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Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

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Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#21

Post by speckledjim »

irishpolyglot wrote: post #20
pinaceae wrote: post #18

but what if i ENJOY watching tv? or being on the internet for hours? why is outdoors better by definition? this fits nicely into the "what white people like" stereotype. go outside! why? maybe i want to read a book and be left alone. maybe i don't like dancing and singing. how about: do whatever you like, but please, don't preach. we are different. /white, like travel and outdoors, but love to consume art

If after spending many hours watching TV you feel your life has been enhanced in some way, then by all means keep it up. In my opinion people don't feel this way (I certainly never did and grew up glued to my TV) and would have spent their time better in other activities rather than following hours of reality TV shows etc. Doing "whatever you like" doesn't necessarily enrich your life. It's just immediate pleasure. S…

I feel my life is infinitely enriched by watching TV and movies. (In UK, we have extremely high quality programming).

You wouldn't say "all books are bad" would you... Sadly people seem to take the worst TV (reality TV) and assume it's all like that.

Watch some good movies, comedies or documentaries. Heck watch "How it's made" for a few days.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#22

Post by glimcat »

irishpolyglot wrote: post #19
glimcat wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concept of closed-mindedness is also heavily cultural; it doesn't always translate or map to local values.

As I said in the post, closed-mindedness is something that people have to realise lies within themselves. This post wasn't calling Parisians closed minded.

I assumed you were calling yourself closed-minded.

But my point was that the whole open-minded versus closed-minded conversation hinges upon cultural values which are by no means universal. There are many cases where the reverse is seen as important (e.g. resisting outside influences) or where the entire topic is not seen as meaningful or important.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#23

Post by lemming »

swores wrote: post #3

More money will NEVER solve your problems That just isn't true - the problem is that people realised that being rich isn't the same as being happy, and it was a good point. But then people took it too far, and it stops making sense. Sure, for some people, having more money wouldn't improve things, but for many people, it definitely could. And I'm not just talking about people who are starving or homeless. You don't n…

Maybe so, but it really is demonstrably true that there's a huge law of diminishing returns there. Once you earn a reasonable amount of money (the figure I saw for the US was around 50k, probably depreciated by now and obviously location-dependent) there is absolutely no correlation between making more money and happiness. The main take-away is that it probably requires a lot less than you think.

For this and many other interesting musings on the nature of happiness I strongly recommend "Stumbling on Happiness" by Daniel Gilbert. It's fascinating.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#24

Post by corin_ »

lemming wrote: post #23
swores wrote: post #3

More money will NEVER solve your problems That just isn't true - the problem is that people realised that being rich isn't the same as being happy, and it was a good point. But then people took it too far, and it stops making sense. Sure, for some people, having more money wouldn't improve things, but for many people, it definitely could. And I'm not just talking about people who are starving or homeless. You don't n…

Maybe so, but it really is demonstrably true that there's a huge law of diminishing returns there. Once you earn a reasonable amount of money (the figure I saw for the US was around 50k, probably depreciated by now and obviously location-dependent) there is absolutely no correlation between making more money and happiness. The main take-away is that it probably requires a lot less than you think. For this and many ot…

There's a big difference between "once you have a home and food" and "once you have 50k/yr", though.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#25

Post by glimcat »

speckledjim wrote: post #21
irishpolyglot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If after spending many hours watching TV you feel your life has been enhanced in some way, then by all means keep it up. In my opinion people don't feel this way (I certainly never did and grew up glued to my TV) and would have spent their time better in other activities rather than following hours of reality TV shows etc. Doing "whatever you like" doesn't necessarily enrich your life. It's just immediate pleasure. S…

I feel my life is infinitely enriched by watching TV and movies. (In UK, we have extremely high quality programming). You wouldn't say "all books are bad" would you... Sadly people seem to take the worst TV (reality TV) and assume it's all like that. Watch some good movies, comedies or documentaries. Heck watch "How it's made" for a few days.

I think there's a difference between watching the tele without regard to content and using it to watch specific content.

The "read more" crowd gets the reverse of this - much of what is in print is not worth the time it takes to consume it.

In general, value your time and use it accordingly. You're not getting it back if you decide it was wasted later.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#26

Post by lhnz »

revorad wrote: post #7

As I've been saying to others regarding startup advice and lessons, it's much more helpful and interesting to read stories. You may think you are extracting out wisdom from your experiences, but really, more often than not, these "life lessons" don't mean much without context. I certainly can't take them for a rule and apply them to my life. It may turn out to be the wrong advice for me and even if it doesn't, I'll a…

A life lesson with context wouldn't be a life lesson. The context is life, if the context is more specific and not fully applicable to life then it is no longer a life lesson.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#27

Post by irishpolyglot »

speckledjim wrote: post #21
irishpolyglot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If after spending many hours watching TV you feel your life has been enhanced in some way, then by all means keep it up. In my opinion people don't feel this way (I certainly never did and grew up glued to my TV) and would have spent their time better in other activities rather than following hours of reality TV shows etc. Doing "whatever you like" doesn't necessarily enrich your life. It's just immediate pleasure. S…

I feel my life is infinitely enriched by watching TV and movies. (In UK, we have extremely high quality programming). You wouldn't say "all books are bad" would you... Sadly people seem to take the worst TV (reality TV) and assume it's all like that. Watch some good movies, comedies or documentaries. Heck watch "How it's made" for a few days.

As I said in another comment, these are just things that I have personally learned in the last 8 years. Disagree with them if you will. I do agree that TV quality is better in the UK (we get most of it in Ireland) compared to the states, but there is still plenty of rubbish that people waste their time with. If you just watch documentaries or educational programming, then that enriches your life and there would be nothing negative for me to say about it.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#28

Post by lhnz »

swores wrote: post #3

More money will NEVER solve your problems That just isn't true - the problem is that people realised that being rich isn't the same as being happy, and it was a good point. But then people took it too far, and it stops making sense. Sure, for some people, having more money wouldn't improve things, but for many people, it definitely could. And I'm not just talking about people who are starving or homeless. You don't n…

You can't spend 8 years traveling the world without quite a bit of money. The author should look at his own life before telling others that they don't need money; it sounds like luxury to me.

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#29

Post by irishpolyglot »

glimcat wrote: post #22
irishpolyglot wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I said in the post, closed-mindedness is something that people have to realise lies within themselves. This post wasn't calling Parisians closed minded.

I assumed you were calling yourself closed-minded. But my point was that the whole open-minded versus closed-minded conversation hinges upon cultural values which are by no means universal. There are many cases where the reverse is seen as important (e.g. resisting outside influences) or where the entire topic is not seen as meaningful or important.

Thanks for explaining!

Re: Life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight

#30

Post by lemming »

corin_ wrote: post #24
lemming wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe so, but it really is demonstrably true that there's a huge law of diminishing returns there. Once you earn a reasonable amount of money (the figure I saw for the US was around 50k, probably depreciated by now and obviously location-dependent) there is absolutely no correlation between making more money and happiness. The main take-away is that it probably requires a lot less than you think. For this and many ot…

There's a big difference between "once you have a home and food" and "once you have 50k/yr", though.

Absolutely. A lot of people don't plan to stop at 50k/yr either, though - the OP's main point is that from a happiness optimisation POV after that point (or maybe earlier) their energy would be better spent elsewhere. And your expensive shoes example person is probably making more than 50k.
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