Great Philosophies of Life

Here in brief is the method I’ve honed to optimize a two-week vacation: When you arrive in a new country, immediately proceed to the farthest, most remote, most distant place you intend to reach during the trip. If there is a small village, remote spa, a friend’s farm, or a wild place you plan on seeing on the trip, go there immediately. Do not sto... See more

When asking someone for a restaurant recommendation, don’t ask them where is a good place you should eat; ask them where they eat. Where did they eat the last time they ate out?

Being beautiful, or well crafted, or cheap is not enough for a souvenir. It should have some meaning from the trip. A good question you may want to ask yourself when buying a souvenir is where will this live when I get home?

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The best souvenirs from a trip are your memories of the trip so find a way to memorialize them; keep a journal, send updates... See more

If you detect slightly more people moving in one direction over another, follow them. If you keep following this “gradient” of human movement, you will eventually land on something interesting—a market, a parade, a birthday party, an outdoor dance, a festival.

A great thing about taking notes is that it subtly encourages you to live a ‘notes-worthy life’ You end up seeking interesting conversations to build your memex; experimenting with new recipes to add to your collection; reading more widely to find surprising connections etc.

I open the Starbucks app for the 4th time today, a day that feels like it’s lasted a week. Time does this, when I’m strange. It wiggles and wobbles and sometimes it stops entirely. I love that. I love thinking about time as simply another story, one we all believe collectively for so long that it becomes truth.