22 ms·

Travel is no cure for the mind (2018)

339 points by wallflower 5y ago

jordanmorgan10 5y ago
As an aside - is this type of blog a new genre? The short sentence, cartoon drawing life lesson kind of thing? I've been seeing it more and more I feel like.
colordrops 5y ago
Ugh, this reads like a biography of my life.
vmception 5y ago
I definitely like being in different places, and do up and go to them for either certain events or certain people or to check off a personal box. I don't go to those places to really change my routine though, I actually feel privileged that I can go to places long enough to replicate a routine. I've done the 5-day trip across a 3-day weekend thing to rush to all of the sites and get depressed that its over and leave, and I am never going to be in a circumstance where I do that again. I would much rather get integrated into a new place, join a couple classes, have a new crew, continue my projects in the new setting. If I do wage work, I'm going to have to set expectations that the "unlimited vacation policy" means I'm not reporting in for 2 weeks per quarter. But, one thing that stands out to me is how other people assume something like "if I was that 'successful' I wouldn't be doing X thing" or like "what are you doing on hackernews/social media/internet" as if they wouldn't. As if after one week of travel they wouldn't be doing things they are familiar with. I think its interesting that people don't ever get the opportunity to know! Which is honestly one of my driving factors: I like living in coveted neighorhoods for 10-days to a month just to see if I would really like it. To see what the convenience is really like, or the perception from others that I receive while living there, or what the noise or smells are. Its so much worse, in my opinion, to actually covet or strive for those things just to be disillussioned after all of that energy and sacrifice.
- pimlottc 5y ago
  I've always said that you can never really know a place until you've been there long enough to get bored.
  - gcanyon 5y ago
    I definitely prefer living in a place to visiting a place. I wouldn't say bored, but familiar.
- redisman 5y ago
  It sounds fun- I will say that living somewhere for a week or a month is pure honeymoon so don’t think it’s being very objective. A year, two years, five years. My feeling about a place changes to polar opposites during that time. Love it, hate it, learn to re-love it despite the warts
  - vmception 5y ago
    Oh totally agree, I’m not trying to win a contest, there isnt enough time in life to live that many places and build relationships with people there. 4-6 weeks is when my new social activities with new people just start to snowball! Definitely not long enough. I think its more than long enough to know what living in any particular neighborhood is like though. One other thing is that you are able to notice other people that travel like that. The proverbial “jetsetters” even without the socialite connotations, nomadic. Many more in the last few years. Interesting crowd. There are people that like the same circuits of places so thats nice.
supernova87a 5y ago
That was a lot of comics and explanation just to say, "even travel eventually resets back into the familiar and dull, so instead take joy from being grateful for familiar things instead".
- throwawayboise 5y ago
  I've traveled a little bit, but as I've gotten older, travel has become something I'm not interested in at all. A lot of expense for very little reward in my experience. I know that a lot of people have "travel" on the list of things they plan to do when they retire, but I just don't see the allure.
  - polishdude20 5y ago
    I think one reason I travel is to see family in other countries but also to see other weather. Right now it's cold as hell where I live and I just need someplace sunny to go see and experience.
    - raffraffraff 5y ago
      Gave up flying 4 years ago. I really feel this. I miss Lanzarote. But I've made peace with it.
  - anta40 5y ago
    For some people, travel aligns perfectly with photography. And of course when they retire, plenty of time to do travelling.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  You ever travel and get to the point that you've seen enough art museums, and they're just not that different?
  - gcanyon 5y ago
    If all you do is visit art museums, then sure. While I lived in Thailand I saw: -- The British cemetery for the POWs that worked on the death railway (The Bridge on the River Kwai) -- and saw that many multiples of Thais died for every western soldier who died -- The awesome canal boats, that stop to drop people off and pick people up in under 20 seconds. -- Malls with endless 5 foot and 10 foot shops -- MBK mall has 3,000 shops in it! -- More more more malls: MBK is across from Siam, which is next to Central World, which is across the street from Gaysorn, which is next to The Market, which is a block away from Platinum, and it goes on and on. -- Thailand's air and space museum, where they proudly display the remains of a U.S. plane they shot down in WWII, along with a bunch of their own aircraft. -- Amazing beaches -- of course. -- The Thailand Museum of Science and Industry, which was awesome. -- Street food, so much street food. -- Shops selling nothing but electric fans, shops selling ancient typewriters, shops selling vintage cameras, and oh so much more. And so much more, of course. Every day was an adventure. I was there two years and I miss it.
DOsinga 5y ago
I don't know. If you live your self repeating life and weeks become months and months become years and then you go to say Korea for half a year and make new friends and pick up new routines and eat new foods and then you go back to your routine, isn't your life just better than if you hadn't gone? The new stuff might still become a routine, but it is still extra.
- ramraj07 5y ago
  It helps if your life problems are true first world problems (viz. tech guy with million or more in savings but thinks the cushy job isn’t rewarding enough and wants more purpose or something). It doesn’t matter you’re sitting in Kyoto eating sushi if you’re depressed to begin with. Only therapy and treatment could help. Maybe.
  - j4yav 5y ago
    The comic seems to be saying that travel and living overseas doesn’t even help with simple problems like being bored in your routine beyond the very short term, which doesn’t really match my personal experience at least.
  - blunte 5y ago
    Just a side note - you absolutely don't need to be millions rich to travel for extended periods. You just need to have few financial obligations that are location dependent. In an extreme example (which some of us fantasize about), you could have all your necessary possession in two bags, have no "home" (and no car and no other anchors), and travel the world for less than many people spend living in one place. This is especially true if you take a US/EU salary and spend time in much lower cost of living places.
- dejv 5y ago
  I guess it depends, I used to travel a lot when I was in my 20s (I guess it would add to about 5 years spread over 8 years period) and now after close to 10 years being home it just feel like it never happened: sure I do have some memories, stories and some connections on Facebook to people I haven't seen in many years. Don't get me wrong it was fun and interesting, but I guess thats it. But maybe thats me, when I was traveling I was feeling happy and excited, but I feel same just walking in the park outside my home and actually looking forward to just get my coffee at usual place and spend time programming. Basically same routine, now I just have more comfortable setup.
kome 5y ago
living abroad is the best thing happened to me, i'm grateful for every minute of it. it's just cool. so, seneca might be right, changing the sky doesn't change our soul. but changing the sky helps our soul to change if you are in the right disposition. because sometimes being stuck in a place physically, also get us stuck mentally. traveling instead, meh: to me traveling it's just consumption, and consumption is tiresome and boring.
- blunte 5y ago
  That's a really good point which I don't think was mentioned in TA - new experiences tend to shake up the mind, which can lead to new though processes and new ideas. It can be a real boost for creativity. So going to a new place can shake up one's thoughts and lead to some great new ideas, and then the routine of the new place can give one time to work with those new ideas and perhaps make something.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
bedobi 5y ago
Disagree. I grew up in Scandinavia but have since lived many different places all over the world and for me it remains enjoyable to move someplace new, get to know it and the culture over a few years, and if I stagnate or get bored, switch it up again. It has also paradoxically been good both for my career and personal life. (exposed to more potential jobs, friends, partners etc I otherwise wouldn't have) YMMV and it's certainly not for everyone. But I'm skeptical that staying in your comfort zone your whole life will do anyone much favors. (and the odd few week trip here or there doesn't really count, by all means all travel is great but vacation and just passing places through is fundamentally different from spending at least a few months or even years somewhere)
- redisman 5y ago
  > stagnate or get bored, switch it up again Isn’t that exactly what the comic is about? I will say that I met my wife traveling and my kids were born on a different continent than me. There is a lot to find out there but travel as a value itself gets old and doesn’t fulfill your soul like it felt like it would when I was young.
  - polishdude20 5y ago
    Sure, the act of travelling seems to be his bade state which stays constant. Like, you can not travel and be content with what you have. Or you can travel and be content with switching it up.
  - bedobi 5y ago
    To me, it seems like the comic is saying, rather than using a switch in your environment as a crutch for happiness, find happiness in your routine. Having a routine that makes you happy is important and not bad advice! But sometimes, at least for me, I kind of exhaust my options for happiness in a given environment. Eg maybe I've already gotten a job with the best employer in a given location and can't climb any higher professionally, friends have moved away or started a family or whatever, hobbies and activities that used to be novel and fun have become repetitive and dull, I've mastered the local language I wanted to learn etc etc. That feeling, combined with a basically infinite and always in flux list of places and things I want to experience before my time is up, makes switching my environment up very powerful and enjoyable for me. Happily admit there's downsides to not "settling down" too and it's not for everyone. But I think most people would benefit from fundamentally switching up their environment at least a few times in their life. If it turns out you were happier where you started you can always go back. But you'll never know other places if you don't give them a shot.
Powlowski 5y ago
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- TheChaplain 5y ago
  Warning: The above comment is some spam/scam.
poorjohnmacafee 5y ago
The key is to always be stimulating your mind with new experiences, new concepts, new surroundings, think through confusions, solve holes in your understanding, make something etc. etc.. Travel ticks some of those boxes so it does absolutely help the mind. You can tick some of the other boxes from home as well. Life passes by really, really fast if you do the same thing and think the same way every single day. It will make you restless, anxious over time too because your mind really doesn't like that kind of confinement.
- erwincoumans 5y ago
  This! I've traveled and lived in several countries, and all the new experiences slow down time. At the same time, I did enjoy the story and agree that getting to know your loved ones better is a good idea. Btw, who watches TV in yhe evening? It is internet all the way since many years in our household.
j4yav 5y ago
For me personally the combination of immigrating permanently to Europe plus remote work gave me an ever-changing box, in a good way. There’s lots of very different cultures just a drive away, and remote work lets me head out often and for extended stays. Even the last couple years which were a big damper on travel, I never got bored of my new home in the Netherlands or felt stuck in a routine. I’ve been here for six years now, probably three here and three in other nearby countries on extended visits. I’m sure the cartoon resonates with some people but I don’t think it’s as universal as they are making it seem. I hope it doesn’t convince people not to at least try to see if travel or living overseas makes life richer and more interesting. I will say I wasn’t trying to cure anything wrong with my mind when moving overseas, so maybe that’s a difference I’m not properly accounting for.
- blunte 5y ago
  I left US for NL 10 years ago, and I can say I've enjoyed most of my time here. But now it's time to move on, and the world offers many exciting new cultures (and foods!) to enjoy.
- bogomipz 5y ago
  How were you able to spend 6 years in NL and the three in other nearby countries? Did move jobs from NL to new countries in the EU that sponsored a visa for you in those nearby countries?
  - j4yav 5y ago
    The Netherlands has a treaty called DAFT where any US citizen can come to start a business. It’s also very pro knowledge migrant, the visas are easy to get and they also offer a huge tax benefit for 5 years. Once here, you can travel in the Schengen area visa free.
    - bogomipz 5y ago
      Ah OK. I have heard of this. Can you live in other areas as well, like say you wanted to move to Belgium or Germany while keeping your business in NL. You could do that with a DAFT visa?
JoshTriplett 5y ago
This very much captures the hedonic treadmill: when you increase your baseline level of happiness, you re-normalize to the new level, with relatively little change in your absolute happiness. But while I do think appreciating what you have is part of how to avoid the hedonic treadmill, I don't think it's a matter of learning to be happy with a routine. I've found it possible to make a conscious effort to avoid hedonic adapation, and enjoy novel things without allowing them to become a new baseline. If you can maintain your expectations at the same level, while improving your actual circumstances noticeably above that level, you can maintain a higher level of enjoyment of your life.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  I find this very depressing, but the reason the nordics have some of the happiest people in the world is they have low expectations.
  - camillomiller 5y ago
    Source? The nordics have some of the highest suicide rates in the world, actually. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...
    - tedeh 5y ago
      Top 10: 1. Lesotho 2. Guyana 3. Eswatini 4. Kiribati 5. Micronesia 6. Suriname 7. Zimbabwe 8. South Africa 9. Mozambique 10. Central African Republic
    - matthewmacleod 5y ago
      Did you mean to link to some other data? This list shows that the Nordic state with the highest suicide rate is Finland at number 38, in which suicides are about 30% higher than the European average (although of course Greenland remains an interesting artefact). I don't think that really fits your description. It's always been pretty interesting (and I'd say quite well-known) that the Nordics do have a somewhat higher suicide rate than other similar states. But it's also likely a pretty bad proxy; I'd be suspicious of a metric suggesting the average North Korean citizen is substantially happier than the average Finn. Probably better is the World Happiness Report (https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/social-environments-for-world-happiness/ https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/social-environments-fo...). It's a bit arbitrary for my taste, but does at least have a pretty long history as well as plenty of transparency about what it's measuring and why. And it consistently places the Nordics in the top ten.
blunte 5y ago
