I lived out of a backpack for two months on a Pacific Crest Trail hike. I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism, and could henceforth live happily without a lot of stuff and conveniences.
Not so much. Now a couple of decades later, I've got a house and garage crammed with stuff. Yesterday I had a plumber here working on a leak, and this morning I have no running water, and here I am bravely holding back tears. My inner dialog is "this is unacceptable!" It turns out that climbing on the hedonic treadmill is practically effortless, but sliding down it is full of splinters.
> It turns out that climbing on the hedonic treadmill is practically effortless, but sliding down it is full of splinters.
Not sure if I'm missing a joke, but the whole point of the analogy being a treadmill is that there's nothing to fall down. Regardless of positive (running forward) or negative (going backward on the treadmill) life changes, your happiness will probably stay relatively consistent because you're on a treadmill and there's nowhere to go.
The live out of a backpack lifestyle is definitely a unique way to experience the modern world and I'm sure it's fulfilling for the author, but you can even tell in their post that life caught up with them somewhat and they needed to start staying in one place a little longer in order to maintain social relationships. Their linked post about walking every block of Manhattan and tracking all of their movement since 2015 feels like the exact opposite of a minimalist lifestyle and it seems to me like they live out of a backpack not out of some anti-materialism lifestyle, but instead just as a practical way to fuel this obsession with traveling and tracking.
I admit, I've seen the author's Instagram story about walking 100k steps in a day in NYC and watched the whole thing because it's interesting, but I also take that and posts like this with a grain of salt. I'll happily take my horde of shit I need to get rid of in the garage over obsessing about how I can optimize tracking my every movement.
Perhaps the joke is that the valence of going backward or forward isn't equivalent. IIRC, some studies show that people will generally accept smaller gains to avoid the possibility of loss. Eg, loss has a greater (negative) emotional impact than equivalent (positive) gains.
> I don't think it's reasonable to compare the risk of suffering a large loss with the risk of missing out on a large gain. If your annual income is $N, missing out on a gain of $N is bad, but not nearly as bad a suffering a loss of $N.
- A comment I saw elsewhere on HN today
It's quite rational, in many cases, to consider loss of an object X worse than gain of X. A less rigorous example I like to use: it's far easier, and unequal, to kill a person than revive a person.
Isn't this the accepted advice for investment. Putting money in something that gains X% consistently with years of proven sustained growth vs putting money in something with potential 100X% growth but could give you negative growth if it fails has always been the advice in long term financial planning
I don't know if you use some sort of safety treadmill but on many, you will fall if you don't/can't run anymore. There's your metaphor for life. Also, running on a treadmill is/can be viewed an image for not moving forward despite all the running you do.
> My inner dialog is "this is unacceptable!" It turns out that climbing on the hedonic treadmill is practically effortless, but sliding down it is full of splinters.
For me, in situations like this the frustration comes from having invested so much into something that isn’t delivering what it was supposed to.
For example, when my 20 year old car broke down it was an inconvenience, but I could also shrug it off because I got my money’s worth out of the car long ago.
If an expensive brand new car broke down I would be inconvenienced, but the situation would be much more frustrating because I spent so much on a new car to avoid these issues.
Yeah, when we stop moving, it's so easy to start hoarding.
I lived in Mexico for 10 years with just two duffelbags of clothes and essentials. I could carry both on a plane unchecked and be anywhere with nothing left behind, and I loved it.
Now I look around me in my apartment I share with my girlfriend and have things I wouldn't have even conceived of, like a gaming PC with two monitors (for what??) and a closet full of clothes as if I don't wear the same 5 things.
I met a family who had just moved to Wisconson from Italy last week. The four of them (Mom, Dad, ~14yo son, and ~12yo daughter) packed everything they were going to bring with them into a backpack and two checked bags each. Incredible! What would you pick?
I have a garage and a shed (OK, fine, it's a 24x36 barn) and a basement and a home office that barely contain the enormous quantity of my stuff at home. And yet I honestly think the highlight of this summer was waking up to the sunrise on one of the remotest parts of the Appalachian trail through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with no possessions that wouldn't fit in a 22L ultralight backpack - including several of the same items as this guy's kit.
On the one hand, most of the stuff is replaceable, "fungible" if you like, rather than sentimental. On the other, I keep it because I like to have certain capabilities, like cooking and auto repair and home building - I can't fit a tablesaw or pressure washer or food processor in a backpack; I've got a rack of 24 giant totes in the garage with painting supplies and plumbing supplies and bike parts and specialty auto repair tool cases and on and on that each occupy more volume than the one backpack this guy lives out of. I also recognize that this is a colossally inefficient way to allocate things among a group of people: I'm not going to pay a painter $1500 to do a crappy job to repaint my bathroom when I can do it myself with far greater quality for $100 in paint and a couple hundred bucks worth of tools in a giant tote, and neither are most of my neighbors, but this means that a sizeable fraction of people in the neighborhood live around our own personal totes of painting supplies.
If I was going to pay someone else to build and repair and maintain and clean the house/apartment/condo/hotel that I live in (when I'm not in a tent, that's only about 5% of my time), and to take care of the cars and bikes that I ride in and on, and to cook the variety of food that I eat, and on and on, I would have a lot less stuff. If I bought tools to do these tasks that I would use once and then sell/give/throw them away...that would be unaffordable for me. One of the lessons that my Dad passed down to me is to never buy a thing unless you have the resources in time, price of consumables, tools, and space to clean it, maintain it, fix it, and store it - those are real costs beyond the sticker price of a new toy.
Where does the money come from that allows one to sleep in hotels, ride in rental cars, travel in airports, and eat in restaurants for years on end?
>Where does the money come from that allows one to sleep in hotels, ride in rental cars, travel in airports, and eat in restaurants for years on end?
If you keep your standards modest, the math isn't as bad as it intuitively seems.
A $100 hotel per night is the equivalent of a $3000 mortgage/rent. And if you're living out of one bag you don't necessarily need that and probably have cheaper options like hostels (or tent camping) available.
If you're working a software job or have worked such jobs long enough to have a few million in assets gathering interest, the cost of living isn't prohibitive.
At no point was this positioned as a "for everyone" approach. It requires resources and compromises. None of the gear in this article is particularly cheap.
That said, the cost is not significantly different from other forms of living. The average rent in SF/NYC/Seattle/London/etc. is sky high as well.
> None of the gear in this article is particularly cheap.
The $4 baseball cap isn't bad :) Darn Tough socks are also arguably also pretty cheap over a lifetime of use since the company mails you a free replacement pair if you wear one out
Different people make different choices on how to spend their money. Some spend their money on cigarettes, or sports season tickets, or modifications to cars, or collections of things. Some give most of their spare money to their church or a charity. Some send money off to relatives. Some travel.
Hotels wherever you are probably aren't $100 a night.
If you have a mortgage below $1000 you have something that almost no one in a western nation will ever see again. Congratulations, but your anecdote is irrelevant to basically everyone.
The current 30 year fixed mortgage rate is about 6.3%. It should probably be higher. A $1000 payment would mean a loan for about $160000 - significantly less if property taxes and insurance are included in that mortgage payment. There are very few places in the world with a significant number of available jobs where most people can buy a house for that.
Let's look through the midwest and throw a dart at Akron, OH. You're within commuting distance of Cleveland, you've got a university and an airport, there are probably jobs.
Property taxes are 1.8%. Home insurance is hard to estimate but let's pretend $1500/yr. Average home sale price is around $137K. That puts you closer to $1200/mo, and most places are far worse.
Can work for money or not, but if you are and your employer creates unacceptable or undesirable conditions you can immediately say Fuck You and just go do something else without worrying about covering the necessities of life.
Nah. That's not how it works. I could retire, but choose to keep working. The idea that you can simply step out is based on the idea that you don't need work.cbut in my case I need it for its social aspects and to stay motivated to do things. I still have the same issues as other people where in the mornings I just want to stay in bed. But I still go to work. Because I know it's ultimately a better choice.
I feel like the real problem is tying one's purpose to employment. If you can't find value in your life without someone telling you what to do you should take some time off work and reflect deeply on that.
You don't have to sit at home in retirement. You can go out and be involved in any number of communities - volunteer, join local government, go do fundraising for a cause you care about. The biggest difference there is that if you're not enjoying it you can just leave and not worry about how you're paying rent.
I certainly feel a lot better than where I was latterly. Would have preferred some projects that got a bit sidetracked for various reasons. Overall, pretty happy not having a full-time job. As I clean some things up though, definitely looking forward to having a more scheduled (if part-time) plan.
sorry if this comes across the wrong way, but you don't have to be retired. there's plenty of purposeful things you can find to give your life meaning. Given that you don't need to be paid, there are even more opportunities that could benefit from your expertise that you've built up over your career or careers.
There’s nothing like the pleasure of idling in a pointless MMO on one screen while half-watching youtube autoplay on the other. Alternate Monster with White Claw and you’ve got peak hedonism.
You missed the geekbar and the penjamim. For max effect also put on a twitch streamer in a different game, listen to imported pop music or edm, and idle in a discord. Oh and have a collection of fidget toys on your desk.
I have a load of crap I've accumulated over the years, but I try to regularly look at and consider everything, with the aim of simply imagining life without it. I'm reasonably confident that I could get rid of most of it without missing it much if I had to - but for now I'm still holding on to them in case they become useful again. It currently costs me less to keep them than to replace them in the future.
> I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism, and could henceforth live happily without a lot of stuff and conveniences.
Same. Exactly the same.
I have often reflected that I have never been as happy as when I had the least stuff, either.
I often wonder if it’s a) correlation or causation and b) whether the stuff is caused by dissatisfaction or the dissatisfaction is caused by the stuff, or both.
Either way, I’m currently undergoing an intentional downsizing in my life, toward minimalism. Not the kind where I use it as an excuse to buy (more) expensive minimalist gear either.
I’m shedding hobbies and interests that I have because I believe that they’ve become distractions that I bury myself in. Replacing them is far from my mind, but prising them out of my fingers is a very real challenge. It’s hardly backpack living, but it’s definitely moving in that direction.
As always, moderation is important for any normal person. I think that applies to minimalism as well. Use it to cut unnecessary stuff out of your life, but unless you're some outlier then it's probably not good to try and live the most minimalist life that you can without causing some terrible mental health effects along the way.
> I’m shedding hobbies and interests that I have because I believe that they’ve become distractions that I bury myself in.
Maybe you just haven't found the right hobby? Hobbies should feel rewarding, not like a distraction.
And perhaps? For me, the reward comes from the learning. (Who would have thought, being a software engineer by trade).
Luckily my brain has a self-invalidating cache, but my home, not so much. Perhaps I will find the right hobby, but it should not be something that involves the accumulation of things, because the things weigh a hidden cost of possession. It’s this hidden cost that hurts, like a tax, an inefficiency of the mind, or being. It’s insidious because it’s almost impossible to attribute the friction with the possession, because you’re often not actively dealing with it, but it’s there. It’s like, you know you have 32gb of RAM, but for some reason you’re only working with 20gb but you can’t inspect what’s stealing the other 12gb. It’s only after removing things from disk, do you start to see the RAM getting freed up, and then you begin to appreciate the extra mental resources.
Not sure if you have a background outside of software engineering, but as someone who got a degree in mechanical engineering and then shifted over to software engineering I've landed on home/car maintenance as a pretty good base hobby to fall back on. There's always more to learn, you can do most of it with a pretty limited set of tools, and it has the added bonus of improving daily life.
This may be a bit specific to me since I bought an older house and car in the past year and they require a bit more TLC. My partner and I painted all of the rooms (tools are just paint, brushes, and rollers). I've replaced almost all of the outlets and switches, including putting in a few zigbee switches (Sonoff ZBMINIR2s to be specific) since we have no overhead lights in any of our rooms and the switches don't control the right outlets... The only tools for that work are a screwdriver and a wire stripper. We also hung some cabinets in our living room and put up some bookshelves (made easier with power tools, but possible with hand tools). When it got warm, we did a bunch of work outside including some brick edging (bucket, mason line, and a trowel) and a fire pit (shovel, level, rake, and tamper).
Cars require some more tools but you can do pretty much every bit of maintenance work with a standard set of wrenches, a jack, and jack stands.
Everything just sits against the wall or in a toolbox in the garage. It's a big 2 car garage but it fits a home gym set-up, a TV on a cart, a workbench, a bunch of furniture that we need to get rid of on FB Marketplace, and there's still room to pull in a car (mine is in there right now since I'm changing the spark plugs).
I've been practicing this from a different perspective. It's not necessarily bad to have stuff or buy stuff, but you have to spend just as much time getting rid of things and evaluating their continued usefulness as you spend shopping and buying new things.
In tech terms, if you have a queue which you only ever add items to, well we all know what happens.
