<p>For Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, "minimalism" is much more than a simple, spartan ethos. The 31-year-old Ohio natives have spent the past couple of years paring down their possessions and reordering their priorities. In the process, they've accumulated thousands of virtual followers.</p><p>The quest of "The Minimalists," as Nicodemus and Millburn call themselves, is to cut through the clutter both real and figurative. Through their website, theminimalists.com which has 100,000 monthly readers they chronicle their quest and offer regular essays on everything from self-help to meditations on the essence of being. They also travel, mentor, lecture, and recently published a book, "Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life." The initially 300-plus-page volume ("You can taste the irony, right?" Nicodemus quipped) was pared down to half that, and serves as a sort of "how to" on living contentedly with the least stuff possible.</p><p>"What we focus on is living more deliberately," said Nicodemus, who, with Millburn, recently gave a talk at the Harvard Business School as part of their "Holiday Happiness Tour," a journey that took them to roughly a dozen cities from New York to Vancouver in a little over a month's time.</p><p>Minimalism is a concept that can be seen as "subversive" or even "radical," Nicodemus said, but it's a spectrum, with a different flavor for everybody. It's not about convincing everyone to do it and it's also not about deprivation.</p><p><a href="http://bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2012/12/19/like-henry-david-thoreau-but-with-wifi/AXbWgbzx9PLGwJ1jfgeQvL/story.html">Keep reading...</a></p>