61–70 of 153 posts
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> I wonder what it says about me or my life that my first thought was that it sounded absolutely wonderful. >I do not want to be homeless or get rid of my family, but it sure would be amazing to "be able to" (of course I have a choice: I can just resign) just spend time spending time. Trust me mate. Being homeless or a homeless traveler is HARD. I am homeless for 3 months now and it's absolutely devastating for my so…
People with comfortable enough lives sometimes have this attraction to the very romanticized versions of otherwise very hard lives. You see this with the coder who dreams of the farmer's life, or that of a "rover, wanderer, nomad, vagabond", or even that of a soldier. It's probably the assumption that something that can be a nice hobby on its best days, a short escape, must also be a nice life. But it's the dose that…
There's a balance of course, but I believe most people would benefit from harder lives (in the natural/physical sense). Modern life being more comfortable and easier is actually bullshit. If your life is driving through traffic hours a day to go to a place to sit in front of a computer by yourself to send out messages by chat and email, that is a very hard life. You are forsaking nature and an eon of evolution to satisfy what exactly?
Gives me an idea of an ultra endurance event... Think "Ironman" of walking. Let's say participants would have two weeks to complete the 587 km course or some part of it and whoever finished first is the Leatherman.
Sometimes you find the most random things on HN, you have to wonder how that came about. Interesting character for sure, this leatherman.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/magazine/old-leatherman-w...
but it seems too new... I'm sure it was more than a year ago I read about it...
EDIT: that's definitely not the one. The one I read was by an author who had had a life-long obsession with the Leatherman and wanted to retrace his steps, on his own, and he had a family. It was a haunting piece.
EDIT 2: actually, looks like it is the article. I didn't scan far enough. I guess March 2025 feels a really long time ago.
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There is a third option, which is to move to a place with a much lower cost of living. This isn’t always possible, due to family or job, but it’s not exactly uncommon either. Remote work, in particular, has helped with this. Work fewer hours, for less money, but with fewer needs. Doable, but it’s about what you prioritize and care about.
> Remote work, in particular, has helped with this. Work fewer hours, for less money Honestly, this sounds like an armchair fantasy. It sounds great on paper– tech jobs pay $150K, so just find a remote job and work half-time. Boom, less taxes and you still have $5K/mo plus tons of time! IME though, 99% of jobs want to own you full-time. There are almost no roles where you can be part-time. The other alternative, inde…
I wonder what it says about me or my life that my first thought was that it sounded absolutely wonderful. I had a good stretch of time between jobs (fortunately voluntarily) a while back and ever since I have had a completely different outlook on life that is, sadly, not quite compatible with modern life. During my time unemployed my pace of life was more like it is when you are on a camping/hiking trip with a group…
Yeah. The options for lots of leisure are either: a) be homeless, or b) be rich. Those of us inbetween always have to choose and make compromises. In my life, this has forced me to quit on a bunch of things I would have continued otherwise, and to lean down things like my workouts and so on. This isn't necessarily bad, I like that I can now do 80% with 20% of time/effort, but still, would be nice to have more slack.
I wonder what it says about me or my life that my first thought was that it sounded absolutely wonderful. I had a good stretch of time between jobs (fortunately voluntarily) a while back and ever since I have had a completely different outlook on life that is, sadly, not quite compatible with modern life. During my time unemployed my pace of life was more like it is when you are on a camping/hiking trip with a group…
It was the hardest thing I'd ever done to myself. My gear was stolen within days, I got beat up and nearly stuck with dirty heroin needles at least 3 times, almost arrested twice, and yeah .. it just generally sucked. I was not prepared for the hardship.
6 months in the Australian desert after that experience definitely made me appreciate the Australian desert a lot more than I had previously, and I will never, ever try this experiment in an American city again.
Its not the street that'll get to you. Its the street life. If I were the only homeless bum in the area, I would've done better I think - but it was all too easy to filter out to skid row after having been chased out of pretty much every 'sanctity' spot I could find, under bridges and in the Griffith Park area - whether by cops or by other homeless people. It was pretty stupid of me, in hindsight. I really didn't need to do it, I was just trying to push my boundaries before heading into the Kimberley region to eat snakes and lizards. That was, by comparison, a far better experience than the reptiles of LA. Would not recommend.
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> I wonder what it says about me or my life that my first thought was that it sounded absolutely wonderful. >I do not want to be homeless or get rid of my family, but it sure would be amazing to "be able to" (of course I have a choice: I can just resign) just spend time spending time. Trust me mate. Being homeless or a homeless traveler is HARD. I am homeless for 3 months now and it's absolutely devastating for my so…
People with comfortable enough lives sometimes have this attraction to the very romanticized versions of otherwise very hard lives. You see this with the coder who dreams of the farmer's life, or that of a "rover, wanderer, nomad, vagabond", or even that of a soldier. It's probably the assumption that something that can be a nice hobby on its best days, a short escape, must also be a nice life. But it's the dose that…
Some people even go camping for recreation.
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People with comfortable enough lives sometimes have this attraction to the very romanticized versions of otherwise very hard lives. You see this with the coder who dreams of the farmer's life, or that of a "rover, wanderer, nomad, vagabond", or even that of a soldier. It's probably the assumption that something that can be a nice hobby on its best days, a short escape, must also be a nice life. But it's the dose that…
Hard, in this sense, does not necessarily mean negative or bad. And the safety nets are often illusions (see: insurance, for one example). There's a balance of course, but I believe most people would benefit from harder lives (in the natural/physical sense). Modern life being more comfortable and easier is actually bullshit. If your life is driving through traffic hours a day to go to a place to sit in front of a com…
It does when it applies to your life. (Edit to reply to your edit) A bit of physical activity doesn't make your life harder. A lot of it might. And almost only hard physical activity is pure punishment, even literally used as such in labor camps.
> the safety nets are often illusions
Safety nets are sometimes illusions, they are mostly helping. Like an airbag they only need to work once to prove their worth.
> see: insurance, for one example
Insurance saved the livelihoods of millions of people, sometimes many times over. Rebuilding houses, repairing equipment, covering medical expenses, or critical services. Sometimes they fail you.
Do you know many people who wish for a hard life? For the homeless life? To not have any sort of insurance?
> There's a balance of course [...] You are forsaking nature and an eon of evolution to satisfy what exactly?
The balance.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wonder what it says about me or my life that my first thought was that it sounded absolutely wonderful. >I do not want to be homeless or get rid of my family, but it sure would be amazing to "be able to" (of course I have a choice: I can just resign) just spend time spending time. Trust me mate. Being homeless or a homeless traveler is HARD. I am homeless for 3 months now and it's absolutely devastating for my so…
People with comfortable enough lives sometimes have this attraction to the very romanticized versions of otherwise very hard lives. You see this with the coder who dreams of the farmer's life, or that of a "rover, wanderer, nomad, vagabond", or even that of a soldier. It's probably the assumption that something that can be a nice hobby on its best days, a short escape, must also be a nice life. But it's the dose that…
It hits me every summer like clockwork tbh - leaving a nicely typed 2 minutes notice on my VP's desk and just taking my chances as a traveling beach bum. Akin to wanderlust, I'm filled with the urge to just go off into the unknown.
In my heart of hearts I know I'm a soft city boy though. I wouldn't last a week.