Nobody needs to travel with 8 pairs of underwear. Take two or three high-quality ones (e.g. Ex Officio) and wash them at night.
Also, I have yet to visit a civilized location in the world where you cannot buy a decent disposable razor that's better than the electric shaver he carries around the world. I understand they recycle pretty well too, if you're worried about waste.
But why not? Washing every other day takes too much effort. Underwear is small and packs efficiently. I always travel with extra underwear and extra pairs of socks.
Yeah, last thing I look forward to doing while on vacation is washing my own underwear in a bathroom sink. Just bring the extra pairs--they weigh nothing.
> last thing I look forward to doing while on vacation
IDK about nomading, but when dirtbagging you have an excess of time. If the sun is down then your day is done. In the winter especially, having chores to do is welcome reprieve from the cold and boredom. And bathrooms or laundromats are so awesome. Warm and dry and bright.
I disagree, I can never get them to feel quite clean enough from the sink, so if I’m away a week, I prefer a new pair every day. Quality of life preferences!
I'm tempted to ask what you do with your underwear that makes it so soiled that a hand wash does not get them clean enough but I won't. I'll just state that even a simple rinse tends to be sufficient to get it fresh enough for another day. Hang it on your tent and it'll be dry the next morning - unless it is stolen by a cow or horse, both of which have happened to me. Pitch your tent in the evening on some mountain, wake up the next morning by the sounds of a horse stealing your clothes, the joys of camping in the wild.
A bit of soap works, doesn't it? I'll spare you the details on how a somewhat over-aged sausage leads to colourful underwear but a soap block and some water do wonders even in that case.
Landfills are a very effective solution for disposing of stuff when they can't otherwise be economically reused or recycled. As long as food waste stays out, landfills are quite inert. They should have clay lining to prevent waste seeping into the ecosystem.
I'll try on my side below but that goes both ways - where are your figures coming from, and for which country/geography? You also seem to have switched the topic from how much gets recycled to what can be recycled well.
I can't find any figures that say recycling is a success story across the world, or even economically viable and sustainable across most popular types of waste.
I was trying to figure out what you mean by trimming. On one end of the spectrum is smooth shaved. On the other end is completely un-managed. Somewhere in the middle is where "trimming" would come into play.
I thought electric toothbrushes were silly until I tried a modern one.
A manual toothbrush is not a replacement. A half-assed job with an electric toothbrush will get your teeth cleaner than an extremely thorough effort with a manual toothbrush. I wish I'd tried one sooner. First time I used one it felt like I'd been in for a full dental cleaning.
Bonus: their failure mode is that they become a manual toothbrush. Which, if you're used to electric, does suck a lot, but it's no worse of than you'd have been if you started with a manual to begin with.
Agree about the shaver, though, but I gather some folks have a lot harder time with facial hair than I do (some ordinary soap in the shower and very cheap disposable razors do better for me than the electric razor I had years ago) so maybe it's important for them.
Electric toothbrushes are fantastic. I own and use one twice a day at home. I was strictly speaking in the context of the blog post with regards to being as small and as light as possible.
Oh, sure, if you're really optimizing for as light as possible I guess you could ditch the toothbrush entirely and just count on buying a manual brush for a couple dollars at your destination. Personally, I'd favor cutting space/weight in a lot of other areas before giving up the electric toothbrush, though.
Electric is heavier but they’re also much bigger. I could fit 4+ manual toothbrushes in the space that my electric toothbrush travel case takes up. I think it doesn’t include the charger either. And the shape is quite inconvenient too which constrains packing
Fun fact: Many electric toothbrushes that use a wireless charging base will charge from a wireless phone charger if you position it right. In a pinch I've even charged mine straight off my phone using the "wireless power share" function (Galaxy Note 10, not sure how common a feature that is).
> A half-assed job with an electric toothbrush will get your teeth cleaner than an extremely thorough effort with a manual toothbrush.
I've had 2 electrics, one Philips SoniCare and one Oral-B with the rotating head. Once broke within a year and the other lasted longer but got flimsy really quick.
It used to take me at least twice as long to get my teeth clean with either of them than it does with a manual brush. I usually ran 3 cycles of the electric before I was more or less satisfied with the job.
> Bonus: their failure mode is that they become a manual toothbrush.
Yes but a horrible one. Small and oddly shaped brush heads are not ideal for manually brushing.
I'm not dismissing your experience, just saying that it's not universally true.
The electric toothbrush "failure mode" is annoying mostly because the heads I use are tiny and round - definitely a pain to handle precisely without knocking a tooth from time to time.
I use a safety razor. delivers a great shave but the blades are hard to find. stores are filled with the standard one time use cartridge crap that fills landfills because you can't recycle any of the plastics used in it. unfortunately, you'll be hard pressed to take a back of double edge razors in your check-in luggage unless you want a free trip to gitmo.
In this context, a electric razor is your best bet for the environment
Depends on the destination perhaps, but even here in the affluent Netherlands I can buy safety razors at the chemist. And the lower the GDP, the better the availability of no-nonsense safety razor blades.
you'd be surprised. I'm in Colombia right now and I'm not sure what I'm going to do when my razor supply runs out because I haven't been able to find them in any of the drug stores here. even in the states I cant find them most places but they are easy enough to order in bulk online.
While I agree, carrying a manual toothbrush when traveling has been one of my compromises. That said, my newish one comes with a travel case so I may give that a try. Not sure how long it will go without recharging but may be worth experimenting.
Can you point me to a study that shows that electric toothbrushes work better than manual ones? Last time i looked (a long time ago), they were still equal.
> In the long-term, powered toothbrush seems to be effective in reducing mean PD and mean CAL progressions, besides increasing the number of teeth retained.
> The results of this study shows no evidence of statistically significant difference in respect to plaque control, between Jordan Power electric toothbrush and either of Oral-B Advantage or Panbehriz Classic manual brushes in a group of dental students after 2 weeks.
It's not a study, but the last time I was at the dentist, he asked me what I used to clean my teeth since I had pretty much zero plaque. Philips Sonicare.
Our dentist definitely noticed (in a good way) when my partner and I switched to electric. For a holiday trip there's little point in bringing an electric tooth brush along though, unless you are going for months rather than days or weeks.
I think a while ago my dentist suggested that a quick brush with a manual toothbrush would likely clear more out than an equivalently quick brushing with an electric toothbrush (rough theory: you can move it faster and cover more surface area). But he claimed that electric is better if you use it more thoroughly. I also disagree that an electric toothbrush converts to a manual one. I think it converts to an unusable bad manual brush because the electric toothbrush is too heavy to move quickly.
Another toothbrush tip: toothpaste is mildly abrasive and can be used as an emergency polish if e.g. you’re in a hotel getting dressed for a wedding and realise your silver cufflinks / novelty Texas-shaped belt buckle / whatever have become tarnished since you last looked at them. An electric toothbrush can help a lot here.
The electric shaver "antecedent" isn't nearly as efficient as the electric version...
(1) Those require some kind of lubricant like shaving cream (= extra space cost) or shaving in a shower/with water (= significantly reduced convenience). The modern electric ones do not require anything and can be used dry.
(2) Modern disposable razors also dull quite quickly meaning you need to carry many extra blades (= more space) or only travel to places where you can easily buy more blades/razors (= less convenience). The electric ones can last years on a single set of blades and still be effective.
(3) The older kind of "knife-like" or "safety" razors can largely get around (2) with sharpening, but as they are not allowed on flights, it largely excludes them as an option.
I think having access to a sink or shower is not out of the question for someone living a digital nomad lifestyle — not so much if you're hiking or camping, though. But if you live in hotels or AirBNBs, there's a pretty good chance you've got a shower stall to shave in.
In terms of dullness, I shave my head and face with a cheap Amazon razor every day or two, and one blade lasts for weeks. A 4-blade package easily lasts me over a month, and if you remove them from the carrying case it's about the size of, I dunno, a couple AA batteries.
One downside of an electric razor is power. I suppose a USB-C based razor exists, but you probably wouldn't have very many options in that format, and probably not many nice ones to choose from. Perhaps that will change. In the meantime, I love the Braun electric razor I use for the back of my neck but it does need a little power brick and cord which, together with the razor itself, are probably more than the volume of several years worth of razor blade cartridges.
Just providing a little counterpoint to your comment, I do like my electric razor and think it's probably a better option for many travelers.
> But if you live in hotels or AirBNBs, there's a pretty good chance you've got a shower stall to shave in.
A lot of these also provide disposable razors, shaving cream etc (either by default or if you ask the front desk), so definitely a good option when it is available.
> one blade lasts for weeks
I shave every day and have used random (not name brand) disposable ones during travel. In my experience it usually stays usable for 3-4 days and could stretch to about a week. Still, being able to just set-and-forget an electric one without worrying about getting more blades has been quite nice.
