Tour Divide competitors and the epitome of minimalists when it comes to long-term living on a bike in harsh conditions. A DNB just wants to survive and keep their job while traveling between interesting places by bike. Both have a strong requirement to simplify, or die, literally.
It’s taken several years of planning to even be able to go out the door on my first DNB adventure because if I do it wrong I could lose my job or, yes, die. The only things that really matter are obvious:
Every time I’ve failed it has almost always been because I was distracted by thinking too much about something not on this list. I lost focus on what was important.