This second part of the process is overlooked, and particularly because our corporate overlords don't make any money from this careful consideration and management of our lives and the items within it. At least with my parents generation -- the boomers -- they went all in on purchasing with never getting rid of anything. Like a dragon and its hoard. Looking at craigslist estate sales is so crazy, because you see someone's lifetime of absolute junk they spent all their time accumulating, but obviously no time getting rid of anything. In fact, they just died and made it someone else's problem to deal with it.
> I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism
Vervaeke's "Meaning Crisis" talks have interesting things to say about this sense of the world between modes of "having" (material) and "being" (existential).
Fromm's point is we get mixed up. We try to satisfy our being needs within
the having mode. We suffer from "Modal Confusion". Think about how much our
culture is organized around this because it serves a lot of market interests
if I can confuse you, if I can get you to try and pursue your being needs
within the having mode.
I thru-hiked the PCT in 5 months 10 years ago. Same experience. I remember eating on the trail 2 bricks of instant ramen for dinner every day and being utterly content. It was the most raw form of living I've ever experienced.
Maybe one good thing about the torture of living in NYC is you get used to the torture of living in NYC.
My very small, very expensive apartment has had no running water throughout the work day for the past two weeks because of water main construction (which I get woken up to at 7am every day). There's a jerk chicken restaurant next door to my apartment that blasts music all day long outside. Roaches and mice and rats. Long crowded subway commutes. I do hate this life in various ways, but I guess it toughens you up and you get used to it.
Before being a digital nomad was cool I went full nomad. I remember being in a hostel in Thailand and just throwing away everything I had brought, going down to the basics. Ended up with a similar setup.
The thing is, after years of doing it, learning new languages, making friends all over, and then leaving knowing you might not see them again for ever or for long stints, you start to feel the yearning to be able to connect with people on a deeper level.
Now I have an apartment and basically only travel for weddings, I still go super light. But there is a joy in having variety in clothing or sneakers to wear. Friends who you've had multiple conversations with over the year's, even family who comes to visit you.
I'm happy I rid myself of it all, but I'm also happy that now my apartment has the basics, and maybe a bit more. And I'm fine with it. Life doesn't have to be binary, you can mix and match and end up happy either way.
I was a nomad for about a year. Towards the end I was tired of the constant leaving.
I asked for advice from an NGO who moves countries often. She said what happens is the NGO members become part of the extended connection, which helps with that situation.
Even when I was a nomad, I wouldn't have been without a suitcase. My big hobby then was dancing - mostly salsa and tango - and I needed several changes of clothes and dance shoes. And, umm, not all black clothes.
To make it worse, indoor smoking was legal, so I would come home with stinky clothes that I wouldn't want to wear again until washing.
I also did some upper undergrad/grad level visiting teaching, and would stay at a staff members home, or in one case the home of the parents of one of the grad students. I brought a dozen or so greeting-style cards with nice pictures of the city I used to live in, so I could leave them as a thank you, with an image of what for them would be an exotic place.
I went backpacking last year for only a little over a month. Absolute pain in my chest when someone who I'd gotten to known over the past few days said it was their last day lol.
We have a nice airbed (oxymoron?) in our apartment that gets used maybe 3-4 times a year. It takes up more space than the author's backpack, but it's also great whenever a friend or family member would like to visit on short notice (along with a set of sheets, towels, collection of hotel toothbrushes...).
I think this is key. I travel nearly zero these days due to a long list of reasons, but the mental exercise of thinking about whether I could travel with my stuff helps me be more conscious about accumulating things that I don’t really need.
>The thing is, after years of doing it, learning new languages, making friends all over, and then leaving knowing you might not see them again for ever or for long stints, you start to feel the yearning to be able to connect with people on a deeper level.
I've done this before (not indefinitely, but for many trips around the world.)
I agree with the author on a lot: 1) it's not a good way to live long term, 2) traveling with as little as possible completely transforms the traveling experience, 3) zero-bag travel is great, 4) a good quality small bag with well designed compartments is critical, 5) M-series Macs are the only way to go, 6) two thumb drives is very convenient if you're not worried about searches, 7) darn tough socks, 8) first aid with bandaids/antiseptic/mylar blanket, I also include benadryl, ibuprofen and other common OTC meds.
I disagree on: 1) I prefer a 2M USB-C cord over 1M, 2) I have mostly cotton or merino clothes and try not to use any synthetic fabrics, especially no synthetic underwear, 3) I prefer jeans, especially in colder climates and 4) carrying "stuff" on you long term (like a jacket with things in the pockets) can get sort of annoying after a while.
And finally, extra stuff I carry that the author doesn't: separate camera, snacks (mostly nuts), Garmin inReach, handkerchiefs, wired earbuds, flashlight, knife, an eye mask, sometimes a Travelrest pillow, and two sizes of paper notebooks and pens.
Why no synthetic underwear? I feel like I would be miserable with only cotton boxer-briefs... I sweat entirely too much even in moderate weather to be comfortable in cotton. I am partial to Pair of Thieves extra long boxer-briefs, they don't ride up at all since I have big thighs. When travelling I can wash them in a sink, and they dry way more quickly than cotton.
The replacement for synthetic underwear is wool, not cotton. For weeklong wilderness backpacking trips, I used to vacillate between a fresh pair of synthetic boxer briefs every every day, which took a lot of space, and one for every other day, which was gross. Now I wear a single pair of wool boxer briefs all week, and it feels and smells better at the end of the week than synthetic underwear does after two days. Same for sleeping: I used to bring a couple of pairs of synthetic boxers, and now I'm down to one pair of wool underwear. Two pairs for the entire week, one for days and one for nights.
Granted, wilderness backpacking has completely different standards for smells and grossness, but the comparison carries over to the higher standards of the "front country." In hot, sweaty weather, synthetic underwear gets noticeably grosser and smellier than wool over the course of a day.
I also feel the same way. I travel with the absolute minimum of synthetic fabric clothing, I have found that by far the best material is wool, especially merino wool, and if that's not an option something that is natural fiber derived modal like bamboo or wood cellulose modal is good. Polyester and other synthetic fabrics repel moisture better, but don't wash by hand or withstand hard wearing as well as natural fibers, and also don't work as well across climates and ecologies.
A layered clothing approach helps a lot. I wear an undershirt (Icebreaker Merino T) every single day, which helps me to regulate my body temperature between hot and cold climates, without requiring a major increase in the amount of clothing I have to bring. The only outerwear I had to bring on my trips was a single wool peacoat and a packable windbreaker/rainjacket. By using layers, I was able to use the same set of clothing between 45C and -25C, across 4 continents with no real trouble.
I am surprised one bag crowd seem to pack so many computing devices with them. Some have phone, laptop, ipad and kindle and pride themselves on being minimalists.
I'd go iPad only, it's a versatile device after-all, but the truth of it is: it can't beat a laptop for "real work" (unless, real work is replying to emails and running an extremely cut down version of excel).
Yet, a laptop is significantly more awkward to read with or watch media. When flying I have (nearly) lost a screen to someone reclining in front of me while I was using my laptop; this is not an issue with iPads.
As it stands, the iPad is practically an essential, it's just so versatile and useful that it's omission would cut comfort more than it's weight. But I need an additional device, likely a laptop. One can't live without headphones either, and at least a smart-phone for payments, SMS and phone-calls.
So, it looks outsized, but a laptop can't substitute an iPad, and an iPad can't substitute a laptop (yet; it's a software failing mostly)
I'm living as a nomad currently, laptop and phone feels mandatory, but I also pack a tablet. I find it useful for hand-written notes, so I carry no pen and paper, and as a second screen for my laptop.
I did this for a few years and would recommend 1 (smallish) suitcase + 1 backpack.
As mentioned in the article, it’s better (financially and socially) to stay in locations for a medium length of time. If you do this, then the overhead of a single suitcase is very minimal, and you get far more flexibility with clothing - particularly if you’re staying in colder areas. E.g. NYC in winter.
I do like a mix of this and just being more flexible about where I can live. Like, I'm leaving where I am in a few days, but that's after staying here for most of 6 months, also flying to various locations for conferences, to meet up with old friends. I use a suitcase these days with fashionable clothes and I will stay in airbnb rentals instead of hostels, especially if I'm already meeting up with friends or if I need to make sure I have a quiet place to work. I also, perhaps, am fortunate that my family still owns their own home, so I have a place for long term storage in case I need it, since I have accrued a pretty large collection of physical books, for instance, some of them more rare than others.
I think if I were ever to get married I would probably buy a house or something, but ideally my partner would also be as mobile and flexible as me.
When traveling, I met many who lived by the mantra of self-sufficiency. It seemed both to liberate and consume them.
Daily now I see people living on the street with a lot more, but still with needs of all sorts.
In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily - yes, for food, but mainly to submit to the judgment of society as to whether one's practice is worth it to others. The premise was that people would give if they see you as worthy, not because they pity you.
I would ask the OP to reflect publicly on what he discovered about his own attachments, sense of place, and relations with others and himself. That could be helpful even to people in more tangled circumstance.
It requires that there be people who aren’t monks, as monks are the ones out begging. Lay people can own lots of stuff, such as houses, hence the term “householders” to mean lay people in Buddhist literature.
I’m all for minimalist travel but I feel like I picked up a number of cues that the author is buying and disposing of (somehow) items seasonally or even on an as-no-longer-needed basis. Hopefully that means donating the item and maybe even buying used to begin with but it’s not mentioned here. I don’t want to make assumptions but in the worst case this could be a very wasteful kind of minimalism.
Funny thing is the list is not at all far from “latest Apple and arc’teryx” which I’d consider the consumerist side he’s complaining about but - some of those items are objectively really high quality and durable
I found this a bit odd, especially when the author mentioned they lose their apple watch a lot so buy an older one. It feels peculiar to buy such an objectively expensive high end item when you know you constantly lose it, and barely use any of it's features. To me that is continual overconsumption.
I can't pretend I don't have my own contradictions going on, so I'm not having a go at the author. But I did find it a little funny when reading it.
Even if the author is literally throwing away seasonal items, the environmental trade-off is that they probably purchase far fewer items than the average person.
When it comes to ultralight hiking gear, don't think durability is a major issue if it just sees occasional use in urban environments and you take good care of it.
I've travelled w/ a Montbell Versalite and Arcteryx Cerium LT for the past few years and both are like new, each probably getting around 200-300 wears in primarily city use while traveling to over 40 cities. Just picked up a Montbell Travel Umbrella (3 ounces!) a couple months back as I'll be in Mexico City for awhile and it rains like half the year.
If you are flying with any regularity, you are completely exhausting your carbon budget. The remaining carbon budget is the CO2 if emitted will lead to 2C warming. IPCC estimates it to be 1150 GtCO2 in 2020 [1]. Which is ~140 tCO2/person over however many years we use to spend this. So if we want to limit warming to 2C by 2050, that leaves a budget of 4.7tCO2/person/year.
A transatlantic round-trip alone can be 2.3tCO2 [2].
In the limited amount of experience I’ve had with researching these things, embodied carbon can be a much higher number than you might think, even with something as simple as a cotton t-shirt. Odds are that shirt had already sailed around the world once or twice by the time you buy it, and it might make its way to another continent once you’re done with it as well.
> Odds are that shirt had already sailed around the world once or twice by the time you buy it,
That's like... 40 grams of CO2 for those 2 trips for a t-shirt. Aka, a 2 min uber ride.
Shipping containers are incredibly efficient.
Modern large container ships consume about 200-300 tonnes of fuel per day, and could carry 742 millions t-shirts [1]. It takes 16 days to do something like Shanghai - LA, so that ends up being like 20 grams per shirt per trip.
If you like this kinda thing, highly recommend checking out Dominic Tarr's youtube. He used to be a prolific nodejs guy back in the day, now he...sails. His videos are great and he's a lovely guy: https://www.youtube.com/@dominictarrsailing/videos
Shoes are always what get me. Wearing the same pair 2 days in a row isn't great for bacteria etc. Plus wanting sandals/flip-flops for the beach. Proper boots for any kind of hiking. Then I feel awkward particularly in Europe in the evening going to restaurants in trainers, so a pair of smart shoes is useful.
Not saying I always take that entire combo, but almost always more than 1 pair.
I used to be all boots all the time, but I realized somewhat recently that unless I'm carrying a heavy load, boots are significantly less comfortable than good e.g. trail running shoes. If I'm carrying the load that the OP is, hiking boots are not really useful for me. If you look at what e.g. extreme long-distance hikers are wearing on the Appalachian trail or the Pacific Crest trail, its usually trail running shoes, because it makes more sense for carrying a light load an extremely long distance.
Certainly, if you've a history of ankle injuries or some other podiatric necessity, go for it. But for me, a pair of good walking shoes and a pair of good sandals is all I realistically need.
> Onebag travel is unquestionably the best way to travel. Traveling without luggage removes just about every pain point associated with flying, such as checking bags, overhead compartments, bag fees, waiting in line, and needing to drop off luggage before an adventure. Just stroll into the airport an hour before your flight, and walk off your plane directly to your destination.
