This doesn't contradict the article. It boils down to "I like stuff, because I buy good stuff and ditch the rest."

agreed. What he writes isn't a defense of hoarding, it's a defense of newness, which PG wasn't even attacking.

You boys are taking this wayyyy too seriously... :)

Yeah - I took the whole thing to be a Christopher Guest-like joke.

I think ultimately PG wasn't directly criticizing those who accumulate stuff, either. As I understood it, the issue is the attachment to the stuff, particularly when it inteferes with living a good life.

i recommend watching george carlin's video on stuff:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual...

Classic Carlin. Def among his best material.

I got one thing to say: "You are not your job. You are not how much you have in the bank. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your khakis..."

You are not your collection of movie quotes. ;-)

Matt seems to be a funny guy with a lot of candor. I like how he does not change just because something has come straight from the horse's mouth.

Is this a joke?

I can't tell. I'm finding myself saying .... no ??

Here's a real defense of "stuff", except I'll state it off-handedly:

Slavery is good...for others.

The real question is, if not materialism, what is the meaning of life?

That's easy: the meaning of life is doing cool stuff, and not doing stuff that sucks or is lame.

It's funny because it's true.

The meaning of life is to do everything you can to make sure the people you care about love you back." X Warren Buffet

To know and worship the Creator.

Well, our creator is at least a type 4 civilization that is exploiting the existence of our universe to generate energy in some way. I think the ultimate purpose of humanity is to trigger the big crunch so we can exploit the infinite computational power you get from a contracting universe. Plus it would be pretty cool to be reunited with all the other matter and energy as one.

Or we're the biproduct of an axiomatic system like our mathematics.

Either way, I strongly doubt the entities superior to us, inside or outside of our universe, care about or even notice our worship. But hey, if it makes you feel better, it doesn't bother me, as long as you're not telling me who I can or can't marry or holding back fundamental scientific research.

To wear hats.