idle gaze 054: the plight of the vibe tourist
idlegaze.substack.com
idle gaze 054: the plight of the vibe tourist
But the worse touristification is the life we moderns have to lead in captivity, during our leisure hours: Friday night opera, scheduled parties, scheduled laughs. Again, golden jail.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb • Incerto 4-Book Bundle
But remember, since you are going to be staying here for a while, having fun with interesting people and seeing new sights are not reliable roadmaps for financial sustainability. And plus, all of your friends are busy in the daytime with work, and being a lone wanderer in the early afternoon is only fun for so long.
Lawrence Yeo • Travel Is No Cure for the Mind
idle gaze 063: the discomfort of uncurated life
idlegaze.substack.com
Even an undertaking as seemingly hedonistic as a year spent backpacking around the globe could fall victim to the same problem, if your purpose isn’t to explore the world but—a subtle distinction, this—to add to your mental storehouse of experiences, in the hope that you’ll feel, later on, that you’d used your life well.
Oliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
So often I see vacations as just a way to direct my work habits and relentlessness toward mapping out schedules and organizing train tickets, less concerned with the quality of my time than the quantity. A flight for me had always been a chance to catch up on job-related reading, to see movies I’d never been tempted to see when they were playing at
... See morePico Iyer • The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere (TED Books)
But I’ve never given up Airbnbs. I’m too attracted by that abstract promise, to live an authentic life that’s different from your own for a few days, imagining being a sculptor in Lisbon, say, or a Tokyo musician. For me, the illusion of tourism is more total if I stay in a real apartment—though of course it remains an illusion.