Indeed humans, many of us at least, thrive on novelty: new things, new experiences. Meditation, thankfulness, and other forms of inward focus may bring some respite from the desire for novelty, but... What is the point of life if not to enjoy it? What defines enjoyment varies from person to person, but for some of us it is ABSOLUTELY certain that some environments are more pleasant than others. Some people/friends/lovers are more pleasant than others. Some foods are more pleasant than others. Our tastes and interests change over time. We could live on one place, tend our little garden, eat the same meals each week, talk to the same people, and meditate. For those who want that life, great for them. It's not for me. The world is vast, and there are so many experiences discover and enjoy. And actually, a Thai beach suits me VERY well. It is my next long stay, and after it there will probably be other long stays. Maybe when I get too old to move about, I'll pick a spot to die. I think this "stay put and be zen" mentality is less common for tech people (especially developers). If we were satisfied with status quo, we wouldn't be constantly trying to develop solutions to "problems". If we were more able to be satisfied, we would still be using Fortran and COBOL (or pick any old language). There would be no smartphones (for better or worse). Heck, you could unwind all human advancement back to pre-agriculture days... which might actually be an improvement... but that cat is too far out of the bag.
- bogomipz 5y ago
  >"And actually, a Thai beach suits me VERY well. It is my next long stay, and after it there will probably be other long stays." I was curious if you've looked at the state of this recently? Is this doable for a foreigner/digital nomad again? Any insights? What are the long stay options there? I know visas used to be very generous, I've no idea now. It does sound nice though.
  - blunte 5y ago
    TLDR: it's very doable, and I will be spending many months there again this year. I spent several weeks of Nov/Dec 2021 in Phuket while I was between contracts. Things were just starting to open up and come back to life as restrictions were being lifted. Many places were still closed or had gone out of business, but there was no lack of dining, massage, bar, or outdoor activities. Internet was reliable and fast with my 30 EUR 30-day unlimited data Thai SIM card (AIS brand if I remember correctly). Most hotels had decent wifi as well, but I often didn't even bother using it. There are multiple visa options (which you can do a search for), and there's a subreddit just on this topic if you don't mind digging a bit. All options involve some expense and/or extra effort, but it's still a small cost considering the benefits of being there. Lodging is easy and cheap (particularly with COVID 50% discounts which may be vanishing slowly). My advice if you're going to stay for more than 30 days is to get a hotel for 5 days, and then start asking around and just walking/driving around looking for flats or rooms to rent. Not everything is listed online. There are also a lot of Youtube bloggers who like to show off places they encounter. One can live comfortably for $1500/mo or less, or frugally for $1000 or less. It's also possible to spend $5000+/mo if you want to live in luxury. Speaking fankly, luxury villas and "human entertainment" tend to be the big costs for some people. I can't speak to specifics since that's not my kind of scene (and honestly I didn't really see many other visitors who were acting like high roller party boys in Vegas). Be aware that officially, working while in Thailand is not approved without the proper visa (which probably 99% of DNs don't have). Practically though, sitting on the balcony behind a computer (and getting paid to do so) for several hours a day is not high risk. Just don't flaunt it.
dukeofdoom 5y ago
Travel is rewarding if you're doing new things on the edge of your comfort zone. If you're feeling existential anxiety, look into Philosophy. If you're too lazy to read, Alain de Botton has some insights, you can watch in video format: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gVyEOefhIQ&list=PLa_3jLb0w_JNcM6xxmY_sLJMg82x71eAV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gVyEOefhIQ&list=PLa_3jLb0w_... The School of Life https://www.youtube.com/c/theschooloflifetv https://www.youtube.com/c/theschooloflifetv
dehrmann 5y ago
> The box known as your mind. You know the quote "wherever you go, there you are?" At some put point, I started putting the emphasis on you rather than there. Sure, you can go see Paris, and it's a lovely city, but you're still you. Some people travel to "find themselves," but never do. It's still you.
- zarzavat 5y ago
  Travel certainly changes people. But it depends on your openness to new ideas. Some travelers expect to find their own country in a different place - these people will not be altered by travel. However if you consider travel as an exercise in adaption to other peoples’ ways of life, then it certainly will challenge some of the axioms that were instilled in you from a young age by your society.
  - arisAlexis 5y ago
    Why can't you find your country in a different one?because you are supposed to stay put and true to your country that luck decided for you and obey some societal rule?
- iostream23 5y ago
  But there’s a multifaceted you there. It’s pretty hard to reach your potential as a surf champion if you stay where you were born in Minnesota. It’s pretty hard to become a social butterfly in a culture that disapproves of your sexual orientation. It’s pretty hard to become a nuclear physicist if you only stay in the farm and study animal husbandry. Nothing against animal husbandry or Minnesota
unixhero 5y ago
Beautiful post
WaxedChewbacca 5y ago
drusenko 5y ago
Comments so far are missing a major reason travel is likely enjoyable. One of my favorite theories on why time feels like it accelerates as you get older is that your brain tends to only store unique memories. Like that daily commute you do every day and the odd feeling you sometimes get at the end of it where you can’t remember driving… Travel is a set of unique experiences that form unique memories. Part of what’s addicting and pleasurable is that it helps slow down the perception of the passage of time, among many other positives. It’s also self reinforcing in that when you think back, you tend to disproportionately remember travel vs other experiences. There’s clearly a lot more benefits than that, but it certainly seems like a significant factor.
- xz0r 5y ago
  Time accelerates as one gets older is due to relativeness of perceived experience of duration. 1 year for a person who lived 50 years is relatively short(2%) compared to someone who lived for only 20 years (5%)
  - notahacker 5y ago
    Also, if the 20 year old looks back 5 years, they were a hormonal teenager, still growing physically, treated as a minor and had never experienced half the things they'd experienced now. They were a completely different person in many respects then, and if they look back 15 years it's their very first memories. If the 50 year old looks back 5 years, their life probably wasn't all that different. If they look back 15, their kids were still at home and they had a different job title but they were fundamentally the same person, and they feel they've been that way for a very long time.
  - uxp100 5y ago
    Is one theory.
  - oh_sigh 5y ago
    That's just a statement, there is no logic behind why life would be experienced as percentages rather than in absolute time. Personally, I'm more prone to believe the unique experiences concept, because that actually has some basis for it, and also meshes with my real life. I have a few years in my early 20s which are just a blur (because I was working a crummy office job), but I have a year or two in my 30s which feel like a lifetime in themselves, and I can recall numerous specific days, because I was doing a totally new thing (road tripping around the mediterranean)
skohan 5y ago
I disagree. The article makes some valid points. I did a year and a half working as a "digital nomad" traveling through the middle east, Europe and Africa. It was an incredible part of my life - just an incredibly dense stream of experiences; some good and some bad, some fun, some challenging, from pure joy to wrenching heartbreak and everything in between. There was a lot of superficial joy and excitement during that period. And as the article says, there were times when the novelty of going somewhere new, seeing the sights, meeting new people wore off, and that was really depressing. I felt the lack of roots: of having people who really knew me around, and having the chance to build things which take time and stability. At the same time, there were a lot of real experiences that time. I faced and overcame certain challenges, and I met certain people, and I had certain experiences which fundamentally changed who I am and how I and how I approach the world. And just that project of living with something approaching to absolute freedom for an extended period allowed me to choose who I want to be in a way which would not have been possible otherwise. I'm on a different project now, and I don't think I will be disappearing for a year and a half any time soon, but I still find travel to be an incredibly valuable tool. I like to set up trips which include the right mix of planning and improvisation to put me in that mindset where I have to be open to possibility and really engage with the world around me. Almost like an experiment where certain parameters are set in order to test myself in a certain way. And I have found that during a trip, or coming back from one, is often when I can think the most clearly about my life and make important decisions. Travel will not solve your problems on its own, but it can certainly help.
- deltaonefour 5y ago
  I think the key difference between your narrative and the authors is that you kept moving. It seems like when you were a nomad you never stayed in one place for too long.
- sdze 5y ago
  > Travel will not solve your problems on its own, but it can certainly help. As will jumping into a deep ocean to learn to swim.
- camillomiller 5y ago
eyelidlessness 5y ago
“I think that it’s brainless To assume that making changes To your window’s view will give a new perspective” Is a good way of stating this idea. It’s not supported by actual human experience though.
nightgarden 5y ago
There is definitely some truth to that but I feel that it is an unbalanced view. It really describes archetypal escapism. Not everyone travels to escape, and even for those who travel to escape it's usually not just an escape, you learn a lot while traveling. It enriches you, not just with memories which make you long to travel again. You can certainly take the lessons about the mind, to be grateful and staying in the present moment, but also keep the variety in your life, whatever that means to you. That is what optimizes your experience.
elvis10ten 5y ago
I tried traveling more, but I find out after the first day, I’m no longer as excited. Also can be a frustrating and time consuming experience when you don’t have a strong passport. I’m a “busy body” and I find novelty almost every week in my environ or nearby. I always push myself to try new things / start a conversation with strangers / group activities / etc. Even things I have been doing for a long time like working out at the public park or playing football, still gets me excited like a kid. Admittedly, the biggest improvement in my happiness was moving to a developed country.
EugeneOZ 5y ago
In my experience traveling was the best cure for the mind in my life. I totally disagree with the author. The only downside of traveling is money expense.
fergie 5y ago
Yes, but this rather assumes that your current "Box of Daily Experience" is ok, and not, say, violent, insecure, poverty-stricken, or abusive. Basically every immigrant ever has chosen to pick a new Box of Daily Experience, and often fairly reasonably.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  The point of TFA (and Seneca's letter on which it is based) is not that you should just accept your Box of Daily Experience. It is that although you may have (and should have) control over most of what makes up your own Box of Daily Experience, there will always be a Box of Daily Experience. It is not arguing complacency about the contents, but is arguing for not trying to run from the basic fact of its existence.
playcache 5y ago
This reminds me of two things. British Weather and the The Myth of Sisyphus. We have an old saying in the UK (it was popularised by an Austrian band, but it proceeds the song), "everywhere you go, you always take the weather with you'. In the UK it rains a lot, and folks think by going somewhere sunny it will resolve all their issues and lack of meaning in their life. Any change is fleeting and temporary. The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical premise by Albert Camus. Sisyphus was a greek character who the gods had condemned to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain, where the stone would fall back of its own weight. The gods believed there to be no more dreadful a punishment that is both futile and hopeless. The central concern of The Myth of Sisyphus is what Camus calls "the absurd." or absurdism, a universe devoid of the meaning we long from it, as we toil through each day, repeating the mundane. Camus claims that there is a fundamental conflict between what we want from the universe (meaning or order) and what we find in the universe (formless chaos, often devoid of meaning). We will never find in life itself the meaning that we want to find. Either we will discover a meaning through a leap of faith / dogma, by placing our hopes in a God beyond this world, or we will conclude that life is meaningless and be left with either suffering through or committing suicide. In The Myth Of Sisyphus Camus claims that the only important philosophical question boils down to suicide and should we continue to live or not? The rest is secondary, because no one dies for scientific or philosophical arguments, they quickly abandon them when their life is at risk. Yet people do take their own lives because they judge them meaningless, or they sacrifice them for "meaningful" causes. This suggests that questions of meaning supersede all other scientific or philosophical questions. As Camus puts it: “I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions" The point Camus is making is that there is no solution to the problem of living an absurd, meaningless existence. His argument is that the only way to confront it is to fully embrace the absurd, discard all hope, and live in revolt by throwing yourself so fully at a task in life that you lose yourself in the joy of the struggle. Camus emphatically rejects any worldview that would leave us "at peace" with our existence. Our existence is an endless revolt against the Absurd, a 'fuck you' where we are fully aware of the meaninglessness of our lives yet choosing to live regardless.
- red369 5y ago
  I’ve heard of Australia and New Zealand arguing their claim to Crowded House, but never Austria (assume autocorrect missed on that one)
CryptoPunk 5y ago
I really agree with the importance of having gratitude. It's easy to take for granted the miracle of life. Gratitude, as the article explains, can help you appreciate the wealth of experiences and opportunities available where you currently live. I would add however that in some cases, travel can really enrich your life. You may even, if you have a certain personality and the financial means, find the most meaning in having a life of non stop travel, where your residence is, effectively, the planet Earth. Travel can also help you discover places where you would prefer living. For example if you live on the West Coast, you may instead prefer jurisdictions with more law and order, where you're not having your personal belonging stolen on a frequent basis, and you're not forced to contend with mentally unstable drug addicts on a daily basis. If you live in a cold climate, you may find you prefer the opposite, or vice versa. You may find cities with a better job market, or less burdensome taxes. You may find a country with a culture that better suits you, e.g. one that is more liberal, or a small town culture that is more friendly and personable. Travel can add a lot of value to your life.
- contingencies 5y ago
