Question: To Travel or Not to Travel?

I am starting a category called QUESTIONS. Questions are my recurring open themes. I explore these and come back to them with various considerations and occasional insight. These are OPEN questions.

To get this started, here’s a tally of my travel for 2009 (some locations are repeat trips):

Domestic:

• San Diego, CA
• Big Sur/Carmel, CA
• Zion National Park, UT
• New York City
• Big Bear Lake, CA
• Portland, OR
• San Francisco, CA
• Kauai, HI
• Miami/West Palm Beach, FL
• Santa Barbara, CA
• Chicago, IL
• Joshua Tree Park, CA

International:

• Costa Rica
• London
• Prague
• Vietnam (followed by Cambodia and Thailand in January 2010)

Nice Place to Have a Cup of Coffee

I was told that Schopenhauer made fun of pointless travel by socialites who come back and, when asked about their travel, proclaim, “Never a dull moment!” This has stuck in my mind as a soundbite, and I have been coming back to the idea that travel keeps you busy, in a wasteful kind of a way.

I’m conflicted on this question. When I think about the kind of life I want to have and what I get excited about, travel is very much a big part of the vision. I’ve always valued the ability to “up and go”. I love the idea of going on a big trip last minute. I think the idea is that this is the ultimate expression of my freedom, of adventure and of my lack of being guided by conventional restraints. I’m a maximizer, and going somewhere last minute is one way to ensure that I don’t overthink the various possibilities of the trip.

On the other hand, it seems that the value of my past trips is uncertain. Yes, they contribute to a certain wordliness, and they certainly help to “color in” the various parts of the world map in my head. However, for me personally, past experiences (pretty much anything that’s not happening at the moment) fade away with alarming speed and depth. A lot of my past, including my travel, seems hopelessly disconnected from my current experience. It is quite possible that this is something specific to me and the unique workings of my memory.

Another reason I’m conflicted about travel is that I love my work and I love creating (as part of my work). I don’t want travel to be a distraction from this.

Food for thought from others:

• Tyler Cowen: “You have a status quo bias.  And like most people, you probably overinvest in goods and underinvest in experiences.  Get off your bum and go.  Many major cities in the USA have direct connections to Buenos Aires.  You fly overnight and sleep on the plane.  You wake up in a new universe.” http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2006/01/further_subject.html

Pretty convincing it seems. I do really like the reminder to invest less in possessions and more in experiences (more here: “Experiences, not possessions, are the best Christmas Gifts“.) Yes. This is great regardless of the conclusion on travel.

• Marty Nemko: “Also key to my productivity, I avoid time sucks: I watch almost no TV, don’t play golf, and avoid unnecessary travel.”  http://martynemko.blogspot.com/2009/07/who-am-i.htm

Reading this reminded me that much travel IS really unnecessary and doesn’t accomplish much.

• Brad Feld: Has a structure of vacations throughout the year. Most of them come down to having regular down time and time with his wife. They seem less about exploration of new stuff. http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2008/03/whats-a-vacation.html and http://www.yourbrandplan.com/forum/what-your-mind-thinker/2857-brad-feld-rss-feed-why-i-spend-month-year-homer-alaska.html

Random concluding note that I picked up from some book: frequent smaller trips have more impact on our overall happiness than less frequent bigger trips. (I think this came from a book “Stumbling Upon Happiness”, but I’m not certain.)