This is absolutely true, especially when traveling solo.
People freak out about this, but all it boils down to is bringing enough socks, underwear, and shirts for ~5-6 days, 2 pairs of bottoms, and (depending on weather) or a combination of 2 and/either sweaters and an outer shell. Wear the biggest stuff (pants/sweaters) on the plane. After that be willing to do laundry, which will often put you in a position that's outside the tourist mainstream and force you to slow down and take stalk for a few hours (single use detergent packs are a thing, but you can also just bring a few tide pods in a zip-lock bag). Freak weather events can be used as an excuse to shop for clothing, too (the best rain jacket that I ever bought was in this situation in the Netherlands - it was expensive, but I'm still using it a decade later - a fantastic souvenir that people always complement me on when wearing it).
Of course, if you need to lug more (for special occasions or business), that's another matter, but it still makes my jaw drop when I see people travelling on vacations with massive roller luggage that often sucks on cobblestone streets or lugging up stairs.
I think it depends on how you're travelling. If you're staying in hostels and moving locations frequently (v common for solo travel), walking/busing instead of uber/taxi, using just one bag is peak. But if you're staying longer or you have your own room, getting rides places etc, then it might be worth having more clothes and dealing with lugging your suitcase around occasionally.
Doesn't even need to be a suitcase, a big duffel bag can hold just as much clothing and be more convenient for carrying around, although you still need to check it at the airport.
> Freak weather events can be used as an excuse to shop for clothing, too (the best rain jacket that I ever bought was in this situation in the Netherlands - it was expensive, but I'm still using it a decade later - a fantastic souvenir that people always complement me on when wearing it).
This doesn't make any sense. Going going to a random shop to buy a rain jacket is inevitably going to be worse than doing careful research and ordering from the cheapest retailer. Moreover after you bought your first rain jacket, then what? Buy another next time it rains? If not, why not just buy it ahead of your trip and pack it?
Depends where you go, if planning some 3 week remote hiking in ie Nepal it may not be the best approach.
Ie I've recently spent 2 weeks in remote islands in Sulawesi, Indonesia and didn't bring enough mosquito spray. Well, on whole island chain I was in, nobody in tiny local shops ever had one. When asked, they told me they suck up malaria if caught and move on, sort of how we deal with flu. Luckily dengue wasn't there. So suck it up I did, luckily it seems I avoided it (knock on the wood).
With spray comes sunscreen. Some basic diving equipment. Non-tiny first aid kid. Some photography stuff. But yeah for that one I could still put it all into 1 medium backpack, just liquids travelled separately. For that Nepal, backpack was bigger. For Aconcagua, there was an extra big duffel bag. If doing full camping and cooking, one backpack but much bigger.
Yes, that's one thing that I really dislike. I'm very used to carrying my Leatherman supertool around with me, and it irks me that I can't do that.
But I do have a Wallet Ninja that's useful that's only ever been questioned once, and never taken away. And I used to carry a small knife that folds into a key, and nobody ever noticed until one particularly bored TSA agent decided I couldn't take it with me. I should really order another one, or dozen, and treat them as "disposable" for traveling with.
why do you need one? I see a lot of "edc" stuff online where people seem to carry knives and tools with them everywhere they go. I've never found a need to do so and never been caught out in a situation where I would have benefitted from a knife.
When I was a kid, my dad told me that all gentlemen should carry a pocket knife. (And presumably gentlewomen, too, but he was addressing me at the time.) I carry a nice Spyderco Para 3 with me at all times when I'm not flying somewhere and use it multiple times a day for random stuff like: trimming a loose thread on my shirt, digging out a splinter, trimming a hangnail before it can snag on something, cutting a length of rope, popping a piece of glass out of my shoe, opening an envelope, cutting tape on a box, slicing an apple or a piece of cheese, and so on ad infinitum. On the very few occasions where I didn't have it, I've reached for my phantom knife and been bummed to realize I didn't have the tool I was counting on. Without exaggeration, I use it every single day.
Note that crazy stuff like self defense absolutely, positively does not enter the equation. I mention that only because some people get weird about it in both directions, both "eek, you carry a weapon around?!", and "ooh, ever get to stab anyone?!" No. My primary self defense mechanism is good running shoes and decent stamina.
"My good reason to carry a knife is that God gave me rather weak teeth and rudimentary claws in an evolutionary trade-off. The hairy-armed person who figured out how to put an edge on a suitable rock made it possible for us to be recognizably human in the first place. I wear a wristwatch whether or not I have an appointment to keep, and I carry a pen and/or pencil because I am a literate person whether or not I have a specific writing task ahead of me, and I carry a knife because I am a human and not an ape."
Having some kind of a sharpish edge is pretty useful in my experience. I just use a keychain multi tool that’s more like a screwdriver than a knife but you can open things you can’t with just your hands. A real pocket knife I only bring when camping or renovating or something like that
Always fun to lose your contact lens solution at a transit airport that doesn’t embrace “one stop security” and find yourself tracking some down on a Sunday. Fuck you Heathrow.
You can fly with a swiss army knife in europe, or at least nobody ever questioned me. If you buy local everywhere you fly look for opinels, for $10 you get the perfect camping/food knife
I wear those t-shirts in hot climates because of how breathable they are and the Alpaca Wool Hoodie is literally the best sweater I've ever owned. Super breathable, lightweight and I've washed it a total of 4 times in 3 years.
Merino shirts are literally the only shirts I've worn through to have holes on various places. Its not that great and vastly overpriced material for many active uses, but marketing is strong with this one.
To quote some mountain guides I talked about this - its a great second layer in snowy sports, ie ski touring. Wicking of sweat ain't great compared to synthetics (and thus drying takes also much longer), but when wet it keeps warmth, unlike synthetics or cotton. As top layer it sucks since as mentioned it has little resistance to abrasion comparatively, and everybody wears some sort of backpack out there. I have synthetic shirts that lasted 10 years either frequent gym going or intense mountain sports, not a single hole or tear. None of merinos survived that long.
I talk about cheaper brands like Decathlon but also Ice Breaker, the heavier/thicker ones.
Not talking about hoodies here, those seem much thicker material and never worn those, synthetics served me for such role very well so far.
Yes that is true, forgot that part. Doesn't help much in colder situations with more layers but for a single layer case, with nothing carried on the back/waist its fine even long term. I just don't do such things much.
I will add another data point to this: Unbound Merino tshirts※¹.
As other replies have mentioned, merino is definitely fragile (both of mine had holes within a few months). But the caveat being that I literally wear them every 2nd day (I own two day-use tshirts (2 more for night/spare) and rotate them daily, so they probably got 5 years of use in the year that I've owned them.
They are even more amazing for anti-smelling than synthetics with silver woven into them (like Lululemon Silverescent). They can go for weeks without washing (I've tested with other people's noses). Caveat being if you spill something on them or absorb a ton of barbecue smoke, they will need a wash (or at least spot cleaning).
I think merino tshirts (2 pair), lightweight synthetic everything else, powerful phones or ultralight laptops + USB-C has enabled folks like me to travel indefinitely (except in winter) with a 20-25L bag or less ※².
I agree with you about the breathability of those merino t-shirts, but I think the author is right about their fragility. I feel like mine constantly get runs or shrink even though I’m careful (I’m a frequent business traveler and they do get heavy use). I’m considering switching back to traditional undershirts.
That's weird, because I am still wearing the same Icebreaker t-shirts I bought in 2015, a decade later, through many many washes. They have thinned out some, and I've added more new shirts over time to my rotation, but the very first one I bought is still perfectly wearable as a daily undershirt. I've never had one shrink, I do have some small holes in the oldest shirts, but nothing that impedes its basic function.
I think it's like Apple cables: for some they're frayed in a month, others still have perfectly serviceable 30-pin cables that they've used daily. Personally, I wear Unbound merino t-shirts and underwear, and they last for years.
(I'm also convinced that front-loading washers make clothes last longer because they don't literally beat your clothes to death.)
I tried long term backpack travel and it wasn’t for me but trying (many times) basically perfected my packing for all trips.
Between a backpacking trip to northern Europe to 3 day quick trip to Chicago, I can be ready to in like an hour and still, according to friends, be the most prepared.
It also bled into my daily life and I picked up some really good habits. I am not a minimalist but I would say I have very little clutter.
So worth it to try it a few times even if you never actually do it.
Unless he found some secret magic trick, I believe they have in general been written down already a millions times by now. And yes, they have to be hard earned, meaning when you do carry your big backpack around way longer than you planned for (because a bus was not there or whatever) - you do learn to not appreciate all the useless things you carried for no reason and leave them at home next time.
Best advice:
Travel light
But still, mind where you are going. If it is the mountains, you still want to bring warm clothes and they just are heavy.
I am right now preparing for the mountains and think of whether to take a tent or not (the huts for sleeping are mostly closed already)
The heavier the backpack, the less fun is walking with it.
And that works also as a metaphor for everyday life. The less shit you take with you, pulling you down, the easier it is to make progress.
I have written it down but it is a checklist and there are thousands of those. Checklists are very personal so that’s why I suggested that you “do it for yourself.”
That said, these are the 3 main lessons I got:
- Everything needs a place. I need to picture that place before I even buy the thing, while at the store. When you are trying to fit everything into one backpack, you practice this a lot.
- Occasional I go look through all my belongings and toss. I did this a lot when I felt my backpack got too heavy or big. Do this enough times and getting rid of a belonging becomes emotionally normalized and easy.
- This may all seem like a lot of work but only at first. Why? Because it creates a mental feedback loop that discourages hoarding. You remember what kind of items you throw away so you stop even collecting them. For example, I use to keep all USB cables but I would always throw them out during these “spring cleanings” so now I throw them when I first get them.
So I encourage trying it yourself because things like having a feedback loop or being okay with discarding junk doesn’t come from just reading about it. Similar to being okay with being rejected when dating, you have to do it enough times so it becomes comfortable.
> USB cables but I would always throw them out during these “spring cleanings” so now I throw them when I first get them.
Funny. One bagging travel turned me into USB cable hoarder. This stuff always breaks, gets lost on the road, and it is quite handy to have stash of spares at home.
I hate shopping for random stuff, ordering cables from Amazon is a lottery and fire hazard these days.
So I buy good stuff in bulk and discounts. If I find good shoes, I buy ten pairs, before they are discontinued.
My living room wall is now covered with stacks of boxes with supplies. Look does not matter, I do not live there most of the time anyway.
but really, every person i've seen who "activates" a lifestyle like this one only ever seems to wear black. i suppose it's the choice of any committed rationalist, but i think it's dull
also, fine so long as you don't need to go any where that requires a different type of shoe
It's the most versatile. It's more smart, hides sweat/stains, less noticeable if still damp etc. So if you're min-maxing it seems like an obvious choice.
Though I agree a colourful linen shirt for example (pink, yellow) or a merino pullover wouldn't break your back
I wear very little black, but I have tended towards darker colors. I've found that using earth tones blends well, similar to a capsule wardrobe, and you can incorporate greens, blues, and khakis along with darker colors like navy and black. Darker shirt, lighter pants, or lighter shirt, darker pants, and rotate through. You don't need to have very many different colors to effectively dress differently every day of a week or even across two weeks.
Because of the need for minimalism in travel, my wardrobe does tend to be relatively conservative and muted, but it's not all-black all of the time. You can certainly have some color.
Mixed feelings. I like how there is a lot of intention about purchases and lifestyle. But then the purchases are from Amazon, and the lifestyle is airplanes. But OTOH, he doesn't own a car.
I'll do you one better- take ~6ft of paracord, tie a simple loop in one end and a stopper-knot in the other. You can then use the noose-end to start a loop and wrap the remainder (zig-zag) around the rolled clothes and tuck the stopper knot underneath the criss-cross sections.
You go from "loose rolls of clothes" to "solid bundles of fabric". Makes it so you can take in/out individual items rather than having everything randomly unrolling every time you try and pull something out.
This is incredibly close to what I pack for long distance motorcycle, bicycle and hiking trips. This kit rocks, and all my notes are mostly personal preference.
I have an iPad Mini for reading and sketching, although I like paper more and more. I also sometimes sacrifice lightness for fashion, because I feel self-conscious travelling solo dressed like a bin bag.
I also have a lot of cheaper gear that so far never needed to be replaced. Most of it is from Decathlon. I only buy The Good Stuff once the test version falls apart. It's rarely necessary.
I could never bring myself to replace my electric shaver.
The biggest weight saver is USB-C. Retractable USB C cables are also great. Everything becomes a power bank for everything else.
I think that minimum redundancy is a wiser ethos. There are a couple of places where the weight penalty versus cost of failure makes the decision a no-brainer.
In my case, that means bringing aquatabs to back up my primary water treatment system and a second way to strike my stove. An extra 2 grams for aquatabs versus 4 weeks of greasy diarrhea? Check. Ten grams for a second mini bic or small fire steel versus cold soaking meals that I designed for cooking? Check.
