Following on from the previous person's travelling lifestyle and only working when they want to work, and work on things that they want to, I have children young children which makes it a little more difficult. However, there have been times in my life when I've just packed up, jumped in my vehicle and driven wherever. It's very liberating.
This type of thinking may come from my near death accident 23 years ago or maybe it's a personal trait that I've always had, don't know. Personally speaking, believing in the system that's presented to us from a very young age is not healthy for society or yourself, sometimes you just need to embrace the fear of uncertainty and go for it.
I see a lot of people have big meta thoughts and feelings. But mine is relatively small.
I find that I live in a different reality since a lot of co-experienced events are remembered differently by the others. Let's say a work meeting, when I think that it was a nice calm and friendly meetig others are heated and steaming by all the insults. The same with emails and other communications
Also with a sportmatches. For instance when I really enjoyed a match and thought both teams did a nice job of performing, the media paints a vastly different picture where one team was really awful and performed well belowed standards.
So my perception of reality seems really of from the rest of the population.
No, I live in the same reality as everyone else but I feel like my grasp of it is generally more accurate than that of an average person, what ever that means. I see people (myself included) as rather predictable biological "robots" that are pushed around by their primitive wants and emotions while pretending to have agency over all the good things happening to them and blaming the world for all the rest. I don't beliefe in free will in the sense that most people think about it. As in "you could have done otherwise". It's not just a philosophical concept I like but something I truly believe in and live by. There's no going back once you take that pill. You can't help but see the world and people differently after that and I mean it in a good way.
Socialism doesn't just seem like a good idea, it's pretty much the only possible future that doesn't end up with 99% of humanity suffering horribly.
The idea of everyone being able to work to make the means to survive has a rapidly approaching shelf life, most companies won't employ humans over whatever tech is on the horizon as soon as it's cheaper. The areas that remain habitable due to climate change will shrink
I do not know why this isn't treated as a more pressing issue
Just like religion, a bunch of people associate their work with their identity. If you remove the work, you threaten their identity and that is frightening.
That and some are just millionaires waiting to happen any day now.
A conspiracy is a plan carried out by a group, usually clandestinely and usually to the detriment of others, and they are very common (fake electors scheme, Northwoods, sea spray).
But most people "don't believe" in conspiracies, which means they 1) don't believe in people making plans and carrying them out, and they 2) don't believe in objective, historical fact.
To live in the world and refuse to acknowledge how it operates and how other people operate must be very confusing.
I travel perpetually. I saved money for several years, invested it, budget the interest, and don't work unless I want to.
For years, when my lifestyle comes up, people often say something like "I wish I could do that" or "I've always wanted to travel". After I say "you definitely can", they ask me how they can do it.
When I explain how simple and cheap it is to work less/travel, they 1) get angry or 2) dismissive.
Their stated goals haven't changed, they still claim to want to travel and stop working, but after hearing that they can do it at any point, they shut down or say "well, maybe one day...", which means that after years of living a lifestyle they're dissatisfied with, they're going to choose to continue their confining lifestyle.
Usually in real life they insist they "could never", but online they seem more comfortable condemning any quick or simple solution to working too much and being depressed/poor/trapped in their life.
Other travelers I meet say the same thing, that they can only travel for a limited time, but the allienation is more stark with people who I know more personally.
I'll go traveling, and each time I visit old friends hear the same "wow, what, how?", then "must be nice" and "I could never" stuff I've heard year after a year from the same people.
I haven't brought up my lifestyle on my own initiative in years because I've experienced over and over how upset people become when they realize that they can take control of their lives at any point and are choosing not to.
Both, tbh. I'm not a workaholic, but I really like my work, so I'd get bored if I didn't work. And I have a pretty sweet work-life balance.
Travelling I like of course, but not too often, I have a really expensive mattress to help alleviate my chronic back pain and sleeping somewhere else is not a pleasant experience. So doing it once in a while is fine, doing it regularly would suck.
And last but not least, lately I like my peace and quiet, constant travelling would not go well with that.
It isn't that you stop working, it's that you stop working on things you don't want to work on.
You work only on things you want to work on.
Traveling is all about peace and quiet for me, but I hear similar preconceived anxieties pretty often.
Maybe 5 days ago or something, a friend called me up, said they wish they could travel, and asked me to walk them through it again.
I told them how to get a visa (One page online application form, five minutes tops), and they said traveling just sounds so tiring and they can't do it right now.
Tiring?
Hang out, do whatever you want or relax, go eat sometimes.
Not an exhausting lifestyle, but a lot of my friends with day jobs imagine that their lunch breaks are more recuperative than having a lunch break all day.
I wouldn't really call chronic back pain a preconceived anxiety, but you do you.
Just accept that your lifestyle isn't good for everyone. You found something that works well for you, congrats! Doesn't mean you found some huge secret on how to make everyone's life better.
I've come to understand that when people say, "I wish I could do that" or "I could live a life like that"... they're just admiring a thing that is mildly interesting or fashionable.
Most people hear "you can do it too" as a challenge to their current choices and not an invitation to a happier life. I don't take it personal...
As for how you're living, I find it really inspiring! I've tried to work out how I can make some changes and it's great to hear that others are doing it well.
Definitely. If they say something non-specific like " that sounds great" or " I wish I could do that", I don't pursue the topic at all.
It's more after we have a conversation including "Do you think I could do that too? How? Can you help me do it?" And I have to provide specific answers or show them and then receive the brunt of their ire or dismissal.
It is so satisfying when I do help someone achieve their goals, though, that if I am asked specific questions I usually help, even if nine out of 10 people will balk at the opportunity once they can see it in front of them.
Often when I'm talking to give information, people get something completely different from it. I know how words work, but somehow it turns to garbage between my brain and their ears.
This happens to me constantly. Just the other day I asked some friends for something and then they sent the literal exact opposite of that thing. Pretend I asked for blue with red stripes they gave me green with yellow polka dots. And it wasn't just one person it was three separate people who all decided that made sense for some reason.
I was extremely specific too, even more than usual because I know people constantly misinterpret me. I made extra sure to not use any language with vague meanings and it still happened anyway. It's like we live in alternate realities where words have completely different meanings.
Asking a technical question at work only for people to interpret it in a completely wrong way and needing to rephrase everything after confirming with a colleague that what I wrote the first time was actually clear... How do people's brain works?
Even when I'm by myself, I often get the feeling like I'm in a "bubble," and everything I'm looking at outside of myself is some other reality different from my own. It's not a positive or a negative feeling, just kind of weird.
Most people are unsatisfied with their lives. There are two ways we generally try to deal with this; improve your own situation or try bringing other people down to your level. Many feel like the latter option is easier.
I don't hate anyone or anything. Hate is a toxic emotion that poisons your own mind but leaves the target of it unaffected. It also implies the thing you're hating is responsible for whatever it is that makes you hate it and assumes they could choose to do otherwise. I don't believe in this. People don't choose to behave badly. They just do and couldn't have done otherwise.