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Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

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Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#31

Post by shoo »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #20
jstanley wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old stools broke as well, but the ones that broke don't exist any more. Only the really good ones remain.

Most of the really good ones have broken too: The ones that remain have been lucky.

some of that luckiness is probably due the tree. what we need to do is breed a second generation of especially lucky stools from the same stock.

1. germinate new oak trees from genetic material recovered from lucky stool (1-20 years, say) 2. tend to trees as they mature (40 years) 3. fell trees, craft new generation of stools. (~1 year) 4. use stools until only a handful of lucky stools survive (500+ years) 5. iterate

if all goes to plan, by year 2600 or so the third crop can be underway

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#32

Post by walrus01 »

Reason077 wrote: post #25

I somewhat agree about the storage unit. I've certainly spent far more on my storage unit over several years than the value of all the stuff that's in it. On the other hand, it's kind of nice having a safe place to store various things which have some sentimental value. It's also a good way to figure out what things you actually need in your life. Has something been sitting in storage for 2 years and you haven't miss…

If you live in a house with a garage that has a lot of stuff stored in it, you could do the same calculation and find that the money paid to the mortgage per square foot of garage is more than the value of the things stored in it. Or if you have a full basement with maybe 100 sq ft of stuff stored in it.

But there's also a value in having those things available when you want them. And value in simply having the utilitarian flexible space for projects.

I know a number of people who have like a 650 square ft condo and maybe a 90-110 square foot storage unit, and the actual amount of junk and clutter they own is far less than people living in 1800 square foot houses with two car garages in the suburbs.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#33

Post by schwartzworld »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #27
jstanley wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old stools broke as well, but the ones that broke don't exist any more. Only the really good ones remain.

A good example of survivorship bias. I'm sure there's 70 year old IKEA furniture out there too. I think anyone CAN make a good stool like that if they can find the materials and some hand tools, it's just that nobody can be bothered and nobody wants to pay someone to put in the effort. Or that nobody has access to tools and/or a space to do the work. There does seem to be a bit of a renaissance in woodworking though.

Ikea was founded in 1943, so there is not 70 year old Ikea furniture anywhere.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#34

Post by shoo »

iam-TJ wrote: post #23

Slightly left of topic, but the use of "nomad" in the context of "too much stuff" would be better described as 'asceticism'. Traditional nomadic life was about entire communities or extended families (rather than individuals), usually carrying their entire home and possessions with them either on travois or animals and/or carts, and travelling between home sites as the seasons changed or the food source moved. In cur…

> Having Siberian Huskies I once tried to figure out if I could live off the back of a sled and have the huskies be my means of transport. The sled would have needed to be 5 meters long and about 2 tall so I abandoned the idea!

perhaps you just needed a few more huskies. is there anything like a rocket equation for dogsledding? e.g. each husky requires some mass of supplies which must be hauled which implies additional huskies.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#35

Post by ido »

schwartzworld wrote: post #33
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good example of survivorship bias. I'm sure there's 70 year old IKEA furniture out there too. I think anyone CAN make a good stool like that if they can find the materials and some hand tools, it's just that nobody can be bothered and nobody wants to pay someone to put in the effort. Or that nobody has access to tools and/or a space to do the work. There does seem to be a bit of a renaissance in woodworking though.

Ikea was founded in 1943, so there is not 70 year old Ikea furniture anywhere.

1943 was 79 years ago, so theoretically there might be?

Jokes aside some IKEA stuff really is pretty good quality and lasts decades. Other stuff is cheap crap but you don't have to buy the cheap crap.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#36

Post by schrijver »

askonomm wrote: post #24
schrijver wrote: post #19

I don’t live in the country where I was born, and neither do most of my friends…still our apartments are full of stuff… trinkets, art, rescued furniture… to me it’s part of what makes me feel at home and what makes it fun to stay with others! There’s this chastising of owning things (‘the things own you’) that comes up every now and again, but I think that could be reserved for when these objects stop being something…

Apparently most digital nomads don't travel a lot, according to the guy running the biggest digital nomad network [0] And more nomad stats here: https://nomadlist.com/digital-nomad-statistics [0] https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1143515689635864576

Thanks, interesting stats. The average length of staying in one place 71 days, still pretty short compared to the norm, living somewhere for a few years to forever. The stats don’t really mention how long people keep up this lifestyle though—only that there were no respondents older than 44!

For me it’s hard to imagine living this way because I like to feel connected to where I live, and that takes more time and investment. And I feel it’s better for where I live, because I can get involved in local initiatives, learn the language etc. But I think that’s a common sentiment, that’s why I wonder about how long people tend to do the nomad thing.

I do know plenty of people who have one place as a kind of base station and often end up working in other places for short periods, that might be a nice hybrid model.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#37

Post by detaro »

schwartzworld wrote: post #33
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good example of survivorship bias. I'm sure there's 70 year old IKEA furniture out there too. I think anyone CAN make a good stool like that if they can find the materials and some hand tools, it's just that nobody can be bothered and nobody wants to pay someone to put in the effort. Or that nobody has access to tools and/or a space to do the work. There does seem to be a bit of a renaissance in woodworking though.

Ikea was founded in 1943, so there is not 70 year old Ikea furniture anywhere.

bad news: 1943 is more than 70 years ago. (probably still almost true though)

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#38

Post by askonomm »

schrijver wrote: post #36
askonomm wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently most digital nomads don't travel a lot, according to the guy running the biggest digital nomad network [0] And more nomad stats here: https://nomadlist.com/digital-nomad-statistics [0] https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1143515689635864576

Thanks, interesting stats. The average length of staying in one place 71 days, still pretty short compared to the norm, living somewhere for a few years to forever. The stats don’t really mention how long people keep up this lifestyle though—only that there were no respondents older than 44! For me it’s hard to imagine living this way because I like to feel connected to where I live, and that takes more time and inve…

I am a "nomad", but I usually stay in one country for an entire year. The reason why most people stay 3-6 months is because of visa restrictions, which forces people to do country hopping. I don't have visa restrictions between Argentina and EU, as I'm a resident of both, and so like to stay in one place for a minimum of a year usually, which is long enough to be comfortable, but short enough not to get bored.

I definitely don't imagine doing this forever though. It's stressful, and disorienting (because social circle changes so often, how things work changes often). I'm 29, and already feel like I could really use a permanent home.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#39

Post by shoo »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #26
hughrr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've developed a methodology of throwing it away on receipt :)

But eventually you'll die or go away, and then the kipple will again take over. It's a universal principle operating throughout the universe; the entire universe is moving toward a final state of total, absolute kippleization.

if there is an afterlife and (joy of joys) it is some kind of personalised hell, maybe anyone with the discipline to methodically dekipple during their life finds themselves trapped in a pile of said kipple

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#40

Post by [deleted] »

schwartzworld wrote: post #33
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good example of survivorship bias. I'm sure there's 70 year old IKEA furniture out there too. I think anyone CAN make a good stool like that if they can find the materials and some hand tools, it's just that nobody can be bothered and nobody wants to pay someone to put in the effort. Or that nobody has access to tools and/or a space to do the work. There does seem to be a bit of a renaissance in woodworking though.

Ikea was founded in 1943, so there is not 70 year old Ikea furniture anywhere.

[deleted]
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