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(I did 2 months last year - 1 month in Thailand/Laos, 1 month in Europe & Egypt. No regrets, at all, save the mad case of food poisoning in Egypt, but I'll spare you the gory details ;)
But it's worth pondering what this does to the economy at large. What happens when we start to perceive value more in fluffy stuff like experiences than physical goods? It would certainly affect the job market and the opportunity cloud for startups.
It's time for everyone in business to ask: what are people willing to pay for in the post consumer society?
On the shopping list for a 21st century man would be:
Experiences.
Social status (never goes out of style, but the accessories do).
Time.
Health.
Emotional comfort.
This is worth keeping in mind when you build your startup. Can you package your service in such a way as to speak to the 21st century man in us all? This man does not just want to solve a problem, he wants to feel good and have fun doing it.
I recently realized what the phrase, "Own enough stuff, and it starts to own you" means. The more things you buy, the more you're obligated to use them to justify paying for them. Your time isn't your own anymore ("I bought this guitar, so after work I must practice, also must figure out new SLR camera, and plan trip around new skis..."), and you're hemmed in to pursuing uses for your toys. I think there's a certain…
There are scale issues as well: * things go in the way when you want to move (change of house, country...) * you have to maintain, clean them, keep things tidy * you're tempted to take a better insurance (against robbery or fire) as you own more * you're tempted to buy/rent a larger house (and one extra room costs a lot, which translates into less time available for me) etc :)
I see this discussion popping up here and there. People are clearly tired of consuming for the sake of consuming. We seek other kicks. Nothing strange with that, this follows the development ladder of spiral dynamics or Maslow. But it's worth pondering what this does to the economy at large. What happens when we start to perceive value more in fluffy stuff like experiences than physical goods? It would certainly affe…
Society is a spectrum - the person you are a describing resides at one end of that spectrum .. there are still many people who need (and want) to buy physical goods, over experiences.
I'm not that far in. I'm 28 years old. Just got married. $42k in student loan debt. No kids. But it still feels impossible to escape the momentum of keeping up.
My job pays well but not well enough to quickly escape the loan debt. That feels like the biggest barrier between me and the things I'd rather be doing (startups, travel/vagabonding, ...).
Besides, there is so much to do as is, like learn assembly. =)
I see this discussion popping up here and there. People are clearly tired of consuming for the sake of consuming. We seek other kicks. Nothing strange with that, this follows the development ladder of spiral dynamics or Maslow. But it's worth pondering what this does to the economy at large. What happens when we start to perceive value more in fluffy stuff like experiences than physical goods? It would certainly affe…
A narrow consideration, but not surprising for a Hacker News comment. I think the bigger picture is that this is a major transition in economies, and it is very good for people.
Imagine a toy model economy where all the people have suddenly shifted to only wanting goods - let's say they are Pogs. They don't want any services. As it happens, there is an absolutely ginormous Pog-making machine which can meet the entire economy's demand for Pogs. And extremely efficiently, too, so that basically all it needs is some paper to run. What's going to happen in this economy?
What will happen is that all the ordinary people will slowly transfer their capital and savings to the owner of the Pog machine in exchange for the Pogs they so crave, and the owner will make out like a bandit, since he only needs to pay the paper mill occasionally. (Nor will the owner be spreading the wealth - like everyone else, he lusts for Pogs.) In the extreme, everyone is a bankrupt peon with no job and the owner owns next to everything.
You might think of this model as a little intuition-pump for 'what if robots ran all the machines in a manufacturing economy?' Fortunately, we aren't in such a manufacturing economy, but shifting to a service economy where the machines haven't taken the only jobs available, and so the robots and machines are on net very good for us - their manufactured wealth gets shared.
I recently realized what the phrase, "Own enough stuff, and it starts to own you" means. The more things you buy, the more you're obligated to use them to justify paying for them. Your time isn't your own anymore ("I bought this guitar, so after work I must practice, also must figure out new SLR camera, and plan trip around new skis..."), and you're hemmed in to pursuing uses for your toys. I think there's a certain…
Judging from these comments, I must be the only person who does not like traveling. I like hearing stories and learning about other cultures, but the idea of flying around the world seeking adventure is a hassle to me. Does that make me a bad person? Besides, there is so much to do as is, like learn assembly. =)
You can learn Assembly on the way, if you must.