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Comment by enraged_camel | Hacker News Reader

My possibly controversial hot-take:

While Sean's hacker spirit is truly admirable, I don't know how I feel about his lifestyle as a choice.

It is, of course, none of my business how he lives his life. If he's happy, great! Personally though, I no longer covet such nomadic lifestyles like I did back in my 20s. My main issue with them is lack of social opportunities and the inevitable loneliness it brings. I'm not a social butterfly by any means, but one thing I've learned about myself is that not having other people around me for extended periods has a noticeable negative effect on my mood. As such, living on a sailboat sounds like a total nightmare.

I have come to view solitude as a dessert: really nice to have after a regular meal, and maybe binge on every now and then even, but if it makes up the majority of your meals for extended periods, it'll make you sick.

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Thank you for sharing that. Your dessert analogy perfectly captures my personal experiences. I've been a loner most of my life. I recognize the bad experience I had in my childhood and the coping strategies I developed during my teenage years. I have a tendency to isolate myself. Sometimes I felt it was too late to go back to connect with people I've stopped talking to, but that was not at all the case. People are very forgiving and they were happy to have me back.

I wonder why aren't modern nomadic tribes more popular.

They're not easy to create, for sure.

But they should be possible.

Group cohesion's hard, and a lot of the techniques for creating and maintaining it are considered distasteful or seem really damn cult-like (because they are). That'd be my guess. Aside from logistical concerns or whatever.

Conflict with other non-nomadic groups they come in contact with. The Romany might be a modern take on nomadic people. They don't tend to be welcomed when they arrive at/near a town.

He's frequently cruising to ports to see friends, according to the article. And has a strong online presence. I don't see him as any lonelier than any other 20-something in an apartment, online most of the time.

social is the dessert for me, whereas solitude is the regular meals. different personalities i guess.

Its not clear if he ever works but often forever travellers dont contribute their fair share to society. Everyone else is working to pay their own bills, pay taxes and help society. Some though are retiring early and living off investments or welfare. If he was disabled or old I wouldn't mind so much, but a healthy young educated person shouldn't be able to live off others.

He contributes code and operates a store, while using very few of the amenities taxes pay for. How does that count as "living off others"?

>but a healthy young educated person shouldn't be able to live off others.

this is so petty. to what extent is he living off of others? he lives in a mangey boat that he paid for. once in a while maybe he gets some medical care (though i doubt it's much because he's young). does every single penny that a person's life costs need to be reckoned and reconciled? do you know how much falls through the cracks for all of us because of frictions? how much you sometimes overpay for your fair share but also how much you underpay? it's insane to begrudge someone this kind of asceticism based on some kind of weird puritanical collectivism - despite what Arthur Jensen would have you believe the world is not yet a business (and neither is life).

Very few working people of any profession are actually helping society.

but a healthy young educated person shouldn't be able to live off others.

I suppose you'd lock him up and .. no, prisoners live off the taxpayer. You'd kick him out of the country so he could make his own way, say, nomadic on a boat with no income? No, you don't like that. Enslave him and take his economic output? Kill him? What are you wanting to do, or wanting to be done to him, in this situation, to satisfy you?

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