+1. If your finances are sorted out, it's good to take a break from work for 2-3 months and do absolutely nothing. What you once craved, 8 hours of sleep, hanging out with friends, traveling, spending time with family etc, once you experience them for a long enough time, will start hurting and you will start craving for work. I think it's a myth that one can just chill out forever, which is why I also believe that UBI will also work.
And I think it's a myth you can't. I did so for a year and for various reasons had to jump back to the meat grinder, I never felt less alive than being back to work. It's demeaning, in all senses.
You probably have the wrong idea about chill, if you sleep 10h a day and do nothing else than watch cartoons may be don't blame the lack of work, but the lack of ambition. You can garden (that'll keep you plenty busy), reduce your footprint on this rotten planet by crafting things yourself, be active in meeting new people, open your horizons.
This "work is meaningful" is the biggest lie of our era, it feels meaningful because most have forgotten how to enjoy their day to day life and the fulfillment that comes with being in charge of your own life. Work as we know and do it is a travesty and a lie kept alive because it benefits some.
I hear people talk about progress, about the planet, the environment, well if we stopped working so damn much may be all of that would have a better future, because right now the work & consuming obsessed society we are is destroying it while most like to pretend we're improving.
Craving for work... One craves for work like one craves for death.
As a counterpoint, I've been off on a sabbatical for 4 months now, and I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do.
I honestly thought that I would be bored and craving work at this point. But it turns out that I have enough open source ideas that 3 months can fly by with pleasure, and I extended my sabbatical for another few months.
I also have neighbors who I'm friends with, which helps tremendously. And I get to go to all the nice places in SF during the daytime, when it's not crowded.
I agree it's good to take a break from your job, but for me that meant working on stuff I've wanted to work on for YEARS.
I don't think you'll ever get sick of 8 hours of sleep :) That really helps the brain, and mental health. (Although I always got of 8 hours of sleep, even while working)
Honestly, most of your friends and family are probably all working and busy with their own stuff. You can hang out with them a little more, but it's not like you'll ever go from hanging out once a week to hanging out every day. And at least to me, travelling is boring if you don't know anyone there, or have any larger purpose. It feels like I'm constantly getting ripped off too.
Travelling feels like consumption; programming feels like creation. Consumption is only fun in the moment, IMO. The difficulty of creation provides some of the ups and downs that you need for an interesting mental life.
And exercising is harder on vacation for me... I end up getting antsy and uncomfortable because I'm not biking every day.
But yeah I think it is good to spend some time semi-retired and see if you can bear it!
Great points. To me, any act of creation or any act that aids in creation = work. Programming, gardening, reading, investing, polishing shoes - anything that makes you feel like you've done something. Rest is all consumption. Chill out = consumption, which I think has some limits.
I meant to say 10 hours of sleep, but hey 8h is the new 10h :)
>I think it's a myth that one can just chill out forever
Absolutely. My wife and I spent a few years traveling full-time, mostly SE Asia. I worked remotely while my wife was busy with various projects.
In particular, tropical islands are incredibly damaging to your motivation and general happiness. We arrived grossly overestimating how much we would enjoying hanging out on a tropical islands and met a great many people who had the same misconception.
For good reason most who have the option to stay long term get bored and then go somewhere else after a few weeks or months. Among those who stay long term alcoholism is rife. There just isn't that much to do in a "tropical paradise", particularly at night.
Getting back into a city was a genuine relief after a few months of islands, beaches etc.
A tropical island with a goodly supply of rum punch, a well-stocked library, and a hammock sounds like paradise to me. Whenever I go on vacation, catching up on my reading is always one of my goals.
That is the trap, assuming that what appeals on a vacation will remaining appealing once it becomes your normal state. It isn't even just an issue of getting bored, the knowledge that this is your normal life rather than a time boxed vacation changes your experience from day one.
well, staying at one place makes no sense if you want to have ultimate experience. one can easily spend 10-20 years travelling from one exotic location to the next, if cash is present. even just tropical paradise hopping can be done for 1-2 years.
best setup i've seen is to travel around the globe maybe 2 years, through all possible locations. enjoy given country for few weeks/months if it's a big one and move.
after that, people were ready to settle (but who knows for how long)
For me at least this isn't didn't work. As just a small example I went to Europe for 3 months. Helsinki->Stockholm-Antwerp->Brussels->Berlin->Copenhagen->Tromso->Amsterdam->Koln->Dusseldorf->London. Seeing each city was great but the actual things to do start to get very similar. Each city has 2-3 churches. A bunch of art museums with many of the same artists. Yet another farmer's market or marketplace. Shopping centers with the same brands. etc..
I think it was "Happy Money" by Elizabeth Dunn that claimed their studies indicated that long vacations are not as effective as short vacations because most people get used to it quickly and the novelty wears off. That certainly fits my experience.
If her research is true then it would suggest taking a short trips every once in a while (a week or less?) would be more rewarding than a long trips.
Of course everyone is different. I'm sure some people love infinite travel.
i would never consider visiting any western (or westernized) country to be on par with truly exotic ones, especially when backpacking. maybe they just 'click' with me and all people I know that went through this and describe similar effects, you can be surely different.
but until you try that india experience I suggest, backpacking, on low budget, we're talking about completely different experiences in depth and intensity. 3 months were enough for me, went twice like that.
just one comparison - after a month, all life back home was a very distant memory. after additional month spent hiking in nepal, all my previous life seemed like a faded memory of a dream i had a month ago, unreal. or like childhood memories. not sure how to describe it better
