Stuffocation

PENGUIN BOOKS

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First published by Crux Publishing 2013
This revised edition published by Penguin Books 2015

Image Credit: © Datacraft Co Ltd/Getty Images

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Quotations from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, copyright © Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, 1979. Used by kind permission of Python (Monty) Pictures Ltd

ISBN: 978-0-241-97155-0

Introduction
We’ve Had Enough of Stuff

Quiz: Have You Had Enough of Stuff?

Quiz: Could You be an Experientialist?

PART I
THE PROBLEM: STUFFOCATION

1 The Anthropologist and the Clutter Crisis

2 The Dark Side of Materialism

PART II
HOW WE GOT HERE: THE ORIGINS OF THROWAWAY CULTURE

3 The Original Mad Men and the Job of Creating Desire

4 Barbra Streisand and the Law of Unintended Consequences

PART III
THE CROSSROADS: SIGNPOSTS TO A BETTER FUTURE

5 I Love to Count: The 33, 47, 69, and 100 Things of Minimalism

6 The Simple Life and the Cage-Free Family

7 The Medium Chill

PART IV
THE ROAD AHEAD: THE RISE OF THE EXPERIENTIALISTS

8 To Do or to Have? That is No Longer a Question

9 The Experientialists

10 Facebook Changed How We Keep Up with the Joneses

11 We Love to Count Too: The New Way to Measure Progress

12 What about the Chinese?

13 The Gypsy, the Wasp, and the Experience Economy

14 Can You be an Experientialist and Still Love Stuff?

CONCLUSION

Why You Need Experience More Than Ever

APPENDIX:
THE WAY OF THE EXPERIENTIALIST

The 3 Steps to Experientialism

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Experientialists

Notes

Acknowledgements

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Wallman is a journalist, trend forecaster, speaker and author. He has written for GQ, the New York Times, the FT, and has advised clients such as Absolut, BMW, Burberry and Nike. James wrote the futurology column in T3 magazine and was editor of The Future Laboratory’s forecasting publication. He has an MA in Classics from Oxford University and an MA in Journalism from the University of the Arts London. He has lived in France, Greece, and Palo Alto in California. He currently lives in London with his wife and two children.

THE BEGINNING

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Stuffocation

Praise for Stuffocation:

‘Persuasive … clever’
Financial Times

‘Stuffocation is like The Tipping Point meets Freakonomics – but with a huge idea at its heart. Fascinating, inspiring and great fun to read’
Laura Atkinson, The Sunday Times

‘With a sociologist’s eye and a storyteller’s ear, James Wallman takes us on a tour … he identifies the rise of a new value system among those who are consciously replacing materialism with what he rightly calls experientialism. Spot on’
B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, authors, The Experience Economy

‘James Wallman has engagingly woven a mix of true-life stories to demonstrate why our materialistic society no longer makes us happy and what we can do about it. This is written with warmth and wit. The surprise is that Wallman’s glimpses of the future also illuminate, with rare insight, the difficult process of culture change’
Caroline van den Brul MBE, author, Crackle and Fizz

‘Mixes personal and social commentary with a sympathetic understanding of where excessive consumerism comes from, and also has really good recommendations on what to do about it. An original, provocative mixture’
Peter N. Stearns, provost, George Mason University

‘An exhilarating ghost-train ride through the madness of over-consumption, during which we are taunted by our own greed. Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel – and James Wallman takes us there’
Mark Tungate, author, Adland: A Global History of Advertising

‘Stuffocation will take you on the journey of your life. As Wallman builds his case, the true value of experience emerges and resonates … I’ll venture that no one goes unchanged by this book’
Jeanne E. Arnold, professor, department of anthropology, UCLA

‘What Malcom Gladwell did for psychology in Blink, James Wallman does for the fascinating world of trend forecasting in Stuffocation. Backed with quirky stories and compelling examples that are a joy to read, Wallman lifts the veil on why we live the way we do today … and why our obsession with ‘stuff’ may be about to change. You’ll never look at a visit to the shops in the same way again. A gem’
Marianne Cantwell, author, Be a Free Range Human

James Wallman

STUFFOCATION

Living More with Less

PENGUIN BOOKS

Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

THE BEGINNING

Stuffocation