  Travel is key because, if you do it slowly enough with eyes open, it shows you what universal properties human societies tend to have in all their incarnations and just how beautiful nature, history, art and other things lying outside of the daily grind are. Importantly, particularly if you are young, it distances you from the familiar environment, society, family and friends, and thus releases your inhibitions and allows you to grow in new ways. Done right, travel is novel experience - definitely not endless flights and generic hotels. After your first foreign rendezvous, sunrise, sunset, new way of cooking a familiar ingredient, new instrument, sport, museum, language or revolution, "home" may just seem ... dull.
WA 5y ago
Descriptions like these always miss one crucial thing: The time component. In a similar vein, there's this saying that if people get in a terrible accident and lose a limb, they are back to their normal happiness after a year. Now imagine, you are in an accident, you lose a limb. Exactly one year later, you are in another accident, lose another limb, and this goes on and on and after 80 years in your death bed, you look back on a miserable life of being traumatized every year. Now imagine, you make new experiences, before they become your daily box, as the article shows. Say, it takes a year to become the new normal. After a year, you find something new that excites you, before it becomes the new normal. And this goes on and on and after 80 years, in your death bed, you reflect back on a life that kinda was never dull. Is this a defense of the hedonic treadmill? No, make what you want of this, but I guess that is why many people find it enticing. The counter argument almost always misses the time component.
j7ake 5y ago
You can embed growth, surprise, and serendipity into your box of daily (weekly) experience. For example, watching your child grow up, making discoveries or seeing your work be implemented at scale, watching movies or reading books, or seeing your own skills develop in your hobby. The point is to do things in life where you can encounter growth and discovery, so that your days/weeks can link together to form a bigger coherent picture of your life.
iostream23 5y ago
Nice article and all, especially the cute drawings. I don’t agree with their conclusions. It’s pretty hard to become a surf champion if you grow up in Minnesota and stay there. Each new “reality bubble” or “box” I created in response to different circumstances in a different environment. I changed, or rather, different sides of my personality had to develop to adapt to a different environment. I’m not speaking as a vacationing cubicle worker, but as someone who completely reinvented himself after age 30, learned a half dozen languages, visited 50 countries usually on local peoples sofas, and then finally changed countries of habitation several times and am now a dual national and feeling both mental boxes quite strongly attempting to box me in. The part where I agree with the author is that part in which our reality is limited by our own mental box of perception and acculturation. Our choices and responses to external stimuli determine if we fold or adapt to new opportunities. Will we hide in our shell or will we come out and be molded by new experiences? Please note, the instagram vacation model is accurate and hollow as outlined by the author, I just think that they copped out with their lame trite conclusion that I have personally found to be untrue.
coldtea 5y ago
>The drawback to this is that for most of us, traveling happens in the form of vacations. A vacation is designed to be an exciting respite we take to keep us incentivized to return back (...) But remember, since you are going to be staying here for a while, having fun with interesting people and seeing new sights are not reliable roadmaps for financial sustainability. And plus, all of your friends are busy in the daytime with work, and being a lone wanderer in the early afternoon is only fun for so long. So yup, it’s time to get yourself a job. OK, so "travel" is not the cure. Money is, so that you don't need to work - and friends who also have money and do interesting stuff (not necessarily leisuring, they could do whatever, from politics and art to crafts, they're just not confined by 9-to-5 and bosses). But perhaps even more problematic is the idea of a "cure for the mind". Because you can be even the latter and be miserable.
rewgs 5y ago
I wanted to travel directly after college but instead got straight to work. I'm now 31 and in the last year have developed a couple dozen food allergies, to the point that I very literally cannot eat out at restaurants. I have to prepare everything myself. This change has completely destroyed my will to travel. Or, rather, makes me regret not having traveled when I had the chance to enjoy one of the best parts of it: the food. And not just the food itself, though that is a big draw -- more important is the logistics of not having to cook all your food yourself, needing specific products from specific brands (and if you can't find them you're shit out of luck), etc. Travel for me is only possible in places where I have a kitchen (so, AirBnB), and the supplies required to meal prep. I'll spend a not insignificant amount of time in my new locale cooking and cleaning dishes, like I constantly do at home. No wandering around town checking out a restaurant. No airport food. No meeting new friends and them spontaneously treating me to dinner. So, so many lost experiences. When I get in this mood and remember what life was like just a year ago before all these food allergies hit, when I was still planning on traveling the world "once Covid blew over," it makes me so, so sad. I can't believe I lost my chance just because I chose to work right out of college (worse, an internship that didn't end up hiring me). Point being: For whatever critique of travel this post might offer, just...if you can, travel. I never, ever thought that I would lose the ability to be somewhere and just...eat, without thinking. To try new food without fear of literally dying. I never knew that could happen to someone. I never knew the simple joy of eating somewhere I'd never been before could be taken away, that I would be trapped to the same tiny list of ingredients (ever-shrinking, I might add), the same depressingly small number of combinations formed by them, and by extension the physical entrapment, the loneliness, the sense of not being part of the group because I can't share in the meal. God I hate it. If you can, just fucking travel. Do it while you still can.
- alexdig 5y ago
  I have no allergies, so I can't imagine how that is. However, I had a back injury 3 years ago. I thought it'd heal fast but I got to the point of being afraid to carry my backpack when traveling somewhere. The chance of having an incredibly sharp pain makes me fear almost any kind of activity. I also put off traveling before and now I regret not doing it while I was physically able to walk/hike around for hours on end. I did physical therapy, swimming etc to make it feel better, but by now it's clear it will never improve past a certain point. So yeah, travel while you can :)
codeflow2202 5y ago
I always wondered if our passion for travel has deeper roots. Maybe it comes from our ancestral need to move to greener pastures in search for food and better climate. Sometimes we prefer go for long hikes, some others to stop and chill in enjoyable temperatures, close to water from sea, rivers or lakes. All of this makes me think that deep inside we are at least partially still nomad creatures.
arisAlexis 5y ago
What's the difference between travel and reading then? Both make the mind go away. In the same argument one could say books are no good either, you should patiently mop the floor so your box is cleaner tomorrow.
andrewflnr 5y ago
I can confirm this in broad outline. I've been lucky enough to go on a couple open-ended road trips. I knew going in that it was unlikely to "fix my problems", but still entertained the hope that it would do something along those lines. It didn't. I was approximately the same idiot after as I was before. Not that I don't want to do it again as soon as possible. There are, as many have mentioned here, other reasons to travel, and I do think the experience has made my life richer.
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grapescheesee 5y ago
Enjoyed this greatly! I have an important distinction in my mind about travel for work and travel for fun/vacation. In 2021 I was just a few days short of 300 nights in a hotel. I enjoy the little experiences while being on the road more than anything else I did. The brief odd insight of a short conversation with a stranger you will never see again. Understanding of the parts of this world you lack any control over, and finding out how quickly you can blame yourself for them. Meeting a hurricane survior who is a few states away from 'home' and then being told in such a calm and stoic manner, they lost everything they owned. And a feeling of dejavu you meet someone months later, living out of a hotel for the same reason. Its brutally humbling if you let the portions of vanity and purpose you cling on fall by the wayside. It's real actual work traveling. I would have a difficult time being excited for a trip anywhere now. Except the excitement my partner, friend, brother, so on.. would feel for the exact reasons this post conveyed, or maybe it is the former. To travel for work alone, is more isolating than living alone and working a 9-5. It may not be at first, but it is. Yet I would not trade the last six years for anything.
Xcelerate 5y ago
One of the examples in the comic describes a guy that wants to live somewhere more exciting, so he moves there, only to discover that after a while everything has once again become routine and unsatisfying. But I think some places are just generally better places to live than others, and these places lead to a greater sustained feeling of contentedness. I grew up in the southeast, and after visiting the Bay Area for the first time over a decade ago, I became determined to move there eventually. So I did. And the initial “exciting new place” vibes did eventually fade somewhat, but... I found that I generally just enjoyed life more than I previously did. My seasonal affective disorder was more tolerable in the winter. The breathtaking scenery never got old. Tastier and healthier food. A job that fit my interests better. A culture that fit my personality better. But with the birth of our daughter, my wife wanted to be closer to family, so we moved back to where we came from. And I really, really dislike living here. I have made every sort of plan to try to get back to CA eventually, or at least split my time in retirement between here and there (many years from now). The five months of the year with a lack of sunshine and leafless trees are depressing. The people driving pickup trucks with Confederate flags mounted in the back are depressing. The endless chain restaurants and the fact that I can’t even find fresh garlic or basil is depressing. Knowing that my daughter will eventually go to a school nearby that never required masks and doesn’t believe vaccines are effective is depressing. The premise of the article seems to be somewhat about the hedonic treadmill, and how it is not the box that you’re in that leads to discontent with life. But sometimes I think it is actually just the box that you’re in, and if you don’t like it, you urgently need to find a new box.
midjji 5y ago
Or more consizely, no matter where you go, the person most able to make you feel like shit will be there...
- frontman1988 5y ago
  Wherever you go, there you are.
throwaway22032 5y ago
After reading the article it seems that the author frames the problem in the wrong way. Travel is not a _cure_ for the mind. There is no cure for the human condition. It's better described as maintenance. If I'm feeling cooped up indoors and I jump on the metro and go to Chinatown, does that cure all of my existential ills? No, but it's fun, and tomorrow I can go somewhere else. The same is true of all activities. I quit my job a while back and now I'm studying full time. Is that going to scratch my itch forever? No, eventually I'll get bored and want to do something else. But now I've done more different things, I'm more well rounded, and I experienced a lot of joy over and above what I'd have if I just sat in the office counting beans all year. I'm going to meet some friends this afternoon, and that's not gonna cure my mind either, same as eating lunch doesn't cure hunger.
- jseban 5y ago
  Yeah I agree, what a strange premise, do people really have this expectation on travel? And the conclusion too, is to replace travel with mindful meditation and try to use that one single thing instead to fix everything.
- hammock 5y ago
  I agree and I don't believe you are in conflict with the author. Travel can be seen as an escape for the mind. It's heroin for a daily life that could be improved. We often say a vacation "keeps you sane" however in the context of travel as a drug we might rethink that notion.
2ion 5y ago
I enjoy travel and transport because when on a trip between points A and B nothing can bother me or influence my trajectory. "I know I'll spend the next 5 hours on this train". This provides an oddly relaxing feeling of comfort and untouchability that is hard to get when you have many degrees of freedom available to you with many occasions of interference.
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shswkna 5y ago
New experiences are good because they feed our neural networks with new input. A change of scenery can sometimes give us a needed fresh perspective to help us progress with life problems and to counter stagnation.
zigman1 5y ago
I disagree quite alot with the article, mostly because it asumes that it is necesary to hate your everyday routine and it can't be altered in any way. Living everyday life can be as creative as anything else, end a vacation in this case could just be one of the goals or rewards you aim towards and not just live for it. here i must add, that a very big realization for me was, how important traveling or vacations (taking a break etc) actually is. It is absolutely necesary to have time off, and because of it brains will have the time to reflect on its own life, determine new goals or plans for the future. It gives you a place without everyday distractions and stimuluses. I always come back with new ideas, new goals and new energy for the future. And I look forward towards this future of everyday life. edit: I started reading comments and noticed that a lot of people wrote the same thing. I might add that travelling doesn't necessary mean going somewhere exotic. It can also be a weekend roadtrip or a train journey to the countryside, which i believe is something everyone can afford.
- nicbou 5y ago
  This resonates with me. I return from vacations with a bunch of new ideas, habits and recipes. But like you say, everyday life at home also matters. Travelling is a bonus, not the only thing that keeps the lid on.
ajot 5y ago
As a related piece (article? essay?), I always liked a lot Art of Manliness' view on Tolkien, The Hobbit and traveling. https://www.artofmanliness.com/living/leisure/against-the-cult-of-travel-or-what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-the-hobbit/ https://www.artofmanliness.com/living/leisure/against-the-cu...
causi 5y ago
Travel is like Pink Floyd, Rick & Morty, and Steven Universe: great by itself but it has an insufferable fanbase. You can't even talk about going on vacation without some yahoo launching into a spiel about how all the world's problems would be fixed if all Americans had passports.
- markpeppers 5y ago
  It wouldn't solve all the world's problems, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.
legrande 5y ago
Well opportunities multiply as they are seized, which can either be a blessing or a curse. In the end, it's how much molecules you managed to move during your lifetime here, in this place, this dream. Personally I try not to move that many molecules or 'make a dent' because there are other, much more capable and better positioned people to do that for me. Now the question becomes: are those impactful actions benevolent moving of molecules or malevolent? Generally I'm seeing it as malevolent with things like climate change and dropping bombs on innocent people who become another statistic or 'collateral damage'. Yes there is a lot of good in the world, and I probably have 'mean world syndrome'[0], but when you're exposed to the news more than ever now via the Internet, you can't help but think we're living in a very divided and malicious world. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome
