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Indefinite Backpack Travel

jeremymaluf.com

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Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#141

Post by zevon »

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…

I don't know if you use some sort of safety treadmill but on many, you will fall if you don't/can't run anymore. There's your metaphor for life. Also, running on a treadmill is/can be viewed an image for not moving forward despite all the running you do.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#142

Post by AxEy »

w10-1 wrote: post #73

When traveling, I met many who lived by the mantra of self-sufficiency. It seemed both to liberate and consume them. Daily now I see people living on the street with a lot more, but still with needs of all sorts. In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily - yes, for food, but mainly to submit to the judgment of society as to whether one's pra…

> "In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily... "

Interesting. So the practice of (these schools) of Buddhism requires that there be non-Buddists?

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#143

Post by ghaff »

brandall10 wrote: post #137
nxobject wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly (and this isn't a judgment), the ultralight outdoor gear – you trade off weight for durability.

When it comes to ultralight hiking gear, don't think durability is a major issue if it just sees occasional use in urban environments and you take good care of it. I've travelled w/ a Montbell Versalite and Arcteryx Cerium LT for the past few years and both are like new, each probably getting around 200-300 wears in primarily city use while traveling to over 40 cities. Just picked up a Montbell Travel Umbrella (3 oun…

I've definitely had durability issues with some of the newer lightweight gear even with fairly casual use. But mostly not just urban use to be fair.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#144

Post by vacuity »

msluyter wrote: post #69
rockostrich wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> I don't think it's reasonable to compare the risk of suffering a large loss with the risk of missing out on a large gain. If your annual income is $N, missing out on a gain of $N is bad, but not nearly as bad a suffering a loss of $N.

- A comment I saw elsewhere on HN today

It's quite rational, in many cases, to consider loss of an object X worse than gain of X. A less rigorous example I like to use: it's far easier, and unequal, to kill a person than revive a person.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#145

Post by harrall »

I tried long term backpack travel and it wasn’t for me but trying (many times) basically perfected my packing for all trips.

Between a backpacking trip to northern Europe to 3 day quick trip to Chicago, I can be ready to in like an hour and still, according to friends, be the most prepared.

It also bled into my daily life and I picked up some really good habits. I am not a minimalist but I would say I have very little clutter.

So worth it to try it a few times even if you never actually do it.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#146

Post by gtowey »

beaker52 wrote: post #50
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…

> 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…

There's more to it than that.

I've been practicing this from a different perspective. It's not necessarily bad to have stuff or buy stuff, but you have to spend just as much time getting rid of things and evaluating their continued usefulness as you spend shopping and buying new things.

In tech terms, if you have a queue which you only ever add items to, well we all know what happens.

This second part of the process is overlooked, and particularly because our corporate overlords don't make any money from this careful consideration and management of our lives and the items within it. At least with my parents generation -- the boomers -- they went all in on purchasing with never getting rid of anything. Like a dragon and its hoard. Looking at craigslist estate sales is so crazy, because you see someone's lifetime of absolute junk they spent all their time accumulating, but obviously no time getting rid of anything. In fact, they just died and made it someone else's problem to deal with it.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#147

Post by dijit »

harrall wrote: post #145

I tried long term backpack travel and it wasn’t for me but trying (many times) basically perfected my packing for all trips. Between a backpacking trip to northern Europe to 3 day quick trip to Chicago, I can be ready to in like an hour and still, according to friends, be the most prepared. It also bled into my daily life and I picked up some really good habits. I am not a minimalist but I would say I have very littl…

Ever think about writing some of those habits down?

Might be able to impart wisdom without the mess of backpacking days on end; or maybe the lessons have to be hard-earned?

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#148

Post by fragmede »

lisbbb wrote: post #123
01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mortgage is under a thousand :O If I had a few million in assets I'd be retired

Retirement sucks, tbh. The lack of well-defined purpose is awful.

sorry if this comes across the wrong way, but you don't have to be retired. there's plenty of purposeful things you can find to give your life meaning. Given that you don't need to be paid, there are even more opportunities that could benefit from your expertise that you've built up over your career or careers.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#149

Post by mikestew »

AxEy wrote: post #142
w10-1 wrote: post #73

When traveling, I met many who lived by the mantra of self-sufficiency. It seemed both to liberate and consume them. Daily now I see people living on the street with a lot more, but still with needs of all sorts. In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily - yes, for food, but mainly to submit to the judgment of society as to whether one's pra…

> "In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily... " Interesting. So the practice of (these schools) of Buddhism requires that there be non-Buddists?

It requires that there be people who aren’t monks, as monks are the ones out begging. Lay people can own lots of stuff, such as houses, hence the term “householders” to mean lay people in Buddhist literature.
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