The thought? “I’ve lost track of time, or time has lost track of me. I’m somewhere in between the pages of a book, and I’m somehow cramming about 48 hours into a single day. I’m the sharp edge of the page of the book. If I turn sideways, I’ll disappear.”

Needless to say, at that point I was quite sleep-deprived.

We left Kolkata unceremoniously, having enjoyed a going-away party several days before we actually took off. Jóna and I had planned to hop a train for Mumbai, but our third attempt at doing so failed just as badly as the first two. We resigned ourselves to enjoying a few more days in the three-bedroom flat we had been renting in Kolkata for the duration of our stay, spending most of our newfound time indoors, working on our respective projects and gazing longingly toward a near-future when we would find ourselves back in the First World.

Hot showers. I’ve been taking two a day since I got back. After 15 minutes of standing — perfectly contented — under the endlessly-hot waterfall of steamy, clean water, I emerge from my reverie and tell myself that water isn’t free here, though it is awesome on a level I never noticed or appreciated before.

Honestly, I’ve gotten very little done in the few days I’ve been back in the US. I visited with a friend from college after landing in Chicago, and he was kind enough to put us up for the night, buy us a meal, and not be offended that we just wanted to pass out after the stressful hullaballoo we went through just trying to get back to American soil.

The whole thing was a jumbled mess from start to finish.

We found out, after landing in Mumbai for a 5 hour layover, that Jóna would need to fill out some kind of form (they call it ESTA, even though it has nothing to do with the verb ‘to be, non-permanent’ in Spanish) and pay $10 in order to enter the US. This is, I might add, a luxury citizens of certain special countries (read: countries who smile and nod wistfully instead of speaking up against us when we launch an ill-conceived ‘War Against Whomever’) are afforded, and is supposed to be better somehow than simply applying for a visa. As far as I can tell, though, the only benefit is that you have faster turnaround on them telling you whether or not you’re turned down pre-arrival (though they still reserve the right to send you home after you arrive).

From there, the friendly Cathay Pacific manager (who informed us about ESTA) also informed us that Jóna would need a return ticket from the US, leaving from her port of arrival (in this case, Chicago). The irrationality of this necessity is boggling, as it seems to assume that someone visiting the US, potentially for months, will not be leaving the city they arrive in.

In our case, Jóna was planning to road-trip with me around the US until the end of April, at which point she would head back to Iceland. Turns out, however, that IcelandAir doesn’t fly out of Chicago. Furthermore, as helpful as Cathay Pacific was throughout all of this (they allowed us to occupy one of their office computers for a solid 4 hours while trying to sort everything out), their terminals were running some old version of Internet Explorer, so every time we tried to purchase a refundable ticket from Chicago to someplace international, the browser would crash and all of our hard-work would go unrewarded.

I’m not ashamed to say that by the time we finally just said ‘Fuck it!’ and bought a relatively cheap ($190), non-refundable ticket to Canada from Chicago — chalking it up as an unavoidable cost of travel to the US — I was a jittery, pissed-off, mentally-shredded human being, equal parts ready to punch an American politician (ideally whoever was responsible for that ridiculous ‘must have a ticket out of the US’ law, but any politician would do at that point) and break down into a sobbing, gasping lump of sleepy traveler.

It must have been something to behold.

But we finally got all the paperwork in order, and we hopped a 6 hour flight to Hong Kong, where we then boarded a 15 hour flight over the Pacific to Chicago.

Upon arrival, I made it through customs faster than I thought possible, but Jóna was pulled out of line after waiting in it for about 30 minutes and taken to a back room.

I grabbed our bags from the conveyor belt and set them down in front of a pillar, leaning against it and facing the room where she was taken, making angry eyes (without seeming to be making angry eyes) at the security personnel there. After 20 minutes of waiting, I went and asked one of the loitering guards when I could expect her to be done in back. He glared at me and said, “She’ll be out when she’s out.”

I choked back a snide, “Thank you, that was very helpful; ass,” returned to my pillar and shifted my glare to the pudgy Homeland Security rent-a-cop that had so rudely answered my question.

After another 15 minutes she emerged. I asked her, “What did they do to you?” expecting to hear a tale of full-cavity searches and violent waterboarding.

“They questioned me for a bit. They wanted to know if we were planning to get married while I was in the country. You know, for a green card.”

We laughed in relief and at the ridiculousness of the prospect. “If they only knew how silly a question that was.”

We kissed, picked up our bags, and walked toward customs.

This post was stolen from the pages of Exiles, my everlasting ebook, which you can subscribe to (or find out more about) here.