peterkelly 5y ago
Sometimes when you travel you find a box that is much better than the one you were in previously.
DonaldFisk 5y ago
In case anyone's wondering where the Socrates quote is authentic (it is), or where it came from, it's from Moral letters to Lucilius by Seneca, Letter 28: https://archive.org/details/adluciliumepistu01seneuoft/page/198/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/adluciliumepistu01seneuoft/page/...
kenjackson 5y ago
I don’t really enjoy traveling. Feels like more trouble than it’s worth. I really enjoy my box. Playing with my family, watching TV, going to sporting events. I like reframing my more boring life as enjoying my box.
mattlondon 5y ago
I have observed this mindset of "I need to move to <foo> - everything will be so much better then!" I've never understood it. I have had a few friends follow through on this - after several jumps from continent to continent they are still not happy and are planning their next move to Canada or NZ or whatever, because this time it will be different! I was wrong all along! I really should have moved to Austin rather than Berlin then Tokyo then San Fran then Toronto then Auckland! This time will be one where I get the perfect job and find a partner! Ignoring that everyone "back home" has managed to be successful/happy despite the apparently unfixable "problems" with living in <foo> tl;dr - IMO they're running away from problems rather than confronting them.
JKCalhoun 5y ago
So George Harrison's "The Inner Light", which he cribbed, lyrically, from Tao Te Ching (Chapter 47): Without going outside, you may know the whole world. Without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven. The farther you go, the less you know. This may be true for others but I definitely count myself out. Travel is when I am truly at peace with myself and my mind. Travel for me though is on the road, an extended road trip with lots of empty time just driving, bored, thinking, reflecting. The day to day distractions gone. This kind of travel to distinguish from the kind of travel that is navigating tourists on Waikiki or trying to find an ATM in Seoul. Although, since I mentioned trying to find an ATM in Seoul, there is a lot to learn about yourself when you travel and see other cultures up close. It opens your mind to all the other possible ways there are to live, makes you question why you are going about your own life the way you have been, how much of it is autopilot, how much of it is because it is all you've known. I guess I generally think all travel is good. Agree with the final sentiment though: strive to find peace within one's self. Travel for me though is when I have found I can best achieve that. For others it might be reading, hiking, out on a motorcycle or bicycle. (Actually, all of those help me as well.)
truted2 5y ago
“Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you?” -Seneca “you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.” -Hemingway “ No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself. It's like your shadow. It follows you everywhere.” -Murakami Amazed by how history is recycled perpetually.
- parenthesis 5y ago
  "You can't hide from yourself / Everywhere you go there you are" - Teddy Pendergrass (well, written by Gamble and Huff)
ccvannorman 5y ago
What a long winded way to come to a narrow conclusion - "Stay at your day job and enjoy it." Environment matters a lot. It's not "travel for 1 week" that will cure the mind, but rather, removing the slave labor you don't enjoy from the box entirely. The author seems to miss this critical point (that many people are unhappy with their day job because it's basically debt/wage slavery without ownership).
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  This is incorrect, at least as a general principle. I haven't done "slave labor" for more than 20 years, having initially imagined I was rich enough to retire at 32 (that turned out to be wrong), then later converting an open-source passion project into a very comfortable middle class living. No boss, no rules, no schedule, just lots of people who love what I do and that includes me. However ... the Box of Daily Experience is still a feature of my life too.
  - ccvannorman 5y ago
    Do you feel oppressed / depressed? Your work life sounds great (compared to an office rat as portrayed in the article)
    - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
      I am not oppressed. My work does not depress me. But the key point of TFA (and Seneca's letter that inspired it) is that the details matter less than you think: the "oppression" of the Box of Daily Reality comes more from the way you think about it rather than its actual contents. There are plenty of days when I reflect on how it was just another day, same old same old, completely predictable. Granted, I don't have to put up with the BS of a regular job, which eliminates one aspect of the Box of Daily Reality for me. But then again, I work (mostly alone) from home, and so my days involve very little physical interaction with anyone. Equivalent to the suffering of slave labor? Probably not, but just a different element of my particular Box of Daily Experience.
FabHK 5y ago
The article quotes Socrates and references Seneca, but Horace expressed the sentiment succinctly and elegantly: Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. (They change the sky above, not their mind, who rush across the sea.) (Oh, and then there is "No matter where you go, there you are." https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/11/22/where-you-go/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/11/22/where-you-go/ )
at_a_remove 5y ago
I personally despise travel, almost every aspect of it. Planning, making reservations, trying to figure out airline tickets, packing, parking, waiting, being groped by the pre-flight fondlers, cramming myself into a seat, sitting there for hours, the mystifyingly slow process of disembarking, getting to the hotel, registration, lugging luggage, the cautious exploration of the room, the scan for bedbugs, arraying the hopefully adequate creature comforts imported to the destination on some tatty drawer, all of it is terrible. But then people say, "Oh, but the thing you came for!" And whatever it is leaves me unmoved. I could have been shown a photo of it for all that it matters. Or conferences were nothing was conveyed. Then you get to do all of it in reverse, perhaps with a careful notebook of receipts tucked away. Even hearing about it. And what is beyond the pale is that if word gets out you don't like travel, the Travel People simply won't have it. They're like a cult. In my black little heart, I wonder if people would on the whole travel less if they weren't permitted to speak about it, because lord knows some bore bringing up their time in Nepal yet again at the merest whiff of conversational relevance makes my cortical folds smooth out.
- dshpala 5y ago
  You don't have to do most of those things though. Ever tried just traveling somewhere (driving, flying) without any preparation at all? Also, notebook of receipts? Man, this is bleak.
  - at_a_remove 5y ago
    So, let me get this clear, I just ... get in my car and go in a direction. No medication, no change of clothes, no toothbrush. I stop at some random location for the ... view? I ... sleep in the car? Help me out here, because none of this sounds like a good idea. Well if I am being made to go to a conference, I kinda need my money back, you know? Bleak or not, they want receipts.
    - closetohome 5y ago
      A long time ago I was headed to a photo shoot with the owner of a Ford GT40. As we cruised along he commented that it was the perfect road trip vehicle. Being young and a chronic over-packer and over-preparer, I asked how that was possible, as its total storage consisted of a glovebox and a cupholder. He said "all you need is a pair of sunglasses and a credit card!" Which in retrospect was a bit of guy-who-can-afford-a-GT40 privilege, but it also changed my philosophy of travel. The stuff you need to survive can be obtained cheaply and easily. The joy of travel comes from what you leave behind.
protomyth 5y ago
I generally have a very bad time when I travel, as I seem to be really unlucky. I've gone to Vegas and spent $72 on first aid and $9 on beer. Plus, I've broken down in cars that had no business breaking down twice. So, it certainly didn't reduce the stress. Add to that I often the person doing the logistics of travel and well I guess its not the cure. I will say, there are places that calm my soul, like looking out on the North Dakota Badlands will make me happy for a long period afterwards. I don't know why or how, but it has done me a lot of good over the years. I do wonder if others have that travel place that just sets them right. As to the continued happiness aspect, George Lucas is more elegant on the subject than I will ever be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rePgwJWg7cw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rePgwJWg7cw
LoveGracePeace 5y ago
I was enjoying reading through and enjoying the artwork but needed to TL;DR it, scrolled down more towards the end and was bombarded by a large popup Ad on the right of the screen clipping about 35% of the text I was trying to read, close tab, no idea what the site was about, something about travel.
rossdavidh 5y ago
So, wow is this a long essay. But this: "And inevitably, you’re back in the box, counting down the days in which you can do it again." ...is incorrect. It's far from inevitable. I've traveled to another country about every 2 years for a couple decades, and not once has it been like this. Travel gives you more patterns to draw from, like dabbling in another programming language can help you out even if you end up using the same one for your day job.
iamsanteri 5y ago
I can confirm this in a sense regarding what I heard when talking to other expats working and living abroad, they say: When you‘ve moved once or twice, you can‘t really stay put anymore and this apathy flows in regarding if and where to actually settle. It‘s interesting how serious this can get and you get a feeling something‘s not right in these people‘s minds. This post here shows a good way to go about it, amen.
apoland 5y ago
I can relate to the need for unique experiences... The older I get the more I feel like I need to travel. Especially when most of my work is done from home. I feel energized for weeks after I get back from a trip.
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quickthrower2 5y ago
Some things that might make travel feel awesome that have nothing to do with the travel per-se (and can be replicated at home). 1. You are taking a break from work. 2. You are travelling light - instead of 2 tonnes of 'stuff' to look after, you have a backpack or small suitcase, and very little to take care of. 3. You are engaged to your ideal level. For some people that means seeing a couple of sights, for others that means 100 miles of mountain biking in a day. But you've planned it for your fitness / energy levels and for what 'unwinding' means to you. (As opposed to work where your bosses are trying to extract from you, or if you are like me you are putting pressure on yourself). 4. You see more of the daylight (not stuck in office). I would say that working fewer hours and WFH can give many of the nice feelings of being on a holiday. I think a lot of people want to travel because working life sucks alot. The old way - stuck in an office prison for 9 hours a day plus a train or bus or car 'cage' for another 1-2 hours it is no surprise that people want to get away from that. The narrative "I want to travel, be cultured, I want to see the world etc." then kicks in.
JSavageOne 5y ago
This was enjoyable to read, but I think the title paints travel in an overly dismal light. Perhaps a better title would be "Embrace the Box" or something of that nature. Even the author admits that travel is only a problem if you can't enjoy the present moment because you feel that you can't be happy until you travel (replace travel with money, having a relationship, etc and same idea). Ultimately people should just do what they enjoy. For some that might entail a sedentary lifestyle, staying in one's hometown, marrying younger, taking a comfortable financially secure job, and/or living a more traditional life. For others it might entail moving around or traveling more, dating around more, pursuing more nontraditional hobbies and/or work, etc. There's nothing wrong with either so long as you're being honest with yourself, just do whatever you enjoy and don't feel like you need to fit into anyone's image of what an ideal lifestyle should look like. A lot of happiness I think is a result of not having FOMO. For some people I think they need to actually live out their fantasy to realize that it's not the end all be all (I'm that type of person). At that point you either get depressed realizing that everything you ever wanted didn't make you happy and now you don't know where to search for happiness anymore, or you realize that you're not missing out on anything and there's no light at the end of the tunnel, so might as well make the best of life now.
artur_makly 5y ago
I made a mashup of this essay to some ambient: https://soundcloud.com/juicycanvas/thebox https://soundcloud.com/juicycanvas/thebox enjoy!
noetic_techy 5y ago
Boy is this me. Funny enough, my wife and I are looking to downsize so we can buy a second house in another part of the US because of exactly this. Basically one small house on the coast, one small house in the mountains. When things get too mundane and boring in one place we hop the the other. This only works if you have a remote job in the tech sector, and a wife who works contract jobs. I'm hoping this breaks the "box" syndrome for me even just a little. I do plan to add some meditation practice after reading this article, its been on my "to do" list for a while.
screenbreakout 5y ago
I travel freeloader style, ie as cheaply as possible, atm I'm on 10$ a day in Egypt for the last couple of months, half of which is spent on a place to sleep. I walk, hitch and pay for public transport out of big cities, or if possible travel 3rd class with the locals. My point is that , learning the language, meeting the people, seeing their reality, enjoying the weather (while Europe is stuck in the cold) , feeling lucky because someone stops to give me a lift is a total mind fuck and I mean that in a good way... The inherent chaos of roughing it and having time to contemplate the beautiful vistas with no one around , the Milky way, the generosity or animosity is a reality check which helps clear the cobwebs from the mind and sharpens critical thought.... I agree with one poster that people don't take enough time to travel, I personally would like to connect more with and help locals in my specialities (music, gardening) and hate what the tourist industry has done, is doing to the environment (cheap jobs for the locals, wasted ressources on "short term" infrastructure, huge amounts of waste and garbage) I personally think that to combat climat change it would be great to see swathes of the poorer European population, chill out and/or travel(for 2-3 months)in the empty tourist resorts or villages of the southern hemisphere, thereby hitting several birds with one stone : having experiences which lead to increased sensitivity and hopefully more empathy , not needing to pay the high prices for heating their homes , having a well deserved holiday as part of the "proletariat", hopefully sharing and learning to be more "open minded" I'm not sure of the math but unless we are very lucky and CO2 sucking or free energy fusion technology has a huge breakthrough, the world will, is, burning up and the best solution would be to get as many of those who can afford democratically to stop work to do so, thereby creating a net CO2 reduction (ie work and all the energy consumption work entails + transport and supermarket logistics+ heating and useless paper advertising weekly supermarket discounts (-) travel by boat and cheap living) in warm countries ... we saw this with the advent of covid.... On a side note, reading HN is the best , it downloads fast and caches for offline reading...also I just came across a wonderful book called "Dancing with mosquitoes" by Theo Grutter , totally recommend.