But I do agree with you that bringing less in general frees you to move faster, go farther, and enjoy the journey even more.
Lots of the time they're counted as being worn, from what I've seen. When I pack, I don't preplan how everything fits with a jacket as well. It works most of the time, but the times I take off a jacket become awkward holding or tying around my bag.
So, this article is great and has some great items in it if you fit them. The pants look great but max out at 34" waist in the pair I checked. The towel is barely 4.5 feet and is far too short for a beach towel for someone who is 6' (though I still want it because I love these types of towels). I could not do this lifestyle though, not now in my life.
I was in the military and traveled a lot for extended periods of time (year long deployments to the ass end of nowhere) and we traveled HEAVY. HEAVY heavy. Not my favorite way, and I got to the point where I would ship everything home and when we traveled I had a day bag with 3 days worth of clothes and such. So there is a crossover of this and that lifestyle.
I still wouldn't want to go to it, I like having a home too much, even if I am renting.
For what it's worth, at least in cold weather, roominess isn't really desirable. You should have a pack that can handle inclement weather and a really tiny tent in a perfect world.
On one hand, you're right and I do have a smaller tent. On the other hand, on a motorcycle you have a lot of bulky clothes and you need to put them somewhere. So it's always a bit of a balance.
I did this for a year and half as I travelled around South America.
Hard to describe how liberating it is to have so few possessions. So many choices you don’t have to make. You become so fleet of foot that serendipity is everywhere.
I experience the same liberation when I go to an all-inclusive resort! No choice to make but what to eat (which matters to me since I do all the cooking).
I like that this guy's ethos is something along the lines of "better dressed homeless person." It won't last, though. Anyone of any means falls into the materialism trap. If you ever want to build anything, create art, open a business, all of that requires "stuff." If you're just some yob blogger dude then I guess you can make it work. I doubt very many women find it appealing.
I see people living out of their cars when I go to the library. It looks messy. My son gave up on Boy Scouts partially because camping and "urban outdoorsman" have become synonymous. The kids don't think camping is cool--at all.
I am always confounded when I get off a flight at a vacation destination and see people dragging these 80L roller bags around. What are you putting in there?
Pack the absolute minimum. If you really need something, you can almost always buy it wherever you are going. Even trekking in the deep Himalayas, there was always a spot to buy an extra t-shirt or socks every day or so.
If I'm going scuba diving at a vacation destination then I need a large roller bag just for dive gear, plus another carry-on bag for my camera rig. There's no way I'm going to dive with shitty rental gear (except for simple, heavy stuff like tanks and weight belt).
Back when you could bring the more fun stuff back from Europe (meat, cheese etc) my big suitcase would be well over half empty on the way out. Quite a bit heavier on the way back ;)
On the return from my first trip to South Africa I carried 12 bottles of wine in my luggage.
That was back when flights included two free checked items.
On my second trip to Europe one of my suitcases was full of T-shirt swag to give out at a conference. Lugging both up the stairs, across the train tracks, and back down was a hassle.
We travel out of a single roller bag for a family of 5. Plus we each have a backpack with miscellaneous stuff. We generally leave a little space in the luggage fo whatever we might pick up during our stay. Our kids are 6, 6, and 4 and we're currently on day 8 of 11 in Hawaii. It's been fine, we just do laundry every 2-3 nights.
Lots of kids' clothes. Kids' toys. Kids' books. Kids' medical kit.
Clothes that span multiple seasons or climatic zones: warm, cold, heavy rain, snow. Extra shoes. Especially when you know that your things will get wet and that you will have only occasional opportunities to dry them.
Suit/dress/fancy shoes if going to a wedding or other formal event.
As the author says: The post is 10 years old and updated and read millions of times. Why would you _not_ put referral links there? It's just a more direct form of advertisment.
Its SO ANNOYING to have to carry an Apple Silicon macbook AND an ipad. I'd love to see a touchscreen option for macbook and the option to run in ipad mode. But that would probably cannibalize sales.
As it is, you can theoretically run ios apps on Apple Silicon, but most app vendors disable that..
My main use case for an ipad while traveling is to watch downloaded movies on a plane. "AR" (not really) glasses like nreal air are way smaller and lighter than an ipad and makes watching movies on my phone pretty amazing..
I don't think this is the reason. Since Apple stopped making new interesting product lines they are very attentive about not having one line cannibalize the sales of the other(s) as it happened with the iPod and iPhone. This is also the reason why iPads will never run macOS and vice-versa.
Which is simply not true. Decades of touchscreen PCs show this isn't the case. My Surface Laptop 3 is 6 years old with thousands of hours of use (including constant touch and a fair amount of pen) and the screen isn't scratched and doesn't look bad at all.
They're inherently convenient and fast to use. As I'm typing, it's far more ergonomic to take my middle finger and swipe on the screen to scroll than to reposition my hand to have two fingers on the trackpad. For extended reading I can keep one hand at the edge of the screen to scroll with a thumb instead of cramping my wrist. Zooming is quickly and intuitively obvious rather than having to figure out where my mouse cursor is, reposition it, do a pinch gesture or Ctrl plus (where IS the plus key? It seems to vary on every laptop I own), etc.
Me personally? Nothing. I hate them. I never want anybody to touch my screen.
However, I've talked to at least one team that has disabled their app on MacOS who thinks having a UI designed for touch-screen run via a trackpad is too janky and would lead to a bad UX for their customers.
I've run their app via playcover, and it IS janky, but its a lot better than the weight of an iPad in my backpack.
not the person you're responding too, but I'm writing this on an older ThinkPad L390 Yoga with touchscreen, and I gotta say, being able to scroll on the screen when reading large documents (like PDF textbooks), or to just touch the part of the screen you'd like you're cursor to be if you've got multiple windows open is really nice.
As someone who uses a Wacom tablet daily, it is not convenient for traveling because you don't always find the right table to use it. I can imagine OP wants to use his tablet while sitting on his bed in his hotel room.
I've done the nomad thing from months to years. Not always intentionally! Had moved cross country anticipating a company move weeks later, then the pandemic happened and it became years. Trying to do it inexpensively will be painful, compromising on ability or quality will lead to frustraiting failures and limitations.
My loadout was very similar, though I had more clothes and music gear because I was strictly living inside. "Golfing" backpacks that are insulated are very underrated, think the capacity was closer to 15.5L. They don't really make them to accomodate 17" laptops anymore, and you shouldn't have one that big, but the extra space in the sleeve is great. Strong endorsement for American Giant! Especially the heavy zip up hoodies, running pants, and shirts, some of which I've had for almost 20 years at this point, and Oddball socks (if you have big feet).
They aren't for everyone, but the rather thin/rough gym-style towels are great as you can get 3 into the space of a normal one once you've mastered rolling your shit up and they dry quick. When your boxer briefs inevitably wear out, cutting the band off and using them to constrain other things while the leftover cloth makes for great snot/cleaning rags. Save your plastic grocery bags, they're useful for so much and compact well.
Cannot understate how much better this makes air travel. Can still be shoved under the seat in front of you. No checked bags or secondary carryons removes so much potential for bullshit. As the bag is still soft, you have to be deliberate with where you pack things or you will crush them. You'll want to consider the placement of electronics TSA is going to make you pull out, and expect secondary screening. The density of shit in the bag tends to cause this if they're still using old xray machines instead of that new 360 degree shit.
I ended up also lugging around a workstation and monitor. It was worth the logistical pain and my new limit became "fits into the trunk of a rental sports coupe", avoiding planes was worth while everything was still ongoing. I would not attempt doing this with modern Apple Silicon. Can't stand what mac os has become and there are too many caveats. Any high end ryzen laptop with an nvidia gpu is preferable. If you do anything in/with multimedia or streaming, you'll be thankful the first time you can lean on it as an encoder (and the USB 3.2 port will actually be able to handle the throughput of a Magewell USB capture card).
Hard to undersell the 'freeing' aspect. If wherever you are sucks, for whatever reason, it doesn't take much time to be packed and gone. It's not for everyone. Have met some fantastic lifelong friends from couch surfing and renting rooms listed on craigslist, which is vastly superior to AirBNB, where I encountered scams so frequently that I swore them off entirely.
It changes you, too. Once you settle again you'll realize what you really care about.
I spent 18 months doing this as a digital nomad. When I started out I had a rollaboard suitcase, a checked 60 inch bag, a pelican full of camera gear, and a 28L backpack. By the end I had a 28L backpack only. All that said, there were things I gave up in my travels that I missed and make it a point of taking now when I go on shorter vacation-like trips. Simple example was having good coffee. When I started out I had a jet boil, an aeropress, a hario hand mill, and a vacuum container of good beans, by the end I had given that up to save space, but there's really no reason not to have good coffee if you have the space to do so. I also had given up my much better camera gear for a single point and shoot camera to cut down on space requirements, since then I've taken to traveling with the pelican again most of the time, and when I don't I have a micro 4/3rds camera that is better than the point and shoot, but almost as compact.
I do think there's value to learning how to live with less, and it also helps unencumber you more than just in physical weight, but spiritually, to allow yourself to explore and go forth without concern. I could just hop on a train, bus, plane, and go somewhere else even as a side trip without needing to be concerned with any of my belongings because it was all with me all of the time.
I lived out of a backpack for two months on a Pacific Crest Trail hike. I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism, and could henceforth live happily without a lot of stuff and conveniences.
Not so much. Now a couple of decades later, I've got a house and garage crammed with stuff. Yesterday I had a plumber here working on a leak, and this morning I have no running water, and here I am bravely holding back tears. My inner dialog is "this is unacceptable!" It turns out that climbing on the hedonic treadmill is practically effortless, but sliding down it is full of splinters.
> It turns out that climbing on the hedonic treadmill is practically effortless, but sliding down it is full of splinters.
Not sure if I'm missing a joke, but the whole point of the analogy being a treadmill is that there's nothing to fall down. Regardless of positive (running forward) or negative (going backward on the treadmill) life changes, your happiness will probably stay relatively consistent because you're on a treadmill and there's nowhere to go.
The live out of a backpack lifestyle is definitely a unique way to experience the modern world and I'm sure it's fulfilling for the author, but you can even tell in their post that life caught up with them somewhat and they needed to start staying in one place a little longer in order to maintain social relationships. Their linked post about walking every block of Manhattan and tracking all of their movement since 2015 feels like the exact opposite of a minimalist lifestyle and it seems to me like they live out of a backpack not out of some anti-materialism lifestyle, but instead just as a practical way to fuel this obsession with traveling and tracking.
I admit, I've seen the author's Instagram story about walking 100k steps in a day in NYC and watched the whole thing because it's interesting, but I also take that and posts like this with a grain of salt. I'll happily take my horde of shit I need to get rid of in the garage over obsessing about how I can optimize tracking my every movement.
Perhaps the joke is that the valence of going backward or forward isn't equivalent. IIRC, some studies show that people will generally accept smaller gains to avoid the possibility of loss. Eg, loss has a greater (negative) emotional impact than equivalent (positive) gains.
> I don't think it's reasonable to compare the risk of suffering a large loss with the risk of missing out on a large gain. If your annual income is $N, missing out on a gain of $N is bad, but not nearly as bad a suffering a loss of $N.
- A comment I saw elsewhere on HN today
It's quite rational, in many cases, to consider loss of an object X worse than gain of X. A less rigorous example I like to use: it's far easier, and unequal, to kill a person than revive a person.
Isn't this the accepted advice for investment. Putting money in something that gains X% consistently with years of proven sustained growth vs putting money in something with potential 100X% growth but could give you negative growth if it fails has always been the advice in long term financial planning
This, in a nutshell, is why Effective Altruism sucks.
I don't know if you use some sort of safety treadmill but on many, you will fall if you don't/can't run anymore. There's your metaphor for life. Also, running on a treadmill is/can be viewed an image for not moving forward despite all the running you do.
> My inner dialog is "this is unacceptable!" It turns out that climbing on the hedonic treadmill is practically effortless, but sliding down it is full of splinters.
For me, in situations like this the frustration comes from having invested so much into something that isn’t delivering what it was supposed to.
For example, when my 20 year old car broke down it was an inconvenience, but I could also shrug it off because I got my money’s worth out of the car long ago.
If an expensive brand new car broke down I would be inconvenienced, but the situation would be much more frustrating because I spent so much on a new car to avoid these issues.
Your IKEA Nesting Instinct kicked in. The things you own ended up owning you
Did we just get a visit from Tyler Durden?
Yeah, when we stop moving, it's so easy to start hoarding.
I lived in Mexico for 10 years with just two duffelbags of clothes and essentials. I could carry both on a plane unchecked and be anywhere with nothing left behind, and I loved it.
Now I look around me in my apartment I share with my girlfriend and have things I wouldn't have even conceived of, like a gaming PC with two monitors (for what??) and a closet full of clothes as if I don't wear the same 5 things.