This is because a price tag of any size creates a barrier-to-entry that will automatically exclude a large group of people. Nowhere is this truer than online, where ‘free’ has become synonymous with ‘content’ for many people, and the Napster Generation has subtly but definitely found that anything made of pixels can be had without that price tag, should they look around hard enough.

It’s an issue that has some industries up in arms, but it’s a situation I find appealing for a few reasons.

The first is that I enjoy being able to give work away. A big part of why I do what I do, and have set up my lifestyle the way that I have, is so that I will always be creating extra value I can give to people without worrying about cutting into my overall payout at the end of each year.

The second is that I enjoy solving problems. I find it to be an interesting challenge, promoting my work, knowing full well that I am competing against my own work provided elsewhere, for free. It means I have to go above and beyond in terms of interaction, ease-of-access and pricing structure, and it’s something I do willingly; I benefit from the culture-of-free that has sprung up around the net just as much as anyone else.

Finally, I like that free has become so easy to achieve when that’s what you’re aiming for.

Joshua Millburn and Julien Smith approached me with an idea not long ago; one that involved taking some of our best work and making it available for free. The small barrier to entry (cost) would be dropped for a few days, and people could grab what they wanted of our product, damn the consequences.

The choice was a simple one for all three of us, I think, because these days it’s possible to create work and then have it available as an asset from that point forward. A decade ago, it wouldn’t be quite so simple, as putting together an ebook took a bit more work than it does now, and people didn’t understand the value of such ebooks anyway. Now, that simple file can be just as coveted as a print version, and perhaps even more so, if you appreciate the portability and versatility it allows.

So putting these thoughts into practice, I’ve set the new edition of How to Be Remarkable from ‘$.99′ to ‘Free’ for the next three days. It’s not a large discount at all, but it’s amazing how massive a wall even a dollar can build in some peoples’ minds, and the content of the book is something I’d like to share with everyone, even if some people don’t like making purchases online, or don’t have a buck to spare.

You can hop on over to Amazon and snag your free copy now (if you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the free Kindle software for whatever device or computer you have lying around).

You can also pick up Josh’s amazing collection of short fiction, Falling While Sitting Down, and Julien’s inspiring new work, The Flinch, both for free on Amazon for a limited time.

I highly-recommend picking up all three, and I ask you to ponder something while adding them to your shopping cart: what’s something of value that you possess that can be given away for free, even if just for a short while? What have you created that is so good that everyone should be exposed to it, regardless of whether they can (or want to) pay?

Don’t risk your business model, but think about it; you may even find that the additional exposure ends up being a smart business decision, not just a solid philosophical one.

These titans of leadership would be the ideal rulers, according to Plato, because they would have mastery over themselves in a way that petty tyrants could never manage, due to their education in, and practice of, philosophy.

In my mind, the real beauty of a Philosopher King is that they are someone who is not just powerful, but wise. They not only have the ability to shape things, but also the knowledge of how best to shape them, and when.

As a student of philosophy myself (and someone who constantly preaches about how important it is to put one’s philosophy into practice, rather than just talking about it), I feel there’s something of this concept that we can bring into contemporary society, though perhaps with a few tweaks to the model.

I decided in December to start working with a language called Python.

I won’t go into a lot of details about Python or why I chose it, but the reason I decided to start learning more about programming — to become a ‘developer’ or a ‘hacker,’ rather than just a ‘guy who knows how to build stuff with HTML/CSS/PHP’ — is that I’ve stretched and stretched my arms as far as they can go, and I’m starting to feel the edges of my capabilities.

My ability to get done what I want to get done (the way I want to get it done) has been stunted by my limited knowledge of what has become a fairly fundamental craft.

There’s been a lot of debate around the net about how teaching young people to code is the United States’ best next move if we want to stay competitive at home and abroad. That may be true, but my reasoning for learning to code is a lot more personal.

I have ideas. Lots and lots of them. I’m also someone who loves to create. I build businesses, I write books and blogs, I create paintings and illustration and t-shirts and anything else I can think of. Learning to code is one more way for me to express myself; to make manifest the thoughts that tumble around my brain all day, every day.

But at this point in history, I would argue learning to code has the potential to be even more impactful than a beautiful painting or well-constructed business plan, as clever programming has the potential to make both even better than they are independently.

The painting is suddenly available to be viewed by billions of people all around the world, rather than the dozens within walking distance. The business model is streamlined and easily distributed, due to the power of pixels over atoms.

In the last year especially, we’ve seen the power of the right code in the right hands, as tyrants of all flavors have been held accountable for their actions and public sentiments have been held up high for all to see, despite the best efforts (and millions of dollars) of the best lobbyists in the business to keep them spun and away from the mainstream’s eyes.

