Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Indefinite Backpack Travel

jeremymaluf.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 429 posts

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#61

Post by beaker52 »

rockostrich wrote: post #56
beaker52 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism, and could henceforth live happily without a lot of stuff and conveniences. Same. Exactly the same. I have often reflected that I have never been as happy as when I had the least stuff, either. I often wonder if it’s a) correlation or causation and b) whether the stuff is caused by dissatisfaction or the dissatisfaction is caused by the st…

As always, moderation is important for any normal person. I think that applies to minimalism as well. Use it to cut unnecessary stuff out of your life, but unless you're some outlier then it's probably not good to try and live the most minimalist life that you can without causing some terrible mental health effects along the way. > I’m shedding hobbies and interests that I have because I believe that they’ve become d…

Of course.

And perhaps? For me, the reward comes from the learning. (Who would have thought, being a software engineer by trade).

Luckily my brain has a self-invalidating cache, but my home, not so much. Perhaps I will find the right hobby, but it should not be something that involves the accumulation of things, because the things weigh a hidden cost of possession. It’s this hidden cost that hurts, like a tax, an inefficiency of the mind, or being. It’s insidious because it’s almost impossible to attribute the friction with the possession, because you’re often not actively dealing with it, but it’s there. It’s like, you know you have 32gb of RAM, but for some reason you’re only working with 20gb but you can’t inspect what’s stealing the other 12gb. It’s only after removing things from disk, do you start to see the RAM getting freed up, and then you begin to appreciate the extra mental resources.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#62

Post by raffael_de »

delichon wrote: post #10

I lived out of a backpack for two months on a Pacific Crest Trail hike. I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism, and could henceforth live happily without a lot of stuff and conveniences. Not so much. Now a couple of decades later, I've got a house and garage crammed with stuff. Yesterday I had a plumber here working on a leak, and this morning I have no running water, and here I…

Two months isn't really that long.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#63

Post by elheffe80 »

So, this article is great and has some great items in it if you fit them. The pants look great but max out at 34" waist in the pair I checked. The towel is barely 4.5 feet and is far too short for a beach towel for someone who is 6' (though I still want it because I love these types of towels). I could not do this lifestyle though, not now in my life. I was in the military and traveled a lot for extended periods of time (year long deployments to the ass end of nowhere) and we traveled HEAVY. HEAVY heavy. Not my favorite way, and I got to the point where I would ship everything home and when we traveled I had a day bag with 3 days worth of clothes and such. So there is a crossover of this and that lifestyle. I still wouldn't want to go to it, I like having a home too much, even if I am renting.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#64

Post by qgin »

nadermx wrote: post #49

Before being a digital nomad was cool I went full nomad. I remember being in a hostel in Thailand and just throwing away everything I had brought, going down to the basics. Ended up with a similar setup. The thing is, after years of doing it, learning new languages, making friends all over, and then leaving knowing you might not see them again for ever or for long stints, you start to feel the yearning to be able to…

I think this is key. I travel nearly zero these days due to a long list of reasons, but the mental exercise of thinking about whether I could travel with my stuff helps me be more conscious about accumulating things that I don’t really need.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#65

Post by ortusdux »

delichon wrote: post #10

I lived out of a backpack for two months on a Pacific Crest Trail hike. I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism, and could henceforth live happily without a lot of stuff and conveniences. Not so much. Now a couple of decades later, I've got a house and garage crammed with stuff. Yesterday I had a plumber here working on a leak, and this morning I have no running water, and here I…

we forget quickly

we grow with our container

we are all goldfish

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#67

Post by rockostrich »

beaker52 wrote: post #61
rockostrich wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As always, moderation is important for any normal person. I think that applies to minimalism as well. Use it to cut unnecessary stuff out of your life, but unless you're some outlier then it's probably not good to try and live the most minimalist life that you can without causing some terrible mental health effects along the way. > I’m shedding hobbies and interests that I have because I believe that they’ve become d…

Of course. And perhaps? For me, the reward comes from the learning. (Who would have thought, being a software engineer by trade). Luckily my brain has a self-invalidating cache, but my home, not so much. Perhaps I will find the right hobby, but it should not be something that involves the accumulation of things, because the things weigh a hidden cost of possession. It’s this hidden cost that hurts, like a tax, an ine…

Not sure if you have a background outside of software engineering, but as someone who got a degree in mechanical engineering and then shifted over to software engineering I've landed on home/car maintenance as a pretty good base hobby to fall back on. There's always more to learn, you can do most of it with a pretty limited set of tools, and it has the added bonus of improving daily life.