339 points by wallflower 5y ago

As an aside - is this type of blog a new genre? The short sentence, cartoon drawing life lesson kind of thing? I've been seeing it more and more I feel like.

colordrops 5y ago

Ugh, this reads like a biography of my life.

vmception 5y ago

I definitely like being in different places, and do up and go to them for either certain events or certain people or to check off a personal box. I don't go to those places to really change my routine though, I actually feel privileged that I can go to places long enough to replicate a routine. I've done the 5-day trip across a 3-day weekend thing to rush to all of the sites and get depressed that its over and leave, and I am never going to be in a circumstance where I do that again. I would much rather get integrated into a new place, join a couple classes, have a new crew, continue my projects in the new setting. If I do wage work, I'm going to have to set expectations that the "unlimited vacation policy" means I'm not reporting in for 2 weeks per quarter. But, one thing that stands out to me is how other people assume something like "if I was that 'successful' I wouldn't be doing X thing" or like "what are you doing on hackernews/social media/internet" as if they wouldn't. As if after one week of travel they wouldn't be doing things they are familiar with. I think its interesting that people don't ever get the opportunity to know! Which is honestly one of my driving factors: I like living in coveted neighorhoods for 10-days to a month just to see if I would really like it. To see what the convenience is really like, or the perception from others that I receive while living there, or what the noise or smells are. Its so much worse, in my opinion, to actually covet or strive for those things just to be disillussioned after all of that energy and sacrifice.

pimlottc 5y ago
I've always said that you can never really know a place until you've been there long enough to get bored.
- gcanyon 5y ago
  I definitely prefer living in a place to visiting a place. I wouldn't say bored, but familiar.
redisman 5y ago
It sounds fun- I will say that living somewhere for a week or a month is pure honeymoon so don’t think it’s being very objective. A year, two years, five years. My feeling about a place changes to polar opposites during that time. Love it, hate it, learn to re-love it despite the warts
- vmception 5y ago
  Oh totally agree, I’m not trying to win a contest, there isnt enough time in life to live that many places and build relationships with people there. 4-6 weeks is when my new social activities with new people just start to snowball! Definitely not long enough. I think its more than long enough to know what living in any particular neighborhood is like though. One other thing is that you are able to notice other people that travel like that. The proverbial “jetsetters” even without the socialite connotations, nomadic. Many more in the last few years. Interesting crowd. There are people that like the same circuits of places so thats nice.

supernova87a 5y ago

That was a lot of comics and explanation just to say, "even travel eventually resets back into the familiar and dull, so instead take joy from being grateful for familiar things instead".

throwawayboise 5y ago
I've traveled a little bit, but as I've gotten older, travel has become something I'm not interested in at all. A lot of expense for very little reward in my experience. I know that a lot of people have "travel" on the list of things they plan to do when they retire, but I just don't see the allure.
- polishdude20 5y ago
  I think one reason I travel is to see family in other countries but also to see other weather. Right now it's cold as hell where I live and I just need someplace sunny to go see and experience.
  - raffraffraff 5y ago
    Gave up flying 4 years ago. I really feel this. I miss Lanzarote. But I've made peace with it.
- anta40 5y ago
  For some people, travel aligns perfectly with photography. And of course when they retire, plenty of time to do travelling.
dehrmann 5y ago
You ever travel and get to the point that you've seen enough art museums, and they're just not that different?
- gcanyon 5y ago
  If all you do is visit art museums, then sure. While I lived in Thailand I saw: -- The British cemetery for the POWs that worked on the death railway (The Bridge on the River Kwai) -- and saw that many multiples of Thais died for every western soldier who died -- The awesome canal boats, that stop to drop people off and pick people up in under 20 seconds. -- Malls with endless 5 foot and 10 foot shops -- MBK mall has 3,000 shops in it! -- More more more malls: MBK is across from Siam, which is next to Central World, which is across the street from Gaysorn, which is next to The Market, which is a block away from Platinum, and it goes on and on. -- Thailand's air and space museum, where they proudly display the remains of a U.S. plane they shot down in WWII, along with a bunch of their own aircraft. -- Amazing beaches -- of course. -- The Thailand Museum of Science and Industry, which was awesome. -- Street food, so much street food. -- Shops selling nothing but electric fans, shops selling ancient typewriters, shops selling vintage cameras, and oh so much more. And so much more, of course. Every day was an adventure. I was there two years and I miss it.

DOsinga 5y ago

I don't know. If you live your self repeating life and weeks become months and months become years and then you go to say Korea for half a year and make new friends and pick up new routines and eat new foods and then you go back to your routine, isn't your life just better than if you hadn't gone? The new stuff might still become a routine, but it is still extra.

ramraj07 5y ago
It helps if your life problems are true first world problems (viz. tech guy with million or more in savings but thinks the cushy job isn’t rewarding enough and wants more purpose or something). It doesn’t matter you’re sitting in Kyoto eating sushi if you’re depressed to begin with. Only therapy and treatment could help. Maybe.
- j4yav 5y ago
  The comic seems to be saying that travel and living overseas doesn’t even help with simple problems like being bored in your routine beyond the very short term, which doesn’t really match my personal experience at least.
- blunte 5y ago
  Just a side note - you absolutely don't need to be millions rich to travel for extended periods. You just need to have few financial obligations that are location dependent. In an extreme example (which some of us fantasize about), you could have all your necessary possession in two bags, have no "home" (and no car and no other anchors), and travel the world for less than many people spend living in one place. This is especially true if you take a US/EU salary and spend time in much lower cost of living places.
dejv 5y ago
I guess it depends, I used to travel a lot when I was in my 20s (I guess it would add to about 5 years spread over 8 years period) and now after close to 10 years being home it just feel like it never happened: sure I do have some memories, stories and some connections on Facebook to people I haven't seen in many years. Don't get me wrong it was fun and interesting, but I guess thats it. But maybe thats me, when I was traveling I was feeling happy and excited, but I feel same just walking in the park outside my home and actually looking forward to just get my coffee at usual place and spend time programming. Basically same routine, now I just have more comfortable setup.

kome 5y ago

living abroad is the best thing happened to me, i'm grateful for every minute of it. it's just cool. so, seneca might be right, changing the sky doesn't change our soul. but changing the sky helps our soul to change if you are in the right disposition. because sometimes being stuck in a place physically, also get us stuck mentally. traveling instead, meh: to me traveling it's just consumption, and consumption is tiresome and boring.

blunte 5y ago
That's a really good point which I don't think was mentioned in TA - new experiences tend to shake up the mind, which can lead to new though processes and new ideas. It can be a real boost for creativity. So going to a new place can shake up one's thoughts and lead to some great new ideas, and then the routine of the new place can give one time to work with those new ideas and perhaps make something.
deleted 5y ago
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bedobi 5y ago

Disagree. I grew up in Scandinavia but have since lived many different places all over the world and for me it remains enjoyable to move someplace new, get to know it and the culture over a few years, and if I stagnate or get bored, switch it up again. It has also paradoxically been good both for my career and personal life. (exposed to more potential jobs, friends, partners etc I otherwise wouldn't have) YMMV and it's certainly not for everyone. But I'm skeptical that staying in your comfort zone your whole life will do anyone much favors. (and the odd few week trip here or there doesn't really count, by all means all travel is great but vacation and just passing places through is fundamentally different from spending at least a few months or even years somewhere)

redisman 5y ago
> stagnate or get bored, switch it up again Isn’t that exactly what the comic is about? I will say that I met my wife traveling and my kids were born on a different continent than me. There is a lot to find out there but travel as a value itself gets old and doesn’t fulfill your soul like it felt like it would when I was young.
- polishdude20 5y ago
  Sure, the act of travelling seems to be his bade state which stays constant. Like, you can not travel and be content with what you have. Or you can travel and be content with switching it up.
- bedobi 5y ago
  To me, it seems like the comic is saying, rather than using a switch in your environment as a crutch for happiness, find happiness in your routine. Having a routine that makes you happy is important and not bad advice! But sometimes, at least for me, I kind of exhaust my options for happiness in a given environment. Eg maybe I've already gotten a job with the best employer in a given location and can't climb any higher professionally, friends have moved away or started a family or whatever, hobbies and activities that used to be novel and fun have become repetitive and dull, I've mastered the local language I wanted to learn etc etc. That feeling, combined with a basically infinite and always in flux list of places and things I want to experience before my time is up, makes switching my environment up very powerful and enjoyable for me. Happily admit there's downsides to not "settling down" too and it's not for everyone. But I think most people would benefit from fundamentally switching up their environment at least a few times in their life. If it turns out you were happier where you started you can always go back. But you'll never know other places if you don't give them a shot.

Powlowski 5y ago

[flagged]

TheChaplain 5y ago
Warning: The above comment is some spam/scam.

poorjohnmacafee 5y ago

The key is to always be stimulating your mind with new experiences, new concepts, new surroundings, think through confusions, solve holes in your understanding, make something etc. etc.. Travel ticks some of those boxes so it does absolutely help the mind. You can tick some of the other boxes from home as well. Life passes by really, really fast if you do the same thing and think the same way every single day. It will make you restless, anxious over time too because your mind really doesn't like that kind of confinement.

erwincoumans 5y ago
This! I've traveled and lived in several countries, and all the new experiences slow down time. At the same time, I did enjoy the story and agree that getting to know your loved ones better is a good idea. Btw, who watches TV in yhe evening? It is internet all the way since many years in our household.

j4yav 5y ago

For me personally the combination of immigrating permanently to Europe plus remote work gave me an ever-changing box, in a good way. There’s lots of very different cultures just a drive away, and remote work lets me head out often and for extended stays. Even the last couple years which were a big damper on travel, I never got bored of my new home in the Netherlands or felt stuck in a routine. I’ve been here for six years now, probably three here and three in other nearby countries on extended visits. I’m sure the cartoon resonates with some people but I don’t think it’s as universal as they are making it seem. I hope it doesn’t convince people not to at least try to see if travel or living overseas makes life richer and more interesting. I will say I wasn’t trying to cure anything wrong with my mind when moving overseas, so maybe that’s a difference I’m not properly accounting for.

blunte 5y ago
I left US for NL 10 years ago, and I can say I've enjoyed most of my time here. But now it's time to move on, and the world offers many exciting new cultures (and foods!) to enjoy.
bogomipz 5y ago
How were you able to spend 6 years in NL and the three in other nearby countries? Did move jobs from NL to new countries in the EU that sponsored a visa for you in those nearby countries?
- j4yav 5y ago
  The Netherlands has a treaty called DAFT where any US citizen can come to start a business. It’s also very pro knowledge migrant, the visas are easy to get and they also offer a huge tax benefit for 5 years. Once here, you can travel in the Schengen area visa free.
  - bogomipz 5y ago
    Ah OK. I have heard of this. Can you live in other areas as well, like say you wanted to move to Belgium or Germany while keeping your business in NL. You could do that with a DAFT visa?

