November 22nd, 2011
Scott
I just read a very inspiring post by Alex MacCaw on a round-the-world trip he took, during which time he wrote two books, hacked some code, and landed a job at Twitter. And in between surfed, hiked, and partied his way around the world.
The peculiar thing about programmers is that they’re the one profession that can easily work remotely and travel, and yet they’re the one profession that doesn’t. Of course there are exceptions, but on my travels I didn’t meet another programmer doing anything similar; a sad state of affairs. My message to fellow programmers is stop making excuses, man up and do it. You only live once, and I guarantee that you will have the time of your life.
Sigh. I should do this. I write book, I program, I love to travel. I should do it all.
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Source: Giorgio Montersino at flickr
As a thank you to those that visit sabbatical.me, I’ve decided to run a little contest to give away an Amazon.com gift card to one lucky person.
Either leave a comment to this post, answering the question “Where in the world would you like to spend 6 months if you can choose anywhere?”, OR like this post on Facebook, OR like this site on Facebook (OR all 3), and at the end of July I will choose one lucky person to receive a $20 gift card from Amazon.com. Make sure to leave your email address on the comment (not displayed) or I will contact you through Facebook to arrange the prize.
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Source: jurvetson at flickr
Last year, I wrote an article on the book Talent Is Overrated, and specifically how deliberate practice is required in order to be great at anything.
I recently read about a guy named Dan McLaughlin who bought into this philosophy, and has got a goal to obtain his PGA Tour Card in the next 5 years. He had never played golf before, and he quit his job to do this. Almost a year after he started practicing (1500 hours of practice), he still had not played 18 holes of golf. That is exactly what deliberate practice is – not playing the game, just practicing the components in isolation.
An inspiring story of just waking up one day and deciding you want to do something, and not letting anyone say “you can’t”.
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November 30th, 2010
Scott
Source: moriza at flickr
I recently spent a couple of weeks traipsing through China by myself, which was the first time I had travelled so far for so long by myself. A friend of mine commented, “I could never do that.” And not many people would consider a long trip alone. Heck, some people can’t go to dinner or a movie by themselves. So travelling alone has some challenges. Here are a few that I encountered.
1. Psychologically Being Alone
Travelling by yourself, versus going with a partner or group of friends are totally different experiences. There is a lot of quiet time. Alone on the plane, alone in the hotel room, alone at dinner. Depending on the location, you can go an entire day without talking to anyone. Unless you’re the type of person who can make friends on the flight over and stick with those people for the entire trip, you have to be comfortable doing things by yourself.
To combat this, I suggest booking a tour – either a tour for the entire trip, or a short day-trip at your destination. You’ll get a chance to socialize with other solo travellers, and who knows – you can easily meet someone you’d want to meet up with for dinner or at a later date for another adventure. There are a lot of other solo travellers out there, and if you meet one of them along the way, it’s a good chance for you to make a new friend and do things together.
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Source: notsogoodphotography at flickr
From Horace’s poem, Odes:
Don’t ask (it’s forbidden to know) what end
the gods will grant to me or you, Leuconoe. Don’t play with Babylonian
fortune-telling either. It is better to endure whatever will be.
Whether Jupiter has allotted to you many more winters or this final one
which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite
— be wise, strain the wine, and scale back your long hopes
to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled
Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the next.
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Source: Marco Bellucci at flickr
There is a gentleman named Raam Dev who is currently managing to live 6 months, in 3 countries, for $3,000. Oh, and he’s counting the plane ticket to get there, so his all inclusive budget for seeing the world is $250 a month over a 6 month period, or $1500.
Of course, my gut instinct is to say, it can’t be done. To eat and sleep for a month requires more than $250 almost anywhere in the world. Well, anywhere I’d want to go I think.
Raam is oblivious, as he should be, to me calling this impossible, and is doing it successfully anyways.
That’s a mind blowing revelation to me. I am a guy who withdraws $200 from the cash machine once a week for lunches and dinners that week. And here’s Raam who will live an entire month on that including hotels. At the risk of sounding like an ass, $250 is such a small amount to me.
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Source: Tulane Public Relations at flickr
I am currently listening to an audio book (from audible.com) called “Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin. I started off disagreeing with the author on some of his key points, but giving the book a chance and listening to it all the way through has changed my mind somewhat. How does it relate to sabbaticals? It does, and I’ll address that at the end. (Without purchasing the book, you can get a good understanding of the topic by reading this Fortune Magazine article “Secrets of Greatness” by the same author.)
First the premise: there is no such thing as natural born talent. You are not born to be a great golfer, artist, singer, actor, or computer programmer. All 1-day old babies have equal abilities in this regard.
But somewhere along the way, Picasso picked up a brush, Tiger Woods picked up a golf club (or more specifically was given one), and Mozart started composing music.
This might sound outrageous at first. Tiger Woods is naturally talented right? If I had a baby tomorrow, I could not hope to turn him into as good a golfer as Tiger Woods, no matter what I did, except if I got extremely lucky right? It turns out, anyone can craft their child to be the next Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods was born with nothing special that you and I were not born with.
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