I met a family who had just moved to Wisconson from Italy last week. The four of them (Mom, Dad, ~14yo son, and ~12yo daughter) packed everything they were going to bring with them into a backpack and two checked bags each. Incredible! What would you pick?
I have a garage and a shed (OK, fine, it's a 24x36 barn) and a basement and a home office that barely contain the enormous quantity of my stuff at home. And yet I honestly think the highlight of this summer was waking up to the sunrise on one of the remotest parts of the Appalachian trail through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with no possessions that wouldn't fit in a 22L ultralight backpack - including several of the same items as this guy's kit.
On the one hand, most of the stuff is replaceable, "fungible" if you like, rather than sentimental. On the other, I keep it because I like to have certain capabilities, like cooking and auto repair and home building - I can't fit a tablesaw or pressure washer or food processor in a backpack; I've got a rack of 24 giant totes in the garage with painting supplies and plumbing supplies and bike parts and specialty auto repair tool cases and on and on that each occupy more volume than the one backpack this guy lives out of. I also recognize that this is a colossally inefficient way to allocate things among a group of people: I'm not going to pay a painter $1500 to do a crappy job to repaint my bathroom when I can do it myself with far greater quality for $100 in paint and a couple hundred bucks worth of tools in a giant tote, and neither are most of my neighbors, but this means that a sizeable fraction of people in the neighborhood live around our own personal totes of painting supplies.
If I was going to pay someone else to build and repair and maintain and clean the house/apartment/condo/hotel that I live in (when I'm not in a tent, that's only about 5% of my time), and to take care of the cars and bikes that I ride in and on, and to cook the variety of food that I eat, and on and on, I would have a lot less stuff. If I bought tools to do these tasks that I would use once and then sell/give/throw them away...that would be unaffordable for me. One of the lessons that my Dad passed down to me is to never buy a thing unless you have the resources in time, price of consumables, tools, and space to clean it, maintain it, fix it, and store it - those are real costs beyond the sticker price of a new toy.
Where does the money come from that allows one to sleep in hotels, ride in rental cars, travel in airports, and eat in restaurants for years on end?
>Where does the money come from that allows one to sleep in hotels, ride in rental cars, travel in airports, and eat in restaurants for years on end?
If you keep your standards modest, the math isn't as bad as it intuitively seems.
A $100 hotel per night is the equivalent of a $3000 mortgage/rent. And if you're living out of one bag you don't necessarily need that and probably have cheaper options like hostels (or tent camping) available.
If you're working a software job or have worked such jobs long enough to have a few million in assets gathering interest, the cost of living isn't prohibitive.
>> worked such jobs long enough to have a few million in assets gathering interest
so essentially no one in the entire world?
In other words, it's not a problem if you're one of the wealthiest people ever to exist in human history.
At no point was this positioned as a "for everyone" approach. It requires resources and compromises. None of the gear in this article is particularly cheap.
That said, the cost is not significantly different from other forms of living. The average rent in SF/NYC/Seattle/London/etc. is sky high as well.
> None of the gear in this article is particularly cheap.
The $4 baseball cap isn't bad :) Darn Tough socks are also arguably also pretty cheap over a lifetime of use since the company mails you a free replacement pair if you wear one out
My mortgage is under a thousand :O
If I had a few million in assets I'd be retired
....and?
Different people make different choices on how to spend their money. Some spend their money on cigarettes, or sports season tickets, or modifications to cars, or collections of things. Some give most of their spare money to their church or a charity. Some send money off to relatives. Some travel.
Hotels wherever you are probably aren't $100 a night.
If you have a mortgage below $1000 you have something that almost no one in a western nation will ever see again. Congratulations, but your anecdote is irrelevant to basically everyone.
The current 30 year fixed mortgage rate is about 6.3%. It should probably be higher. A $1000 payment would mean a loan for about $160000 - significantly less if property taxes and insurance are included in that mortgage payment. There are very few places in the world with a significant number of available jobs where most people can buy a house for that.
Let's look through the midwest and throw a dart at Akron, OH. You're within commuting distance of Cleveland, you've got a university and an airport, there are probably jobs.
Property taxes are 1.8%. Home insurance is hard to estimate but let's pretend $1500/yr. Average home sale price is around $137K. That puts you closer to $1200/mo, and most places are far worse.
Retirement sucks, tbh. The lack of well-defined purpose is awful.
Retirement just means Fuck You money.
Can work for money or not, but if you are and your employer creates unacceptable or undesirable conditions you can immediately say Fuck You and just go do something else without worrying about covering the necessities of life.
Nah. That's not how it works. I could retire, but choose to keep working. The idea that you can simply step out is based on the idea that you don't need work.cbut in my case I need it for its social aspects and to stay motivated to do things. I still have the same issues as other people where in the mornings I just want to stay in bed. But I still go to work. Because I know it's ultimately a better choice.
I feel like the real problem is tying one's purpose to employment. If you can't find value in your life without someone telling you what to do you should take some time off work and reflect deeply on that.
You don't have to sit at home in retirement. You can go out and be involved in any number of communities - volunteer, join local government, go do fundraising for a cause you care about. The biggest difference there is that if you're not enjoying it you can just leave and not worry about how you're paying rent.
I certainly feel a lot better than where I was latterly. Would have preferred some projects that got a bit sidetracked for various reasons. Overall, pretty happy not having a full-time job. As I clean some things up though, definitely looking forward to having a more scheduled (if part-time) plan.
Humans always and only generate their own purpose. The awfulness is entirely on the side of having to work hard to sustain yourself.
sorry if this comes across the wrong way, but you don't have to be retired. there's plenty of purposeful things you can find to give your life meaning. Given that you don't need to be paid, there are even more opportunities that could benefit from your expertise that you've built up over your career or careers.
> like a gaming PC with two monitors (for what??)
There’s nothing like the pleasure of idling in a pointless MMO on one screen while half-watching youtube autoplay on the other. Alternate Monster with White Claw and you’ve got peak hedonism.
To each his own. This sounds terrible to me.
Now bouncing between multiple Champions League games in the middle of an afternoon with easy access to good espresso…
My ideal is 3 monitors
One in the middle for a game
One to the right for a video
One to the left with systems stats and an RSS feed
You missed the geekbar and the penjamim. For max effect also put on a twitch streamer in a different game, listen to imported pop music or edm, and idle in a discord. Oh and have a collection of fidget toys on your desk.
I have a load of crap I've accumulated over the years, but I try to regularly look at and consider everything, with the aim of simply imagining life without it. I'm reasonably confident that I could get rid of most of it without missing it much if I had to - but for now I'm still holding on to them in case they become useful again. It currently costs me less to keep them than to replace them in the future.
> I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism, and could henceforth live happily without a lot of stuff and conveniences.
Same. Exactly the same.
I have often reflected that I have never been as happy as when I had the least stuff, either.
I often wonder if it’s a) correlation or causation and b) whether the stuff is caused by dissatisfaction or the dissatisfaction is caused by the stuff, or both.
Either way, I’m currently undergoing an intentional downsizing in my life, toward minimalism. Not the kind where I use it as an excuse to buy (more) expensive minimalist gear either.
I’m shedding hobbies and interests that I have because I believe that they’ve become distractions that I bury myself in. Replacing them is far from my mind, but prising them out of my fingers is a very real challenge. It’s hardly backpack living, but it’s definitely moving in that direction.
As always, moderation is important for any normal person. I think that applies to minimalism as well. Use it to cut unnecessary stuff out of your life, but unless you're some outlier then it's probably not good to try and live the most minimalist life that you can without causing some terrible mental health effects along the way.
> I’m shedding hobbies and interests that I have because I believe that they’ve become distractions that I bury myself in.
Maybe you just haven't found the right hobby? Hobbies should feel rewarding, not like a distraction.
Of course.
And perhaps? For me, the reward comes from the learning. (Who would have thought, being a software engineer by trade).
Luckily my brain has a self-invalidating cache, but my home, not so much. Perhaps I will find the right hobby, but it should not be something that involves the accumulation of things, because the things weigh a hidden cost of possession. It’s this hidden cost that hurts, like a tax, an inefficiency of the mind, or being. It’s insidious because it’s almost impossible to attribute the friction with the possession, because you’re often not actively dealing with it, but it’s there. It’s like, you know you have 32gb of RAM, but for some reason you’re only working with 20gb but you can’t inspect what’s stealing the other 12gb. It’s only after removing things from disk, do you start to see the RAM getting freed up, and then you begin to appreciate the extra mental resources.
Not sure if you have a background outside of software engineering, but as someone who got a degree in mechanical engineering and then shifted over to software engineering I've landed on home/car maintenance as a pretty good base hobby to fall back on. There's always more to learn, you can do most of it with a pretty limited set of tools, and it has the added bonus of improving daily life.
This may be a bit specific to me since I bought an older house and car in the past year and they require a bit more TLC. My partner and I painted all of the rooms (tools are just paint, brushes, and rollers). I've replaced almost all of the outlets and switches, including putting in a few zigbee switches (Sonoff ZBMINIR2s to be specific) since we have no overhead lights in any of our rooms and the switches don't control the right outlets... The only tools for that work are a screwdriver and a wire stripper. We also hung some cabinets in our living room and put up some bookshelves (made easier with power tools, but possible with hand tools). When it got warm, we did a bunch of work outside including some brick edging (bucket, mason line, and a trowel) and a fire pit (shovel, level, rake, and tamper).
Cars require some more tools but you can do pretty much every bit of maintenance work with a standard set of wrenches, a jack, and jack stands.
Everything just sits against the wall or in a toolbox in the garage. It's a big 2 car garage but it fits a home gym set-up, a TV on a cart, a workbench, a bunch of furniture that we need to get rid of on FB Marketplace, and there's still room to pull in a car (mine is in there right now since I'm changing the spark plugs).
There's more to it than that.
I've been practicing this from a different perspective. It's not necessarily bad to have stuff or buy stuff, but you have to spend just as much time getting rid of things and evaluating their continued usefulness as you spend shopping and buying new things.
In tech terms, if you have a queue which you only ever add items to, well we all know what happens.
This second part of the process is overlooked, and particularly because our corporate overlords don't make any money from this careful consideration and management of our lives and the items within it. At least with my parents generation -- the boomers -- they went all in on purchasing with never getting rid of anything. Like a dragon and its hoard. Looking at craigslist estate sales is so crazy, because you see someone's lifetime of absolute junk they spent all their time accumulating, but obviously no time getting rid of anything. In fact, they just died and made it someone else's problem to deal with it.
I think in general we fill whatever amount of space we have available. Nature abhors a vacuum.
> I got comfortable with it and told myself that I had overcome my materialism
Vervaeke's "Meaning Crisis" talks have interesting things to say about this sense of the world between modes of "having" (material) and "being" (existential).
https://www.meaningcrisis.co/episode-7-aristotles-world-view...we forget quickly
we grow with our container
we are all goldfish
I thru-hiked the PCT in 5 months 10 years ago. Same experience. I remember eating on the trail 2 bricks of instant ramen for dinner every day and being utterly content. It was the most raw form of living I've ever experienced.
Maybe one good thing about the torture of living in NYC is you get used to the torture of living in NYC.
My very small, very expensive apartment has had no running water throughout the work day for the past two weeks because of water main construction (which I get woken up to at 7am every day). There's a jerk chicken restaurant next door to my apartment that blasts music all day long outside. Roaches and mice and rats. Long crowded subway commutes. I do hate this life in various ways, but I guess it toughens you up and you get used to it.
This resonates deeply with my personal experience, why does everyone like this? Is this becoming magical at some stage?
Two months isn't really that long.
Before being a digital nomad was cool I went full nomad. I remember being in a hostel in Thailand and just throwing away everything I had brought, going down to the basics. Ended up with a similar setup.
The thing is, after years of doing it, learning new languages, making friends all over, and then leaving knowing you might not see them again for ever or for long stints, you start to feel the yearning to be able to connect with people on a deeper level.
Now I have an apartment and basically only travel for weddings, I still go super light. But there is a joy in having variety in clothing or sneakers to wear. Friends who you've had multiple conversations with over the year's, even family who comes to visit you.
I'm happy I rid myself of it all, but I'm also happy that now my apartment has the basics, and maybe a bit more. And I'm fine with it. Life doesn't have to be binary, you can mix and match and end up happy either way.
I was a nomad for about a year. Towards the end I was tired of the constant leaving.
I asked for advice from an NGO who moves countries often. She said what happens is the NGO members become part of the extended connection, which helps with that situation.
Even when I was a nomad, I wouldn't have been without a suitcase. My big hobby then was dancing - mostly salsa and tango - and I needed several changes of clothes and dance shoes. And, umm, not all black clothes.
To make it worse, indoor smoking was legal, so I would come home with stinky clothes that I wouldn't want to wear again until washing.
