Backwards Collecting

Drawing from Hodja's love of inversion and paradox, Backwards Collecting asks: what if the goal isn't acquisition but strategic subtraction? In this practice, you examine your current collections and deliberately remove one item weekly, fully understanding why before it leaves. This reverses the typical collector's anxiety about missing out. Hodja would recognize the joke: we think we're losing, yet we're gaining clarity. Each removal becomes a small ceremony of examined choice. Over time, Backwards Collecting reveals which items genuinely spark joy and which merely occupy space through habit. The practice honors nature's cycles of growth and decay. By playing with elimination, collectors discover that true collecting isn't about quantity but about the integrity of relationship with each chosen object.