> One downside of an electric razor is power
Definitely agree, though, USB-C ones aside, there are also compact ones made specifically for travel that have integrated universal plugs & support all voltages (if you have access to that).
I usually keep one of these in my travel bag rather than bringing along my regular one which is very nice but also needs an external power brick and cord to charge.
Electric razors never really worked great for me, but my teeth DEFINITELY feel nicer when I use a modern electric toothbrush. If I were traveling as much as OP, I'd absolutely take one with me.
To me, this is just the difference between packing for an occasional trip versus going full road warrior. For the former, yep why not just use something disposable. But for the latter, anything that avoids a visit to the dentist has to be prioritized. That little difference between manual and electric seems a very false economy indeed (begging the question that electric toothbrushes are genuinely better of course).
I’m impressed at how many people coalesce to the same suggestions to save space: simple clothes, layers, etc.
However, I’m surprised at how casually he mentionned how much he has travelled, by flight almost exclusively. I’m assuming from the lack of other plug than Type A, he stayed in America where trains are not a great option — but still. I’d expect that to come with some comment about carbon footprint.
I only take long distance trains for fun. Flying is way more convenient at all other times. Show up 45 minutes before the domestic flight and get there at least 5 times faster.
Maybe in the US. In Europe high speed train tends to be more convenient.
I live in Madrid and I can travel to any major city in the country by train in less than 3 hours. I don't have to show up early. I depart from the city centre. I arrive at the city centre. 500% more convenient and (mostly) cheaper.
I don't know about the US, but in the EU, aviation only contributes 3% (that is not a typo. Three percent) of the total greenhouse gas emissions (measured just before corona--so there was a shitload of aviation going on).
The major greenhouse gas emitters are electricity production (30% - mostly gas generators!), road transport (20%), industry (20%). Source: European Environment Agency
So I wouldn't worry much about the climate impact of flying.
The climate doesn't care who benefits from emissions, only how much is emitted.
Air travel is much harder to do without fossil fuels than ground transport or electrical generation, and is essential to civilization on the basis of cargo alone. It's simply not an efficient target for change right now.
Some air travel may be essential to civilization, most of it isn't. We don't really have a way to determine which is which on a societal level. The best we can do is price in the externalities (and deal with income disparity, but that's an orthogonal issue).
Air travel itself is essential, it's one of the defining abilities of the modern world and can't just be shut off. It would be corrosive to try and separate the essential from the frivolous, I agree with that.
I favor carbon taxes that dig an industries grave for it: such as taxing coal to build nuclear, wind, solar. That's not feasible with air travel yet, which leaves a consumption tax, those are regressive.
You can tax air travel to encourage travel by other means where applicable, or alternatives for work trips, or local tourism, or slow tourism, all kinds of things. Air travel itself may be defining and I don't envision getting rid of it; but the weekend trip to Vegas or Mallorca or Delhi is a defining feature of the present that is not sustainable in the future.
Taxing dirty electricity generation is regressive taxation, too; like I said, it's an original issue. A first step would be to pay out all the generated carbon taxes on a per capita basis.
> You can tax air travel to encourage travel by other means where applicable.
This would never happen in America because it would require Americans addressing their views on transit and addressing their pitiful consumer rail or even consumer bus industries.
How much cargo actually goes by air? Last I knew boats (ships) were the vast, vast majority of cargo transport, followed by trains, then trucks, with planes coming a distant last.
This says nothing about the importance of the cargo which is transported by plane. Given the much higher expense, we would expect this cargo to be more important, not less.
If one is somewhat flexible then flying really isn't expensive in Europe too. Just checked Google Flights, and starting from Vienna it would cost 29€ to either Rome or London, 50€ to Malta and ~60€ to some Greek places, return flight inclusive.
Safe 20€ a month, which is possible for a huge chunk of the population (easily > 80%), and you can do four to eight of those flights a year and that's just the lower end of the estimation, most still just don't flight that much here, and it's IMO really not an income question.
It's more like an ecological footprint and also time question as flying adds an ineligible overhead one can often outrun by using the good train networks, well maybe apart from Germany where privatization really killed a lot of networks and quality during the last decades, plus I can get to a nice nature area within an hour easily, so why bother travelling as long to the airport to only then endure their security theater.
Still, if that's an easier segment than the others to reduce in absolute terms (and without the expenditure just hopping to another column) it shouldn't be off the table.
It's a lot more of your personal CO2 budget if you're one of the persons doing the flying. Probably the majority if you're doing intercontinental flights every year.
Aviation contributes to 3% of EU emissions because most Europeans don't take 360 flights in 9 years, whereas they do use electricity, cars/busses, and products of industry.
As a singular factor, cutting down on carbon emissions that are caused via flying is a better leverage point than many other interventions to slowing climate change precisely because the consumption is so high per user. For road transport, industry, and electricity production, those provide benefit for orders of magnitude more people, and individual actors' choices have less impact.
It is probably wiser to judge based on emissions per user.
Because average person in EU flies just under once per year, while traveling by car maybe few times a week. That flight (well, cargo too) generates that 3% of emissions.
Vitalik's one of the founders of Ethereum, so I'd guess that "minimizing carbon footprint" isn't one of his primary goals.
(Yes, yes, proof-of-stake, claimed to finally be launching later this year. That's been "coming soon" for so many years that I'll believe it when it actually happens.)
Minimalism as expressed on the web is mostly a well-off consumerist thing, oddly enough. It's largely about selling nice (or at least "premium-mediocre") stuff to people with money. Natural that it's tied up with expensive travel, too—that's the aspiration hook that gets people who really don't need the stuff to bust out the ol' credit card.
The products he seems to recommend look like knockoffs and incredibly cheap. But often if something breaks while you are abroad you pay 2-3x the price to replace it. And even then the replacement might be of horrible quality too but you're desperate and suck it up.
> I’d expect that to come with some comment about carbon footprint.
What would you expect him to say? Apologise in some way? Spin a tale of "carbon compensation", the indulgence [1] of this non-theistic religion?
I find it refreshing to hear people speak without constantly genuflecting towards The Current Issue. That does not mean I always (or even usually) agree but I prefer for people to be honest instead of hypocrites when it comes to their 'sins'.
Is it just me or has the disdain/venom in how people discuss the notion that they have moral responsibility to anyone other than themselves increased in recent years?
Where is the venom? As to disdain there is a core of truth which is easily explained by the large number of people who - though social media or otherwise - portray their affluent jet-setting life styles with a little bit of green-wash that just does not fit well with the current discourse which centres around the reduction of consumption and energy use. If you choose to fly around the world while simultaneously trying to convey your dedication to the "climate cause" you should expect to be chastised for it. If you just fly around the world without adding indulgences you will still be chastised but at least you're more honest about the fact that you simply care more about your own convenience.
Not just you. Selfish ME ME ME is the current zeitgeist. Heavily sponsored by today's robber barons who are taking the obvious action to deflect attention from their corporate empires towards identity politics.
Maybe I need to get myself a more progressive social circle, but the number of people around me who non-performatively care about their carbon footprint when travelling (and back the concern with actions, not words) is very very low.
I don't think I've ever heard someone mention their carbon footprint ever in real life. Only on an internet message board would someone be surprised that a blog post didn't mention it.
Quite a bubble. But I also think it's very performative which is why it doesn't show up in day to day convo. For example, even the HNer wanted to see a feel-good aside about saving the environment or at least some sort of atonement for their sins.
It's one of those things where we don't have any central entity to blame, so we look for small payoffs by holding random individuals to the flame.
In fact, becoming an ascetic would probably be counter-productive. I think a large benefit of publicly caring about the environment is the signaling. You show that (a) it matters (b) it's doable (c) it doesn't ruin your life. Then other people start to believe they can also do it. If you do let it ruin your life, that will serve to dissuade rather than persuade.
> I’m impressed at how many people coalesce to the same suggestions to save space: simple clothes, layers, etc.
Buying toiletries locally can mean paying 2-3x the price in your home country. You actually save money by bringing more. For example, in the US the last time I checked I could buy a pack of floss for $0.99. In LATAM it's at least $3. The solution is to bring ~20 packs of floss.
It's also one more thing to do. If you can trivially bring things with you, you've managed to avoid finding the appropriate store, finding what you're looking for among possibly unfamiliar brands, and potentially very different languages.
At least for me, walking into a grocery store that feels totally alien is part of the fun of traveling. It's a neat way to see some of the more blatant cultural differences, while also accomplishing a task.
Yes, but in general I prefer I don't have errands I need to run. Other than picking up wine or whatever :-) I'm certainly fine with going into stores but I prefer to start out with some base-level stuff even if it adds a few pounds.
