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Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

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Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#81

Post by noname123 »

Hadriel wrote: post #37
noname123 wrote: post #25

I'd love to hear concretely what you guys who traveled actually gained from traveling the world? Because I always hear that it's really exciting and you get to go to exciting places - but what exactly did you gain in terms of perspectives besides your instagram pictures and cocktail stories? I've never get beyond this superficial in hearing people's travel stories online and IRL. Maybe it's just me; but the idea of g…

Traveled around south america for 2 years. 1 year backpacking thru hostels with 3 months in bolivia studying spanish then one year volunteering as an english teacher.

I'd love to have gone that immersion experience of learning Spanish; and use that language skill to practice and go full circle to be an ESOL teacher (was an ESOL volunteer teacher too)!

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#82

Post by LimaBearz »

sgpl wrote: post #65
LimaBearz wrote: post #54

Taking a loose definition of "travel the world". Born and raised in the BA. In my mid 30's I left a FAANG type(specialized, highly compensated) employer, sold my home and bought a sailboat and moved aboard. Over that next year and half I spent it sailing the Pacific then ending up in Southern CA. I was going through a premature midlife crisis all based on the premise that "humans weren't meant to sit behind a desk al…

Great story - I hope to do something similar someday soon. Out of curiosity, did you know how to sail before or did you take a crash course just prior to/learn as you went along?

It’s something I always wanted to do. Prior to leaving I spent a few years learning it and sailing SF bay.

Having said that’s it’s not required, plenty of people learn as they go though crossing an ocean isn’t advised as a jumping off point

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#83

Post by eric4smith »

Did not quit my job, but instead went full remote in 2018 (age 55 at the time).

Still doing it, but the pandemic forced me to stay in one country for just about a year now.

In that year I put down roots, got long term visas and maybe will spend another few years there while we see how things shape out this and next year.

But ya, 2-3 months minimum in a place is what you need, with just a small backpack.

Make local friends.

Don't hang around or go out with other tourists or expats. This is the kiss of death.

Make it a rule to eat only the food of the city or the country that you find yourself in.

Learn a few words of the language "hello", "thank you", "bathroom", "stop", etc.

Don't think people are less than you. They're not. They want the same things as you.

As an introvert, being forced to make friends with people who speak another language and look the opposite of me (black guy in Asia), was exactly the ticket.

Well recommended to do it.

The main thing I would say - is have a mission when you travel. Seeing the sights and drinking the bars and mingling with other tourists and shtupping the local girls is fun, but not a mission.

You will get bored after some time of doing that.

Have some particular work or meaning to each day to keep you grounded, and you can do the moving around for a super-long time.

You will find that you'll set some schedules for work, play and discoveries - regardless of where you are.

Just don't quit your job. Instead go remote (even if you have savings). Ok?

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#84

Post by hayst4ck »

aerovistae wrote: post #53
hayst4ck wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Try to stay in one place for a few months, minimum. I second this. 2 months is the minimum amount of time per country, and 2 weeks per city if you expect to get anything more than a handful of good meals and a couple adventures out of a place. My better memories were all from places I stayed for over 2 months, and all have more to do with people I met than the place itself.

> and all have more to do with people I met than the place itself. Did you speak the local language?

Nope. Until you travel you don't even have the slightest clue what a privilege it is to speak English or be from America. Educated middle/upper class people everywhere except china (where there is almost no english at all) generally speak at the very least broken English, if not fluent english.

That being said:

One of the most interesting people I met was in china, and I'd say complex ideas were 75% communicated in english. Google translate or wechat translate supplemented the conversations.

One of the other people I met was in Korea. His enlgish was probably closer to 50% and complex ideas almost certainly required a translation app. Great memories though.

I would probably have a conversation mediated entirely by google translate once every other week or so, and google translate was generally good enough to get an idea of menu's or communicate to people with absolutely no english ability at all. Nearly all conversations I had in china were translated via WeChat.

Traveling made me regret circumventing the language requirement in college so much.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#85

Post by keiferski »

noname123 wrote: post #71
keiferski wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a very stereotypical view of what "traveling the world" is, so it's not surprising that you're dismissive. > If you want to immersed into a culture, wouldn't you want to commit to learning the language and go to your local city's meetup for that language - instead of going to a foreign country with a phrasebook. Meet-ups are not even remotely comparable to actually being there. This is especially true for no…

So far in some of the comments. I've gotten the same answer, "it changed my life!"; "I heard some new stories from the countries I stayed and it changed my perspective!"; "and I'm different from people back home now!"; and a subtle swipe that OP is dismissive and maybe "small-minded"; and I love it and appreciate your guys feedback! Allow me to share my experience of being immersed in American culture for 25 years as…

I have lived abroad for about 7 years now. It has dramatically changed how I think about the world, what my values are, and what I want in my own future. It is miles beyond "I heard some new stories from the countries I stayed and it changed my perspective!"