Coding, then, grants one the ability to shape things. The ability to turn the tides of politics, to raise bastions around a cause, to make your dreams reality, or to build something really, really cool, that improves the lives of millions.

Non-hacking entrepreneurs and thinkers: you’re already philosophers whose ideas and knowledge have helped the world become what it is today; how will you participate in the online world, now that it’s taken on a life of its own? Now that the language has changed and the building blocks are suddenly so accessible?

Developers, coders, hackers of all stripes: don’t be afraid to expand your horizons and venture beyond the practical. You’re already the kings of the internet; what will you do with that power? How will you shape things in the future, and what role will your own ideas — and knowledge of the world outside of the net — play in what you build?

A Philosopher King, you’ll remember, is someone who has the power to change things, along with the wisdom to know what to change, and how.

I feel like I have part of what I need, but I’m sorely lacking in the balance that will help me become as powerful and wise as I can be.

I’ve managed to do quite a lot already with the meager powers I have at my disposal, and now I intend to take things up a notch.

Join me?

Note: I’m on the lookout for folks who are interested in learning to code along with me, and folks who already know how to code (especially Python, at the moment, though other languages later) and who would be willing to help me out along the way. If you fit into either of these categories, let me know!

Another note: I hope it goes without saying that the above applies to guys and gals, but just in case it seemed like I’m only encouraging men-folk to strive for Philosopher King status, rest assured I’m not. I expect you ladies in the audience to earn you Philosopher Queen title, too. Rule that kingdom benevolently, one and all!

The book is called ‘Start a Freedom Business,’ and as the name implies, it’s about getting started as an entrepreneur.

A key point of differentiation in this book and others on the same topic, however, is that in it I focus on building a sustainable business model that allows you to earn time as well as money, rather than the kind that drains you of your time in exchange for the opportunity to strike it rich years later.

There’s nothing wrong with startups, of course, it’s just that their aim is generally to seek investment, which is a move that tends to eat up a lot of the founders’ freedom. No longer do you work only for yourself. No longer does the buck stop with you.

The concept of a Freedom Business is about building an asset or set of assets (your business, or other small ventures) that help you get closer to your ideal lifestyle. That will mean different things for different people, of course, but for most it doesn’t mean working 100+ hour weeks behind a desk, and it doesn’t mean stressing the best years of your life away, hoping to strike it rich through investment or IPO.

If you’re looking for a good kick in the pants to get you motivated about making 2012 the year you break free and make a change to your lifestyle, and if you want a concise foundation of theoretical and practical knowledge, along with resources that will help you expand that knowledge further, you can snag a copy of Start a Freedom Business today on Amazon for $0.99 (I’d love a review after you’ve had the chance to read it, too, if you have the time).

By the way: Start a Freedom Business got up to #7 for Entrepreneurship books on Amazon during the pre-launch (which was sent out to folks who subscribe to my free newsletter a few days ago); let’s see if we can get it up to #1 now that it’s officially launched!

Of course, if you haven’t read my other books, My Exile Lifestyle, How to Travel Full Time, How to Be Remarkable and Networking Awesomely, this would be a good time to snag copies of those, as well.

Want a free copy of Start a Freedom Business? A subscription to Exiles (my ‘everlasting ebook,’ full of travel stories and writing from the road) is $36 for the whole year, and will earn you a free copy of all books I publish for the duration of your subscription. Sign up before next Friday, and I’ll grandfather you in on this book, as well.

As always, thanks so much for all of your support, assistance and enthusiasm. Publishing is only as good as the people you’re publishing for, and the feedback and interaction I get from you fine folks keeps me motivated to keep on writing, and I love you for that.

Besos.

It’s something that can be harmful — say, if we have the ability to produce an unlimited number of paper cups…where would they all go after they’ve been used? — but generally it’s something we try to pursue, especially in situations where we have the option of unlimited without the trash-heap downside that can come tandem (I’m looking at you, Industrial Revolution).

If you consider information and the way it’s stored, transmitted and consumed today, you’ll realize that we are able to create and distribute a nearly unlimited amount of knowledge to every part of the globe. There are still some choke points that require more hardware-muscle, but in general, if the knowledge exists, it can be made available and consumed for the price of nearly nothing.

That is our capability, anyway. The reality is something far different due to the artificial limitations put on information by ‘old guard gatekeepers;’ that is, companies and individuals who are accustomed to the limitations of atoms and have treasured business models based around those limitations.

