291–300 of 429 posts
https://bpev.me/notes/how-i-travel-packing
It changes your relationship to objects for sure. I see something cool in a store and my first thought is "ooof but that looks heavy".
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…
Earlier 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…
People's intuitions aren't going to work right for situations that are impossible. I don't think you should use that example. (Or if you mean medical revival from the edge of death, then it's very difficult to visualize a "kill" that's actually an equal amount of damage.)
And things you own are fungible while people are not, which is itself enough to ruin the analogy.
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…
I also try and avoid synthetic fabrics especially for everyday use. What's your rationale behind it? Asking because I'm not exactly sure why I hold this view, and need some inspiration.
P.s. fellow synthetic avoidant. mostly for microplastics ? dunno.
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…
I did this for a bit. The approach is very useful to learn. Traveling light is so, so much better. I never check bags unless there's a very good reason. It does have some downsides. You're constantly making and throwing away relationships. I found this the hardest part. Your lifestyle is subsidized by society. You depend on other people and services to make it work. You either have to eat out all the time or make man…
It’s a highly freeing exercise that is hard but doable. Only works for vacations (a day to a month) though.
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 used to do the one bag thing while travelling until I had more disposable income and could afford taxi rides, baggage fees and all of that. I used to own only things that I could move on my own and fit in a normal car, until I had more disposable income and hiring movers became a non-issue. I still try to maintain non-attachment to material things but I now welcome enjoying material things in a functional way. For…
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paul Erdős basically lived most of the second half of his (extremely productive) adult life like this (although he lived out of a suitcase rather than a backpack so he had slightly more room). Although granted he never married and had no children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s
Relatively few people's economic output can compare with them producing new people. If your last name is not Feynman or Curie your most valuable contribution to the society is a couple of kids.
And even if it's "all of it", if you can make some big company or semi-common job 0.00001x more efficient then that's a bigger impact than having kids.
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…
You couldn't survive with just a backpack if other people "overcame their materialism" and didn't own all of the capital that allowed you to survive, like providing you your equipment, food, knowledge, and emergency rescue if it came to it. Criticizing "hedonism" is its own kind of hedonism, or in common parlance, a first world problem. It is a luxury that cannot be indulged by poor societies.
The good news is, it took me nearly 20 years before I started taking hot showers for granted again. It really did make me very grateful for a lot of things.
But I’ve also had similar thoughts to you.
I watch a lot of hiking videos of the PCT etc as one day I’d like to walk it.
When I watch those videos, and when I see people on social media telling folks to “drop out of the system, be free.” I can’t help but wonder exactly who is going to prepare their dehydrated meal packs for them.
Absolutely nothing wrong with taking such trips, made me a better and more grateful person, but it’s not an alternative lifestyle.