I also did some upper undergrad/grad level visiting teaching, and would stay at a staff members home, or in one case the home of the parents of one of the grad students. I brought a dozen or so greeting-style cards with nice pictures of the city I used to live in, so I could leave them as a thank you, with an image of what for them would be an exotic place.
I went backpacking last year for only a little over a month. Absolute pain in my chest when someone who I'd gotten to known over the past few days said it was their last day lol.
Yup, we all go through difference phases of life.
We have a nice airbed (oxymoron?) in our apartment that gets used maybe 3-4 times a year. It takes up more space than the author's backpack, but it's also great whenever a friend or family member would like to visit on short notice (along with a set of sheets, towels, collection of hotel toothbrushes...).
I think this is key. I travel nearly zero these days due to a long list of reasons, but the mental exercise of thinking about whether I could travel with my stuff helps me be more conscious about accumulating things that I don’t really need.
>The thing is, after years of doing it, learning new languages, making friends all over, and then leaving knowing you might not see them again for ever or for long stints, you start to feel the yearning to be able to connect with people on a deeper level.
A rolling stone gathers no moss, as they say.
"If you're everywhere, you're nowhere."
I've done this before (not indefinitely, but for many trips around the world.)
I agree with the author on a lot: 1) it's not a good way to live long term, 2) traveling with as little as possible completely transforms the traveling experience, 3) zero-bag travel is great, 4) a good quality small bag with well designed compartments is critical, 5) M-series Macs are the only way to go, 6) two thumb drives is very convenient if you're not worried about searches, 7) darn tough socks, 8) first aid with bandaids/antiseptic/mylar blanket, I also include benadryl, ibuprofen and other common OTC meds.
I disagree on: 1) I prefer a 2M USB-C cord over 1M, 2) I have mostly cotton or merino clothes and try not to use any synthetic fabrics, especially no synthetic underwear, 3) I prefer jeans, especially in colder climates and 4) carrying "stuff" on you long term (like a jacket with things in the pockets) can get sort of annoying after a while.
And finally, extra stuff I carry that the author doesn't: separate camera, snacks (mostly nuts), Garmin inReach, handkerchiefs, wired earbuds, flashlight, knife, an eye mask, sometimes a Travelrest pillow, and two sizes of paper notebooks and pens.
Why no synthetic underwear? I feel like I would be miserable with only cotton boxer-briefs... I sweat entirely too much even in moderate weather to be comfortable in cotton. I am partial to Pair of Thieves extra long boxer-briefs, they don't ride up at all since I have big thighs. When travelling I can wash them in a sink, and they dry way more quickly than cotton.
The replacement for synthetic underwear is wool, not cotton. For weeklong wilderness backpacking trips, I used to vacillate between a fresh pair of synthetic boxer briefs every every day, which took a lot of space, and one for every other day, which was gross. Now I wear a single pair of wool boxer briefs all week, and it feels and smells better at the end of the week than synthetic underwear does after two days. Same for sleeping: I used to bring a couple of pairs of synthetic boxers, and now I'm down to one pair of wool underwear. Two pairs for the entire week, one for days and one for nights.
Granted, wilderness backpacking has completely different standards for smells and grossness, but the comparison carries over to the higher standards of the "front country." In hot, sweaty weather, synthetic underwear gets noticeably grosser and smellier than wool over the course of a day.
Is there anyone making full wool underwear? Everything is a blend, which is good for durability.
https://www.woolly.clothing/
I also feel the same way. I travel with the absolute minimum of synthetic fabric clothing, I have found that by far the best material is wool, especially merino wool, and if that's not an option something that is natural fiber derived modal like bamboo or wood cellulose modal is good. Polyester and other synthetic fabrics repel moisture better, but don't wash by hand or withstand hard wearing as well as natural fibers, and also don't work as well across climates and ecologies.
A layered clothing approach helps a lot. I wear an undershirt (Icebreaker Merino T) every single day, which helps me to regulate my body temperature between hot and cold climates, without requiring a major increase in the amount of clothing I have to bring. The only outerwear I had to bring on my trips was a single wool peacoat and a packable windbreaker/rainjacket. By using layers, I was able to use the same set of clothing between 45C and -25C, across 4 continents with no real trouble.
I am surprised one bag crowd seem to pack so many computing devices with them. Some have phone, laptop, ipad and kindle and pride themselves on being minimalists.
I'm one of those.
I'd go iPad only, it's a versatile device after-all, but the truth of it is: it can't beat a laptop for "real work" (unless, real work is replying to emails and running an extremely cut down version of excel).
Yet, a laptop is significantly more awkward to read with or watch media. When flying I have (nearly) lost a screen to someone reclining in front of me while I was using my laptop; this is not an issue with iPads.
As it stands, the iPad is practically an essential, it's just so versatile and useful that it's omission would cut comfort more than it's weight. But I need an additional device, likely a laptop. One can't live without headphones either, and at least a smart-phone for payments, SMS and phone-calls.
So, it looks outsized, but a laptop can't substitute an iPad, and an iPad can't substitute a laptop (yet; it's a software failing mostly)
I'm living as a nomad currently, laptop and phone feels mandatory, but I also pack a tablet. I find it useful for hand-written notes, so I carry no pen and paper, and as a second screen for my laptop.
I did this for a few years and would recommend 1 (smallish) suitcase + 1 backpack.
As mentioned in the article, it’s better (financially and socially) to stay in locations for a medium length of time. If you do this, then the overhead of a single suitcase is very minimal, and you get far more flexibility with clothing - particularly if you’re staying in colder areas. E.g. NYC in winter.
I do like a mix of this and just being more flexible about where I can live. Like, I'm leaving where I am in a few days, but that's after staying here for most of 6 months, also flying to various locations for conferences, to meet up with old friends. I use a suitcase these days with fashionable clothes and I will stay in airbnb rentals instead of hostels, especially if I'm already meeting up with friends or if I need to make sure I have a quiet place to work. I also, perhaps, am fortunate that my family still owns their own home, so I have a place for long term storage in case I need it, since I have accrued a pretty large collection of physical books, for instance, some of them more rare than others.
I think if I were ever to get married I would probably buy a house or something, but ideally my partner would also be as mobile and flexible as me.
When traveling, I met many who lived by the mantra of self-sufficiency. It seemed both to liberate and consume them.
Daily now I see people living on the street with a lot more, but still with needs of all sorts.
In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily - yes, for food, but mainly to submit to the judgment of society as to whether one's practice is worth it to others. The premise was that people would give if they see you as worthy, not because they pity you.
I would ask the OP to reflect publicly on what he discovered about his own attachments, sense of place, and relations with others and himself. That could be helpful even to people in more tangled circumstance.
> "In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily... "
Interesting. So the practice of (these schools) of Buddhism requires that there be non-Buddists?
It requires that there be people who aren’t monks, as monks are the ones out begging. Lay people can own lots of stuff, such as houses, hence the term “householders” to mean lay people in Buddhist literature.
I’m all for minimalist travel but I feel like I picked up a number of cues that the author is buying and disposing of (somehow) items seasonally or even on an as-no-longer-needed basis. Hopefully that means donating the item and maybe even buying used to begin with but it’s not mentioned here. I don’t want to make assumptions but in the worst case this could be a very wasteful kind of minimalism.
Funny thing is the list is not at all far from “latest Apple and arc’teryx” which I’d consider the consumerist side he’s complaining about but - some of those items are objectively really high quality and durable
I found this a bit odd, especially when the author mentioned they lose their apple watch a lot so buy an older one. It feels peculiar to buy such an objectively expensive high end item when you know you constantly lose it, and barely use any of it's features. To me that is continual overconsumption.
I can't pretend I don't have my own contradictions going on, so I'm not having a go at the author. But I did find it a little funny when reading it.
Even if the author is literally throwing away seasonal items, the environmental trade-off is that they probably purchase far fewer items than the average person.
Similarly (and this isn't a judgment), the ultralight outdoor gear – you trade off weight for durability.
When it comes to ultralight hiking gear, don't think durability is a major issue if it just sees occasional use in urban environments and you take good care of it.
I've travelled w/ a Montbell Versalite and Arcteryx Cerium LT for the past few years and both are like new, each probably getting around 200-300 wears in primarily city use while traveling to over 40 cities. Just picked up a Montbell Travel Umbrella (3 ounces!) a couple months back as I'll be in Mexico City for awhile and it rains like half the year.
I've definitely had durability issues with some of the newer lightweight gear even with fairly casual use. But mostly not just urban use to be fair.
if you travel a lot... maybe the co2 saved from not lugging around a cheap thing offsets the production waste.
If you are flying with any regularity, you are completely exhausting your carbon budget. The remaining carbon budget is the CO2 if emitted will lead to 2C warming. IPCC estimates it to be 1150 GtCO2 in 2020 [1]. Which is ~140 tCO2/person over however many years we use to spend this. So if we want to limit warming to 2C by 2050, that leaves a budget of 4.7tCO2/person/year.
A transatlantic round-trip alone can be 2.3tCO2 [2].
[1] Page 48 https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6...
[2] https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=82395...
In the limited amount of experience I’ve had with researching these things, embodied carbon can be a much higher number than you might think, even with something as simple as a cotton t-shirt. Odds are that shirt had already sailed around the world once or twice by the time you buy it, and it might make its way to another continent once you’re done with it as well.
> Odds are that shirt had already sailed around the world once or twice by the time you buy it,
That's like... 40 grams of CO2 for those 2 trips for a t-shirt. Aka, a 2 min uber ride.
Shipping containers are incredibly efficient.
Modern large container ships consume about 200-300 tonnes of fuel per day, and could carry 742 millions t-shirts [1]. It takes 16 days to do something like Shanghai - LA, so that ends up being like 20 grams per shirt per trip.
[1]: https://www.howandwhy.com/15-mins/huge-ship-shirts
If you like this kinda thing, highly recommend checking out Dominic Tarr's youtube. He used to be a prolific nodejs guy back in the day, now he...sails. His videos are great and he's a lovely guy: https://www.youtube.com/@dominictarrsailing/videos
He's building js apps with https://sailsjs.com ?
Brings Hundred Rabbits to mind: https://100r.ca/site/sailing.html
Shoes are always what get me. Wearing the same pair 2 days in a row isn't great for bacteria etc. Plus wanting sandals/flip-flops for the beach. Proper boots for any kind of hiking. Then I feel awkward particularly in Europe in the evening going to restaurants in trainers, so a pair of smart shoes is useful.
Not saying I always take that entire combo, but almost always more than 1 pair.
I used to be all boots all the time, but I realized somewhat recently that unless I'm carrying a heavy load, boots are significantly less comfortable than good e.g. trail running shoes. If I'm carrying the load that the OP is, hiking boots are not really useful for me. If you look at what e.g. extreme long-distance hikers are wearing on the Appalachian trail or the Pacific Crest trail, its usually trail running shoes, because it makes more sense for carrying a light load an extremely long distance.
Certainly, if you've a history of ankle injuries or some other podiatric necessity, go for it. But for me, a pair of good walking shoes and a pair of good sandals is all I realistically need.
> Onebag travel is unquestionably the best way to travel. Traveling without luggage removes just about every pain point associated with flying, such as checking bags, overhead compartments, bag fees, waiting in line, and needing to drop off luggage before an adventure. Just stroll into the airport an hour before your flight, and walk off your plane directly to your destination.
This is absolutely true, especially when traveling solo.
People freak out about this, but all it boils down to is bringing enough socks, underwear, and shirts for ~5-6 days, 2 pairs of bottoms, and (depending on weather) or a combination of 2 and/either sweaters and an outer shell. Wear the biggest stuff (pants/sweaters) on the plane. After that be willing to do laundry, which will often put you in a position that's outside the tourist mainstream and force you to slow down and take stalk for a few hours (single use detergent packs are a thing, but you can also just bring a few tide pods in a zip-lock bag). Freak weather events can be used as an excuse to shop for clothing, too (the best rain jacket that I ever bought was in this situation in the Netherlands - it was expensive, but I'm still using it a decade later - a fantastic souvenir that people always complement me on when wearing it).
Of course, if you need to lug more (for special occasions or business), that's another matter, but it still makes my jaw drop when I see people travelling on vacations with massive roller luggage that often sucks on cobblestone streets or lugging up stairs.
I think it depends on how you're travelling. If you're staying in hostels and moving locations frequently (v common for solo travel), walking/busing instead of uber/taxi, using just one bag is peak. But if you're staying longer or you have your own room, getting rides places etc, then it might be worth having more clothes and dealing with lugging your suitcase around occasionally.
Doesn't even need to be a suitcase, a big duffel bag can hold just as much clothing and be more convenient for carrying around, although you still need to check it at the airport.
> Freak weather events can be used as an excuse to shop for clothing, too (the best rain jacket that I ever bought was in this situation in the Netherlands - it was expensive, but I'm still using it a decade later - a fantastic souvenir that people always complement me on when wearing it).
