Escape Everything

[Jin+Guice]

A book by Robert Wringham of New Escapology fame. I liked the New Escapologist stuff and I enjoy Wringham's writing style, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed the book. If you've read the magazine, there's not a ton of new information. There are a couple of passages I recognized as being taken straight from other magazine articles, but the book isn't strictly a repurposing of the magazine. It's more of a synthesis of all of the concepts. If you've read all 13 editions of the magazine, and only want new information, the book is probably not worth reading. However, if you don't want to read all of the magazine articles, the book touches all major points of Wringham's philosophy in fewer words.

There's a small section about Jacob, who wrote two articles for the magazine. The book briefly mentions ERE the book, blog and forum.

For those unfamiliar with Wringham's ideas, they are similar to ERE, but with much more focus on quitting your job and getting free and much less planning. I'd place my own semi-ERE philosophy in between the two. Wringham is much more focused on not working than I am. The closest forum allstar to his philosophy is 7w5.

I'd highly recommend the book to anyone unfamiliar with Wringham's philosophy and other writing. Wringham is a writer, comedian and (occasional) librarian. It's refreshing to read about extreme frugality from the perspective of a non-numbers person. I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about how it's not necessary to save up a bunch of money to escape an unhappy situation at work. I talk about that here because I want to share my ideas with an audience who take as a given that a more frugal way of life is, in most ways, a better way of life. Wringham makes this assumption too, but he's not a FIRE writer. Anytime anyone brings fresh ideas to what's possible with extreme frugality, I'm interested.

[7Wannabe5]

Okay, I am obviously going to have to read this now.

I think there is a difference between how INTJs and ENTPs view "the cave." Mostly I think it is due to the fact that ENTPs are more okay with sometimes sinking to underclass to get out rather than absolutely having to rise to uber-class to get out.

[horsewoman]

Very interesting! I've been reading the New Escapologist blog on off for years and enjoyed RWs ideas very much. If I remember correctly I was introduced to the blog via Tom Hodgkinson, whose books "How To Be Idle" and "The Idle Parent" are long time favourites. I really need to check if those two books are already featured in this sub-forum!

Edited to add: yes of course, they are, at least "How to be idle" :)

[Jin+Guice]

@7w5: This may also be how I see you sifted through my own filter, because Wringham is a straight dude very close to my age. Interesting observation about ENTP vs INTJ.

@horsewoman: I read "How to be Idle" awhile ago. I prefer New Escapologist and Escape Everything, but this may again be because Wringham is closer to my age.

[7Wannabe5]

This may also be how I see you sifted through my own filter, because Wringham is a straight dude very close to my age.

No, you were right, we are quite similar in our outlook. Main difference would be that he is more anxious/turbulent, less math/science oriented and less maternal. We even shared a very similar first experience of fathoming the world beyond "the cave." He describes wandering around the vast hidden spaces behind the shiny store fronts of the mall where he worked as a teenager. When I was 12, I explored the creek into cavernous storm drain system underneath the shiny new subdivision where I lived and was doomed to signal social level to other girls through mechanism of designer jean labels. A few years later I was able to make similar escape by dating older "burn-out" boys who had no clue about designer jean labels, so assumed my name was "Gloria" after they checked out my azz.

I bought and read the book immediately, because I am currently camped out debating whether I am really going to accept offer of full-time job if proffered vs. just driving my little Smart car down to Florida and taking my chances on next roll of dice vs. ??? So, it was like the perfect ice cream sundae of a book offered at just the right time. I especially enjoyed his tirade against bureaucracy and his take on the good life. Because he is more man of letters than numbers, I think this book might be of interest to anybody on this forum who wants to get beyond metrics towards a level of lifestyle design more directly in alignment with personal values. OTOH, his advice on making money outside of the "cave" is basically just a round up of known techniques suggested by usual suspect crowd of other gurus, including Jacob. However, I was struck by how his estimate of how much money you need to save IF your expenses are already below 1.5 jacobs and IF it is your intention to make money through creative work, low-key self-employment or part-time gig and you are willing to tolerate some likelihood of failure/having to wash/rinse/repeat was almost exactly in alignment with my estimate/experience (adjusted for the fact that I had kids to support during previous attempts.) A frugal person with no dependents who just wants to be free of full-time 40 year employment by other, really only needs to save up about $20,000 before making escape, EVEN if details of survival after escape plan have not yet been fully fleshed out, because $20,000 is enough to survive/thrive at 1 Jacob level, do some inexpensive world travel, decompress on a beach for 3 months, and still have plenty of time left to figure out how best to make 1.5 Jacobs per year moving forward.