Given the stuff he's collected, he appears to be traveling all over the world. You can't take a train across oceans. I don't know why Europeans seem to want to derail every discussion of anything into "why can't the world be more like Europe," but have you looked at an equal area map of the whole globe lately? (https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/wp-content/uploads/2019/...). The overwhelming majority of the world is not Europe. Vitalik is Canadian. All of continental Europe seems to fit roughly east of the Hudson Bay when shoved into Canada. Some other person in this comment string is talking about how easy it is to get around all the major cities in Spain by train. That's great. Spain is 2/3 the size of Texas. Getting around North America isn't nearly the same. Presumably, Vitalik flies more than he uses trains because he has a finite lifespan and wants to devote more of his time living as a nomad to being where he is going rather than in the act of getting there.
As for carbon footprint, I'm not going to comment on the moral quality of his choices, but the dude founded a cryptocurrency. Once you've done that, I don't think much else you can do short of also founding an oil company is going to make your carbon footprint worse than it already is.
The author mentions traveling to multiple continents in his post. Do you expect him to use a train/ferry everywhere? That would be incredibly slow and unfeasible in some situations. OTOH, you can fly everywhere. Not everyone deeply cares about their carbon footprint when by far the largest amount of CO2 generated is industrial.
> Not everyone deeply cares about their carbon footprint when by far the largest amount of CO2 generated is industrial.
Industry makes stuff that consumers demand, either directly or indirectly. It’s a bit of a meme to suggest that global warming is all down to companies emitting co2 just for lols. Of course, industry is sometime dirty because it’s cheaper, but it’s putting one’s head in the sand to pretend that consumers have no bearing on what companies do.
This is not to say that the blame lays solely with consumers. People are acting rationally — they want to go on holiday and can afford it; what’s stopping them? The issue is one of regulation. If emitting actually had a cost (well, a cost now, to the emitter, rather than to the whole planet at some later date) people would make better decisions.
I did not suggest companies emit CO2 for lols -- it is quite obvious they are responding in an optimized way (for them) to consumer demands, since that is what a company is.
But the onus to change is on the companies, and since they won't change themselves, it falls on the government. However, taxing the emitter will lead to companies passing on the cost to the consumer, which, while lowering the emissions, would end up locking away a large number of luxuries (air travel, different kinds of food like meat, etc.) from lower-middle class people. It is very easy to say "increase taxes!" when you have enough disposable income to be able to afford these luxuries anyway. I personally do not want to go back a hundred years where meat is rare luxury and the farthest one travels is to the nearest country, once a decade.
In Japan they use plug Type A, and most of SEAsia they have these plugs where you can put either type A, C or F in. Type A to Type C/F is a tiny piece not worth mentioning anyway.
Amtrak appears to have excellent destination service, and they offer full-service circle tours, too, taking you to some of the most amazing sights in America.
I haven't ridden Amtrak in years but folks I've talked to who have hated it. Trains here aren't at all comparable to the service that's available in Europe. Stations aren't conveniently located and schedules are spotty and make weird stops.
Amtrak is a federal monopoly, created to take the failing passenger railroads off the hands of the freight carriers. It has succeeded in doing little more than that.
I say this as a person who loves trains, especially French ones. But, as a pragmatist, I admit that our interstate road system and omnipresent airlines (crossing states which are themselves larger than European countries) make a lot of train travel less desirable in America than it is overseas.
I use grams instead of cm^3 but otherwise I agree. I just don't want to carry heavy things!
I will recommend 1 specific thing that is rarely mentioned which is soap slices, sometimes known as camping soap. They're super portable, light and small. They are perfect for situations while traveling where you just need a little hand wash. It happens more often than you'd think.
he probably never was a billionaire . He's lost so much over the past 4 months I don't think he's that rich anymore. i think he also is borrowing against his eth too. He put the eth up as collateral and spends against it without having to sell it.
I'm considering adding a second piece of luggage to carry kitchen hardware, electronics, and an air quality sensor. Minimalism is seriously a waste of time.
I also only stay in places with washer/dryer and do laundry every day because of running. I'm not going to hang disgusting sweaty clothes. I still have a lot of shirts, shorts, and extra socks because I like to change during the day as well.
Depends on what a person values out of their travel. I totally get why people bring lots of things with them during travel.
I personally like being nimble and not having to pay extra for a checked back for air travel. Lugging around heavy bags really annoys me. If I'm playing my travel by ear, sticking to one light bag keeps things stress free. Minimalism is certainly not a waste of time in my case. It can be a waste of time if someone gets comfort, pleasure, or utility out of bringing things like kitchen hardware.
> I also only stay in places with washer/dryer and do laundry every day because of running.
Often times I don't know where exactly I'll end up, in which case I can't count on a washer and dryer. That's just my preference, and presumably that of others. It sounds like you're making the smart choice by traveling in a way that fits your lifestyle.
> I'm not going to hang disgusting sweaty clothes.
Yeah I agree. I don't rewear anything that's unwashed except for a pair of jeans.
Will agree with you on the jeans. Rarely ever wash them to maintain the color. Another advantage is that they still have that factory denim smell. And if I do wash them I use woolite darks and flip them inside out.
Personally, I don't wear jeans much and they're the last thing I'd bring for lightweight travel. There are lots of synthetic trousers that are super lightweight and easy to rinse out quickly.
I'm with you, but I tend to stay in one place for a long time, to get to know the area and make connections, and for my own mental health. Minimalism seems better when you're constantly moving.
Besides, one suitcase for a 1-3 month trip is still minimalist by average standards!
I've spend months at a time, e.g. Sicilian island hopping, with less than this. For me the critical issue, which drives all clothing choices, is being able to independently do laundry. That is easier in frequent small batches; I can't imagine traveling with eight T-shirts!
After washing clothes, layer them in a large wringable synthetic pack towel, roll, and twist. Then they can be hung without dripping, and will dry in a fraction of the time. Wring out the towel and repeat. Or, if one has just arrived at a hotel with towels for four, get busy before they clear three of them in the morning.
One needs an ample supply of travel-scaled clothesline and clothespin equivalents. I last traveled with tiny Nite Ize Gear Ties, and a few larger ties with loops for securing the clothesline ends. Be thoughtful about attachment points; foreign construction quality can often be surprising.
I can't praise highly enough merino wool T-shirts, even in the hottest weather. I found mine on closeout; they can be expensive.
The Aranet4 CO2 meter is an interesting pandemic choice. I own one for monitoring my classroom assignments; they're very well made.
I love merino wool shirts -- even dress shirts like those by Wool and Prince. But the dress shirts I only dry clean and the t-shirts I have some special things I do to keep them in good shape. I just wear athletic gear most of the time because I'm in a hot climate and sweat through everything immediately. It's just not worth it for me at this point.
I really like having a fancy side-loading washing machine because I can run long cycles and use strong detergents that definitely ensure the shirt doesn't smell the next time I wear it. Ideally Persil but sometimes that isn't available. Top loaders have destroyed clothes many times.
I rarely have to dry clean the dress shirts under normal wear conditions. I'm guessing it depends on the GSM of the shirt.
I don't know if I would agree dry leaning defeats the purpose. Most cities have a dry cleaner and dropping it a dry cleaner is going to be faster than washing, drying, and ironing it yourself. At least it is for me. Plus, you would need to find the right kind of detergent without enzymes or whatever while traveling.
It's still perfectly functional. There's just some pilling and lack of color homogeneity and certainly doesn't look new. I'll still wear it so long as I don't really need to be dressed up which I rarely am these days. (Like almost never.)
You're right that it wouldn't need to be dry cleaned after each use under minimally sweaty conditions. That said, while I have occasionally had laundry done in the middle of an extended trip, by and large I don't want to be dealing with laundry and dry cleaning if I don't need to.
Merino wool garments? Oh dear - I tried them but against the skin they are, for me, a huge no-no due to irritation / rash. I am unbelievable allergic to merino wool.
(The following is meant to be humorous, JIC). So I bought a herd of sheep that grow polyester wool and it has worked out brilliantly. I don't break out in a rash, I don't smell and my sweat gets wicked to a galaxy far, far away.
Not OP, but I have a lot of experience with Merino wool.
My opinion is that it's great, but expensive and not durable as outerwear. It snags easily and if you're wearing the thinner stuff, you will end up with runs and even tears after a while. If you can afford $60 t-shirts, that might be fine for you, but I haven't had a wool t-shirt that it didn't wear through the armpits on after a couple of years of regular wear. The thicker stuff holds up a bit better, but is obviously not as nice in hot climates. If you're wearing it as a base layer in a cooler climate, I love it.
Thanks for your sharing your experience! "couple of years" doesn't sound that bad to me, to be honest, so the higher price could be fine.