These people can’t really be blamed for pining after the days where one required a Xerox machine and a lot of time to copy a book they owned the rights to. I imagine this new world — where pixels are free and books are 1′s and 0′s, easily duplicated and distributed to millions around the world — is terribly frightening to them and their models, so different it is from the way things used to be.

But just because something ‘used to be,’ doesn’t mean it ‘ought to be.’

One of the more tragic things I’ve read about recently is that libraries have a limited stock of ebooks.

Say you go into a library with your ebook reader of choice and browse their online list of books available, finding one that you’d love to read. You click to download it and are told that all available copies are checked out.

‘All available copies.’ What the what?

The big six publishers defend the decision to place artificial limits on ebooks in libraries as such:

“Our business model,” they say, “requires that individuals and libraries purchase books from us, and books are limited resources, based on the number of copies we choose to print.

“Because we can no longer control the printing process, we must control the legal process that determines how ebooks are distributed and managed, which means we must clamp down on unauthorized use of our products.

“Also, while we’re talking about it, hard copy books purchased by libraries are worn out by repeated use, which leads to more sales for us down the line. Ebooks don’t do this, so we’re going to have to raise the prices. Kthxbai.”

In my mind, this attitude toward information is criminal for two reasons.

First, it limits the flow of information out of laziness, not necessity.

Second, it’s not only dumb, it’s ineffective, and in fact counter-productive.

Covering the latter-point first, locking down ebooks with DRM and legalities that say “Now don’t you go reading this without my permission, okay?” is a ridiculous move, made all the more ridiculous by the industry’s inability to enforce their lockdown.

If I want to read a book, there are any number of ways for me to get my hands on it. I could download it from a torrent site, I could find a file on a Usenet group, I could be emailed a PDF from a friend, I could download a preview copy and strip away the DRM using free, Open Source software.

Hell, if I wanted to, I could buy a physical copy of the book, scan it into my computer, use text-recognition software (also free) to turn it into an ebook, and then distribute the thing myself (returning the book to the store afterward).

The point is not that I want to do these things — I would much rather pay a reasonable fee through Amazon or some other online service than pirate a book — but that I CAN, and that there’s nothing the publishing industry can do to stop me.

As for the former point mentioned above, trying to limit the flow of information these days is not just an exercise in futility, but also a philosophical anachronism. Why, when we have the ability to make knowledge available to everyone on the planet, would we limit access to that knowledge, using the same amount — or more — energy and resources to do it?

This tactic makes sense from the standpoint of someone who thinks of themselves as above the human race in some way, but come on, we all suffer or succeed together. The net benefits of having a universally educated and successful world population would greatly outweigh the benefits of being one of a few successful and educated people upon a planet filled with ignorant individuals.

I don’t have all the answers, but we’ll need some if the large publishers of the world are going to be convinced that they need a new business model. If I (and people like me) aren’t fast enough in convincing them, these publishers will die off, and, despite their lack of imagination, I think that would be a net-loss for everyone, as they still have a lot of value to give to the world, should they choose to.

What we need, though, are new solutions; new business models and ways of thinking that will help the old guard come down from their ivory towers and share the wealth, benefitting themselves as a result of benefitting others.

Until then, all I can do is quietly curse their hoarding of knowledge and hope for a better future where that isn’t the case.

This is an excerpt from Exiles, my twice-monthly collection of tales and thoughts from the road. Interested in learning more?

A goat and a baby goat are frolicking around, being chased by a woman in a fenced-off grass area.

The goat jumps the fence. The baby goat looks sad. Poor baby goat.

It could be a man chasing them. It’s hard to tell from 19 stories up.

Actually, it’s amazing how much detail you get get from this high in the sky, and yet so much is missing from the dialogues and dramas taking place below.

A group of kids pile on to a truck, jumping up and down on it until it collapses under their weight a few minutes later. Their soccer ball lay abandoned on the field where they left it, having moved on to more interesting activities. What those activities were (flashmob truck-crushing?), I have no idea.

An old man flies a kite from the roof of a small building not far away. He does this for hours, eventually sitting down from weariness (or boredom), but he keeps that kite in the sky like it’s the sun and he doesn’t want his crops to fail.

Packs of dogs roam the streets at night, fighting with each other, but cringing away from humans; dozens of tails hide between back legs as the pack passes under the same street light as a little old lady. They bark, but only when it’s very cold and there are only other dogs around. As soon as they find themselves alone and freezing, however, their cacophony is deafening. Even way up here.

The statues. The rickshaws. The fireworks at odd times of day.

Sometimes there are men, clinging precariously to a single rope, dangling outside my windows. They slowly paint the exterior walls of my apartment building, trying the whole time to avoid looking in on me, lest they should have to smile or wave (a potentially deadly act) in response to my acknowledgment.