JoshTriplett 5y ago

This very much captures the hedonic treadmill: when you increase your baseline level of happiness, you re-normalize to the new level, with relatively little change in your absolute happiness. But while I do think appreciating what you have is part of how to avoid the hedonic treadmill, I don't think it's a matter of learning to be happy with a routine. I've found it possible to make a conscious effort to avoid hedonic adapation, and enjoy novel things without allowing them to become a new baseline. If you can maintain your expectations at the same level, while improving your actual circumstances noticeably above that level, you can maintain a higher level of enjoyment of your life.

dehrmann 5y ago
I find this very depressing, but the reason the nordics have some of the happiest people in the world is they have low expectations.
- camillomiller 5y ago
  Source? The nordics have some of the highest suicide rates in the world, actually. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...
  - tedeh 5y ago
    Top 10: 1. Lesotho 2. Guyana 3. Eswatini 4. Kiribati 5. Micronesia 6. Suriname 7. Zimbabwe 8. South Africa 9. Mozambique 10. Central African Republic
  - matthewmacleod 5y ago
    Did you mean to link to some other data? This list shows that the Nordic state with the highest suicide rate is Finland at number 38, in which suicides are about 30% higher than the European average (although of course Greenland remains an interesting artefact). I don't think that really fits your description. It's always been pretty interesting (and I'd say quite well-known) that the Nordics do have a somewhat higher suicide rate than other similar states. But it's also likely a pretty bad proxy; I'd be suspicious of a metric suggesting the average North Korean citizen is substantially happier than the average Finn. Probably better is the World Happiness Report (https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/social-environments-for-world-happiness/ https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/social-environments-fo...). It's a bit arbitrary for my taste, but does at least have a pretty long history as well as plenty of transparency about what it's measuring and why. And it consistently places the Nordics in the top ten.

blunte 5y ago

Indeed humans, many of us at least, thrive on novelty: new things, new experiences. Meditation, thankfulness, and other forms of inward focus may bring some respite from the desire for novelty, but... What is the point of life if not to enjoy it? What defines enjoyment varies from person to person, but for some of us it is ABSOLUTELY certain that some environments are more pleasant than others. Some people/friends/lovers are more pleasant than others. Some foods are more pleasant than others. Our tastes and interests change over time. We could live on one place, tend our little garden, eat the same meals each week, talk to the same people, and meditate. For those who want that life, great for them. It's not for me. The world is vast, and there are so many experiences discover and enjoy. And actually, a Thai beach suits me VERY well. It is my next long stay, and after it there will probably be other long stays. Maybe when I get too old to move about, I'll pick a spot to die. I think this "stay put and be zen" mentality is less common for tech people (especially developers). If we were satisfied with status quo, we wouldn't be constantly trying to develop solutions to "problems". If we were more able to be satisfied, we would still be using Fortran and COBOL (or pick any old language). There would be no smartphones (for better or worse). Heck, you could unwind all human advancement back to pre-agriculture days... which might actually be an improvement... but that cat is too far out of the bag.

bogomipz 5y ago
>"And actually, a Thai beach suits me VERY well. It is my next long stay, and after it there will probably be other long stays." I was curious if you've looked at the state of this recently? Is this doable for a foreigner/digital nomad again? Any insights? What are the long stay options there? I know visas used to be very generous, I've no idea now. It does sound nice though.
- blunte 5y ago
  TLDR: it's very doable, and I will be spending many months there again this year. I spent several weeks of Nov/Dec 2021 in Phuket while I was between contracts. Things were just starting to open up and come back to life as restrictions were being lifted. Many places were still closed or had gone out of business, but there was no lack of dining, massage, bar, or outdoor activities. Internet was reliable and fast with my 30 EUR 30-day unlimited data Thai SIM card (AIS brand if I remember correctly). Most hotels had decent wifi as well, but I often didn't even bother using it. There are multiple visa options (which you can do a search for), and there's a subreddit just on this topic if you don't mind digging a bit. All options involve some expense and/or extra effort, but it's still a small cost considering the benefits of being there. Lodging is easy and cheap (particularly with COVID 50% discounts which may be vanishing slowly). My advice if you're going to stay for more than 30 days is to get a hotel for 5 days, and then start asking around and just walking/driving around looking for flats or rooms to rent. Not everything is listed online. There are also a lot of Youtube bloggers who like to show off places they encounter. One can live comfortably for $1500/mo or less, or frugally for $1000 or less. It's also possible to spend $5000+/mo if you want to live in luxury. Speaking fankly, luxury villas and "human entertainment" tend to be the big costs for some people. I can't speak to specifics since that's not my kind of scene (and honestly I didn't really see many other visitors who were acting like high roller party boys in Vegas). Be aware that officially, working while in Thailand is not approved without the proper visa (which probably 99% of DNs don't have). Practically though, sitting on the balcony behind a computer (and getting paid to do so) for several hours a day is not high risk. Just don't flaunt it.

dukeofdoom 5y ago

Travel is rewarding if you're doing new things on the edge of your comfort zone. If you're feeling existential anxiety, look into Philosophy. If you're too lazy to read, Alain de Botton has some insights, you can watch in video format: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gVyEOefhIQ&list=PLa_3jLb0w_JNcM6xxmY_sLJMg82x71eAV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gVyEOefhIQ&list=PLa_3jLb0w_... The School of Life https://www.youtube.com/c/theschooloflifetv https://www.youtube.com/c/theschooloflifetv

dehrmann 5y ago

> The box known as your mind. You know the quote "wherever you go, there you are?" At some put point, I started putting the emphasis on you rather than there. Sure, you can go see Paris, and it's a lovely city, but you're still you. Some people travel to "find themselves," but never do. It's still you.

zarzavat 5y ago
Travel certainly changes people. But it depends on your openness to new ideas. Some travelers expect to find their own country in a different place - these people will not be altered by travel. However if you consider travel as an exercise in adaption to other peoples’ ways of life, then it certainly will challenge some of the axioms that were instilled in you from a young age by your society.
- arisAlexis 5y ago
  Why can't you find your country in a different one?because you are supposed to stay put and true to your country that luck decided for you and obey some societal rule?
iostream23 5y ago
But there’s a multifaceted you there. It’s pretty hard to reach your potential as a surf champion if you stay where you were born in Minnesota. It’s pretty hard to become a social butterfly in a culture that disapproves of your sexual orientation. It’s pretty hard to become a nuclear physicist if you only stay in the farm and study animal husbandry. Nothing against animal husbandry or Minnesota

unixhero 5y ago

Beautiful post

WaxedChewbacca 5y ago

drusenko 5y ago

Comments so far are missing a major reason travel is likely enjoyable. One of my favorite theories on why time feels like it accelerates as you get older is that your brain tends to only store unique memories. Like that daily commute you do every day and the odd feeling you sometimes get at the end of it where you can’t remember driving… Travel is a set of unique experiences that form unique memories. Part of what’s addicting and pleasurable is that it helps slow down the perception of the passage of time, among many other positives. It’s also self reinforcing in that when you think back, you tend to disproportionately remember travel vs other experiences. There’s clearly a lot more benefits than that, but it certainly seems like a significant factor.

xz0r 5y ago
Time accelerates as one gets older is due to relativeness of perceived experience of duration. 1 year for a person who lived 50 years is relatively short(2%) compared to someone who lived for only 20 years (5%)
- notahacker 5y ago
  Also, if the 20 year old looks back 5 years, they were a hormonal teenager, still growing physically, treated as a minor and had never experienced half the things they'd experienced now. They were a completely different person in many respects then, and if they look back 15 years it's their very first memories. If the 50 year old looks back 5 years, their life probably wasn't all that different. If they look back 15, their kids were still at home and they had a different job title but they were fundamentally the same person, and they feel they've been that way for a very long time.
- uxp100 5y ago
  Is one theory.
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  That's just a statement, there is no logic behind why life would be experienced as percentages rather than in absolute time. Personally, I'm more prone to believe the unique experiences concept, because that actually has some basis for it, and also meshes with my real life. I have a few years in my early 20s which are just a blur (because I was working a crummy office job), but I have a year or two in my 30s which feel like a lifetime in themselves, and I can recall numerous specific days, because I was doing a totally new thing (road tripping around the mediterranean)

skohan 5y ago

I disagree. The article makes some valid points. I did a year and a half working as a "digital nomad" traveling through the middle east, Europe and Africa. It was an incredible part of my life - just an incredibly dense stream of experiences; some good and some bad, some fun, some challenging, from pure joy to wrenching heartbreak and everything in between. There was a lot of superficial joy and excitement during that period. And as the article says, there were times when the novelty of going somewhere new, seeing the sights, meeting new people wore off, and that was really depressing. I felt the lack of roots: of having people who really knew me around, and having the chance to build things which take time and stability. At the same time, there were a lot of real experiences that time. I faced and overcame certain challenges, and I met certain people, and I had certain experiences which fundamentally changed who I am and how I and how I approach the world. And just that project of living with something approaching to absolute freedom for an extended period allowed me to choose who I want to be in a way which would not have been possible otherwise. I'm on a different project now, and I don't think I will be disappearing for a year and a half any time soon, but I still find travel to be an incredibly valuable tool. I like to set up trips which include the right mix of planning and improvisation to put me in that mindset where I have to be open to possibility and really engage with the world around me. Almost like an experiment where certain parameters are set in order to test myself in a certain way. And I have found that during a trip, or coming back from one, is often when I can think the most clearly about my life and make important decisions. Travel will not solve your problems on its own, but it can certainly help.

deltaonefour 5y ago
I think the key difference between your narrative and the authors is that you kept moving. It seems like when you were a nomad you never stayed in one place for too long.
sdze 5y ago
> Travel will not solve your problems on its own, but it can certainly help. As will jumping into a deep ocean to learn to swim.
camillomiller 5y ago

eyelidlessness 5y ago

“I think that it’s brainless To assume that making changes To your window’s view will give a new perspective” Is a good way of stating this idea. It’s not supported by actual human experience though.

nightgarden 5y ago

There is definitely some truth to that but I feel that it is an unbalanced view. It really describes archetypal escapism. Not everyone travels to escape, and even for those who travel to escape it's usually not just an escape, you learn a lot while traveling. It enriches you, not just with memories which make you long to travel again. You can certainly take the lessons about the mind, to be grateful and staying in the present moment, but also keep the variety in your life, whatever that means to you. That is what optimizes your experience.

elvis10ten 5y ago

I tried traveling more, but I find out after the first day, I’m no longer as excited. Also can be a frustrating and time consuming experience when you don’t have a strong passport. I’m a “busy body” and I find novelty almost every week in my environ or nearby. I always push myself to try new things / start a conversation with strangers / group activities / etc. Even things I have been doing for a long time like working out at the public park or playing football, still gets me excited like a kid. Admittedly, the biggest improvement in my happiness was moving to a developed country.

EugeneOZ 5y ago

In my experience traveling was the best cure for the mind in my life. I totally disagree with the author. The only downside of traveling is money expense.

fergie 5y ago

Yes, but this rather assumes that your current "Box of Daily Experience" is ok, and not, say, violent, insecure, poverty-stricken, or abusive. Basically every immigrant ever has chosen to pick a new Box of Daily Experience, and often fairly reasonably.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
The point of TFA (and Seneca's letter on which it is based) is not that you should just accept your Box of Daily Experience. It is that although you may have (and should have) control over most of what makes up your own Box of Daily Experience, there will always be a Box of Daily Experience. It is not arguing complacency about the contents, but is arguing for not trying to run from the basic fact of its existence.

playcache 5y ago

This reminds me of two things. British Weather and the The Myth of Sisyphus. We have an old saying in the UK (it was popularised by an Austrian band, but it proceeds the song), "everywhere you go, you always take the weather with you'. In the UK it rains a lot, and folks think by going somewhere sunny it will resolve all their issues and lack of meaning in their life. Any change is fleeting and temporary. The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical premise by Albert Camus. Sisyphus was a greek character who the gods had condemned to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain, where the stone would fall back of its own weight. The gods believed there to be no more dreadful a punishment that is both futile and hopeless. The central concern of The Myth of Sisyphus is what Camus calls "the absurd." or absurdism, a universe devoid of the meaning we long from it, as we toil through each day, repeating the mundane. Camus claims that there is a fundamental conflict between what we want from the universe (meaning or order) and what we find in the universe (formless chaos, often devoid of meaning). We will never find in life itself the meaning that we want to find. Either we will discover a meaning through a leap of faith / dogma, by placing our hopes in a God beyond this world, or we will conclude that life is meaningless and be left with either suffering through or committing suicide. In The Myth Of Sisyphus Camus claims that the only important philosophical question boils down to suicide and should we continue to live or not? The rest is secondary, because no one dies for scientific or philosophical arguments, they quickly abandon them when their life is at risk. Yet people do take their own lives because they judge them meaningless, or they sacrifice them for "meaningful" causes. This suggests that questions of meaning supersede all other scientific or philosophical questions. As Camus puts it: “I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions" The point Camus is making is that there is no solution to the problem of living an absurd, meaningless existence. His argument is that the only way to confront it is to fully embrace the absurd, discard all hope, and live in revolt by throwing yourself so fully at a task in life that you lose yourself in the joy of the struggle. Camus emphatically rejects any worldview that would leave us "at peace" with our existence. Our existence is an endless revolt against the Absurd, a 'fuck you' where we are fully aware of the meaninglessness of our lives yet choosing to live regardless.

red369 5y ago
I’ve heard of Australia and New Zealand arguing their claim to Crowded House, but never Austria (assume autocorrect missed on that one)

CryptoPunk 5y ago

I really agree with the importance of having gratitude. It's easy to take for granted the miracle of life. Gratitude, as the article explains, can help you appreciate the wealth of experiences and opportunities available where you currently live. I would add however that in some cases, travel can really enrich your life. You may even, if you have a certain personality and the financial means, find the most meaning in having a life of non stop travel, where your residence is, effectively, the planet Earth. Travel can also help you discover places where you would prefer living. For example if you live on the West Coast, you may instead prefer jurisdictions with more law and order, where you're not having your personal belonging stolen on a frequent basis, and you're not forced to contend with mentally unstable drug addicts on a daily basis. If you live in a cold climate, you may find you prefer the opposite, or vice versa. You may find cities with a better job market, or less burdensome taxes. You may find a country with a culture that better suits you, e.g. one that is more liberal, or a small town culture that is more friendly and personable. Travel can add a lot of value to your life.

contingencies 5y ago
Travel is key because, if you do it slowly enough with eyes open, it shows you what universal properties human societies tend to have in all their incarnations and just how beautiful nature, history, art and other things lying outside of the daily grind are. Importantly, particularly if you are young, it distances you from the familiar environment, society, family and friends, and thus releases your inhibitions and allows you to grow in new ways. Done right, travel is novel experience - definitely not endless flights and generic hotels. After your first foreign rendezvous, sunrise, sunset, new way of cooking a familiar ingredient, new instrument, sport, museum, language or revolution, "home" may just seem ... dull.

