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Comment by Lucadg | Hacker News Reader

I've been in about 60 countries. After a while the novelty/new perspective feeling diminishes. I don't really think it's worth the effort to see all countries. What's a country anyway? Mostly borders. People and cultures are a different thing and tend to spread differently over borders.

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I agree. For example take Mexico: one country with many cultures. You can't spend a weekend or even a year in Puerto Vallarta and say you've been to "Mexico".

Having also travelled extensively, people ask where 'home' is. While 'home' might be where the majority of my family is, I can honestly say "earth". Maybe that's an uninteresting answer but it's really true as I have no interest whatsoever in space travel.

I came to post the exact same sentiment - why all the obsession with countries and not, say every climatic zone, or every major language group or every integer latitude, or whatever.

Probably because that's the most obvious thing.

Someone walked every street in NYC, and then had an apprentice who started the same effort.

I'm sure there are people who do all the things you mentioned.

Example: http://reocities.com/nodotus/hbglass.html

I agree. But I think countries can be a useful proxy if they aren't all, say, Western European, or Carribean.

The big culture zones IMHO are Americas: North, Central, South and Carribbean; Africa: Southern, Western, Eastern, Northern; Europe: Western, Mediterranean, Eastern; Asia: Middle East, India, South-East, China, Central, Japan/Korea; Pacific: Islands.

Obviously personal perspective will divide or agglomerate those, but its a rough guide.

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