I’m 19 stories off the ground, but there are hundreds of stories going on any time I look out the window. On day like this — where I’ve just written 10,000 words and read three-times that much — it’s a like a mental balm, looking down below and getting away from my own ambitions, concerns and questions for a while, and moving on to those of all the people below.

It’s goatertainment, old-man-ertainment, dangling-painter-in-my-window-ertainment, all contained within one massive, wall-sized screen.

While I may still prefer street-level adventures and interactions for the intellectually-stimulating side of travel, for the lazy, zoning-out brand that I need right now, this is perfect.

Since I reopened voting last week, I’ve already received several hundred really great pieces of advice, and I figure it would be a shame if I were to be the only one benefitting from them.

So to that end, here are some of the votes that have come in so far, along with the reasoning given by the voter (by the way, if you want an indication of which countries have the most votes for the first week, check out the graph in the photo up top):

Slovakia. Slovakia doesn’t get as much love as the Czech Republic.

Burkin Faso. Burkin Faso is the poorest country in the world, I´m interested in how you would survive there.

Bulgaria. Clean water, healthy food, friendly people, beautiful women. You may get married there.

Switzerland. Switzerland is a strange and very small country in the middle of Europe (geographically at least). 4 languages are spoken, the landscapes are breath-taking, there’s tons of chocolate, wine and cheeses to enjoy and each part is very different from the other. Not to mention it’s close to France, Italy, Germany and Austria.

I’m from Lausanne, so it’s my favorite town. It’s small and quite friendly, and offers a quick access to lovely areas by the lake (including Lavaux). Geneva is 60 km and 40 minutes away by train.

South Africa. Well you haven’t done Africa…and i just watched a youtube on cage diving.

Greece. It’s an incredibly inspiring country and I’ve been voting this shit for like a year now!! MAY GREECE WIN FUCKERS!!!

ahem*

Germany. There is a rich modern history there, one you can’t find anywhere else that’s so controversial. I think it would give you a greater understanding of human ethics. Oh, and great buildings.

United Kingdom. You need to come here, this country is in dire need of your amazingness!

Apart from that, we’re kinda cool :-) Plus we’re holding the Olympics next year! Thats got to be worth seeing and being a part of!

Its a small country, but home of King Arthur!

So you can travel to Lands End and see the end of the UK stopping by historic Stone Henge and London (I’m in Canary wharf.)

Travel up more to quaint Oxford and Cambridge for history and punting with a cider or beer.

Take a break to the Peak District to see the wildest forms of landscapes we have.

Go further up and hunt for the Loch Ness monster in Scotland and enjoy the Haggis.

Theres Wales! Search for the Dragon and enjoy the rain and sheep. Cross the Giants Causeway to Ireland, the Emerald Isle for Leprechauns and Guinness and get lost in the fairy tales.

We’re a cracking good country that everyone needs to visit at least once in their life time!

And now i need to get back to work, i get distracted by your website.

Have a good day dear sir!

Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan, with its awesome capital Baku, wonderful mountainous regions like Quba, Qabala…is a unique place to travel. Baku is a western city with eastern elements including its Old City, Maiden Tower, mosques or churches.
You will like it <3 for sure.

Georgia. Mountains.

A unique, ancient language with its own indecipherable writing system.

A large winemaking industry since forgotten by the West.

A culture that holds friendship as the noblest virtue requires that people be hospitable, almost to a fault.

Polyphonic, dagger-wielding choirs.

Adjika.

Selfishly: My chance to live vicariously through your posts, until I make my way to Tbilisi myself.

Best of luck!

Portugal. Dear Colin,

We need you for inspiration!

We Portuguese are the guys who spawned Magellan and Columbus (this one is debatable, but we like to keep a hand in this particular fray).

Yet it seems to me we’ve lost our sense of adventure and our world-traveling spirit. We are far too worried about our mortgages, our job security and whether (and how) we’ll be able to pay our ludicrously high national debt.

Our 20 year olds want to get MBA’s and good jobs. And who can blame them, when they look at the shambles we oldies have got ourselves into (I’m a young 50 my son is an old and wise 22).

But I say you are only young once – bring back the Backpackers-Guide-To-Europe lifestyle of my youth. So please, Colin, come and tell my son and his cronies what it’s all about.

What’s in it for you? A small but beautiful country; a new continent to explore; cheap living – at least by European standards; friendly people, many of whom speak English…and I’m sure you’ll be able to find a couple more things you’ll enjoy.

Canada. I don’t know.

Turkey. Its at a crossroads, has always influences from the east as well as the west. Its islamic but secular. The architecture would be great, the food is suppose to be fantastic and the people are said to enjoy the simple things in life.