WA 5y ago

Descriptions like these always miss one crucial thing: The time component. In a similar vein, there's this saying that if people get in a terrible accident and lose a limb, they are back to their normal happiness after a year. Now imagine, you are in an accident, you lose a limb. Exactly one year later, you are in another accident, lose another limb, and this goes on and on and after 80 years in your death bed, you look back on a miserable life of being traumatized every year. Now imagine, you make new experiences, before they become your daily box, as the article shows. Say, it takes a year to become the new normal. After a year, you find something new that excites you, before it becomes the new normal. And this goes on and on and after 80 years, in your death bed, you reflect back on a life that kinda was never dull. Is this a defense of the hedonic treadmill? No, make what you want of this, but I guess that is why many people find it enticing. The counter argument almost always misses the time component.

j7ake 5y ago

You can embed growth, surprise, and serendipity into your box of daily (weekly) experience. For example, watching your child grow up, making discoveries or seeing your work be implemented at scale, watching movies or reading books, or seeing your own skills develop in your hobby. The point is to do things in life where you can encounter growth and discovery, so that your days/weeks can link together to form a bigger coherent picture of your life.

iostream23 5y ago

Nice article and all, especially the cute drawings. I don’t agree with their conclusions. It’s pretty hard to become a surf champion if you grow up in Minnesota and stay there. Each new “reality bubble” or “box” I created in response to different circumstances in a different environment. I changed, or rather, different sides of my personality had to develop to adapt to a different environment. I’m not speaking as a vacationing cubicle worker, but as someone who completely reinvented himself after age 30, learned a half dozen languages, visited 50 countries usually on local peoples sofas, and then finally changed countries of habitation several times and am now a dual national and feeling both mental boxes quite strongly attempting to box me in. The part where I agree with the author is that part in which our reality is limited by our own mental box of perception and acculturation. Our choices and responses to external stimuli determine if we fold or adapt to new opportunities. Will we hide in our shell or will we come out and be molded by new experiences? Please note, the instagram vacation model is accurate and hollow as outlined by the author, I just think that they copped out with their lame trite conclusion that I have personally found to be untrue.

coldtea 5y ago

>The drawback to this is that for most of us, traveling happens in the form of vacations. A vacation is designed to be an exciting respite we take to keep us incentivized to return back (...) But remember, since you are going to be staying here for a while, having fun with interesting people and seeing new sights are not reliable roadmaps for financial sustainability. And plus, all of your friends are busy in the daytime with work, and being a lone wanderer in the early afternoon is only fun for so long. So yup, it’s time to get yourself a job. OK, so "travel" is not the cure. Money is, so that you don't need to work - and friends who also have money and do interesting stuff (not necessarily leisuring, they could do whatever, from politics and art to crafts, they're just not confined by 9-to-5 and bosses). But perhaps even more problematic is the idea of a "cure for the mind". Because you can be even the latter and be miserable.

rewgs 5y ago

I wanted to travel directly after college but instead got straight to work. I'm now 31 and in the last year have developed a couple dozen food allergies, to the point that I very literally cannot eat out at restaurants. I have to prepare everything myself. This change has completely destroyed my will to travel. Or, rather, makes me regret not having traveled when I had the chance to enjoy one of the best parts of it: the food. And not just the food itself, though that is a big draw -- more important is the logistics of not having to cook all your food yourself, needing specific products from specific brands (and if you can't find them you're shit out of luck), etc. Travel for me is only possible in places where I have a kitchen (so, AirBnB), and the supplies required to meal prep. I'll spend a not insignificant amount of time in my new locale cooking and cleaning dishes, like I constantly do at home. No wandering around town checking out a restaurant. No airport food. No meeting new friends and them spontaneously treating me to dinner. So, so many lost experiences. When I get in this mood and remember what life was like just a year ago before all these food allergies hit, when I was still planning on traveling the world "once Covid blew over," it makes me so, so sad. I can't believe I lost my chance just because I chose to work right out of college (worse, an internship that didn't end up hiring me). Point being: For whatever critique of travel this post might offer, just...if you can, travel. I never, ever thought that I would lose the ability to be somewhere and just...eat, without thinking. To try new food without fear of literally dying. I never knew that could happen to someone. I never knew the simple joy of eating somewhere I'd never been before could be taken away, that I would be trapped to the same tiny list of ingredients (ever-shrinking, I might add), the same depressingly small number of combinations formed by them, and by extension the physical entrapment, the loneliness, the sense of not being part of the group because I can't share in the meal. God I hate it. If you can, just fucking travel. Do it while you still can.

alexdig 5y ago
I have no allergies, so I can't imagine how that is. However, I had a back injury 3 years ago. I thought it'd heal fast but I got to the point of being afraid to carry my backpack when traveling somewhere. The chance of having an incredibly sharp pain makes me fear almost any kind of activity. I also put off traveling before and now I regret not doing it while I was physically able to walk/hike around for hours on end. I did physical therapy, swimming etc to make it feel better, but by now it's clear it will never improve past a certain point. So yeah, travel while you can :)

codeflow2202 5y ago

I always wondered if our passion for travel has deeper roots. Maybe it comes from our ancestral need to move to greener pastures in search for food and better climate. Sometimes we prefer go for long hikes, some others to stop and chill in enjoyable temperatures, close to water from sea, rivers or lakes. All of this makes me think that deep inside we are at least partially still nomad creatures.

arisAlexis 5y ago

What's the difference between travel and reading then? Both make the mind go away. In the same argument one could say books are no good either, you should patiently mop the floor so your box is cleaner tomorrow.

andrewflnr 5y ago

I can confirm this in broad outline. I've been lucky enough to go on a couple open-ended road trips. I knew going in that it was unlikely to "fix my problems", but still entertained the hope that it would do something along those lines. It didn't. I was approximately the same idiot after as I was before. Not that I don't want to do it again as soon as possible. There are, as many have mentioned here, other reasons to travel, and I do think the experience has made my life richer.

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known 5y ago

grapescheesee 5y ago

Enjoyed this greatly! I have an important distinction in my mind about travel for work and travel for fun/vacation. In 2021 I was just a few days short of 300 nights in a hotel. I enjoy the little experiences while being on the road more than anything else I did. The brief odd insight of a short conversation with a stranger you will never see again. Understanding of the parts of this world you lack any control over, and finding out how quickly you can blame yourself for them. Meeting a hurricane survior who is a few states away from 'home' and then being told in such a calm and stoic manner, they lost everything they owned. And a feeling of dejavu you meet someone months later, living out of a hotel for the same reason. Its brutally humbling if you let the portions of vanity and purpose you cling on fall by the wayside. It's real actual work traveling. I would have a difficult time being excited for a trip anywhere now. Except the excitement my partner, friend, brother, so on.. would feel for the exact reasons this post conveyed, or maybe it is the former. To travel for work alone, is more isolating than living alone and working a 9-5. It may not be at first, but it is. Yet I would not trade the last six years for anything.

Xcelerate 5y ago

One of the examples in the comic describes a guy that wants to live somewhere more exciting, so he moves there, only to discover that after a while everything has once again become routine and unsatisfying. But I think some places are just generally better places to live than others, and these places lead to a greater sustained feeling of contentedness. I grew up in the southeast, and after visiting the Bay Area for the first time over a decade ago, I became determined to move there eventually. So I did. And the initial “exciting new place” vibes did eventually fade somewhat, but... I found that I generally just enjoyed life more than I previously did. My seasonal affective disorder was more tolerable in the winter. The breathtaking scenery never got old. Tastier and healthier food. A job that fit my interests better. A culture that fit my personality better. But with the birth of our daughter, my wife wanted to be closer to family, so we moved back to where we came from. And I really, really dislike living here. I have made every sort of plan to try to get back to CA eventually, or at least split my time in retirement between here and there (many years from now). The five months of the year with a lack of sunshine and leafless trees are depressing. The people driving pickup trucks with Confederate flags mounted in the back are depressing. The endless chain restaurants and the fact that I can’t even find fresh garlic or basil is depressing. Knowing that my daughter will eventually go to a school nearby that never required masks and doesn’t believe vaccines are effective is depressing. The premise of the article seems to be somewhat about the hedonic treadmill, and how it is not the box that you’re in that leads to discontent with life. But sometimes I think it is actually just the box that you’re in, and if you don’t like it, you urgently need to find a new box.

midjji 5y ago

Or more consizely, no matter where you go, the person most able to make you feel like shit will be there...

frontman1988 5y ago
Wherever you go, there you are.

throwaway22032 5y ago

After reading the article it seems that the author frames the problem in the wrong way. Travel is not a _cure_ for the mind. There is no cure for the human condition. It's better described as maintenance. If I'm feeling cooped up indoors and I jump on the metro and go to Chinatown, does that cure all of my existential ills? No, but it's fun, and tomorrow I can go somewhere else. The same is true of all activities. I quit my job a while back and now I'm studying full time. Is that going to scratch my itch forever? No, eventually I'll get bored and want to do something else. But now I've done more different things, I'm more well rounded, and I experienced a lot of joy over and above what I'd have if I just sat in the office counting beans all year. I'm going to meet some friends this afternoon, and that's not gonna cure my mind either, same as eating lunch doesn't cure hunger.

jseban 5y ago
Yeah I agree, what a strange premise, do people really have this expectation on travel? And the conclusion too, is to replace travel with mindful meditation and try to use that one single thing instead to fix everything.
hammock 5y ago
I agree and I don't believe you are in conflict with the author. Travel can be seen as an escape for the mind. It's heroin for a daily life that could be improved. We often say a vacation "keeps you sane" however in the context of travel as a drug we might rethink that notion.

2ion 5y ago

I enjoy travel and transport because when on a trip between points A and B nothing can bother me or influence my trajectory. "I know I'll spend the next 5 hours on this train". This provides an oddly relaxing feeling of comfort and untouchability that is hard to get when you have many degrees of freedom available to you with many occasions of interference.

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shswkna 5y ago

New experiences are good because they feed our neural networks with new input. A change of scenery can sometimes give us a needed fresh perspective to help us progress with life problems and to counter stagnation.

zigman1 5y ago

I disagree quite alot with the article, mostly because it asumes that it is necesary to hate your everyday routine and it can't be altered in any way. Living everyday life can be as creative as anything else, end a vacation in this case could just be one of the goals or rewards you aim towards and not just live for it. here i must add, that a very big realization for me was, how important traveling or vacations (taking a break etc) actually is. It is absolutely necesary to have time off, and because of it brains will have the time to reflect on its own life, determine new goals or plans for the future. It gives you a place without everyday distractions and stimuluses. I always come back with new ideas, new goals and new energy for the future. And I look forward towards this future of everyday life. edit: I started reading comments and noticed that a lot of people wrote the same thing. I might add that travelling doesn't necessary mean going somewhere exotic. It can also be a weekend roadtrip or a train journey to the countryside, which i believe is something everyone can afford.

nicbou 5y ago
This resonates with me. I return from vacations with a bunch of new ideas, habits and recipes. But like you say, everyday life at home also matters. Travelling is a bonus, not the only thing that keeps the lid on.

ajot 5y ago

As a related piece (article? essay?), I always liked a lot Art of Manliness' view on Tolkien, The Hobbit and traveling. https://www.artofmanliness.com/living/leisure/against-the-cult-of-travel-or-what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-the-hobbit/ https://www.artofmanliness.com/living/leisure/against-the-cu...

causi 5y ago

Travel is like Pink Floyd, Rick & Morty, and Steven Universe: great by itself but it has an insufferable fanbase. You can't even talk about going on vacation without some yahoo launching into a spiel about how all the world's problems would be fixed if all Americans had passports.

markpeppers 5y ago
It wouldn't solve all the world's problems, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.

legrande 5y ago

Well opportunities multiply as they are seized, which can either be a blessing or a curse. In the end, it's how much molecules you managed to move during your lifetime here, in this place, this dream. Personally I try not to move that many molecules or 'make a dent' because there are other, much more capable and better positioned people to do that for me. Now the question becomes: are those impactful actions benevolent moving of molecules or malevolent? Generally I'm seeing it as malevolent with things like climate change and dropping bombs on innocent people who become another statistic or 'collateral damage'. Yes there is a lot of good in the world, and I probably have 'mean world syndrome'[0], but when you're exposed to the news more than ever now via the Internet, you can't help but think we're living in a very divided and malicious world. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome

peterkelly 5y ago

Sometimes when you travel you find a box that is much better than the one you were in previously.