As mentioned in the other comment, I just started out with an endless scarf and am looking at other products, too. I had a Giesswein merino sneaker recently for a test fit and it was really nice on the bare foot and left a good overall impression. I'm looking into getting a pair of those for the office, any experience with these, too?
I agree with your assessment. I have one merino wool shirt, but I save it for occasions when I need the light weight and good warmth. For regular wear I stick to mostly cotton. I can't afford multiple merino shirts.
Other types of wool tend to feel scratchy. Merino feels different than cotton, but is not uncomfortable to wear like other wools.
I've used a wide variety (mostly 150 weight) Merino wool shirts for years, and in fact, they are basically the only T-shirts I wear these days. IMO, if you're doing a lot of travel, they are absolutely worth it - warm when cool, cool when hot, wicks away sweat and dries quickly when wet/washed all while resisting stink/BO. I'd have to agree on the cons though - I've paid $80+ for a shirt (depending on brand and country) and have experienced wear/holes sometimes in months (even with only handwashing).
I've only owned merino wool socks but they're fantastic (as long as you get ones with a fairly high percentage of merino wool. 50% is ok but >60% is ideal). I can walk 10 miles in my Darn Tough wool socks, take them off, and they have no smell the next day. If I tried the same thing in cotton socks, they'd smell like feet until I wash them. Wool is pricier but IMO better at thermal regulation, and merino doesn't have the scratchiness that a lot of people associate with wool. I haven't tried shirts because they're pricy and I'm a bit worried about durability, but if you have to carry your wardrobe maybe it's worth it.
Improving "breathability" for my feet would be one of my goals. The example with your socks sounds good, for the moment I've started with one of those "endless scarfs" made out of Merino wool, because I can't stand all the synthetic fibers in those things.
This. Merino wool is awesome. Merino socks about 3x the price of a normal pair of run of the mill socks, but I find the comfort, durability, and breathability more than make for it.
One of the best features, IMO, os that I can forge straight through rivers without worrying about them getting wet because I know that they will be dry in a couple of hours, assuming it's moderately warm.
I sweat - a lot. Especially if I'm carrying a backpack during the summer, my whole back is just one wet spot. A cotton T-shirt is a big no-no, when one gets wet it'll be wet and clammy for the rest of the trip. I tried the technical shirt kind and while they do dry fast, I'll be freezing while it's doing that.
I discovered merino wool T-shirts about a decade ago and don't wear much else - except for a few nerdy print shirts on occasion.
Merino wool is cool even when wet and dries really quickly. It's also pretty much self-cleaning due to the lanolin (a type of fat) in the fibers, and smells don't stick to it for the same reason. Even after the sweatiest hike, I can just hang it out to dry and it's good to go.
I can go on a week's trip with just two shirts, alternating them on different days.
If you do wash a merino shirt (which you shouldn't do too often) always use a wool detergent that has lanolin in it.
And all of the above goes for all other merino garments. I've got a hoodie from a merino wool mix that I wear all around the year. It's warm during the winter and not too hot during summer nights, if I get caught in the rain it'll be dry in no time.
On the website of a big merino wool clothing store they write [1]:
> Unbound Merino clothing can be washed in a regular washing machine at a normal or cool temperature setting. You can use regular detergent, and avoid fabric softener or products with bleach.
According to you this is wrong which is surprising because they should know what they're talking about. Could you clarify? Do you have other sources?
You _can_ wash merino wool if you want to. You just don't need to. Just like with jeans. Unless you actually spilled something on them and want to get the stains off, you rarely need to wash proper jeans.
> Wool is naturally hygroscopic and thus has the ability to absorb moisture and transport it away from the body leaving your skin dry and comfortable. Unlike synthetic fabrics where sweat build up becomes a breeding ground for bacteria, wool’s breathability reduces the risk of your clothes taking on unpleasant body odour.
> Because of the above, wool clothing outperforms other fibres when it comes to odour resistance, and it doesn’t need to be washed anywhere near as frequently as synthetics. Simply airing your wool garment will help cleanse the fibre. This is an added benefit if you are hiking or biking and need to keep the clothing you carry to a minimum. Reducing the number of times you washing your clothes is also beneficial for the environment [0]
Sorry, I should have clarified what part I was replying to. I was asking about the choice of detergent. You say it must be a wool detergent with lanolin while they say it doesn't matter.
I'd like to follow this up with the store too if you convince me that the detergent matters.
This is interesting because I tend to think of packing as a dirtbag thing rather than a nomad thing... when I'm hotel hopping for extended periods I just bring normal luggage. Maybe I should start bringing my backpack instead.
My first impression is that this is a LOT of clothes and the electric stuff is a bit weird.
A few differences between dirtbag and nomad (the latter AFAICT is mostly hotel/airbnb hopping?):
First, you think a lot about food and water. Especially water, and especially sans car. It's VERY heavy and very necessary.
Second, my emergency pack is almost completely different. No vitamin shoppe merch. An ACE bandage, 8 aspirin per day from civ, 1 dose of imodium per day from civ, gauze, anti-bacterial cream, tape, suture kit, and one dose of a more powerful pain killer for serious emergencies if you can get it. No rapid tests (travel usually required a PCR anyways), but a couple KN95s. Cash in both USD (clean, unfolded, new bills) and the local currency. Maps.
Third, weight really matters.
Fourth, cleanliness really matters. You're essentially homeless. Diners and cafes kick out homeless people if you try to stay 9-5. In addition to organizing my life around being clean, I also had a whole separate emergency "Not A Dirtbag For A Day" kit.
I guess the other big difference is that all of my day-to-day stuff fit in roughly 15L so that I could carry 5L water and my gear could consume the other 20L.
To clarify: I tend to think of living out of a 40L pack as a dirtbag thing rather than a nomad thing... most of the nomads I know just use hard shell luggage, including me when I hotel hop (I've had nice expensive backpacks destroyed by bag handlers, so hard rollers are better). OP mentions that thy don't have to check their 40L bag; I've always ended up with mine checked but I guess splitting the load into a second personal item could make that less likely.
Think backpacking, where you're surviving on just what's in your backpack for multiple days at a time.
The focus on "packing" there is on weight/volume minimization - for example backpackers have been known to shave down the handle of their toothbrush to save a few grams. That sort of thing.
The reason to cut the toothbrush handle is to reduce its length not its mass. It fits in a much smaller stuff sack when it's 10cm long than when it's full length.
Since that stuff sack contains other things of approximately that length or shorter (in my case, stuff like: nail clippers, travel sized toothpaste, floss, extra lighter, a pair of corded earplugs, headlamp, possibly a spoon [0]) it gets awkward to have one pokey-outy thing when you're shoving it in amongst the other gear in your pack.
[0] Yeah, yeah, I know: there's earwax on my spoon and toothbrush. That's never felt that important five days removed from a shower :-)
They're referring to "dirtbag" as a lifestyle-movement. It mostly, as I understand it, came out of rock climbing -- people who gave up a regular life to go live by rock climbing spots, getting by on seasonal work and few possessions.
It leads to a different aesthetic and priorities than the (coming later) techno-nomad movement. Notably, it doesn't kinda-imply that you also have a good-playing remote job, which changes a lot of the calculations... and the aesthetic leans closer to the kind that gets you kicked out of coffee shops if you linger. It also, of course, is focused on spending a lot of time outdoors and engaging in a fairly dangerous activity.
when I'm hotel hopping for extended periods I just bring normal luggage. Maybe I should start bringing my backpack instead.
Wife and I use an Osprey Farpoint 40 [1] pack each when we travel. Max size for most overhead bins, comfortable for walking a few miles, and enough pockets to do some basic organizing. Longer trips might end up supplemented with a smaller carry-on bag (usually for my camera kit, or bike helmets and shoes if we’re cycling). It’s great for travel in Europe, where you often get off a train and the hotel/airbnb is a few blocks away (and hardly worth a cab/Uber).
I have an Osprey Porter, the 4x liter size--pretty much the same thing--and an old Montainsmith large "fanny pack" but mostly use it over the shoulder (or in the Osprey). For business casual-dress business travel and some lightweight hiking and other recreation, I can straightforwardly go for 3-4 weeks like that. Winter is a bit tougher but can still manage as long as it's not too cold.
Overall, I don't carry as much day to day base layer clothing and just rinse in the sink, don't really have laptop stands, may have a mirrorless camera, have a small kit with repair and other small just in case items. (When I was traveling a lot it was handy to have fairly standard kit bags I could just toss in my luggage.)
I have and love that bag as well. Laptop sleeve included.
Like the OP here, I have another small bag that fits inside the Farpoint when not in use. It's a REI 18(I think?) liter bag - really lightweight, big enough to carry the laptop and day use items while leaving the big bag in the hotel room, or optionally keeping handy on the plane with food or something.