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#86

Post by alinhan »

ehnto wrote: post #19
ArtTimeInvestor wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I do that. But still the desk/chair constellation is usually bad. And the monitor of the laptop is a bit small.

Yep agreed, I have been interested in some of these battery powered travel monitors. They look like a big tablet but are just a screen and battery, like a Surface without the computer.

A portable projector might be a good solution as well.

But you're still left with the bad table an chair.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#87

Post by noname123 »

tayo42 wrote: post #74
noname123 wrote: post #25

I'd love to hear concretely what you guys who traveled actually gained from traveling the world? Because I always hear that it's really exciting and you get to go to exciting places - but what exactly did you gain in terms of perspectives besides your instagram pictures and cocktail stories? I've never get beyond this superficial in hearing people's travel stories online and IRL. Maybe it's just me; but the idea of g…

> I've never get beyond this superficial in hearing people's travel stories online and IRL. I think most people aren't very articulate, they cant express their experiences well. Or maybe don't self reflect well. But anything you experience will leave an effect on you. Food, locations and just getting dropped into to situations you wouldn't normally be in are the biggest things about traveling. There's a lot of little…

>I found I really like indonesian food, mie goreng is a regular weeknight dinner for me now.

That's awesome. You've inspired me to look up some recipes and try to attempt it (keyword: attempt).

> One other thing i want to mention is seeing nature is impactful. Going to the carribean and seeing dead coral reefs really drives home the damage humans are doing to this planet.

I hear what you're trying to communicate; sometimes experiences are more powerful than its equivalent wiki or statistical infographics format; somethings are meant to be experienced, not a pre-conceived notion transmitted and interpreted secondhand in a book or a documentary or online post.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#88

Post by TimJRobinson »

I kind of did, but the travelling was somewhat hindered by covid. I ended up playing games and doing fun side projects for a lot of the time instead.

The most stressful part was the feeling of lost opportunity cost. Even though my living costs were low, I previously earned around $250k/year, and so for each month I travelled it felt like I was really spending $15k or so (after taxes). It took probably 6 months to fully get over this feeling. I unfortunately didn't anticipate it and it made the start of my mini retirement much more stressful than I thought it would be, and I had 5+ years of living costs saved up.

Would be interested in knowing if anyone else experienced this, and how you dealt with it.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#89

Post by tjbiddle »

swiley wrote: post #30
rsync wrote: post #11

If you have even the inkling that you might want to do this then you absolutely should. Opportunities and projects and ventures will always be there. Your youth will not.

Why does everyone try to travel when they're young? There are things youth helps with but visiting other countries doesn't seem like one of them. Finding a partner and building a family is though and that's very hard when you're always in a different place. Plenty of people end up traveling more than they want to later in life for business anyway.

Heard plenty of stories from friends who worked as a travel agent that told of working with clients for years to plan their dream vacation only to see them or their spouse die before having it realized.

I remember a beautiful sunrise hike up to the Meteora monasteries in Greece... then the swarms of busses filled with elderly retirees coming in after.

Sure, you can visit places when you're older - but it's a vastly different experience.

Why not have both? The world's accessibility has opened up so much in the past couple decades.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#90

Post by noname123 »

ericmcer wrote: post #60
noname123 wrote: post #25

I'd love to hear concretely what you guys who traveled actually gained from traveling the world? Because I always hear that it's really exciting and you get to go to exciting places - but what exactly did you gain in terms of perspectives besides your instagram pictures and cocktail stories? I've never get beyond this superficial in hearing people's travel stories online and IRL. Maybe it's just me; but the idea of g…

I find travel/experiences is a terrible way to make yourself a more interesting person. Some people can tell a story about a drunken brawl in a foreign country and make it boring. Another person can describe getting coffee in the morning and leave people hanging on their every word.

This. When people talk about break-ups, you learn something about human nature like people's different attachment styles and each person's unique emotional vulnerabilities and their resilience in spite of it. When people talk about their careers and work stories and when you really listen, you learn about what people truly value (getting money vs. an academic pursuit, integrity vs. personal expediency); with travel stories, there is no character arc, more like a pastiche, a camera pan of the landscape they traveled to.
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