> Basically, you fly out to wherever the retreat is (think Thailand, Jamaica, Trinidad, Bali, etc.) and you pay for room and board for a month. You get to focus on product and build without the distractions of normal life in a house filled with other hackers like yourself.

From what I understand: go to a touristic location, and instead of spending it taking a rest, doing tourist stuff or whatever, stay in a room full of stranger nerds for the whole day staring at the internet. How is it a retreat?

> When you finish working for the day, why not just be on vacation for the next few hours before starting again the next day?

How it's different from what you're doing right now?