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In praise of blowing up your life

sashachapin.substack.com

311–320 of 352 posts

Re: In praise of blowing up your life

#311
post #137

As someone who is getting older, I have this to say: don't take a life advice from a 20-something, no matter how well meaning they are.

Rather stick with old bitter people, who regret not being young anymore? Personally I can find wisdom in 2 year olds babbling, as well as 90 years old. It depends on the person and time. I discovered, that you can learn something from any person (even if it is, how not to do things). And age is not the determining factor.

> Personally I can find wisdom in 2 year olds babbling

Such as?

Re: In praise of blowing up your life

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather stick with old bitter people, who regret not being young anymore? Personally I can find wisdom in 2 year olds babbling, as well as 90 years old. It depends on the person and time. I discovered, that you can learn something from any person (even if it is, how not to do things). And age is not the determining factor.

It is interesting as the later I get into my 50s, I start thinking more and more how I should never listen to what people over 50 say. Life is non-ergodic and the older you get the more you are over fit to a time that no longer exists. At least youthful ignorance has a chance of actually being right. There is a pseudo-wisdom that comes with age that is almost always wrong going forward.

This may be an artifact of our current times, which change so quickly that the wisdom older people accumulated through their life experiences may no longer be applicable to the current reality. But, throught history, older people often really were treasure troves of wisdom.

Re: In praise of blowing up your life

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Always be surrounded by love..." unless you are gay. Gay, trans, atheist, feminist, brown, an opioid addict, a questioner of authority, or otherwise different. Or a middle-aged white man. https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/

Comparing the suicide rate of those groups with middle aged white men (adjusted for the population size) is a bit silly. Some sources point to 40% of trans people having attempted suicide, and I don't think 40% of middle aged men have attempted suicide. In absolute numbers the suicide rate among men is an epidemic, but it's not fair to equate the two populations...

Comparing rate of suicide to frequency of suicide attempts is dishonest. Histrionics grossly inflate the "attempt" rate. The most-dramatic demographic (teenagers) only succeeds 15% of the time, with 12.4% of teenaged girls attempting (5.3% for boys). Anything qualifies!

I've got one who "attempted" suicide as a fucking negotiation tactic-- literally, "give me what I want or I'll kill myself." She's not trans, just Karen incarnate, and had no problems appropriating their "life-affirming care" argument to secure concessions for herself.

Small wonder these numbers are so high-- it's a bullshit metric.

Re: In praise of blowing up your life

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One doesn't realize in early life that the price of freedom is loneliness. To be happy one must be tied." ~ CS Lewis I don't know the context of the quote and I know next to nothing about CS Lewis, but having blown my life up at one point and experienced freedom on a level few on this planet could achieve (health, money, time, and will) the quote rang very true for me. I think some people grow up in a community and…

"One doesn't realize in early life that the price of freedom is loneliness. To be happy one must be tied." There are traveller communities. You hook up, spend time together, split up and meet some of them around the globe later, if you want to.

True bonds require years and decades of frequent interactions to grow.

Re: In praise of blowing up your life

#315
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends if one interprets "trad wife" to mean "far-right cultural atavism" or "traditional wife." I try to listen to those who subscribe to the movement, and they report the latter, every time. It seems those who interpret it as "far-right cultural atavism" refuse to actually listen to the women who find meaning in the lifestyle. Inasmuch, I see these articles strongly linked, and I find the juxtaposition really i…

"Trad wife" AKA people subscribing to traditional Christian ideas of marriage are very much "far-right cultural activists" from the feminist perspective. Traditional Christian ideas about marriage (i.e. stay-at-home mom, breadwinner husband, the wife willingly submitting to her husband's authority, the husband willingly sacrificing his own ambitions for the good of his family, etc.) are very much not in line with fem…

An "activist" is someone who "use direct, often confrontational action, such as a demonstration or strike, in opposition to or support of a cause.". Whereas these people are not activists, they merely live according to their values.

Re: In praise of blowing up your life

#316

I’ve mentioned the last year of my life on HN where my wife and I decided to get rid of everything we own that wouldn’t fit in four suitcases including our cars and we became “hybrid digital nomads”. We fly to different cities across the US and stay in midrange extended stay hotels and stay in our own “Condotel”[1] the other six months in Florida. What I haven’t talked about is what got us to this point. I grew up in…

> and stay in midrange extended stay hotels What does this cost roughly?

My price at home for mortgage and utilities at home is $3K. One fee pays all utilities.

I keep my monthly hotel stays around the same amount since my mortgage is covered e-bike we are traveling. I stay at more expensive places to “vacation” by using hotel loyalty points earned.

I also don’t have a separate “vacation budget” like most people. It’s spread out for six months. My goal was always to keep my budget to the same as it was when I was just a regular old “enterprise Dev”.

Re: In praise of blowing up your life

#317
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the definition of ad hominem. I am in my mid-30s and highly resistant to change; the article resonates. I'm not ready to leave my job (I have two more years of RSUs to collect), but I am moving houses within my city solely for the change of scenery and pattern. I expect in the next few years, unless I meet someone life-changing, that I will leave my city or even take a multi-year sabbatical until I feel the u…

This was a categorical statement about 20-somethings and as such isn't ad hominem. I would still say that if their advice was just as eloquently stated opposite.

My Latin is rusty, then it is perhaps "ad populum", attacking the people. In any case, you're not addressing the message.

"Ceterus paribus" yes, older people are more wise due to experience, but I have met 28 year olds which are much wiser than millions of old, insular, dumb 50-80 year olds.

Re: In praise of blowing up your life

#318
post #6

I don't entirely disagree, but the first thing that this article brought to mind is the old cliche "wherever you go, there you are". I'm 34, lots of ex girlfriends and lots of past cities. There's a fine line between breaking out of the status quo hamster wheel and running away from your baggage. Moving cities, or relationships, or jobs isn't worth as much if you aren't simultaneously working on yourself

It's as old as humanity > Do you suppose that you alone have had this experience? Are you surprised, as if it were a novelty, that after such long travel and so many changes of scene you have not been able to shake off the gloom and heaviness of your mind? You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate. Seneca, 2000 years ago More people should read the classics, lots of wisdom you can speed run instead of…

A comic inspired by this: https://moretothat.com/travel-is-no-cure-for-the-mind https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30235262

Re: In praise of blowing up your life

#319

I’ve mentioned the last year of my life on HN where my wife and I decided to get rid of everything we own that wouldn’t fit in four suitcases including our cars and we became “hybrid digital nomads”. We fly to different cities across the US and stay in midrange extended stay hotels and stay in our own “Condotel”[1] the other six months in Florida. What I haven’t talked about is what got us to this point. I grew up in…

Right, so the "secret" to blowing up your life is just to have massive savings, income and rental property, so that instead of owning your possessions, you can just rent them for 2x the cost of ownership while being a digital nomad. Got it. Just in case someone finds this "profound".

It's not like OP said "Anyone can do it just like this!". It's just what they did. Is it really so shocking to you that richer people have more opportunities in their lives than poorer people?
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