Love People, Use Things: Because the Opposite Never Works : 'This is a book about how to live more deeply and more fully' Jay Shetty

Joshua Fields’ most accomplished and cohesive work to-date, Love People Use Things is a recipe (not a rule book) for leading a more meaningful and intentional life.Exploring all of our key relationships - from money and creativity to truth and self - Fields succeeds in elevating the conversation around minimalism beyond decluttering - lending credence and weight to a movement that sometimes stalls at surface-level change.His invitation, instead, is to look beyond the ‘stuff’ and identify that which is essential in all areas of life.Neatly intertwining biographical elements with philosophical discussions, the book also empowers you to take positive action via Ryan Nicodemus’ thoughtful prompts concluding each chapter.Even the most ardent fans of The Minimalists’ podcast and blog will find new territory to break here. A great personal accomplishment for Fields against the backdrop of ill-health, and a testament to his commitment to contribution and the power of focus.

I started reading as soon as my pre-order downloaded to Kindle!This book is about stepping deeper into life beyond minimalism, and what to do with the space that removing your things creates. It approaches this through the lens of key 'relationships' we have in our lives. Each chapter has a 'coda' at the end of with a series of coaching questions to work through.The book is also a way for Josh and Ryan to step deeper into their own experiences, and share new messages and insights from their own journeys.The book brought together other thinkers and merged this with their own experiences.Overall, this was useful but I personally knew a lot of the content of eg Dave Ramsey, Cal Newport and many of the other writers/speakers so this was more of a recap for me than new learning. I found myself skimming over these parts a little, just because I knew them so well. Some of it was also sadly out-of-date already eg Chris Hogan no longer works with Ramsey Solutions so those links were out of date already.I also felt the book was made up of a disparate set of ideas but as a book, did it have enough of a core thread running through to link everything together? Was the core premise really there?It was a blend of original insights and references to other people but maybe not quite the right balance. I also felt the balance between instructional content and storytelling wasn't quite right either. I wanted more stories.I got that the book was a way to 'steward' your life but I felt this didn't come through as the main 'hook' to tie all the aspects together.The couple of small points I've mentioned mean it's not quite the 5 stars of the other Minimalists books, but that's just my personal point of view and experience and others will relate to it differently.I'm glad Josh made it through with writing the book and found it so healing after such a difficult time.It's nice to see the writing and content deepening to a new level and I'm looking forward to what's next on The Minimalists' journey!

I love the minimalists, but this book just didn't do it for me. The tone was at times patronizing (lots of lists and questions that seem like aimed at a 5 year old) and some of the chapters were a bit random. With this book the minimalists are trying to take their message outside of just decluttering your stuff, but haven't quite grasped how to get the message across.

Nothing really new here.Regurgitated material from their earlier books with added insights on relationships, a bunch of random references and a whole load of self-promotion from Millburn. I wish Nicodemus was given the opportunity to explore his own learnings and offer his advice. Yet again, Millburn has railroaded another book that reads more of an autobiography / memoir of Millburn rather than a book written by The Minimalists.I’d give this a hard pass. Read their earlier, simpler book, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, instead.

Another fabulous book from the Minimalists. If you’ve already decluttered, and have found their fabulous podcast (highly recommend starting from the first one if you’re new to them), this book is a treat. Highly recommend!