. And it takes encouragement to live a purposeful life. It’s hard work. So I hope I can be an encouragement to others.
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Comments
Locki / 26/09/2008 / 16:10
Why?
Neal Hanson / 21/10/2008 / 00:33
Why not?
Paul Rohe / 01/09/2009 / 11:58
Well done Dave Bruno....don`t know if i`m a copycat or not, but you have certainly inspired me to follow suite. I`ve been trying to simplify my life for months now, but the strange thing is, the more you try to get rid of things the more people seem to be giving one things to replace the things one just got rid of.....aaashhh...things !......
