Going light means having the experience to know what you'll need. But if you think you need to buy ultralight gear in order to go light, you are wrong. You can replace each and every piece of your current gear with a lighter piece and go lighter, OR you can simply leave half of what you normally take at home, and go lighter with no additional cost. Before blowing me off here - I haven't bought a significant piece of new gear in ten years and most of my gear is 20 to 30 years old. And I can still go out with people with lighter tiny packs, lighter stoves and lighter sleeping pads, and my pack still weighs less than theirs.

Sometimes I have heavy "mission gear" when I'm going on a trip for some specific purpose - be it night vision gear or a heavy camera, but without the gear there would be no purpose for the trip. But people bring all kinds of silly stuff because they think it will make their trip more enjoyable. Hey an ipod isn't too bad, some of the things people bring along have no real purpose for being there.
Jim