Rolf Potts is one of my favorite writers, and his book Vagabonding was one of only four books I recommended as “fundamental” in The 4-Hour Workweek. It was also one of two books, the other being Walden; Or, Life in the Woods, that I took with me during my 15+-month mini-retirement that began in 2004.
The following is a guest post from Rolf on the art and lessons of travel, all of which you can apply at home.
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1) Time = Wealth
By far the most important lesson travel teaches you is that your time is all you really own in life. And the more you travel, the more you realize that your most extravagant possessions can’t match the satisfaction you get from finding new experiences, meeting new people, and learning new things about yourself. “Value” is a word we often hear in day-to-day life, but travel has a way of teaching us that value is not pegged to a cash amount, that the best experiences in life can be had for the price of showing up (be it to a festival in Rajasthan, a village in the Italian countryside, or a sunrise ten minutes from your home).
Scientific studies have shown that new experiences (and the memories they produce) are more likely to produce long-term happiness than new things. Since new experiences aren’t exclusive to travel, consider ways to become time-rich at home. Spend less time working on things you don’t enjoy and buying things you don’t need; spend more time embracing the kinds of activities (learning new skills, meeting new people, spending time with friends and family) that make you feel alive and part of the world.
2) Be Where You Are
A great thing about travel is that it forces you into the moment. When you’re celebrating carnival in Rio, riding a horse on the Mongolian steppe, or exploring a souk in Damascus, there’s a giddy thrill in being exactly where you are and allowing things to happen. In an age when electronic communications enable us to be permanently connected to (and distracted by) the virtual world, there’s a narcotic thrill in throwing yourself into a single place, a single moment. Would you want to check your bank-account statement while exploring Machu Picchu in Peru? Are you going to interrupt an experience of the Russian White Nights in St. Petersburg to check your Facebook feed? Of course not — when you travel, you get to embrace the privilege of witnessing life as it happens before your eyes. This attitude need not be confined to travel.
At home, how often do you really need to check your email or your Twitter feed? When you get online, are you there for a reason, or are you simply killing time? For all the pleasures and entertainments of the virtual-electronic world, there is no substitute for real-life conversation and connection, for getting ideas and entertainment from the people and places around you. Even at home, there are sublime rewards to be had for unplugging from online distractions and embracing the world before your eyes.
via 5 Travel Lessons You Can Use at Home.
Quote :: some things need to be believed to be seen. :: Corner Office – Guy Kawasaki – I Want 5 Sentences, Not ‘War and Peace’ – Question – NYTimes.com
A few levels above me, I learned from Steve Jobs that people can change the world. Maybe we didn’t get 95 percent market share, but we did make the world a better place. I learned from Steve that some things need to be believed to be seen. These are powerful lessons — very different from saying we just want to eke out an existence and keep our heads down.
via Corner Office – Guy Kawasaki – I Want 5 Sentences, Not ‘War and Peace’ – Question – NYTimes.com.
Best Read Sentence :: The .Plan: A Quasi-Blog: The hard part of managing
You can develop an absolutely incorrect perception of yourself as a great manager when, in fact, you haven’t implemented anything. You haven’t fired anybody. You haven’t introduced a product. You haven’t supported a customer. All you’ve done is make spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.
You can also throw venture capital into this pile. Going into venture capital straight out of school is a big mistake because entrepreneurs start sucking up to you and ask you stuff you know nothing about — like how to run a company.
Jobs for college graduates should make them gain knowledge in at least one of these three areas: how to make something, how to sell something or how to support something.
–Guy Kawasaki on the difference between recommending and doing. HT: Alex Tsai
via The .Plan: A Quasi-Blog: The hard part of managing.
rePost :: Half-heartedly, 15 Love Rules for Single Women:
Read the whole list at the linked site.
15 Love Rules for Single Women:
- “Guys are like subway trains. Don’t run after them; another one is on its way.”
- “If he says he isn’t ready for a relationship, believe him.”
- “Marry someone you want to sit next to for the rest of your life.”
- “My grandfather had some gems: ‘Don’t be with a stupid man just to be with any man.’ ‘A real man always takes care of his family.’ ‘You don’t want to be walked over, and you don’t want a man you can walk over, either.’ And my favorite: ‘Don’t be a fool, Michelle. You can be anything you want, but don’t be a fool.’”
- “Don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.”
- “The guys who were nerdy in high school make the best husbands.”
Learned :: What Alcohol Does to Your Mind: Attentional Myopia | PsyBlog
Very interesting, very curious what effect alcohol would have on my actions.
Alcohol myopia
According to a growing body of evidence collected over the last three or more decades, people’s Jekyll and Hyde behaviour while drinking can be understood by a simple idea which has some intriguing ramifications.
The alcohol myopia model says that drink makes our attentional system short-sighted and the more we drink, the more short-sighted it becomes. With more alcohol our brains become less and less able to process peripheral cues and more focused on what is right in front of us. It’s this balance between what is right in front of us and what we don’t notice around the edges that determines how alcohol affects us in different situations.