Since personality types, experience and situations do vary, people will either feel compelled to let go of current ring as soon as next ring swings close enough, or not. Funny thing is that reading this book actually encouraged me towards making more conservative choice in the moment, because it reaffirmed my confidence that I have the ability to get out of any trap into which I might temporarily choose to lock myself.

[ertyu]

Because he is more man of letters than numbers, I think this book might be of interest to anybody on this forum who wants to get beyond metrics towards a level of lifestyle design more directly in alignment with personal values.

sounds like my infp ass - sadly the russians haven't pirated it yet

[Jin+Guice]

@7w5: I'm glad you enjoyed the book. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in semi-ERE, because he doesn't just take for granted that it's necessary to save up a lifetime of money before you do what you want. He does mention this, but only in passing in the short section about Jacob and ERE. He never says this explicitly, but I'd describe his method as "plot to develop income streams" with "return to work" seen as a possible plan in case of failure of this plan. He does not see this failure as catastrophic but merely as a chance to reflect and try again.

He is a little short on the how-to of income generation, just as I feel the ERE book is a little short on the how-to of investing. However, I'd speculate that, like Jacob, he'd justify this by saying this part of the plan defies a simple step by step methodology and requires some ingenuity and accounting for personal preferences.

[classical_Liberal]

Have either of you feisted your eyes on this? How to Retire Without Money by Bob Belmont.

Published in 1958, it reads very much like the New Escapologist Mag's, I haven't read the book.

Here's a link to read for free:
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001350371

I've read through most of it a few years ago. The Intro chapters feel like they could have been written by Winghem, or even Jacob, in another time. He even goes into detail trying to redefine the word "retire" (sound familiar?) The "meat" of the book can either get boring or fascinating depending on your interest in how our anticonsumistic peers of two generations ago were living. The author goes into example, after example from his own life and from the lives of people he has encountered in his travels. Basically providing anecdotes of various geoarbitrage, and what we would call today "lifestyle gigs", to show how people were sustaining a low consumption, freedom based lifestyle. The final chapters get a bit into general mindsets and basic understanding for creating wealth and income streams. Kind-of a basic how to think in starting your own small business or in investing.

In any event, it's a fascinating display of how popular concepts of today; FIRE, minimalism, anti-consumerism, lifestyle businesses, etc, are really not new.

[ertyu]

I started reading it, and "the average american is lucky to retire at 65, if ever" is in the 6th or 7th line of the book as a common refrain - in 1958. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

ps: whoa that book schooled me well in chapter 3. Definitely still relevant. Recommended to anyone.

pps: I have been using this website https://www.saving.org/inflation/inflat ... &year=1958 to get a sense for the magnitude of the numbers in today's terms and it's amazing how sweet the geoarbitrage used to be in those days. Globalization has been closing the geoarbitrage gap. As someone currently trying to take advantage of it, working in one hellhole in order to be able to afford not working in another, it's interesting to compare snapshots. Anyone thinking of relying on geoarbitrage over the very long term is thus well advised to consider the direction in geoarbitrage trends.

[jacob]

For those needing the motivation for a more immediate escape and damn the torpedoes, there's also this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Immediat ... B00NP4U986
The author used to be active here.

+1 on the geoarbitrage and the inflation adjustment. I presume those full time housekeepers in Spanish willing to work for $78/month (in 2020 dollars) are long gone. And the "know many people who live on $100/month" comment. That is $900/month today. You can still find these [$78/month] prices around the world but you'd have to stick with the corresponding level of development to Spain in the 1950s, say.

[ertyu]

Looked into it. Not sure I subscribe to their definition of "retirement" though. To me, the crux of the issue is freedom, and as long as economic necessity dictates that I must undertake some activity specifically for the purpose of cash generation that I wouldn't have undertaken otherwise, I am not free, regardless of whether I am being forced to work for another or whether I must struggle to come up with neverending hustles/keep a small business afloat.

[chenda]

Reminds me of a great blog post by mikebos, who lived in the desert for a year and spent only a few $1000. The pictures aren't showing on his blog anymore but it's a great read.

http://lackingambition.com/?p=423

[Alphaville]

Reminds me of a great blog post by mikebos, who lived in the desert for a year and spent only a few $1000. The pictures aren't showing on his blog anymore but it's a great read.

http://lackingambition.com/?p=423

I live in New Mexico, and have issues with that article. Yes it's poetic and nicely written and inspiring, don't get me wrong. But the desert is harsh, the flies that follow cattle and lay eggs in their dung bite hard and bite often, cottontail rabbits can carry tularemia, toxoplasmosis and papillomaviruses (see: the legendary jackalope), and the loneliness can be maddening. Tarantulas are cool, and rattlers won't bug you unless you bug them; it's the black widows and brown recluses that can make you really sick. Not that you'd find a black widow in every corner, but just saying: tarantula schmantula. Worry about the ticks.