This may be a bit specific to me since I bought an older house and car in the past year and they require a bit more TLC. My partner and I painted all of the rooms (tools are just paint, brushes, and rollers). I've replaced almost all of the outlets and switches, including putting in a few zigbee switches (Sonoff ZBMINIR2s to be specific) since we have no overhead lights in any of our rooms and the switches don't control the right outlets... The only tools for that work are a screwdriver and a wire stripper. We also hung some cabinets in our living room and put up some bookshelves (made easier with power tools, but possible with hand tools). When it got warm, we did a bunch of work outside including some brick edging (bucket, mason line, and a trowel) and a fire pit (shovel, level, rake, and tamper).

Cars require some more tools but you can do pretty much every bit of maintenance work with a standard set of wrenches, a jack, and jack stands.

Everything just sits against the wall or in a toolbox in the garage. It's a big 2 car garage but it fits a home gym set-up, a TV on a cart, a workbench, a bunch of furniture that we need to get rid of on FB Marketplace, and there's still room to pull in a car (mine is in there right now since I'm changing the spark plugs).

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#68

Post by Onawa »

owenversteeg wrote: post #55

I've done this before (not indefinitely, but for many trips around the world.) I agree with the author on a lot: 1) it's not a good way to live long term, 2) traveling with as little as possible completely transforms the traveling experience, 3) zero-bag travel is great, 4) a good quality small bag with well designed compartments is critical, 5) M-series Macs are the only way to go, 6) two thumb drives is very conven…

Why no synthetic underwear? I feel like I would be miserable with only cotton boxer-briefs... I sweat entirely too much even in moderate weather to be comfortable in cotton. I am partial to Pair of Thieves extra long boxer-briefs, they don't ride up at all since I have big thighs. When travelling I can wash them in a sink, and they dry way more quickly than cotton.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#69

Post by msluyter »

rockostrich wrote: post #52
delichon wrote: post #10

I lived out of a backpack for two months on a Pacific Crest Trail hike. I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism, and could henceforth live happily without a lot of stuff and conveniences. Not so much. Now a couple of decades later, I've got a house and garage crammed with stuff. Yesterday I had a plumber here working on a leak, and this morning I have no running water, and here I…

> It turns out that climbing on the hedonic treadmill is practically effortless, but sliding down it is full of splinters. Not sure if I'm missing a joke, but the whole point of the analogy being a treadmill is that there's nothing to fall down. Regardless of positive (running forward) or negative (going backward on the treadmill) life changes, your happiness will probably stay relatively consistent because you're on…

Perhaps the joke is that the valence of going backward or forward isn't equivalent. IIRC, some studies show that people will generally accept smaller gains to avoid the possibility of loss. Eg, loss has a greater (negative) emotional impact than equivalent (positive) gains.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#70

Post by arccy »

hylaride wrote: post #36
pavel_lishin wrote: post #2

> Onebag travel is unquestionably the best way to travel. Traveling without luggage removes just about every pain point associated with flying, such as checking bags, overhead compartments, bag fees, waiting in line, and needing to drop off luggage before an adventure. Just stroll into the airport an hour before your flight, and walk off your plane directly to your destination. This is absolutely true, especially whe…

People freak out about this, but all it boils down to is bringing enough socks, underwear, and shirts for ~5-6 days, 2 pairs of bottoms, and (depending on weather) or a combination of 2 and/either sweaters and an outer shell. Wear the biggest stuff (pants/sweaters) on the plane. After that be willing to do laundry, which will often put you in a position that's outside the tourist mainstream and force you to slow down…

> single use detergent packs are a thing, but you can also just bring a few tide pods in a zip-lock bag

Even better these days there are laundry sheets that are light / compact.

Post reply on HN