Ultimately, the clothing really dwarfs everything else. This is much easier to pull off if you have a casual style (like the OP) and don't mind having, essentially, a "uniform" where you can just throw on any old bottom and top and go.
For clothing, we've both invested in some decent travel items. Wool underwear, socks, and Ts. Travel pants that dress up ok (Lulu Lemon has some nice men's pants), maybe some hiking pants. And a button up shirt or two. Add a windbreaker, brown loafers that are comfy enough to walk around town, and either sneakers, hiking shoes, or sandals depending on itinerary.
The key is a willingness to wash items while traveling. I usually only bring 3-4 pairs underwear/socks, and wash mid-week in the sink. Light wool air dries reasonably fast and doesn't hold odor as much as synthetics.
The only times I struggle to pack everything is trips where we're planning sports. Backpacking, cycling, etc mean more gear - tents, sleeping bags; shoes, helmets, spandex, pedals (usually rent the bikes).
I am somewhere in the vicinity of 2x 30 and, while many of my specific packing choices differ, this is conceptually how I pack for most of my travel for multiple weeks at a time when I'm not simply driving from my home. I check luggage only when I have to.
Ever since I spent a month in Europe with just my North Face Borealis (28 liters) I’ve never checked a bag again. It’s a lot easier to get around without big bulky pieces of luggage.
I do a considerable amount of long term travel carrying about half of this, but it all depends on what you're trying to optimize for. My personal design goal is that my bag fits under airline seats, so I never have to worry about gate checking a bag and risking lost luggage. The main tradeoff is that I do a lot of laundry in sinks - you really learn the effectiveness of detergent when you see the color of the water coming off some clothes you thought were pretty clean. These days I'm a bit lazier and try to end up somewhere with a washing machine every week or two to break up the hand washing chore. I've done the towel wringing trick but it's not all that necessary with my clothes unless I'm in a damp environment and am short on time.
The two things that I mostly agree with - eSIM is a massive improvement (I also use Airalo), and I've also tried to standardize on USB-C (except for my headphones, where I haven't found a good replacement). /r/onebag does have some good product recommendations but is somewhat skewed to young backpackers.
I would encourage everyone to ignore anyone telling them they're "doing it wrong" when traveling. You know yourself, make your own decisions. Personally, making an effort to meet digital nomads all around the world sounds like hell on earth to me. Also, it's wasted effort. Trust me, they'll find you and tell you all about themselves.
> except for my headphones, where I haven't found a good replacement
What issue have you found here? On a weekly basis I use IEMs (Sennheiser IE80) which don't need external power, and Jabra elite active series earbuds which are usb-c. Most options I'm aware of are one of these two categories.
My headphone quality requirements are slim to nonexistent since I mostly only use them on planes and trains to listen to music and block out noise, but my form factor requirements are pretty strict. I currently use Anker Soundbud Slims. I like the wired necklace and the magnets on the earpieces that allow the necklace to be sort of completed, although they're very weak. I pull out one earbud pretty often when I need to hear something, so the necklace lets me just drop it instead of having to faff about with storage. I guarantee I would lose individual detached earbuds pretty quickly. I don't use them for videoconferences, so I don't need a microphone. When I did my USB-C unification the closest equivalents tended to have solid plastic necklaces for more structure and mic mounts (looks like one of your recs has this?), but I store my headphones crumpled up in a tiny pocket. This was a year or two ago so maybe there are better options now, but at the moment my headphones just have a permanent adapter attached to them.
Curious what kind of detergent you have found to be most effective for doing laundry in sinks? I'm aware of Woolite, but presume that's not what you're talking about?
I once had a waiter drop a dish of spaghetti and meatballs in my lap. I was on the road without an appropriate change of clothes. A fellow minimalist traveler gave me his Dawn dish soap and it worked so well that that's all I use now when traveling.
do you pack a little bottle of dawn in your bag? Do you use it as a general detergent, or do you use it to spot-clean stains? I love this idea, just curious about the logistics.
I keep it in a 4oz generic plastic bottle and I use it as a general detergent. A little goes a long way, it's really effective for general cleaning. If used for a stain, I just pour directly on as needed.
I just carry whatever powdered detergent is available locally. I've tried the camping strips but I don't really see the point for my use cases. The powdered stuff does seem to set off airport scanners in the US if you have too much of it.
I prefer dish liquid detergent; never pods or machine powder detergent, it is not good for your skin. Disclaimer: I worked for one of the biggest manufacturers of household detergents. Warning: too much liquid detergent may get you in trouble on airports.
The only caveat I'd give on liquid dish detergent is it's often way... bubblier. Rinse it extremely well, or you'll start getting small foam/slickness when you sweat(from personal experience in a soft water area, sadly).
They sell dry laundry detergent sheets, put one in a dry bag along with your clothes and fill it with hot water. Then you can close the dry bag and agitate the whole thing really easily in a bath tub.
The expression "astroturfed to within an inch of its life" means that most of the reviews are fake recommendations for marketing reasons. Specifically, it's a mixed metaphor, which makes it harder to understand. "Astroturfed" describes a marketing campaign that is disguised as genuine opinions, in the way that AstroTurf is an artificial lawn that is supposed to look real. "Within an inch of his life" is an old expression typically used to describe a thrashing or beating and means "almost to the point of death", but is used metaphorically here to mean "extremely".
For readers not at all familiar with American idioms, "astroturfed" is a response to "grassroots". A "grassroots" movement in American slang is one that is bottom up and not driven by advertising, corporations or political parties. Astroturfing gives the appearance of being grassroots when it is not.
I should have known that :-) I was curious, so I looked into this a bit more. Monsanto advertised Astroturf in 1971 with the slogan "The new grass-roots movement. It's away from grass, to Astroturf." In the 1980s, grass-roots vs Astroturf started to be used as a political metaphor by people such as Bob Dole and Lloyd Bentsen, and then became a popular media expression in the 1990s. So ironically, the metaphorical use of "astroturf" was originally driven by advertising.
How do you know the individuals offering their ostensible personal experience of a particular product aren’t being paid to disingenuously market said product on social media?
Yeah, I came to the same conclusion as far as optimizing for two carry on bags.
My setup is really simple but works for me for months at a time. I have a tri fold clothing bag (an old Patagonia burrito, which they sadly don't make anymore) that's for clothes, grooming/hygine, etc, and then a messenger bag that's for laptop, kindle, headphones, emergency rain gear, medications, other similar things.
It may not work for everyone, but I found paring down to essentials was very worth it. I never have to worry about checked bags going wrong. I can wear both bags comfortably while walking for a couple hours, so if I'm moving locations or can't check into my accommodations yet it's no big deal.
One thing I like about this setup is I don't look like I'm hostel hiking. I just look like someone in business casual with an extra overnight bag. It's not fair or just, but sometimes this makes the difference about getting hassled hanging out somewhere with wifi for a couple hours.
The tri fold is roomy enough to pack a suit and plenty of casual clothing. I just hang it up when I get to my room. Unless I'm wearing or using it, items go back to their place in the bag. I never have to unpack, pack, or worry about leaving something behind.
A few simple tricks can make a big difference, but they're probably pretty personal. I pack a lot of extra socks, undershirts, and underwear, all made of thin wool. This helps me stay fresh if I'm a bit long between laundry services. In my electronics bag I carry a short extension cord, some USB plugs and charging cables, etc. That'll make you the hero in every cafe you go to.
In any case, my big takeaway was that I just don't actually need much stuff to be content for months at a time.
I've been using a Mogics Donut[1] for several years now - it's been by far the best travel power strip I've used - super compact, enough of a extension cable for plugging into odd corners/below desks/etc, and comes with a built in international plug adapter and can handle up to 5 AC plugs, more than enough for all my adapters. It has 2 x USB-A ports to boot (there's a newer version of their Bagel which has USB-C, but I haven't felt the need to upgrade).
Well he's a hypothetical billionaire. Problem with holding lots of crypto is that you can't really liquidate your crypto without tanking the economy. That's the point of all the crypto grifts going around, to get people to buy into crypto so the whales can exit.
That's not true, the crypto market is very liquid nowadays. Around 22 billion dollar volume for Ethereum in the last 24 hours for example and multiple known billion-dollar trades (Tesla, MicroStrategy, etc.). He probably could have liquidated all of his ETH by now if he had wanted to. And definitely enough not to have to live out of a backpack.
I got into one bagging a few months ago after looking at Pieter Levels blog post about it https://levels.io/carry-on-world-travel/ and have been operating from one since the 15th of April.
Bought a minaal 3.0 Cary On after going through the r/onebag community. Also bought some more equipment like an anker power core. Have to do a wash cycle weekly. A down jacket hangs off the bag. A laptop, kindle and my phone are the only electronics I have.