Everyone that I know that has visited wants to go back there but I think living there immersed in the culture would be so much better than just visiting.

Israel. because colinisraeli amazing!!! ;~))) xoxoxox

Maldives. It’s a place I have to visit before the oceans swallow it up forever, it’s a must see on my list.

Croatia. Croatia is a pretty cool place. I’ve only been to Dubrovnik one day, but had the best pizza EVER there. My friend has been there 3x on sailing trips and loved it. He agrees about the pizza. The Dalmatian islands are supposed to be like the Riviera.

Singapore. Jim Rogers digs it. Derek Sivers digs it. There must be something great going on there. I’m curious how it compares to other places in terms of freedom from government interference.

Canada. Exile Lifestyle Crosses The World’s Biggest Country.

Colin, here’s your travel itinerary for Canada.

Victoria BC, ferry to Vancouver BC for a week or two.
Vancouver to Calgary AB to see cowboys and prairies.
Calgary Alberta to Yellowknife North West Territories.

Yellowknife is north of 60th parallel, has wicked northern lights, and serves caribou and muskox in their restaurants. Booming because of the Gold Rush. Yellowknife to Winnipeg Manitoba, party town Canada. Winnipeg to Toronto Ontario for world class city experience. Toronto to Montreal Quebec to step back in time to French Canada. Montreal to St. JOhns Newfoundland to dip your toe in the most eastern land point in North America.

I did it when I was 23. It’s an incredible country. Let me know if you make it to Toronto, I’ll make sure you have an amazing experience in my city.

Germany. BERLIN!!!

I’m living here currently for a year till 04/2012 and I find it one of the most awesome cities in the world. It’s so much fun and full of crazy and creative people, it might blow your mind.

I’d even offer to take you out to the legendary Berghain club. ;)

Seychelles. The Seychelles islands are my “emergency escape plan”. If something awful happens (ZOMBIE APOCOLYPSE!!), this is where I’m headed. I would absolutely love to hear what you have to say about it.

Creole is an easy enough language to learn. :)

Zimbabwe. last country on every list.

Mongolia. Because name any other country that almost conquered the world and they build a giant wall to keep them out. Without the Mongols pushing West we would have never had most of the modern science concepts the Muslims had. It also has Lake Bakal the largest in the world(Or deepest one of those) the people are sturdy and I can give you the first word to learn “Sembenot” Hello in Mongol.

Czech Republic. You inspired me to quit my life in Maine and move to Prague. So now I think it’s your turn!

Bhutan. Bhutan is the only country to measure happiness, and it has a GNH scale (Gross National Happiness). It is a beautiful nation tucked away in the Himalayas, and would give you a great opportunity to meet the interesting and peaceful people. Also, depending on which you are more interested in, you will be hard pressed to find somewhere better for either climbing or meditating and “finding yourself” so to speak.

Brazil. Do I really have to?

Brazil is not only one of the most beautiful countries of the world but is also a rising economy, with great people, lovely food and beaming with opportunities.

And I live here, too. ;-)

Gibraltar. Gibraltar’s small size (only 2.6 square miles!) presents the opportunity to explore a culture more intimately and with more detail. Instead of being being allowed to generalize about the society, you’ll be forced to pick it apart and approach the people and way of life with a fine toothed comb. Plus, the macaques are pretty, freaking cool.

Want to sound off and tell me where I should live next? Cast your vote!

I learned the streets of Buenos Aires, was awe-struck by the natural beauty of Christchurch, survived the sultry heat and daily downpours of Bangkok, explored the rich culture of Reykjavik, and am currently eating my weight in Indian and Bengali food here in Kolkata.

Each time I’ve moved, I’ve been guided by you and folks like you, and you’ve done well by me so far. Thank you for that.

And now the fun continues! I’m once again officially opening up voting for the next country I should move to!

A few notes:

I reset the voting forms a few weeks after I arrived in India, so if you voted after India was determined the winner last time around, but before the counter was reset, you’ll have to vote again if you want to be counted. Sorry about that: I found myself without a reliable net signal for the first few weeks I was here, and so was unable to take the voting link down.

Vote for any country in the world, though recognize that if I’ve lived in the country before (so far I’ve lived in Argentina, New Zealand, Thailand, Iceland and India, in addition to the US) I won’t be living there again for now, and if I can’t get into the country for whatever reason (think North Korea), I likewise won’t be able to honor your vote.

If you have a recommendation as to which city I should live in within the country you vote for, let me know in the comment section of the voting form! I would also love to know why you think that country would be the best option, so fill me in as to your rationale, if you have the time.