This doesn't make any sense. Going going to a random shop to buy a rain jacket is inevitably going to be worse than doing careful research and ordering from the cheapest retailer. Moreover after you bought your first rain jacket, then what? Buy another next time it rains? If not, why not just buy it ahead of your trip and pack it?
I don't think they have the same definition of "best" that you do.
> single use detergent packs are a thing, but you can also just bring a few tide pods in a zip-lock bag
Even better these days there are laundry sheets that are light / compact.
Depends where you go, if planning some 3 week remote hiking in ie Nepal it may not be the best approach.
Ie I've recently spent 2 weeks in remote islands in Sulawesi, Indonesia and didn't bring enough mosquito spray. Well, on whole island chain I was in, nobody in tiny local shops ever had one. When asked, they told me they suck up malaria if caught and move on, sort of how we deal with flu. Luckily dengue wasn't there. So suck it up I did, luckily it seems I avoided it (knock on the wood).
With spray comes sunscreen. Some basic diving equipment. Non-tiny first aid kid. Some photography stuff. But yeah for that one I could still put it all into 1 medium backpack, just liquids travelled separately. For that Nepal, backpack was bigger. For Aconcagua, there was an extra big duffel bag. If doing full camping and cooking, one backpack but much bigger.
If only it could solve the pain points from other people, especially overhead compartments and TSA/customs.
It’s uncomfortably close to bribery, but Precheck/Global Entry is worth every penny.
Not really true since you can't even bring a little pocketknife or other cutting tool with you.
Yes, that's one thing that I really dislike. I'm very used to carrying my Leatherman supertool around with me, and it irks me that I can't do that.
But I do have a Wallet Ninja that's useful that's only ever been questioned once, and never taken away. And I used to carry a small knife that folds into a key, and nobody ever noticed until one particularly bored TSA agent decided I couldn't take it with me. I should really order another one, or dozen, and treat them as "disposable" for traveling with.
why do you need one? I see a lot of "edc" stuff online where people seem to carry knives and tools with them everywhere they go. I've never found a need to do so and never been caught out in a situation where I would have benefitted from a knife.
When I was a kid, my dad told me that all gentlemen should carry a pocket knife. (And presumably gentlewomen, too, but he was addressing me at the time.) I carry a nice Spyderco Para 3 with me at all times when I'm not flying somewhere and use it multiple times a day for random stuff like: trimming a loose thread on my shirt, digging out a splinter, trimming a hangnail before it can snag on something, cutting a length of rope, popping a piece of glass out of my shoe, opening an envelope, cutting tape on a box, slicing an apple or a piece of cheese, and so on ad infinitum. On the very few occasions where I didn't have it, I've reached for my phantom knife and been bummed to realize I didn't have the tool I was counting on. Without exaggeration, I use it every single day.
Note that crazy stuff like self defense absolutely, positively does not enter the equation. I mention that only because some people get weird about it in both directions, both "eek, you carry a weapon around?!", and "ooh, ever get to stab anyone?!" No. My primary self defense mechanism is good running shoes and decent stamina.
"My good reason to carry a knife is that God gave me rather weak teeth and rudimentary claws in an evolutionary trade-off. The hairy-armed person who figured out how to put an edge on a suitable rock made it possible for us to be recognizably human in the first place. I wear a wristwatch whether or not I have an appointment to keep, and I carry a pen and/or pencil because I am a literate person whether or not I have a specific writing task ahead of me, and I carry a knife because I am a human and not an ape."
- James Mattis
Having some kind of a sharpish edge is pretty useful in my experience. I just use a keychain multi tool that’s more like a screwdriver than a knife but you can open things you can’t with just your hands. A real pocket knife I only bring when camping or renovating or something like that
And different countries having different rules.
Always fun to lose your contact lens solution at a transit airport that doesn’t embrace “one stop security” and find yourself tracking some down on a Sunday. Fuck you Heathrow.
If you can’t go without, just buy one at the destination. Leave it at the hotel with a note that it’s free for the taking when you leave.
Swiss army knives are cheap and easy to find in every city.
You can fly with a swiss army knife in europe, or at least nobody ever questioned me. If you buy local everywhere you fly look for opinels, for $10 you get the perfect camping/food knife
And throw it away every time? Or at least give it away or so?
Leave it at the hotel/hostel. I leave a small note so the cleaning staff knows it’s abandoned, not lost and in need of return.
I’ve done this with various things I forgot, like a phone charger for the local outlet type.
I have every time I've traveled. Lighters as well. TSA is fucking useless.
Most airports allow for 1 < 5cm knife and 1 lighter.
Nope, not in the USA.
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/...
Lighters are allowed though:
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/...
Few modifications. I would highly recommend:
- Icebreaker Merino T-Shirts https://na.icebreaker.com/en-us/collections/mens-tshirts?cou...
- Paka Alpaca Wool Hoodie: https://www.pakaapparel.com/products/alpaca-hoodie?variant=3...
I wear those t-shirts in hot climates because of how breathable they are and the Alpaca Wool Hoodie is literally the best sweater I've ever owned. Super breathable, lightweight and I've washed it a total of 4 times in 3 years.
Merino shirts are literally the only shirts I've worn through to have holes on various places. Its not that great and vastly overpriced material for many active uses, but marketing is strong with this one.
To quote some mountain guides I talked about this - its a great second layer in snowy sports, ie ski touring. Wicking of sweat ain't great compared to synthetics (and thus drying takes also much longer), but when wet it keeps warmth, unlike synthetics or cotton. As top layer it sucks since as mentioned it has little resistance to abrasion comparatively, and everybody wears some sort of backpack out there. I have synthetic shirts that lasted 10 years either frequent gym going or intense mountain sports, not a single hole or tear. None of merinos survived that long.
I talk about cheaper brands like Decathlon but also Ice Breaker, the heavier/thicker ones.
Not talking about hoodies here, those seem much thicker material and never worn those, synthetics served me for such role very well so far.
From what I've seen merino tends to be more delicate than synthetics, but much more odor resistant.
Merino is the only fabric I've found that can handle multiple sweaty days or even workouts without a hint of smell.
Yes that is true, forgot that part. Doesn't help much in colder situations with more layers but for a single layer case, with nothing carried on the back/waist its fine even long term. I just don't do such things much.
I will add another data point to this: Unbound Merino tshirts※¹.
As other replies have mentioned, merino is definitely fragile (both of mine had holes within a few months). But the caveat being that I literally wear them every 2nd day (I own two day-use tshirts (2 more for night/spare) and rotate them daily, so they probably got 5 years of use in the year that I've owned them.
They are even more amazing for anti-smelling than synthetics with silver woven into them (like Lululemon Silverescent). They can go for weeks without washing (I've tested with other people's noses). Caveat being if you spill something on them or absorb a ton of barbecue smoke, they will need a wash (or at least spot cleaning).
I think merino tshirts (2 pair), lightweight synthetic everything else, powerful phones or ultralight laptops + USB-C has enabled folks like me to travel indefinitely (except in winter) with a 20-25L bag or less ※².
※¹ - https://unboundmerino.com
※² - That is if I didn't have a family incl. toddler, in my case I'll still LARP onebagging for our 1-4 week trips.
I agree with you about the breathability of those merino t-shirts, but I think the author is right about their fragility. I feel like mine constantly get runs or shrink even though I’m careful (I’m a frequent business traveler and they do get heavy use). I’m considering switching back to traditional undershirts.
That's weird, because I am still wearing the same Icebreaker t-shirts I bought in 2015, a decade later, through many many washes. They have thinned out some, and I've added more new shirts over time to my rotation, but the very first one I bought is still perfectly wearable as a daily undershirt. I've never had one shrink, I do have some small holes in the oldest shirts, but nothing that impedes its basic function.
I think it's like Apple cables: for some they're frayed in a month, others still have perfectly serviceable 30-pin cables that they've used daily. Personally, I wear Unbound merino t-shirts and underwear, and they last for years.
(I'm also convinced that front-loading washers make clothes last longer because they don't literally beat your clothes to death.)
I tried long term backpack travel and it wasn’t for me but trying (many times) basically perfected my packing for all trips.
Between a backpacking trip to northern Europe to 3 day quick trip to Chicago, I can be ready to in like an hour and still, according to friends, be the most prepared.
It also bled into my daily life and I picked up some really good habits. I am not a minimalist but I would say I have very little clutter.
So worth it to try it a few times even if you never actually do it.
Ever think about writing some of those habits down?
Might be able to impart wisdom without the mess of backpacking days on end; or maybe the lessons have to be hard-earned?
Unless he found some secret magic trick, I believe they have in general been written down already a millions times by now. And yes, they have to be hard earned, meaning when you do carry your big backpack around way longer than you planned for (because a bus was not there or whatever) - you do learn to not appreciate all the useless things you carried for no reason and leave them at home next time.
Best advice:
Travel light
But still, mind where you are going. If it is the mountains, you still want to bring warm clothes and they just are heavy.
I am right now preparing for the mountains and think of whether to take a tent or not (the huts for sleeping are mostly closed already)
The heavier the backpack, the less fun is walking with it.
And that works also as a metaphor for everyday life. The less shit you take with you, pulling you down, the easier it is to make progress.
I have written it down but it is a checklist and there are thousands of those. Checklists are very personal so that’s why I suggested that you “do it for yourself.”
That said, these are the 3 main lessons I got:
- Everything needs a place. I need to picture that place before I even buy the thing, while at the store. When you are trying to fit everything into one backpack, you practice this a lot.
- Occasional I go look through all my belongings and toss. I did this a lot when I felt my backpack got too heavy or big. Do this enough times and getting rid of a belonging becomes emotionally normalized and easy.
- This may all seem like a lot of work but only at first. Why? Because it creates a mental feedback loop that discourages hoarding. You remember what kind of items you throw away so you stop even collecting them. For example, I use to keep all USB cables but I would always throw them out during these “spring cleanings” so now I throw them when I first get them.
So I encourage trying it yourself because things like having a feedback loop or being okay with discarding junk doesn’t come from just reading about it. Similar to being okay with being rejected when dating, you have to do it enough times so it becomes comfortable.
> USB cables but I would always throw them out during these “spring cleanings” so now I throw them when I first get them.
Funny. One bagging travel turned me into USB cable hoarder. This stuff always breaks, gets lost on the road, and it is quite handy to have stash of spares at home.
I hate shopping for random stuff, ordering cables from Amazon is a lottery and fire hazard these days.
So I buy good stuff in bulk and discounts. If I find good shoes, I buy ten pairs, before they are discontinued.
My living room wall is now covered with stacks of boxes with supplies. Look does not matter, I do not live there most of the time anyway.
are we allowed to have any colours, though?
but really, every person i've seen who "activates" a lifestyle like this one only ever seems to wear black. i suppose it's the choice of any committed rationalist, but i think it's dull
also, fine so long as you don't need to go any where that requires a different type of shoe
"capsule wardrobe" is the relevant term here, you pick 2-3 colors that work together. It's the femme-coded equivalent. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=capsule+wardrobe&t=osx&ia=images&i...
It's the most versatile. It's more smart, hides sweat/stains, less noticeable if still damp etc. So if you're min-maxing it seems like an obvious choice.
Though I agree a colourful linen shirt for example (pink, yellow) or a merino pullover wouldn't break your back
I wear very little black, but I have tended towards darker colors. I've found that using earth tones blends well, similar to a capsule wardrobe, and you can incorporate greens, blues, and khakis along with darker colors like navy and black. Darker shirt, lighter pants, or lighter shirt, darker pants, and rotate through. You don't need to have very many different colors to effectively dress differently every day of a week or even across two weeks.
Because of the need for minimalism in travel, my wardrobe does tend to be relatively conservative and muted, but it's not all-black all of the time. You can certainly have some color.
Mixed feelings. I like how there is a lot of intention about purchases and lifestyle. But then the purchases are from Amazon, and the lifestyle is airplanes. But OTOH, he doesn't own a car.
It's hard to be perfect.
A rather depressive color pallet, pick your black, silver or white :)
I'm going to steal their approach at rolling up clothes, though.
I'll do you one better- take ~6ft of paracord, tie a simple loop in one end and a stopper-knot in the other. You can then use the noose-end to start a loop and wrap the remainder (zig-zag) around the rolled clothes and tuck the stopper knot underneath the criss-cross sections.
You go from "loose rolls of clothes" to "solid bundles of fabric". Makes it so you can take in/out individual items rather than having everything randomly unrolling every time you try and pull something out.
I tried the rolling clothes thing. And it does work. But as I got older, I found using packing cubes to be better.
This way things have their place and you know where to find something specific.
This is incredibly close to what I pack for long distance motorcycle, bicycle and hiking trips. This kit rocks, and all my notes are mostly personal preference.
I have an iPad Mini for reading and sketching, although I like paper more and more. I also sometimes sacrifice lightness for fashion, because I feel self-conscious travelling solo dressed like a bin bag.