DonaldFisk 5y ago

In case anyone's wondering where the Socrates quote is authentic (it is), or where it came from, it's from Moral letters to Lucilius by Seneca, Letter 28: https://archive.org/details/adluciliumepistu01seneuoft/page/198/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/adluciliumepistu01seneuoft/page/...

kenjackson 5y ago

I don’t really enjoy traveling. Feels like more trouble than it’s worth. I really enjoy my box. Playing with my family, watching TV, going to sporting events. I like reframing my more boring life as enjoying my box.

mattlondon 5y ago

I have observed this mindset of "I need to move to <foo> - everything will be so much better then!" I've never understood it. I have had a few friends follow through on this - after several jumps from continent to continent they are still not happy and are planning their next move to Canada or NZ or whatever, because this time it will be different! I was wrong all along! I really should have moved to Austin rather than Berlin then Tokyo then San Fran then Toronto then Auckland! This time will be one where I get the perfect job and find a partner! Ignoring that everyone "back home" has managed to be successful/happy despite the apparently unfixable "problems" with living in <foo> tl;dr - IMO they're running away from problems rather than confronting them.

JKCalhoun 5y ago

So George Harrison's "The Inner Light", which he cribbed, lyrically, from Tao Te Ching (Chapter 47): Without going outside, you may know the whole world. Without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven. The farther you go, the less you know. This may be true for others but I definitely count myself out. Travel is when I am truly at peace with myself and my mind. Travel for me though is on the road, an extended road trip with lots of empty time just driving, bored, thinking, reflecting. The day to day distractions gone. This kind of travel to distinguish from the kind of travel that is navigating tourists on Waikiki or trying to find an ATM in Seoul. Although, since I mentioned trying to find an ATM in Seoul, there is a lot to learn about yourself when you travel and see other cultures up close. It opens your mind to all the other possible ways there are to live, makes you question why you are going about your own life the way you have been, how much of it is autopilot, how much of it is because it is all you've known. I guess I generally think all travel is good. Agree with the final sentiment though: strive to find peace within one's self. Travel for me though is when I have found I can best achieve that. For others it might be reading, hiking, out on a motorcycle or bicycle. (Actually, all of those help me as well.)

truted2 5y ago

“Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you?” -Seneca “you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.” -Hemingway “ No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself. It's like your shadow. It follows you everywhere.” -Murakami Amazed by how history is recycled perpetually.

parenthesis 5y ago
"You can't hide from yourself / Everywhere you go there you are" - Teddy Pendergrass (well, written by Gamble and Huff)

ccvannorman 5y ago

What a long winded way to come to a narrow conclusion - "Stay at your day job and enjoy it." Environment matters a lot. It's not "travel for 1 week" that will cure the mind, but rather, removing the slave labor you don't enjoy from the box entirely. The author seems to miss this critical point (that many people are unhappy with their day job because it's basically debt/wage slavery without ownership).

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
This is incorrect, at least as a general principle. I haven't done "slave labor" for more than 20 years, having initially imagined I was rich enough to retire at 32 (that turned out to be wrong), then later converting an open-source passion project into a very comfortable middle class living. No boss, no rules, no schedule, just lots of people who love what I do and that includes me. However ... the Box of Daily Experience is still a feature of my life too.
- ccvannorman 5y ago
  Do you feel oppressed / depressed? Your work life sounds great (compared to an office rat as portrayed in the article)
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    I am not oppressed. My work does not depress me. But the key point of TFA (and Seneca's letter that inspired it) is that the details matter less than you think: the "oppression" of the Box of Daily Reality comes more from the way you think about it rather than its actual contents. There are plenty of days when I reflect on how it was just another day, same old same old, completely predictable. Granted, I don't have to put up with the BS of a regular job, which eliminates one aspect of the Box of Daily Reality for me. But then again, I work (mostly alone) from home, and so my days involve very little physical interaction with anyone. Equivalent to the suffering of slave labor? Probably not, but just a different element of my particular Box of Daily Experience.

FabHK 5y ago

The article quotes Socrates and references Seneca, but Horace expressed the sentiment succinctly and elegantly: Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. (They change the sky above, not their mind, who rush across the sea.) (Oh, and then there is "No matter where you go, there you are." https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/11/22/where-you-go/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/11/22/where-you-go/ )

at_a_remove 5y ago

I personally despise travel, almost every aspect of it. Planning, making reservations, trying to figure out airline tickets, packing, parking, waiting, being groped by the pre-flight fondlers, cramming myself into a seat, sitting there for hours, the mystifyingly slow process of disembarking, getting to the hotel, registration, lugging luggage, the cautious exploration of the room, the scan for bedbugs, arraying the hopefully adequate creature comforts imported to the destination on some tatty drawer, all of it is terrible. But then people say, "Oh, but the thing you came for!" And whatever it is leaves me unmoved. I could have been shown a photo of it for all that it matters. Or conferences were nothing was conveyed. Then you get to do all of it in reverse, perhaps with a careful notebook of receipts tucked away. Even hearing about it. And what is beyond the pale is that if word gets out you don't like travel, the Travel People simply won't have it. They're like a cult. In my black little heart, I wonder if people would on the whole travel less if they weren't permitted to speak about it, because lord knows some bore bringing up their time in Nepal yet again at the merest whiff of conversational relevance makes my cortical folds smooth out.

dshpala 5y ago
You don't have to do most of those things though. Ever tried just traveling somewhere (driving, flying) without any preparation at all? Also, notebook of receipts? Man, this is bleak.
- at_a_remove 5y ago
  So, let me get this clear, I just ... get in my car and go in a direction. No medication, no change of clothes, no toothbrush. I stop at some random location for the ... view? I ... sleep in the car? Help me out here, because none of this sounds like a good idea. Well if I am being made to go to a conference, I kinda need my money back, you know? Bleak or not, they want receipts.
  - closetohome 5y ago
    A long time ago I was headed to a photo shoot with the owner of a Ford GT40. As we cruised along he commented that it was the perfect road trip vehicle. Being young and a chronic over-packer and over-preparer, I asked how that was possible, as its total storage consisted of a glovebox and a cupholder. He said "all you need is a pair of sunglasses and a credit card!" Which in retrospect was a bit of guy-who-can-afford-a-GT40 privilege, but it also changed my philosophy of travel. The stuff you need to survive can be obtained cheaply and easily. The joy of travel comes from what you leave behind.

protomyth 5y ago

I generally have a very bad time when I travel, as I seem to be really unlucky. I've gone to Vegas and spent $72 on first aid and $9 on beer. Plus, I've broken down in cars that had no business breaking down twice. So, it certainly didn't reduce the stress. Add to that I often the person doing the logistics of travel and well I guess its not the cure. I will say, there are places that calm my soul, like looking out on the North Dakota Badlands will make me happy for a long period afterwards. I don't know why or how, but it has done me a lot of good over the years. I do wonder if others have that travel place that just sets them right. As to the continued happiness aspect, George Lucas is more elegant on the subject than I will ever be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rePgwJWg7cw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rePgwJWg7cw

LoveGracePeace 5y ago

I was enjoying reading through and enjoying the artwork but needed to TL;DR it, scrolled down more towards the end and was bombarded by a large popup Ad on the right of the screen clipping about 35% of the text I was trying to read, close tab, no idea what the site was about, something about travel.

rossdavidh 5y ago

So, wow is this a long essay. But this: "And inevitably, you’re back in the box, counting down the days in which you can do it again." ...is incorrect. It's far from inevitable. I've traveled to another country about every 2 years for a couple decades, and not once has it been like this. Travel gives you more patterns to draw from, like dabbling in another programming language can help you out even if you end up using the same one for your day job.

iamsanteri 5y ago

I can confirm this in a sense regarding what I heard when talking to other expats working and living abroad, they say: When you‘ve moved once or twice, you can‘t really stay put anymore and this apathy flows in regarding if and where to actually settle. It‘s interesting how serious this can get and you get a feeling something‘s not right in these people‘s minds. This post here shows a good way to go about it, amen.

apoland 5y ago

I can relate to the need for unique experiences... The older I get the more I feel like I need to travel. Especially when most of my work is done from home. I feel energized for weeks after I get back from a trip.

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quickthrower2 5y ago

Some things that might make travel feel awesome that have nothing to do with the travel per-se (and can be replicated at home). 1. You are taking a break from work. 2. You are travelling light - instead of 2 tonnes of 'stuff' to look after, you have a backpack or small suitcase, and very little to take care of. 3. You are engaged to your ideal level. For some people that means seeing a couple of sights, for others that means 100 miles of mountain biking in a day. But you've planned it for your fitness / energy levels and for what 'unwinding' means to you. (As opposed to work where your bosses are trying to extract from you, or if you are like me you are putting pressure on yourself). 4. You see more of the daylight (not stuck in office). I would say that working fewer hours and WFH can give many of the nice feelings of being on a holiday. I think a lot of people want to travel because working life sucks alot. The old way - stuck in an office prison for 9 hours a day plus a train or bus or car 'cage' for another 1-2 hours it is no surprise that people want to get away from that. The narrative "I want to travel, be cultured, I want to see the world etc." then kicks in.

JSavageOne 5y ago

This was enjoyable to read, but I think the title paints travel in an overly dismal light. Perhaps a better title would be "Embrace the Box" or something of that nature. Even the author admits that travel is only a problem if you can't enjoy the present moment because you feel that you can't be happy until you travel (replace travel with money, having a relationship, etc and same idea). Ultimately people should just do what they enjoy. For some that might entail a sedentary lifestyle, staying in one's hometown, marrying younger, taking a comfortable financially secure job, and/or living a more traditional life. For others it might entail moving around or traveling more, dating around more, pursuing more nontraditional hobbies and/or work, etc. There's nothing wrong with either so long as you're being honest with yourself, just do whatever you enjoy and don't feel like you need to fit into anyone's image of what an ideal lifestyle should look like. A lot of happiness I think is a result of not having FOMO. For some people I think they need to actually live out their fantasy to realize that it's not the end all be all (I'm that type of person). At that point you either get depressed realizing that everything you ever wanted didn't make you happy and now you don't know where to search for happiness anymore, or you realize that you're not missing out on anything and there's no light at the end of the tunnel, so might as well make the best of life now.

artur_makly 5y ago

I made a mashup of this essay to some ambient: https://soundcloud.com/juicycanvas/thebox https://soundcloud.com/juicycanvas/thebox enjoy!

noetic_techy 5y ago

Boy is this me. Funny enough, my wife and I are looking to downsize so we can buy a second house in another part of the US because of exactly this. Basically one small house on the coast, one small house in the mountains. When things get too mundane and boring in one place we hop the the other. This only works if you have a remote job in the tech sector, and a wife who works contract jobs. I'm hoping this breaks the "box" syndrome for me even just a little. I do plan to add some meditation practice after reading this article, its been on my "to do" list for a while.

screenbreakout 5y ago

I travel freeloader style, ie as cheaply as possible, atm I'm on 10$ a day in Egypt for the last couple of months, half of which is spent on a place to sleep. I walk, hitch and pay for public transport out of big cities, or if possible travel 3rd class with the locals. My point is that , learning the language, meeting the people, seeing their reality, enjoying the weather (while Europe is stuck in the cold) , feeling lucky because someone stops to give me a lift is a total mind fuck and I mean that in a good way... The inherent chaos of roughing it and having time to contemplate the beautiful vistas with no one around , the Milky way, the generosity or animosity is a reality check which helps clear the cobwebs from the mind and sharpens critical thought.... I agree with one poster that people don't take enough time to travel, I personally would like to connect more with and help locals in my specialities (music, gardening) and hate what the tourist industry has done, is doing to the environment (cheap jobs for the locals, wasted ressources on "short term" infrastructure, huge amounts of waste and garbage) I personally think that to combat climat change it would be great to see swathes of the poorer European population, chill out and/or travel(for 2-3 months)in the empty tourist resorts or villages of the southern hemisphere, thereby hitting several birds with one stone : having experiences which lead to increased sensitivity and hopefully more empathy , not needing to pay the high prices for heating their homes , having a well deserved holiday as part of the "proletariat", hopefully sharing and learning to be more "open minded" I'm not sure of the math but unless we are very lucky and CO2 sucking or free energy fusion technology has a huge breakthrough, the world will, is, burning up and the best solution would be to get as many of those who can afford democratically to stop work to do so, thereby creating a net CO2 reduction (ie work and all the energy consumption work entails + transport and supermarket logistics+ heating and useless paper advertising weekly supermarket discounts (-) travel by boat and cheap living) in warm countries ... we saw this with the advent of covid.... On a side note, reading HN is the best , it downloads fast and caches for offline reading...also I just came across a wonderful book called "Dancing with mosquitoes" by Theo Grutter , totally recommend.