
One Man's Life of No Regret (2009) - keiferski
http://synodwithlife.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-mans-life-of-no-regret.html
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hirundo
I find stories of people like this to be quite inspiring. It proves how larger
and fuller life can be than I've managed, and leads me to take steps -- often
literal ones -- in that direction.

Another person I'd put in this category is Ray Jardine. His guides to hiking
the Pacific Crest Trail led me to put my sneakers on and try the same. I
didn't complete it but it awakened me in a way that staying home does not. Ray
is the kind of guy who thinks a good vacation means kayaking around Baja
California, rowing across the Atlantic, retracing Northwest Passage or skiing
across Antarctica ... shared with his kind adventurous athletic wife Jenny.

I can't follow in these people's footsteps very far. But they document their
treks and compulsively teach about them, and that is the next best thing to
being there, and helps me adventure more around the edges.

A life lived large embiggens us all.

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gallerdude
I can't find anywhere online where it says what his job was. I'm really
curious how he financed these adventures.

Now that I think about it, doing the amazing and interesting things are so
anomalous, that one could probably make a bit of money doing them. Maybe
that's why vloggers are so successful. Talk about having your cake and eating
it too.

~~~
grecy
I'm just coming to the end of three years driving around Africa, previously
spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina.

Making money is basically what every single long-term traveler is focused on,
and I've yet to meet a single one who is actually paying for full time travel
while traveling full time. A few of us (me included) get close by selling
magazine articles, writing books, selling photos, etc. etc. It's a job, just a
really, really fun job.

~~~
rawoke083600
hey you the south african dude(who is not s.a) and in the sa4x4 mag that i
found on reddit 3 weeks ago :) ?? i just keep finding you everywhere ! You in
the tech industry or tech background.. that you hangout on hn !? ps where/who
do you sell your photos to ?

~~~
grecy
That's me, but I'm not South African :)

I studied Software Engineering in Australia, I work as that from time to time
to top up the savings account, though I hope I never have to do it again.

~~~
rawoke083600
Awesome ! Semi same boat with the software engineering! Just saw your lesoto
article in the new edition ! Was there for my cousin's wedding. Beautiful
place !! If you ever in cape town and need a place... loom us up ! :)

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efitz
So he had a lot of experiences. I don't find that inspiring. What did he
invent or make? Whose lives did he make better?

~~~
nullandvoid
I mean I think you may be missing the point of the story. Whilst I certainly
look for satisfaction in inventing / making others life's better this guy is
kind of winning at life in other ways.

At stated in the article it seems he lives to learn and share knowledge gained
through his adventures.

He's visited 250 tribes I think it's fair to say the knowledge shared between
those / few back to society are likely to be significant - just because 'he
hasn't invented x' it doesn't mean contributions in other forms do not exist

~~~
atomical
How would that compare to an anthropologist studying those tribes and then
sharing that information through writing?

~~~
coldtea
He'd fare better in my books, because at least he didn't shed their mystery
and betrayed their ways, just to write a book or to do his university work.

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rdiddly
The one that brought him the most pleasure and excitement was his family, he
doesn't hesitate to say. If we take him at his word, you could optimize for
pleasure and excitement by starting a family and skipping all that other
stuff.

~~~
king_phil
I thought the same, while reading the article I was like "I don't want to do
this, I want to be with my (baby) daughter!"

~~~
rdiddly
Keep in mind, he might just be saying what he thinks the public (and/or his
wife!) wants to hear, but I tend to agree with you. I don't even leave the
house unless I get reeeeally restless (which is rare now that I'm a computer
nerd), or run out of supplies, or have to go to that pesky "job" thing I seem
to have gotten myself involved with.

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tw1010
The realization that you see the world from other perspectives, grow them in
your brain by reading, totally destroyed my childhood idea that life was all
about experiencing a series of cool stuff.

For me, life is about growing intellectually, broadening my mind or going to
strange inner creative places, knowing myself.

~~~
hndamien
This is the real journey, and probably a large part of travel and adventure
too - it just doesn't always have to be the Matterhorn, it could be Bitcoin,
Nuclear Fusion, Electric VTOL, Quantum computing etc.

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baxtr
I find the notion that a life without regret is a list of x things to be
ticked off over the course of a lifetime quite simplistic. I don't have a
better answer. But it is definitely not a list, at least not for me.

~~~
l_t
Here's my take -- the list is incidental. It could have been anything. The key
here is that he _engaged with his dreams_ in a real way. He thought about
them, made them concrete, and then tried to actualize them. He gave his life a
goal and a self-directed "meaning."

Imagine if he tried to do the things on his list, but failed. Would he be less
happy? Probably not.

Of course, this is all assuming that he is truly the "completely satisfied"
person that the article paints him to be. I doubt any person is quite so
simple as that.

~~~
baxtr
You’re probably right. A list is at least a very conscious way of living.
Probably more conscious than most

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pmoriarty
There's a film from 1955 of this guy kayaking down the Nile over 9 months in
1950 and 1951 here: [1]

He, along with his two French companions were the first to explore the entire
Nile river.

[1] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFr4bTfm40c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFr4bTfm40c)

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abootstrapper
Good for this guy. He had a lot of experiences. But it comes across as
bragging to me, more than it does inspirational.

~~~
netsharc
What a strange blog post, the author did a copy-paste job of the man's story
but never in there did s/he write what s/he personally learned from reading
about the guy that s/he wishes to share by blogging about him.

And the last paragraph is just another point by point list of what that man
did...

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erikbye
A life worth living is one with goals you progress towards/on, they don't need
to be completed as the journey is the reward.