Here are a few effects which imbibers will recognise immediately:
- An ego boost: when people drink, they often feel better about themselves. This may be because the attentional short-sightedness induced by alcohol makes all our shortcomings float away and so we feel closer to our ideal selves. This is probably one of the reasons it is so potentially addictive, it is self-actualisation in bottle form.
- Real worries can get worse: if we’ve had a bad day and we sit quietly with a drink, alcohol can make it worse because all the peripheral cues which are potential distractors are cut out and all we see are our problems.
- Pleasure in the moment: the flip-side of this attentional focus is that if, while drinking, we are doing something enjoyable, we find it easier to ignore any nagging doubts or stray worries wandering through our minds. We can be totally in the moment listening to music, watching sports or talking with a good friend.
- In the zone: it’s even possible that for some types of task it may increase performance as we let go of our insecurities. Perhaps that’s why so many writers wrote with a glass of whisky at their side.
via What Alcohol Does to Your Mind: Attentional Myopia | PsyBlog.
rePost :: Rethinking Professionalism: The Meta-Expert
There are however some characteristics that will make a person thrive in this complex world. Perhaps a person that has obtained these characteristics, can be considered a new kind of expert. An expert that transcends conventional thinking and can escape the confines of expertise, the meta-expert.
This meta-expert:
* will constantly improve by using new knowledge and technologies
* will admit that a big part of his/her higher education has been unnecessary
* understands that economics go beyond monetary transactions and understands that it’s fundamentals lie in creating value
* can navigate the emotional storms of the short term, but can also drive a vision of the long-term with instinct and rationale
* will engage in both introverted and extraverted activities, as challenging as this might be
* has sought and will seek new horizons that lay beyond their comfort zone
* will strive to make big dreams possible, through passion and commitment
These are just several characteristics I could think off, but I’m sure YOU, THE READER, can think of some more. If you do so, please add them to the comments section and I will add them.
In my own information technology experience I know that some software developers outperform others many times over, but as technology and informationization starts impacting more domains, perhaps this will only increase. This ‘value generation inequality’ doesn’t have to be all that bad though. As systems and organizations get more complex, the ‘chance’ aspect becomes more important, One high return on a bet can overthrow all your previous losses. However, when you’re dealing with a small organization, like a startup, it is very important that your first hire will be one of those meta-experts that has the 10,000x-factor.
But at the end of the day, I’m not really an expert on this matter.
via Rethinking Professionalism: The Meta-Expert.
rePost:: I Demand Better Vampires – Vampires – io9
I just wish there were any other plot. One vampire wants to be nice and only eat cows and every other vampire is harshing their squee. They want to be as much like a human as possible. Except vampires are humans now, except hot and immortal. Literally no other difference. But they’re acting out the same old plots like they’re Bela Lugosi. It’s way postmodern, if anyone noticed onscreen, which they don’t. Like 19 year olds acting out stories about their grandparents radical activities in the 60s when they in fact live in a world where all those issues are passe.
via I Demand Better Vampires – Vampires – io9.
rePost :: Ezra Klein – Menu labeling coming next year
Great news. Why? see we have Goldilocks,Max’s Fried Chicken and of course Jollibee with North American operations. This means we can just look at the menus in the US to find this very important info!!!
Menu labeling coming next year
The prevention proposals in the health-care bill haven't gotten enough attention, including from me. But Marion Nestle makes a good catch here: One of the bill's provisions is a menu labeling proposal for chain restaurants with more than 20 locations. The proposal requires chains to post the caloric content of each item (and the total calories of combo meals) next to its listing on the menu, the menu board, and even the drive-through menu kiosk. This goes into effect next year, and will be one of the most visible effects of the health-care bill. You can read the provision here (pdf).
via Ezra Klein – Menu labeling coming next year.
Qoute:: ongoing by Tim Bray · Life at Google
The Grand Experiment · That’s what Google is. I mean, why can’t everyone lavish these sort of perks, and this sort of environment, on their employees? Well, because we’re at a weird time in the history of the growth of the Internet. At this (perhaps anomalous) point, the business leverage resulting from the focused application of human intelligence is so high that all these benefits and all this freedom, considered through a pure cold profit-and-loss lens, are cheap at the price. ¶
Can it be replicated? Can it be grown? Can it even be sustained? Nobody knows. But I really hope somebody is studying it closely, because there are lessons here to be learned.
via ongoing by Tim Bray · Life at Google.
rePost :: Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Obvious and Non-Obvious Reasons For and Against Casual Sex
Read the other half at the linked site.
Obvious and Non-Obvious Reasons For and Against Casual Sex
1. Obvious reason to have casual sex: Feels good, instant gratification, etc.
2. Non-obvious reason to: The boost in self-confidence that comes from knowing that another person was attracted to you physically. Casual sex is about physicality. People need validation that they are beautiful. People who think they are beautiful are more self-confident in life. Self-confidence is good.
via Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Obvious and Non-Obvious Reasons For and Against Casual Sex.