Your Perspective is Wrong: The Reason to Experience New Things

My last post on our temporary poverty situation led to reflection on a variety of things related to my experiences over the last few years. I’ve noticed a pretty distinct pattern, which is probably related to my serial hobbyist nature:

It’s nearly impossible to have a remotely accurate perception on any experience until you’ve been immersed in it for some time.

This idea manifests itself like this-

I try something new.
I glorify the experience, then write Read More...

Embracing Poverty

The last two months or so have been an interesting experience. Due to a lot of miscalculations, we’ve been rather poor lately. It’s a strange twist to our hobo adventures in that we’ve been able to look at our situation with a degree of objectivity without falling into a serious panic. It’s taught us a great deal about ourselves and others that may be in a similar situation.

So how did we slip into poverty?

It Read More...

Squirrel Wipe Trail and Ultra Book Hits the Virtual Shelves!

NOTE: Since this post, I’ve released the final expanded edition of the book, which adds many new sections and MUCH better editing. It is also available in .mobi (Kindle) and .epub (pretty much everything else) formats for ebook readers. The previous version that was available here is no longer available, though you CAN download the free sample following the links below. If you bought the original, continue to share it freely.

I will include links to Read More...

Trail and Ultrarunning Book: Experimentation With a Different Distribution Model

I’m finally nearing the release of the trail and ultrarunning book I started with the Squirrel Wipe project. It’s been a long journey mostly because I almost completed it in October, then punched my computer, bricked the hard drive, and lost the entire manuscript. It was a VERY painful lesson.

It took quite some time to rewrite it, but it’s close to finished. I learned many lessons from the process of writing the various editions of The Read More...

Running, Crossfit, and Jiu Jitsu: What is the Common Ground?

It should come as no surprise that I’m quickly becoming obsessed with jiu jitsu. I went from taking one or two classes per week to obsessively searching the ‘Webz, watching videos, reading books, creating a journal, blogging, and training 4-5 times per week.

What’s the appeal?

I tend to be drawn to difficult physical tasks. When I started barefoot running, Crossfit, and ultrarunning a few years ago, I was attracted to the inherent challenges. Not only Read More...

The Plight of the Serial Hobbyist

I’ve spent the last few months trying to figure out why I seemingly lost motivation to run. Over time, I came to a few conclusions ranging from burnout to “distraction with life circumstances.” Lately I’ve come to a different conclusion-

Running has always been a hobby. I’m an undeniable serial hobbyist. Interest in hobbies increases rapidly, plateaus, then wanes.

It’s less about the actual activity and more about the process of learning. Here’s a graph that Read More...

Bad Idea #4: Bust Your Ass Today So You Can Relax When You Retire

This story perfectly illustrates the point:

“A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.

“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The American asked, “But what do you do with Read More...