I’ll be spending a few months road tripping around the US after India and before whatever country wins the vote this time around.

Enough jibba-jabba; cast your vote in the form below! Send me someplace cool, and then tell your friends to come vote, too!

The sharp-eyed among you have probably noticed that I’ve changed up the look and feel of the site, in many cases making some difficult decisions, but doing so in exchange for better functionality and ease-of-use in the future.

My old design — which I lovingly built on top of a simple template from the early 2000′s — was getting more than a little cluttered, despite its minimalist veneer. The code was swiftly aging, the excessive amounts of plugins and hastily-written code I cobbled together to keep it functioning were starting to slow it down, and frankly I was just kind of bored with the look of it. My tastes have changed a bit since I first put it up.

So I decided to change it.

After a bit of personal back-and-forth with myself, I opted to snag something that is more future-proof this time, rather than opting for something old and simple that I would need to reconstruct (as is my usual habit).

Thankfully, I found a template that should serve me well until I do catch up in the development department and can build my own from scratch using the new methods that have become available. I like the look of it, the backend is solid (not a euphemism), and it elegantly handles a lot of the little issues I was having with the old site (trying resizing the window, for example, to see how it deals with small screens, like those found on tablets and smartphones).

I would like to note, though, that this new site design is still in its infancy, and I would love your input as to what could be done better. Does some aspect of the layout not make sense to you? Not finding something, or not finding it as easily as you should? I’d love any feedback you can provide, either in the comments, or in an email.

Retrospective

Since I’m in the process of updating the site, I thought it might be fun to do a bit of a retrospective on Exile Lifestyle and the iterations it’s gone through these past couple of years, since I started in way back in April of 2009.

The first iteration was built on top of a popular theme at that time called Arthemia. I customized the colors and rearranged the boxes a bit, but at that point in time I had very little experience with PHP, and my options were a little limited because of my ignorance. My direction was also a little more winding and random: I looked to other popular blogs at the time to see how they managed things, so I included just about everything they did (for example, categories) even if they didn’t really do me any good, because I figured that’s just how this blogging thing worked.

The next iteration came into being about 6 months later, and was a bit more sophisticated. I had learned a bit of PHP, so I was able to take an uber-minimal theme called Modio and customize the hell out of it, using the underlying structure, but keeping little else (it did provide a great deal of inspiration for me, though…until I found this theme and the other offerings by Upstart Blogger, I was convinced all themes would look alike, just with different graphics along the top).

I stuck a photo of myself in the sidebar because I wanted to add some color to the otherwise duo-chromatic scheme, and because I wanted to hit people with an explanatory image right away (young guy on beach on his laptop = young guy able to work form anywhere…see what I did there?).

The next iteration came over a year after I started the blog, sometime around June of 2010. I had just gotten some rocking’ new photos taken while in New Zealand, so I revamped the site to make use of those snapshots and to integrate an even simpler setup, hoping to point people to the important stuff right away, without any distractions. I replaced the image in the sidebar with a white-backgrounded-businessy-traveler-looking pic of me.

Fun Facts

Some random info-tidbits about the site:

For the first two weeks of its existence, Exile Lifestyle was called ’3rd Education,’ the idea being that I had gone through my first two educational experiences (school and succeeding in the business world), so it was time to set out and get my third education…life experiences, cultural relativism and street wisdom. You know, travelish, non-standard-lifestyle stuff.

My newsletter, by the way, is still called 3rd Education.

In the first iteration of the site I played around with Google ads, but after having them up for 5 minutes I took them down and promised myself I’d figure out another way to make the site a business venture, not just a hobby.

The bird logo (affectionately called ‘birdo’) that has adorned the site since the second iteration of the site was actually a slightly-modified illustration I did for a client back in LA before their company went under (though I added the suit and tie later). They were a socially-conscious t-shirt venture, and I made several other sketches for them before they tanked, one of which is now being used on a t-shirt on I Have No Shirt. I call it Umlaut Tortoise.

You know the little picture of me that used to be in the bottom of the sidebar? I put it there as a joke, then ended up keeping it because it seemed to soften the edges of some of the more confrontational posts I would write with its strangeness. On most browsers, my eyes (the image of me, that is) would look right at the title of the most recent blog post on the home page. That was not a mistake, and getting it to work that way took longer than I would like to admit.

Shortly after starting up Exile Lifestyle, I started up a sub-site called ‘Buy This Thinger’ through which I intended to make money curating a collection of cool stuff and earning affiliate money through Amazon. This idea was reborn in Flashpack, a project that I started over a year ago, and recently resurrected as a Tumblr blog where I review things I own and document things I want. All of this is evidence that 1) I have a penchant for strange domain names, and 2) minimalists like stuff, we just choose what we own very carefully.

