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Comment by pearjuice | Hacker News Reader

First and foremost: this was posted on Monday the 22nd of April, 2013.

Secondly, the guy writing this is extremely privileged yet implying he somehow had a hard time and had to "escape" the system. If anything, his life was getting monotonous and he did indeed reset it, but not completely. He still had his massive bank account when he left for Thailand, so in the end it was just moving without having to transport all the belongings (as he got rid of everything).

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It's Eat, Pray, Love for the tech crowd.

I've seen a lot of these articles. It reminds me very much of 4HWW. They're all written like the author is overcoming some major hurdle and achieving some sort of enlightment, but in fact they're basically just going on vacation after becoming hugely successful.

You've got to cope with the burden of success somehow, right? :)

Linked from this post was: http://levels.io/the-100-thing-challenge/

<quote>

I am well aware of some of the hypocrisy of the minimalist lifestyle.

I’m a privileged white male European with income and savings. That’s an easy position to be in to get rid of all your stuff. I have the luxury of being able to buy the food I need from the 7 Eleven around the corner or walking into a restaurant to have someone make me food, whereas most people in the world need to stock up large volumes of food to be able to afford eating at all. In an emergency I have a creditcard to fall back on while most people in this world do not. There’s a reason you see homeless people in America hoarding stuff, it’s because that’s all they have and they need it to survive.

I have funds to survive and that’s a huge privilege. I am well aware of this. Nonetheless, I still feel this lifestyle is better than the endless consumerism we suffer from in the West where buying and hoarding stuff (that doesn’t actually make you happy) has now become the de facto standard.

</quote>

Is that not enough self-flagellation for you?

Panic[1] and/or generalized anxiety disorder[2] can happen to anyone at any time. Privilege has little to do with it. Any kind of stressful situation can trigger it in susceptible individuals.

[1] http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/panic-attacks/DS00338 [2] http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/generalized-anxiety-disorde...

And 6 cups of real coffee per day may not help that much, along with the alcohol at the weekends. I find anxiety levels rise with caffeine to the extent that I avoid tea or coffee after about 3pm.

Good luck to the chap anyway.

Are "extremely privileged" people not allowed to "escape"?

Why wouldn't they be? I am saying this is not an escape or a reset but simply moving from one country to another for an assigned time span.

He is looking at events from the inside, and writing how it is. You are looking at events from the outside, and writing that.

If he had a massive bank account, it's unlikely he would have focused so much on the 3000 bucks he needed to make that transition. In any case, the interesting thing here is why he moved, not how.

I don't think it had to do anything with needing that money but rather with continuing his life style (he does the whole 100 belongings thing), getting rid of his workstation and other stuff he wouldn't need / be capable of taking with him. After that, it immediately says that he used the money to buy a MacBook (side note: must be pretty beefed if it was the total 3K). Nowhere is stated that the 3K was a necessity to make the transition.

I agree with your last point but have to add that the "how" part is complimentary to the "why" and both will give you a better understanding of the situation, goal and motivation.

>> "the guy writing this is extremely privileged"

>> "He still had his massive bank account when he left for Thailand"

Source?

"I’m a privileged white male European with income and savings."

"In an emergency I have a creditcard to fall back on while most people in this world do not."

"I have funds to survive and that’s a huge privilege."

http://levels.io/the-100-thing-challenge/

Honestly, none of those things say "huge bank account".

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