I appreciated the perspective in the article just having taken my first overseas vacation with my kids a week ago. There are overstated benefits and pros and cons and costs to the thing. How much of post-travel glorification is reflexive self defense of sunk cost psychology?
But the article was a bit more of a thoughtful rant than a capturing the essence of the travel and its trade offs.
Two thoughts it doesn’t capture:
Travel in almost all cases broadens your perspective of what life is (or was) like for others, or could be like for you. The broadening of perspective you get from, say, books, is similar in a way but just… different.
The type and degree of broadening you get can be different depending on duration, how and why you travel (vacation, visiting friends, volunteer work serving others, business) and what you do (touristy, backcountry, live with locals, museum focus, food focus, nightlife focus, outdoor focus, bucketlist focus) etc. Are all those of equal value? Are none of those of any value and they are all just vanity on the way to death?
Second, there is also an aspect of “adventure” to travel. The traveler goes into the unknown in hopes of something and returns. Is adventure good or pointless? Is it true “the journey is the reward” (Steve Jobs quote) or is it all about outcomes as the article author implies?
Anyway it was a good rant but something better could be written on the subject.
But the article was a bit more of a thoughtful rant than a capturing the essence of the travel and its trade offs.
Two thoughts it doesn’t capture:
Travel in almost all cases broadens your perspective of what life is (or was) like for others, or could be like for you. The broadening of perspective you get from, say, books, is similar in a way but just… different.
The type and degree of broadening you get can be different depending on duration, how and why you travel (vacation, visiting friends, volunteer work serving others, business) and what you do (touristy, backcountry, live with locals, museum focus, food focus, nightlife focus, outdoor focus, bucketlist focus) etc. Are all those of equal value? Are none of those of any value and they are all just vanity on the way to death?
Second, there is also an aspect of “adventure” to travel. The traveler goes into the unknown in hopes of something and returns. Is adventure good or pointless? Is it true “the journey is the reward” (Steve Jobs quote) or is it all about outcomes as the article author implies?
Anyway it was a good rant but something better could be written on the subject.