In real life one needs at least 5 pairs of shoes.
Sounds like no true Scotsman
I own exactly one pair of shoes at the moment. Occasionally I also have slippers.
Indefinite Backpack Travel
271–280 of 429 posts
Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel
#272Shoes are always what get me. Wearing the same pair 2 days in a row isn't great for bacteria etc. Plus wanting sandals/flip-flops for the beach. Proper boots for any kind of hiking. Then I feel awkward particularly in Europe in the evening going to restaurants in trainers, so a pair of smart shoes is useful. Not saying I always take that entire combo, but almost always more than 1 pair.
> Wearing the same pair 2 days in a row isn't great for bacteria etc. Do you have foot health problems? For much of my life I've had a single pair of shoes I wear almost daily and have never had problems with bacteria. The only issue I've found is going sockless. Even then you can put a little foot powder into the shoes once a week and it kills everything in them.
Yeah, excessively sweaty feet.
Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel
#273I 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…
rockostrich says >"but the whole point of the analogy being a treadmill is that there's nothing to fall down."Spoken by one who obviously has not fallen on a treadmill! Allow me to correct your misunderstanding:
Falling on a treadmill is almost precisely the same as being drunk and disorderly and falling while facing the door of a saloon: that is, as if two thugs had grabbed your arms and thrown you unceremoniously and bodily out the door legs first and face down. Meanwhile you are (unsuccessfully) struggling to right yourself for some unknown reason [it's like a reflex response].
Not a nice experience: it taught me to always use a treadmill that had the safety clip that stops the machine if you move too far.
As for the comparative experience (being thrown out of a bar by thugs), the less said, the better.
Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 easie…
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Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, when we stop moving, it's so easy to start hoarding. I lived in Mexico for 10 years with just two duffelbags of clothes and essentials. I could carry both on a plane unchecked and be anywhere with nothing left behind, and I loved it. Now I look around me in my apartment I share with my girlfriend and have things I wouldn't have even conceived of, like a gaming PC with two monitors (for what??) and a closet full…
> like a gaming PC with two monitors (for what??) There’s nothing like the pleasure of idling in a pointless MMO on one screen while half-watching youtube autoplay on the other. Alternate Monster with White Claw and you’ve got peak hedonism.
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Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel
#276I've been doing one bag for 8 years and I still am not understanding pack lists. They seem to get more absurd every year. 10L bag with 6 shirts, 6 underwear, 6 socks, extra pants and shorts, a jacket, and all the electronic and chargers? It beggars belief.
I can do with like 2 shirts, gym clothes, 2 pairs of underwear, 2 undershirts, and I wear my jacket, in a tom binh synapse, about 25L. With electronics it starts getting tricky to get stuff in and out.
Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel
#277Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel
#278Earlier 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 was wearing some Uniqlo puff jacket the ul community recommended on a trip to Italy. I brushed up against a pillar at some ruins and it snagged on the rough material and exploded into a cloud of down that the heavy wind blew all over a crowd of tourists.
Now I wear sturdy cotton, linen, leather, denim, and the extra weight is just a couple more calories burned.
Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel
#279I am always confounded when I get off a flight at a vacation destination and see people dragging these 80L roller bags around. What are you putting in there? Pack the absolute minimum. If you really need something, you can almost always buy it wherever you are going. Even trekking in the deep Himalayas, there was always a spot to buy an extra t-shirt or socks every day or so.
And throw it all away before you fly home? That's like saying "Why wash dishes when you can just throw them away and buy new ones"?
As an aside, you should absolutely wash your clothes after buying them before wearing them. They're covered in chemicals that aren't great for your skin. I usually pack a week's worth of clothes and do laundry once a week while traveling. Doing laundry more often is a drag.
Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel
#280I am surprised one bag crowd seem to pack so many computing devices with them. Some have phone, laptop, ipad and kindle and pride themselves on being minimalists.
I'm one of those. I'd go iPad only, it's a versatile device after-all, but the truth of it is: it can't beat a laptop for "real work" (unless, real work is replying to emails and running an extremely cut down version of excel). Yet, a laptop is significantly more awkward to read with or watch media. When flying I have (nearly) lost a screen to someone reclining in front of me while I was using my laptop; this is not…
It's not that awkward at all. Heck, if you're in bed the laptop even comes with its own stand!
Really the right answer here is a folding phone.