Works very well but in Europe you have to pay for carry on on a lot of airlines and otherwise you can only have something that fits under the seat in front of you.
The minimalism makes life easier. Only one pair of shoes & a pair of flip flops. Depend on the hostel / airbnb to provide a towel. Like Vitalik I have a weeks worth of clothes in the bag and one me.
No problem, as long as we can go back to checking two bags at no additional fee on the fare and airlines agree to be responsible for ensuring that the bags arrive on the carousel in the same condition they were given to the desk agent.
I'm a bit older than the usual HN person, I imagine, and I remember flying before airlines decided that checked luggage was a profit center. Most people only carried on a briefcase or a camera bag, or a small day bag usually with supplies for their children. Everything else went into the hold.
Of course, even in the 80s we had the Samsonite ad with the gorilla acting as baggage handler.
I'm confused by the laptop setup picture. Does he type on the laptop while it's on the stand? Not ergonomic for me, my hands would get tired too fast and that angle would trigger carpal tunnel.
Is there an external keyboard everywhere he travels that's not mentioned? Or is he standing? Doesn't look like it based on picture.
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 354 ms ] threadGlad he recommended the affordable option
Also, I have yet to visit a civilized location in the world where you cannot buy a decent disposable razor that's better than the electric shaver he carries around the world. I understand they recycle pretty well too, if you're worried about waste.
IDK about nomading, but when dirtbagging you have an excess of time. If the sun is down then your day is done. In the winter especially, having chores to do is welcome reprieve from the cold and boredom. And bathrooms or laundromats are so awesome. Warm and dry and bright.
In my experience campsite bathrooms tend to be cold and wet. Bright, sure, but not a place I'd like to spend any time more than needed in. :D
Gotta find a walmart or especially target. They're saunas :)
There exist non-dudes, and getting caught without a tampon/pad is a thing that can happen for any number of reasons.
A hand wash with unlimited water will probably get the job done, but unlimited water is often a luxury.
Paper, cardboard, metal, #1 plastic bottles and #2 plastic bottles all recycle well.
This says that the vast majority of plastic globally is not recycled: https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
Recycling rate for paper is much, much better, granted, in many countries: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/recycling-rates-paper-and...
The recycling of metals depends on which metal, of course.
In general, IMO there is far too much depressing reading like this - 'An estimated 70–80% of the MSW generated in Africa is recyclable, yet only 4% of MSW is currently recycled': https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/30975/...
I can't find any figures that say recycling is a success story across the world, or even economically viable and sustainable across most popular types of waste.
And yeah, that electric shaver he is packing is next to useless, I'd understand packing decent mini shaver, but that thing can't shave anything.
I don't know what you mean by "fashion length" - as opposed to the fashion length of 0mm? or am I missing a term of art?
A manual toothbrush is not a replacement. A half-assed job with an electric toothbrush will get your teeth cleaner than an extremely thorough effort with a manual toothbrush. I wish I'd tried one sooner. First time I used one it felt like I'd been in for a full dental cleaning.
Bonus: their failure mode is that they become a manual toothbrush. Which, if you're used to electric, does suck a lot, but it's no worse of than you'd have been if you started with a manual to begin with.
Agree about the shaver, though, but I gather some folks have a lot harder time with facial hair than I do (some ordinary soap in the shower and very cheap disposable razors do better for me than the electric razor I had years ago) so maybe it's important for them.
I've had 2 electrics, one Philips SoniCare and one Oral-B with the rotating head. Once broke within a year and the other lasted longer but got flimsy really quick.
It used to take me at least twice as long to get my teeth clean with either of them than it does with a manual brush. I usually ran 3 cycles of the electric before I was more or less satisfied with the job.
> Bonus: their failure mode is that they become a manual toothbrush.
Yes but a horrible one. Small and oddly shaped brush heads are not ideal for manually brushing.
I'm not dismissing your experience, just saying that it's not universally true.
In this context, a electric razor is your best bet for the environment
While I agree, carrying a manual toothbrush when traveling has been one of my compromises. That said, my newish one comes with a travel case so I may give that a try. Not sure how long it will go without recharging but may be worth experimenting.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3652371/
> The subject group using the powered toothbrush demonstrated clinical and statistical improvement in overall plaque scores.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpe.13126
> In the long-term, powered toothbrush seems to be effective in reducing mean PD and mean CAL progressions, besides increasing the number of teeth retained.
One negative:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002065392...
> The results of this study shows no evidence of statistically significant difference in respect to plaque control, between Jordan Power electric toothbrush and either of Oral-B Advantage or Panbehriz Classic manual brushes in a group of dental students after 2 weeks.
I'm sure you can find many more of both
Another toothbrush tip: toothpaste is mildly abrasive and can be used as an emergency polish if e.g. you’re in a hotel getting dressed for a wedding and realise your silver cufflinks / novelty Texas-shaped belt buckle / whatever have become tarnished since you last looked at them. An electric toothbrush can help a lot here.
(1) Those require some kind of lubricant like shaving cream (= extra space cost) or shaving in a shower/with water (= significantly reduced convenience). The modern electric ones do not require anything and can be used dry.
(2) Modern disposable razors also dull quite quickly meaning you need to carry many extra blades (= more space) or only travel to places where you can easily buy more blades/razors (= less convenience). The electric ones can last years on a single set of blades and still be effective.
(3) The older kind of "knife-like" or "safety" razors can largely get around (2) with sharpening, but as they are not allowed on flights, it largely excludes them as an option.
In terms of dullness, I shave my head and face with a cheap Amazon razor every day or two, and one blade lasts for weeks. A 4-blade package easily lasts me over a month, and if you remove them from the carrying case it's about the size of, I dunno, a couple AA batteries.
One downside of an electric razor is power. I suppose a USB-C based razor exists, but you probably wouldn't have very many options in that format, and probably not many nice ones to choose from. Perhaps that will change. In the meantime, I love the Braun electric razor I use for the back of my neck but it does need a little power brick and cord which, together with the razor itself, are probably more than the volume of several years worth of razor blade cartridges.
Just providing a little counterpoint to your comment, I do like my electric razor and think it's probably a better option for many travelers.
A lot of these also provide disposable razors, shaving cream etc (either by default or if you ask the front desk), so definitely a good option when it is available.
> one blade lasts for weeks
I shave every day and have used random (not name brand) disposable ones during travel. In my experience it usually stays usable for 3-4 days and could stretch to about a week. Still, being able to just set-and-forget an electric one without worrying about getting more blades has been quite nice.
> One downside of an electric razor is power
Definitely agree, though, USB-C ones aside, there are also compact ones made specifically for travel that have integrated universal plugs & support all voltages (if you have access to that).
I usually keep one of these in my travel bag rather than bringing along my regular one which is very nice but also needs an external power brick and cord to charge.
I use a super cheap T100 two years old now, which is almost the same size as a regular toothbrush, and needs no charging puck.
However, I’m surprised at how casually he mentionned how much he has travelled, by flight almost exclusively. I’m assuming from the lack of other plug than Type A, he stayed in America where trains are not a great option — but still. I’d expect that to come with some comment about carbon footprint.
Am I out of sync with the times?
I live in Madrid and I can travel to any major city in the country by train in less than 3 hours. I don't have to show up early. I depart from the city centre. I arrive at the city centre. 500% more convenient and (mostly) cheaper.
So I wouldn't worry much about the climate impact of flying.
https://www.easa.europa.eu/eaer/system/files/usr_uploaded/21... section 7.3 for the citation on aviation (gah, is the europa.eu website slow).
Air travel is much harder to do without fossil fuels than ground transport or electrical generation, and is essential to civilization on the basis of cargo alone. It's simply not an efficient target for change right now.
I favor carbon taxes that dig an industries grave for it: such as taxing coal to build nuclear, wind, solar. That's not feasible with air travel yet, which leaves a consumption tax, those are regressive.
Taxing dirty electricity generation is regressive taxation, too; like I said, it's an original issue. A first step would be to pay out all the generated carbon taxes on a per capita basis.
This would never happen in America because it would require Americans addressing their views on transit and addressing their pitiful consumer rail or even consumer bus industries.
An extreme example would be organs.
Safe 20€ a month, which is possible for a huge chunk of the population (easily > 80%), and you can do four to eight of those flights a year and that's just the lower end of the estimation, most still just don't flight that much here, and it's IMO really not an income question.
It's more like an ecological footprint and also time question as flying adds an ineligible overhead one can often outrun by using the good train networks, well maybe apart from Germany where privatization really killed a lot of networks and quality during the last decades, plus I can get to a nice nature area within an hour easily, so why bother travelling as long to the airport to only then endure their security theater.
I hate flying, but trains are rarely a convincing option. They ought to be.
It is probably wiser to judge based on emissions per user.
