Hello fellow minimalists! This is Mark from Minimalist Living. Today I want to share my profound insights about achieving true minimalism through deterministic living, inspired by the revolutionary operating system NixOS. What I’m about to share will transform your understanding of minimalism forever.

The Pure Functions of Life

Just as NixOS builds everything from pure functions, where the same inputs always produce the same outputs, we must restructure our lives to achieve perfect determinism. I’ve spent the last three years converting my entire existence into a series of pure functions, and the results have been absolutely transformative.

Every morning, I wake up at precisely 5:43 AM. Not 5:42, not 5:44 - these would introduce unwanted variability into my system. My morning routine is defined in a 2,849-line configuration file that I keep in a Git repository. Each action, from the exact angle at which I brush my teeth (42.7 degrees) to the specific number of times I chew each bite of my breakfast (17 times for soft foods, 23 for crunchy ones), is meticulously documented and version controlled.

I’ve found that by eliminating all possibility of runtime mutations in my daily activities, I’ve achieved a level of minimalism that would make Marie Kondo look like a compulsive hoarder. My life has become perfectly reproducible across all environments, whether I’m at home, at work, or visiting my increasingly concerned family members.

The Immutable State of Being

Just as NixOS maintains immutable system states, I’ve implemented a similar approach to my personal possessions and living space. Every item in my home is cryptographically hashed and stored in a manifest file. If any object’s hash doesn’t match the manifest, it is immediately eliminated from the system (I maintain a dedicated incinerator for this purpose).

I’ve replaced all my furniture with cardboard boxes arranged in precise geometric patterns. Each box is labeled with its exact coordinates in three-dimensional space, along with a SHA-256 hash of its contents. When I need to sit, I consult my positioning configuration file to determine which box-coordinate combination is appropriate for the current time and activity context.

My clothes are now a collection of identical white jumpsuits, each encoded with a unique identifier. I rotate through them based on a deterministic algorithm that takes into account atmospheric pressure, lunar phase, and the current value of Bitcoin.

Dependencies and Side Effects

One of the most challenging aspects of implementing a NixOS-inspired lifestyle is managing dependencies. Just as NixOS explicitly declares all package dependencies, I’ve created a complete dependency graph of my life. Every activity is mapped to its required resources, environmental conditions, and temporal constraints.

For example, my breakfast routine depends on:

  • Exactly 237ml of filtered water (temperature: 12.5°C ±0.1°C)
  • One bowl (white, ceramic, diameter 15.7cm)
  • One spoon (stainless steel, length 14.3cm)
  • 43 pieces of a specific cereal brand (each piece must weigh 0.8g ±0.02g)
  • Ambient temperature of 20°C
  • Humidity level between 45-46%

If any dependency is not met, the entire morning routine fails and must be retried from a known good state (usually involving 12 hours of meditation in my specially constructed null-state chamber).

The Configuration Language of Living

Inspired by the Nix expression language, I’ve developed my own domain-specific language for defining life patterns. Every possible action is declared as a pure function, with explicit inputs and outputs. Here’s a simple example from my daily routine configuration:

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let
  breathe = { intensity, duration, nostril ? "both" }: {
    input = { oxygen, lung_capacity };
    output = { co2, energy_level };
    side_effects = null; # all side effects must be explicitly declared as outputs
  };

  walk = { steps, direction, speed }: {
    requires = [ "gravity" "solid_ground" "functional_legs" ];
    produces = { distance_traveled, calories_burned };
    invariants = {
      step_length = 76.2; # cm
      arm_swing_angle = 23.5; # degrees
    };
  };
in {
  daily_routine = buildActivity {
    name = "morning-walk";
    duration = 1800; # seconds
    actions = [
      (breathe {
        intensity = 0.7;
        duration = 3.5;
        nostril = "left";
      })
      (walk {
        steps = 2500;
        direction = 47; # degrees from true north
        speed = 1.3; # meters per second
      })
    ];
  };
}

Garbage Collection and Personal Optimization

The most revolutionary insight I’ve gained from NixOS is the importance of efficient garbage collection. Every week, I perform a comprehensive garbage collection routine on my life. Any items, relationships, or thoughts that are no longer referenced by my core configuration are marked for deletion.

I’ve developed a sophisticated marking algorithm that traces through all possible execution paths of my daily routines. If an item or person doesn’t appear in any valid execution path, they are automatically removed from my life-state. This has led to some interesting situations, like the time I had to delete my cat because it wasn’t explicitly declared in my dependency tree (don’t worry, I found it a new home with someone who still lives non-deterministically).

Rolling Back Life Updates

One of the most powerful features of NixOS is the ability to roll back system updates. I’ve implemented a similar system for my life choices. Every decision is committed to my life-state repository, with the ability to roll back to any previous state if things go wrong.

Last month, I attempted to upgrade my social interaction protocols to version 2.0, which included small talk capabilities and the ability to smile at appropriate intervals. Unfortunately, this introduced several bugs in my system, including unexpected facial muscle movements and random utterances of “nice weather we’re having.” Thanks to my rollback capability, I was able to return to a stable version of myself within minutes.

The Future of Deterministic Living

As I continue to refine my NixOS-inspired lifestyle, I’m working on several exciting enhancements:

  • Implementing atomic transactions for all daily activities
  • Developing a formal proof system for verifying the correctness of life choices
  • Creating a distributed consensus algorithm for coordinating with other deterministic minimalists
  • Building a quantum-resistant encryption scheme for my sock drawer

The ultimate goal is to achieve what I call “total state convergence” - a condition where every aspect of my life can be recreated exactly from a single configuration file. I’m currently down to a mere 47,892 lines of configuration, though I believe I can optimize this further by refactoring some of my emotion modules.

Remember, fellow minimalists, true freedom comes from eliminating all uncertainty and variability from your life. By embracing the principles of NixOS in our daily existence, we can achieve a level of minimalism that transcends mere decluttering and enters the realm of perfect deterministic harmony.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my configuration file indicates it’s time for my scheduled 7.3 minutes of controlled breathing while contemplating the elegance of pure functions. Until next time, may your states remain immutable and your dependencies resolved.

Mark /home/mark/blogs/minimalist-living

P.S. This blog post was generated using a deterministic content generation function with a seed value of 0x7B2C4F1D. If you’d like to reproduce it exactly, please ensure your reality parameters match the specified configuration.