I also have a lot of cheaper gear that so far never needed to be replaced. Most of it is from Decathlon. I only buy The Good Stuff once the test version falls apart. It's rarely necessary.
I could never bring myself to replace my electric shaver.
The biggest weight saver is USB-C. Retractable USB C cables are also great. Everything becomes a power bank for everything else.
I thru hiked the PCT. The one thing I learned as an engineer / technical person:
bring one of everything. No redundancy. The gains from being ultra light, single-item-multi-purpose, are immeasurable
I think that minimum redundancy is a wiser ethos. There are a couple of places where the weight penalty versus cost of failure makes the decision a no-brainer.
In my case, that means bringing aquatabs to back up my primary water treatment system and a second way to strike my stove. An extra 2 grams for aquatabs versus 4 weeks of greasy diarrhea? Check. Ten grams for a second mini bic or small fire steel versus cold soaking meals that I designed for cooking? Check.
But I do agree with you that bringing less in general frees you to move faster, go farther, and enjoy the journey even more.
Sure yes! Good shout.
At the end of the day my trail family had 4 levels of redundancy between us.
There's 0% chance the stuff fits in 9L when the winter things are included. Where do they go during summer?
Lots of the time they're counted as being worn, from what I've seen. When I pack, I don't preplan how everything fits with a jacket as well. It works most of the time, but the times I take off a jacket become awkward holding or tying around my bag.
So, this article is great and has some great items in it if you fit them. The pants look great but max out at 34" waist in the pair I checked. The towel is barely 4.5 feet and is far too short for a beach towel for someone who is 6' (though I still want it because I love these types of towels). I could not do this lifestyle though, not now in my life. I was in the military and traveled a lot for extended periods of time (year long deployments to the ass end of nowhere) and we traveled HEAVY. HEAVY heavy. Not my favorite way, and I got to the point where I would ship everything home and when we traveled I had a day bag with 3 days worth of clothes and such. So there is a crossover of this and that lifestyle. I still wouldn't want to go to it, I like having a home too much, even if I am renting.
I also recommend the 3F UL Gear tents. I bought the Taiji 2 for motorcycle trips. Very roomy for one person.
https://3fulgear.com/product/freestanding-tent/taiji-2/
For what it's worth, at least in cold weather, roominess isn't really desirable. You should have a pack that can handle inclement weather and a really tiny tent in a perfect world.
On one hand, you're right and I do have a smaller tent. On the other hand, on a motorcycle you have a lot of bulky clothes and you need to put them somewhere. So it's always a bit of a balance.
In real life one needs at least 5 pairs of shoes.
I did this for a year and half as I travelled around South America.
Hard to describe how liberating it is to have so few possessions. So many choices you don’t have to make. You become so fleet of foot that serendipity is everywhere.
Glad I got the chance to do it
I experience the same liberation when I go to an all-inclusive resort! No choice to make but what to eat (which matters to me since I do all the cooking).
I love this post but ain’t no way I’m going minimalist and carrying a MacBook AND an iPad.
For what it's worth, he did in fact abandon the ipad
this is like if patrick bateman read the 4 hour work week
Darn Tough socks.
I find them too small, they're hard to get on my feet. Good quality tho.
check out Wide Open, new line of wider socks from DT
Still not wide enough. If anybody has wider reccos in big sizes other than "oddball" brand, I'm all ears.
My wife dropped a small mint for darn tough socks like three years ago as a father's day gift. It's been delightful.
I still have mine from ~7 years ago. I only wear them during winter but still.
I had a small hole in them and contacted support and they told me to send another photo of the socks after I destroyed them. Then I got reimbursed.
I was under the impression I have to send them in and they are repaired. Nope. Probably my mistake to assume.
Despite the brand name, I can't imagine that darning socks would be more economical than just shipping a new pair.
Nothing on his budget or income.
I like that this guy's ethos is something along the lines of "better dressed homeless person." It won't last, though. Anyone of any means falls into the materialism trap. If you ever want to build anything, create art, open a business, all of that requires "stuff." If you're just some yob blogger dude then I guess you can make it work. I doubt very many women find it appealing.
I see people living out of their cars when I go to the library. It looks messy. My son gave up on Boy Scouts partially because camping and "urban outdoorsman" have become synonymous. The kids don't think camping is cool--at all.
I am always confounded when I get off a flight at a vacation destination and see people dragging these 80L roller bags around. What are you putting in there?
Pack the absolute minimum. If you really need something, you can almost always buy it wherever you are going. Even trekking in the deep Himalayas, there was always a spot to buy an extra t-shirt or socks every day or so.
If I'm going scuba diving at a vacation destination then I need a large roller bag just for dive gear, plus another carry-on bag for my camera rig. There's no way I'm going to dive with shitty rental gear (except for simple, heavy stuff like tanks and weight belt).
Back when you could bring the more fun stuff back from Europe (meat, cheese etc) my big suitcase would be well over half empty on the way out. Quite a bit heavier on the way back ;)
On the return from my first trip to South Africa I carried 12 bottles of wine in my luggage.
That was back when flights included two free checked items.
On my second trip to Europe one of my suitcases was full of T-shirt swag to give out at a conference. Lugging both up the stairs, across the train tracks, and back down was a hassle.
Both of these were over 20 years ago.
And then there's the story at https://notalwaysright.com/a-steam-powered-cruise/392530/ of a couple trying to bring a full-size espresso machine on their cruise, so they can have their special coffee.
> On the return from my first trip to South Africa I carried 12 bottles of wine in my luggage.
Totally understandable! Amazing wine - I didn't want to leave Constantia. But I picked myself up and dragged myself to Stellenbosch !
And at the end of the trip, I didn't want to return home. Such an incredible country that still holds a very special place in my heart
We travel out of a single roller bag for a family of 5. Plus we each have a backpack with miscellaneous stuff. We generally leave a little space in the luggage fo whatever we might pick up during our stay. Our kids are 6, 6, and 4 and we're currently on day 8 of 11 in Hawaii. It's been fine, we just do laundry every 2-3 nights.
> What are you putting in there?
Bulky gifts.
Bulky sports equipment.
Lots of kids' clothes. Kids' toys. Kids' books. Kids' medical kit.
Clothes that span multiple seasons or climatic zones: warm, cold, heavy rain, snow. Extra shoes. Especially when you know that your things will get wet and that you will have only occasional opportunities to dry them.
Suit/dress/fancy shoes if going to a wedding or other formal event.
Add that, and 80L is not much volume...
Often mine is relatively empty on arrival and I fill it with wines and other souvenirs to take home
I'm always suspicious of a long list of affiliate links in one article.
As the author says: The post is 10 years old and updated and read millions of times. Why would you _not_ put referral links there? It's just a more direct form of advertisment.
or Bumming it with expensive stuff to lose.
Its SO ANNOYING to have to carry an Apple Silicon macbook AND an ipad. I'd love to see a touchscreen option for macbook and the option to run in ipad mode. But that would probably cannibalize sales.
As it is, you can theoretically run ios apps on Apple Silicon, but most app vendors disable that..
My main use case for an ipad while traveling is to watch downloaded movies on a plane. "AR" (not really) glasses like nreal air are way smaller and lighter than an ipad and makes watching movies on my phone pretty amazing..
If only the macbook opened more than the 120 degrees (or so) angle with the screen I'd be sooo happy already (no touch required).
I believe product design votes against it because it would make all macbooks always be smudged and scratched, looking shit.
I don't think this is the reason. Since Apple stopped making new interesting product lines they are very attentive about not having one line cannibalize the sales of the other(s) as it happened with the iPod and iPhone. This is also the reason why iPads will never run macOS and vice-versa.
Which is simply not true. Decades of touchscreen PCs show this isn't the case. My Surface Laptop 3 is 6 years old with thousands of hours of use (including constant touch and a fair amount of pen) and the screen isn't scratched and doesn't look bad at all.
Out of curiosity, what is it about touchscreens that's such a big selling point for you?
They're inherently convenient and fast to use. As I'm typing, it's far more ergonomic to take my middle finger and swipe on the screen to scroll than to reposition my hand to have two fingers on the trackpad. For extended reading I can keep one hand at the edge of the screen to scroll with a thumb instead of cramping my wrist. Zooming is quickly and intuitively obvious rather than having to figure out where my mouse cursor is, reposition it, do a pinch gesture or Ctrl plus (where IS the plus key? It seems to vary on every laptop I own), etc.
Great question..
Me personally? Nothing. I hate them. I never want anybody to touch my screen.
However, I've talked to at least one team that has disabled their app on MacOS who thinks having a UI designed for touch-screen run via a trackpad is too janky and would lead to a bad UX for their customers.
I've run their app via playcover, and it IS janky, but its a lot better than the weight of an iPad in my backpack.
not the person you're responding too, but I'm writing this on an older ThinkPad L390 Yoga with touchscreen, and I gotta say, being able to scroll on the screen when reading large documents (like PDF textbooks), or to just touch the part of the screen you'd like you're cursor to be if you've got multiple windows open is really nice.
apple pencil
Wacom tablet?
As someone who uses a Wacom tablet daily, it is not convenient for traveling because you don't always find the right table to use it. I can imagine OP wants to use his tablet while sitting on his bed in his hotel room.
I've done the nomad thing from months to years. Not always intentionally! Had moved cross country anticipating a company move weeks later, then the pandemic happened and it became years. Trying to do it inexpensively will be painful, compromising on ability or quality will lead to frustraiting failures and limitations.
My loadout was very similar, though I had more clothes and music gear because I was strictly living inside. "Golfing" backpacks that are insulated are very underrated, think the capacity was closer to 15.5L. They don't really make them to accomodate 17" laptops anymore, and you shouldn't have one that big, but the extra space in the sleeve is great. Strong endorsement for American Giant! Especially the heavy zip up hoodies, running pants, and shirts, some of which I've had for almost 20 years at this point, and Oddball socks (if you have big feet).
They aren't for everyone, but the rather thin/rough gym-style towels are great as you can get 3 into the space of a normal one once you've mastered rolling your shit up and they dry quick. When your boxer briefs inevitably wear out, cutting the band off and using them to constrain other things while the leftover cloth makes for great snot/cleaning rags. Save your plastic grocery bags, they're useful for so much and compact well.
Cannot understate how much better this makes air travel. Can still be shoved under the seat in front of you. No checked bags or secondary carryons removes so much potential for bullshit. As the bag is still soft, you have to be deliberate with where you pack things or you will crush them. You'll want to consider the placement of electronics TSA is going to make you pull out, and expect secondary screening. The density of shit in the bag tends to cause this if they're still using old xray machines instead of that new 360 degree shit.
I ended up also lugging around a workstation and monitor. It was worth the logistical pain and my new limit became "fits into the trunk of a rental sports coupe", avoiding planes was worth while everything was still ongoing. I would not attempt doing this with modern Apple Silicon. Can't stand what mac os has become and there are too many caveats. Any high end ryzen laptop with an nvidia gpu is preferable. If you do anything in/with multimedia or streaming, you'll be thankful the first time you can lean on it as an encoder (and the USB 3.2 port will actually be able to handle the throughput of a Magewell USB capture card).
Hard to undersell the 'freeing' aspect. If wherever you are sucks, for whatever reason, it doesn't take much time to be packed and gone. It's not for everyone. Have met some fantastic lifelong friends from couch surfing and renting rooms listed on craigslist, which is vastly superior to AirBNB, where I encountered scams so frequently that I swore them off entirely.
It changes you, too. Once you settle again you'll realize what you really care about.
"Indefinite backpack travel." We used to call this being a hobo.
The only difference here is that this person is well-funded, so uses the latest high-end gear to do it, instead of a bindle.
Yes, hobos do still exist. My recently deceased cousin-in-law was one, and proudly called himself a "hobo."
Yes, they have smartphones.
I spent 18 months doing this as a digital nomad. When I started out I had a rollaboard suitcase, a checked 60 inch bag, a pelican full of camera gear, and a 28L backpack. By the end I had a 28L backpack only. All that said, there were things I gave up in my travels that I missed and make it a point of taking now when I go on shorter vacation-like trips. Simple example was having good coffee. When I started out I had a jet boil, an aeropress, a hario hand mill, and a vacuum container of good beans, by the end I had given that up to save space, but there's really no reason not to have good coffee if you have the space to do so. I also had given up my much better camera gear for a single point and shoot camera to cut down on space requirements, since then I've taken to traveling with the pelican again most of the time, and when I don't I have a micro 4/3rds camera that is better than the point and shoot, but almost as compact.
I do think there's value to learning how to live with less, and it also helps unencumber you more than just in physical weight, but spiritually, to allow yourself to explore and go forth without concern. I could just hop on a train, bus, plane, and go somewhere else even as a side trip without needing to be concerned with any of my belongings because it was all with me all of the time.
I hope this doesn't mean I start looking to buy another bag or edc stuff.
I bought a GR1 bag earlier this year. I am done with that for life.