Comment by paganel
2 months ago
Not the OP, but after a certain age (mid 30s in my case) traveling just becomes cumbersome, i.e. when you realize that there are no big insights about oneself that can be gained via traveling that can’t also be gotten back at home, surrounded by friends/family and a couple of good books.
This sounds an awful lot like you're generalising from your experiences to other people's.
I'm also in my mid 30s and I still find travelling eye opening in a way that books are not (and I do read a lot, including when I travel). And on my last trip I met a retired couple who spent three weeks traveling in their car and they told me they used to have a boat with which they'd sail around the world.
Well, i beg to differ. And i'm older than that. In my view, we have a very limited time to live, and experiencing the amazing planet we're on in all its variety is one of the best things one can do.
You're just scratching the surface of said amazing planet, you're not experiencing anything of value that you couldn't have experienced back home. There's a real good essay on the emptiness of tourism written by Siegfried Kracauer back in the 1930s, just as mass tourism was beginning to take off, Travel and Dance [1] is called, it is still highly relevant almost 100 years later.
[1] English version from a spammy website here: https://www.academia.edu/25240089/Siegfried_Kracauer_Travel_... , Spanish version from a real website here: https://antroposmoderno.com/antro-version-imprimir.php?id_ar...
> you're not experiencing anything of value that you couldn't have experienced back home
That's an incredibly arrogant view of the world and doesn't match my experience. But you need time.
In particular when you experience the world by sailboat, you get a glimpse of its true size.
I agree with both of you. I've felt both ways on the subject and have been extremely lucky while traveling but also have witnessed the hollowness.
I see we still haven't stopped telling other people what they're supposed to enjoy or not.
Amen! Travelling is just virtue signalling and social posturing. I've travelled the world, way too much for both business and "pleasure" and there's nothing new, no hidden insights, that I couldn't have gotten at home.
I advice all people I meet to stop travelling, and to spend more time with themselves and explore their inside, instead of being captivated by the outside, like a child by a new shiny toy.
The world would truly be a better place if that ever happened.
There are people traveling the world all their life because that is what they love to do.
I agree with you. Traveling is overrated. After a while there is nothing eye opening about it.