(Yes, yes, proof-of-stake, claimed to finally be launching later this year. That's been "coming soon" for so many years that I'll believe it when it actually happens.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalik_Buterin
He's brilliant and still manages to be very approachable and down to earth. rare combo nowadays, especially in crypto.
Except his Anker brick. I love Anker.
What would you expect him to say? Apologise in some way? Spin a tale of "carbon compensation", the indulgence [1] of this non-theistic religion?
I find it refreshing to hear people speak without constantly genuflecting towards The Current Issue. That does not mean I always (or even usually) agree but I prefer for people to be honest instead of hypocrites when it comes to their 'sins'.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence
Quite a bubble. But I also think it's very performative which is why it doesn't show up in day to day convo. For example, even the HNer wanted to see a feel-good aside about saving the environment or at least some sort of atonement for their sins.
It's one of those things where we don't have any central entity to blame, so we look for small payoffs by holding random individuals to the flame.
Many people in my social circle do the same. The environment became part of their decision-making process.
In practice, it's a bit like dieting or budgeting: we cheat. We have lives to live. We care about the environment, but not enough to become ascetics.
In fact, becoming an ascetic would probably be counter-productive. I think a large benefit of publicly caring about the environment is the signaling. You show that (a) it matters (b) it's doable (c) it doesn't ruin your life. Then other people start to believe they can also do it. If you do let it ruin your life, that will serve to dissuade rather than persuade.
I don't feel bad about cheating. I was always aiming for a reduction. If we all managed a 20-30% reduction, it would help.
It would also become a lot easier as businesses would have to cater to these concerns. This is how Germany got so vegetarian-friendly.
Buying toiletries locally can mean paying 2-3x the price in your home country. You actually save money by bringing more. For example, in the US the last time I checked I could buy a pack of floss for $0.99. In LATAM it's at least $3. The solution is to bring ~20 packs of floss.
As for carbon footprint, I'm not going to comment on the moral quality of his choices, but the dude founded a cryptocurrency. Once you've done that, I don't think much else you can do short of also founding an oil company is going to make your carbon footprint worse than it already is.
Your math does not quite check out.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe
> Area 10,180,000 km2
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada
> Total land area 9,093,507 km2
His air travel is the least of our worries.
https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption
Industry makes stuff that consumers demand, either directly or indirectly. It’s a bit of a meme to suggest that global warming is all down to companies emitting co2 just for lols. Of course, industry is sometime dirty because it’s cheaper, but it’s putting one’s head in the sand to pretend that consumers have no bearing on what companies do.
This is not to say that the blame lays solely with consumers. People are acting rationally — they want to go on holiday and can afford it; what’s stopping them? The issue is one of regulation. If emitting actually had a cost (well, a cost now, to the emitter, rather than to the whole planet at some later date) people would make better decisions.
But the onus to change is on the companies, and since they won't change themselves, it falls on the government. However, taxing the emitter will lead to companies passing on the cost to the consumer, which, while lowering the emissions, would end up locking away a large number of luxuries (air travel, different kinds of food like meat, etc.) from lower-middle class people. It is very easy to say "increase taxes!" when you have enough disposable income to be able to afford these luxuries anyway. I personally do not want to go back a hundred years where meat is rare luxury and the farthest one travels is to the nearest country, once a decade.
https://www.amtrakvacations.com/trips
I’d love to hear from someone who’s tried an Amtrak tour. I’d love to see the National Parks.
Amtrak is a federal monopoly, created to take the failing passenger railroads off the hands of the freight carriers. It has succeeded in doing little more than that.
I say this as a person who loves trains, especially French ones. But, as a pragmatist, I admit that our interstate road system and omnipresent airlines (crossing states which are themselves larger than European countries) make a lot of train travel less desirable in America than it is overseas.
I will recommend 1 specific thing that is rarely mentioned which is soap slices, sometimes known as camping soap. They're super portable, light and small. They are perfect for situations while traveling where you just need a little hand wash. It happens more often than you'd think.
I also only stay in places with washer/dryer and do laundry every day because of running. I'm not going to hang disgusting sweaty clothes. I still have a lot of shirts, shorts, and extra socks because I like to change during the day as well.
Depends on what a person values out of their travel. I totally get why people bring lots of things with them during travel.
I personally like being nimble and not having to pay extra for a checked back for air travel. Lugging around heavy bags really annoys me. If I'm playing my travel by ear, sticking to one light bag keeps things stress free. Minimalism is certainly not a waste of time in my case. It can be a waste of time if someone gets comfort, pleasure, or utility out of bringing things like kitchen hardware.
> I also only stay in places with washer/dryer and do laundry every day because of running.
Often times I don't know where exactly I'll end up, in which case I can't count on a washer and dryer. That's just my preference, and presumably that of others. It sounds like you're making the smart choice by traveling in a way that fits your lifestyle.
> I'm not going to hang disgusting sweaty clothes.
Yeah I agree. I don't rewear anything that's unwashed except for a pair of jeans.
Besides, one suitcase for a 1-3 month trip is still minimalist by average standards!
After washing clothes, layer them in a large wringable synthetic pack towel, roll, and twist. Then they can be hung without dripping, and will dry in a fraction of the time. Wring out the towel and repeat. Or, if one has just arrived at a hotel with towels for four, get busy before they clear three of them in the morning.
One needs an ample supply of travel-scaled clothesline and clothespin equivalents. I last traveled with tiny Nite Ize Gear Ties, and a few larger ties with loops for securing the clothesline ends. Be thoughtful about attachment points; foreign construction quality can often be surprising.
I can't praise highly enough merino wool T-shirts, even in the hottest weather. I found mine on closeout; they can be expensive.
The Aranet4 CO2 meter is an interesting pandemic choice. I own one for monitoring my classroom assignments; they're very well made.
I really like having a fancy side-loading washing machine because I can run long cycles and use strong detergents that definitely ensure the shirt doesn't smell the next time I wear it. Ideally Persil but sometimes that isn't available. Top loaders have destroyed clothes many times.
Yeah, I bought one and it didn't really hold up very well. Having to dry clean sort of defeats the purpose of having a travel shirt.
In general, I really like merino wool but it's expensive and fairly fragile even if I avoid putting it in a dryer.
I don't know if I would agree dry leaning defeats the purpose. Most cities have a dry cleaner and dropping it a dry cleaner is going to be faster than washing, drying, and ironing it yourself. At least it is for me. Plus, you would need to find the right kind of detergent without enzymes or whatever while traveling.
Are you saying it fell apart?
You're right that it wouldn't need to be dry cleaned after each use under minimally sweaty conditions. That said, while I have occasionally had laundry done in the middle of an extended trip, by and large I don't want to be dealing with laundry and dry cleaning if I don't need to.
(The following is meant to be humorous, JIC). So I bought a herd of sheep that grow polyester wool and it has worked out brilliantly. I don't break out in a rash, I don't smell and my sweat gets wicked to a galaxy far, far away.
My opinion is that it's great, but expensive and not durable as outerwear. It snags easily and if you're wearing the thinner stuff, you will end up with runs and even tears after a while. If you can afford $60 t-shirts, that might be fine for you, but I haven't had a wool t-shirt that it didn't wear through the armpits on after a couple of years of regular wear. The thicker stuff holds up a bit better, but is obviously not as nice in hot climates. If you're wearing it as a base layer in a cooler climate, I love it.
As mentioned in the other comment, I just started out with an endless scarf and am looking at other products, too. I had a Giesswein merino sneaker recently for a test fit and it was really nice on the bare foot and left a good overall impression. I'm looking into getting a pair of those for the office, any experience with these, too?
Other types of wool tend to feel scratchy. Merino feels different than cotton, but is not uncomfortable to wear like other wools.
One of the best features, IMO, os that I can forge straight through rivers without worrying about them getting wet because I know that they will be dry in a couple of hours, assuming it's moderately warm.
I discovered merino wool T-shirts about a decade ago and don't wear much else - except for a few nerdy print shirts on occasion.
Merino wool is cool even when wet and dries really quickly. It's also pretty much self-cleaning due to the lanolin (a type of fat) in the fibers, and smells don't stick to it for the same reason. Even after the sweatiest hike, I can just hang it out to dry and it's good to go.
I can go on a week's trip with just two shirts, alternating them on different days.
If you do wash a merino shirt (which you shouldn't do too often) always use a wool detergent that has lanolin in it.
And all of the above goes for all other merino garments. I've got a hoodie from a merino wool mix that I wear all around the year. It's warm during the winter and not too hot during summer nights, if I get caught in the rain it'll be dry in no time.
> Unbound Merino clothing can be washed in a regular washing machine at a normal or cool temperature setting. You can use regular detergent, and avoid fabric softener or products with bleach.
According to you this is wrong which is surprising because they should know what they're talking about. Could you clarify? Do you have other sources?