I published my first ebook, Personal Branding, about a month after starting Exile Lifestyle. Free ebooks weren’t so common (outside of marketing circles, at least) back then, so even at a mere 50 pages, that ebook spiked my traffic like crazy and at this point has been downloaded well over 100,000 times.

The first three bloggers I met (via email) were Cody McKibben, Corbett Barr and Chris Guillebeau. All had been doing their thing a bit longer than I had, so I learned a lot from the get-go just by watching them. Thanks guys!

I’ve written more than a few posts that have led to some really angry emails and comments, but the three top anger-inducers include one where I told people to burn their résumés, one where I ridiculed the Law of Attraction, and one where I made fun of the Pickup Artist Community. There was another post about how I love the gay community that led to a bit of a standoff in the comments, but the duo who were scuffling ended up co-writing a guest post a week later about how to have a productive debate, rather than just arguing (did I mention that I have the greatest readers ever?).

Curious about some other aspect of Exile Lifestyle’s history? Or perhaps there’s some tale you’re hoping I’ll relate? Let me know in the comments, or shoot me an email!

Sometimes the changes are small — perhaps a move to a different department within the same company, or moving up the corporate ladder from Junior Whatever to Senior Whatever — and sometimes they are much larger, representing a fundamental shift in what you focus your attention on, and how your lifestyle and brain function.

I know this perhaps more than most people my age, as I’ve jumped from field-to-field without hesitation repeatedly in my 26 years; essentially whenever I felt the need, or started to feel constrained by the tools I had at my disposal.

Not counting one-off, career-non-specific jobs (like waiting tables and working at a bookstore), I started my professional career as a journalist, writing articles and columns for my school and local newspaper between attending classes. From there I segued into design work, while on the side I sold a few paintings (a budding career that never quite blossomed).

My design work forked off into the diverse paths of illustration and web development, the latter leading me to learn HTML, CSS and PHP, and eventually to take a job where I learned all about broadcast design and production, while the former had me designing t-shirts for a few different clothing companies.

The arsenal of skills I had built up (writing, design, illustration, development and production), along with a penchant for sociology and psychology, led me to branding, which in turn rekindled a previously dabbled-in interest for entrepreneurship.

My writing skills were once again resurrected when I started blogging (about entrepreneurship, initially), and eventually led to the lifestyle that I live now, where I leverage the branding skills for my entrepreneurial endeavors, blog to build relationships and audiences, and write books based on my travels and what I’ve learned along the way.

This quick (though rambly) summation of my work history is meant to illustrate how various fields of study can lead into and in fact support one another, should you choose to view them all as pieces of the same puzzle, rather than radically different pursuits, completely removed from each other.

Many of the most interesting people I’ve met are folks who have made some kind of radical transition, leading them to bring ideas and lessons from their previous craft into their new one, or people who are curious about everything, leading them to jump around from career path to career path willy-nilly, happily gobbling up whatever info and skill sets they can before moving on to something else.

We’re often told that in order to be truly great at something, we must specialize in it. We must invest 10,000 hours of study into that craft, or go to school for four to twelve years in order to master it.

Which is generally true, of course, but what if we spent 5,000 hours each on video game development and horticulture?

Or went to school to dual-major in architecture and electrical engineering, with a minor in food science?

Imagine the revelations that would emerge from someone capable of seeing the world (and solving problems from) such diverse perspectives!

I, for one, feel like the meandering career path I’ve taken has given me an advantage in each and every field that I’ve tried my hand at.

I’m able to approach writing from the standpoint of an entrepreneur, coming up with new business models that an author without that experience wouldn’t be as likely to develop. I’m able to approach entrepreneurship from the standpoint of a creative, building brands along with business models for optimal compatibility.

At the moment, I’m teaching myself to develop in Python (which is a behind-the-scenes language, compared to the more front-end dialects I’ve worked with before), and with every new bit of syntax and structure that I learn, I can’t help but think “Ah, I wonder how I’ll be able to use THAT in some unexpected way! Maybe this will help me publish, and that will help me manage brand resources…”

Consider doing the same. Or at least imagine what it would be like to leverage your current (no doubt epic) skills in another playground.

Think about some field that you’d like to learn more about and then browse the web for tutorials or pick up a book on the subject.

Try your hand at it and don’t be afraid to do things ‘the wrong way.’ Although it’s good to know the rules of a craft, with your unique standpoint and ignorance of convention, you may be able to come up with an even righter way.