[1] https://unboundmerino.com/blogs/help-center/when-i-do-wash-m...
> Wool is naturally hygroscopic and thus has the ability to absorb moisture and transport it away from the body leaving your skin dry and comfortable. Unlike synthetic fabrics where sweat build up becomes a breeding ground for bacteria, wool’s breathability reduces the risk of your clothes taking on unpleasant body odour.
> Because of the above, wool clothing outperforms other fibres when it comes to odour resistance, and it doesn’t need to be washed anywhere near as frequently as synthetics. Simply airing your wool garment will help cleanse the fibre. This is an added benefit if you are hiking or biking and need to keep the clothing you carry to a minimum. Reducing the number of times you washing your clothes is also beneficial for the environment [0]
[0] https://www.hdwool.com/blog/is-wool-antibacterial
I'd like to follow this up with the store too if you convince me that the detergent matters.
I appreciate your response.
Why is he taking Ashwagandha, does it have any verified health benefits?
One of their examples was homeopaths telling patients not to get vaccinated.
My first impression is that this is a LOT of clothes and the electric stuff is a bit weird.
A few differences between dirtbag and nomad (the latter AFAICT is mostly hotel/airbnb hopping?):
First, you think a lot about food and water. Especially water, and especially sans car. It's VERY heavy and very necessary.
Second, my emergency pack is almost completely different. No vitamin shoppe merch. An ACE bandage, 8 aspirin per day from civ, 1 dose of imodium per day from civ, gauze, anti-bacterial cream, tape, suture kit, and one dose of a more powerful pain killer for serious emergencies if you can get it. No rapid tests (travel usually required a PCR anyways), but a couple KN95s. Cash in both USD (clean, unfolded, new bills) and the local currency. Maps.
Third, weight really matters.
Fourth, cleanliness really matters. You're essentially homeless. Diners and cafes kick out homeless people if you try to stay 9-5. In addition to organizing my life around being clean, I also had a whole separate emergency "Not A Dirtbag For A Day" kit.
I guess the other big difference is that all of my day-to-day stuff fit in roughly 15L so that I could carry 5L water and my gear could consume the other 20L.
You think it's dirty to pack things for a trip?
Dirtbagging doesn't necessarily entail living outside. Could bum a room for a while. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirtbag_climbing for context.
To clarify: I tend to think of living out of a 40L pack as a dirtbag thing rather than a nomad thing... most of the nomads I know just use hard shell luggage, including me when I hotel hop (I've had nice expensive backpacks destroyed by bag handlers, so hard rollers are better). OP mentions that thy don't have to check their 40L bag; I've always ended up with mine checked but I guess splitting the load into a second personal item could make that less likely.
The focus on "packing" there is on weight/volume minimization - for example backpackers have been known to shave down the handle of their toothbrush to save a few grams. That sort of thing.
Since that stuff sack contains other things of approximately that length or shorter (in my case, stuff like: nail clippers, travel sized toothpaste, floss, extra lighter, a pair of corded earplugs, headlamp, possibly a spoon [0]) it gets awkward to have one pokey-outy thing when you're shoving it in amongst the other gear in your pack.
[0] Yeah, yeah, I know: there's earwax on my spoon and toothbrush. That's never felt that important five days removed from a shower :-)
It leads to a different aesthetic and priorities than the (coming later) techno-nomad movement. Notably, it doesn't kinda-imply that you also have a good-playing remote job, which changes a lot of the calculations... and the aesthetic leans closer to the kind that gets you kicked out of coffee shops if you linger. It also, of course, is focused on spending a lot of time outdoors and engaging in a fairly dangerous activity.
https://www.desktodirtbag.com/dirtbag-meaning/ or https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dirtbag
Wife and I use an Osprey Farpoint 40 [1] pack each when we travel. Max size for most overhead bins, comfortable for walking a few miles, and enough pockets to do some basic organizing. Longer trips might end up supplemented with a smaller carry-on bag (usually for my camera kit, or bike helmets and shoes if we’re cycling). It’s great for travel in Europe, where you often get off a train and the hotel/airbnb is a few blocks away (and hardly worth a cab/Uber).
1 - https://www.osprey.com/us/en/product/farpoint-travel-pack-ca...
Overall, I don't carry as much day to day base layer clothing and just rinse in the sink, don't really have laptop stands, may have a mirrorless camera, have a small kit with repair and other small just in case items. (When I was traveling a lot it was handy to have fairly standard kit bags I could just toss in my luggage.)
Like the OP here, I have another small bag that fits inside the Farpoint when not in use. It's a REI 18(I think?) liter bag - really lightweight, big enough to carry the laptop and day use items while leaving the big bag in the hotel room, or optionally keeping handy on the plane with food or something.
Ultimately, the clothing really dwarfs everything else. This is much easier to pull off if you have a casual style (like the OP) and don't mind having, essentially, a "uniform" where you can just throw on any old bottom and top and go.
The key is a willingness to wash items while traveling. I usually only bring 3-4 pairs underwear/socks, and wash mid-week in the sink. Light wool air dries reasonably fast and doesn't hold odor as much as synthetics.
The only times I struggle to pack everything is trips where we're planning sports. Backpacking, cycling, etc mean more gear - tents, sleeping bags; shoes, helmets, spandex, pedals (usually rent the bikes).
The two things that I mostly agree with - eSIM is a massive improvement (I also use Airalo), and I've also tried to standardize on USB-C (except for my headphones, where I haven't found a good replacement). /r/onebag does have some good product recommendations but is somewhat skewed to young backpackers.
I would encourage everyone to ignore anyone telling them they're "doing it wrong" when traveling. You know yourself, make your own decisions. Personally, making an effort to meet digital nomads all around the world sounds like hell on earth to me. Also, it's wasted effort. Trust me, they'll find you and tell you all about themselves.
What issue have you found here? On a weekly basis I use IEMs (Sennheiser IE80) which don't need external power, and Jabra elite active series earbuds which are usb-c. Most options I'm aware of are one of these two categories.
0: https://amazon.com/gp/product/B08HRN4M3H/
https://forevernew.com/
/r/onebag is skewed towards solving all your problems by buying something, and seems astroturfed to within an inch of its life.
My setup is really simple but works for me for months at a time. I have a tri fold clothing bag (an old Patagonia burrito, which they sadly don't make anymore) that's for clothes, grooming/hygine, etc, and then a messenger bag that's for laptop, kindle, headphones, emergency rain gear, medications, other similar things.
It may not work for everyone, but I found paring down to essentials was very worth it. I never have to worry about checked bags going wrong. I can wear both bags comfortably while walking for a couple hours, so if I'm moving locations or can't check into my accommodations yet it's no big deal.
One thing I like about this setup is I don't look like I'm hostel hiking. I just look like someone in business casual with an extra overnight bag. It's not fair or just, but sometimes this makes the difference about getting hassled hanging out somewhere with wifi for a couple hours.
The tri fold is roomy enough to pack a suit and plenty of casual clothing. I just hang it up when I get to my room. Unless I'm wearing or using it, items go back to their place in the bag. I never have to unpack, pack, or worry about leaving something behind.
A few simple tricks can make a big difference, but they're probably pretty personal. I pack a lot of extra socks, undershirts, and underwear, all made of thin wool. This helps me stay fresh if I'm a bit long between laundry services. In my electronics bag I carry a short extension cord, some USB plugs and charging cables, etc. That'll make you the hero in every cafe you go to.
In any case, my big takeaway was that I just don't actually need much stuff to be content for months at a time.
A small power strip might have been my best travel investment. Good way to meet people if nothing else.
It takes up almost no space, is light, and saves the day at airports.
[1] https://www.mogics.com/3824-2
Bought a minaal 3.0 Cary On after going through the r/onebag community. Also bought some more equipment like an anker power core. Have to do a wash cycle weekly. A down jacket hangs off the bag. A laptop, kindle and my phone are the only electronics I have.
Works very well but in Europe you have to pay for carry on on a lot of airlines and otherwise you can only have something that fits under the seat in front of you.
The minimalism makes life easier. Only one pair of shoes & a pair of flip flops. Depend on the hostel / airbnb to provide a towel. Like Vitalik I have a weeks worth of clothes in the bag and one me.
I'm a bit older than the usual HN person, I imagine, and I remember flying before airlines decided that checked luggage was a profit center. Most people only carried on a briefcase or a camera bag, or a small day bag usually with supplies for their children. Everything else went into the hold.
Of course, even in the 80s we had the Samsonite ad with the gorilla acting as baggage handler.
Is there an external keyboard everywhere he travels that's not mentioned? Or is he standing? Doesn't look like it based on picture.
But most of the time I agree with you, an external keyboard is a must to make this ergonomic for me personally.