While the beauty of the place is captivating, it can also deceive you. We still have the bubonic plague, and the fleas of prairie dogs carry it.

I want to hear him write about the times he shivered alone with a fever, when he ate something that wrecked his intestines, how often did he go to sleep hungry, and how long it would take for the infected fly bites to heal. I'm not trying to glorify comfort here, I just want to avoid glossing over nature's little horrors just because a beautiful purple sky is so compelling.

I was a homesteader for a number of years, lived for a long time without power lines or running water, and really did the experiment, so I can say first-hand that living close to the natural state is *hard.* Thoreau lasted 2 months in Walden, this guy lasted a year with 2 motor vehicles at his disposal. The Mennonite neighbors probably have a nice life there, but they work work work work work work work work work...

I still have the cabin in the mountain and might retire there some day, or maybe not.

[chenda]

@Alphaville Interesting to hear your experiences. He used to post regularly on the forum and seemed genuine, but he has not posted for many years. (Hopefully the plague did'nt get him

I personally would not live without plumbing, though I find these stories interesting.

[Alphaville]

@chenda: Yeah, best wishes to him wherever he might be. Homelessness is a real problem in my state.

Re, plumbing: originally we had pipes and a septic tank but no running water proper, so we had to truck it there, flush with buckets, etc. Solar power was for lights and a very primitive satellite internet. Heating was from chopping wood and making fires—our stove wasn’t great for cooking so we used propane (also trucked).

Over the years we’ve improved the place and made it easier to live there, but learned first-hand that the economic law of comparative advantage is real. When it comes to production, it’s more efficient to specialize and trade than to try to make everything yourself—even if you can make everything yourself.

So now we live in a city again, and the best thing of all is... fast, reliable and cheap internet! And yes, I still DIY a lot of things I enjoy doing, but not everything. Human cooperation is very powerful.

[jacob]

@Alphaville - That desert experiment was a long time ago and not associated with homelessness. He built his FI buying cheap fixer-upper rentals in the North East in the early 2010s. He also worked as a lineman before getting into some kind of law degree program at Harvard. As far as I know he dropped off the radar around 2015 ... or maybe just changed his name, etc.

[Alphaville]

Ah! Good to know. My overarching concern, I suppose, having done a similar experiment (and yes the stars are great, and you can read under moonlight), is that in the urge to escape the zoo of civilization we might end up in a different kind of cage.

A mild case (almost me): being stuck in a homestead you no longer want to inhabit because you have no alternative. An extreme case: Chris McCandless, starving to death in Alaska.

It’s good to always have ways out

[jennypenny]

Wringham posted about the book while he was writing it ... viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5503

[ertyu]

thanks @jp that was before my time on the forum and i loved reading his posts

[7Wannabe5]

To me, the crux of the issue is freedom, and as long as economic necessity dictates that I must undertake some activity specifically for the purpose of cash generation that I wouldn't have undertaken otherwise, I am not free, regardless of whether I am being forced to work for another or whether I must struggle to come up with neverending hustles/keep a small business afloat.

I was having the thought that a thread (or yet another thread) on the topic of what "freedom", "independence", and/or "liberty" means to different members of this forum might be warranted. For instance, from my perspective, the notion you expressed here could be infinitely regressed to include not being "free" if you have to bother to brush your own teeth or use arm to move food from bowl to mouth. I mean, in my experience, within the sphere of total autonomy of self-employment, having to hustle to make some money to pay the tax man is no different from having to hustle up a date in order to get laid or having to hustle to pick the berries before the birds eat them. Nothing worth having in life just falls like manna from the sky, no matter what your net worth line currently reads. OTOH, maybe you are feeling like most of what you want to do is something that might not generate any money at all while taking up a lot of time/energy, for instance "art", and even 16 hours/week devoted to employment by other or self-employment would impinge on the clean white space you will require. I would suggest that if you made your list of such pursuits more concrete, you might discover that just putting aside enough money to give you two years to devote might be enough. Two years is a very long time to spend in a clean white space without accomplishing anything.

For me, having to hustle is not a problem that feels like a lack of freedom and failing at hustling is only boundaried by problems such as being too chicken-shit to sleep in my car and too weak to haul myself up on the side of a dumpster and too lacking in skill to hunt/dress a deer etc.etc. Whereas, being bound by contract(s) to sit in a cubicle for 40 hours/week absolutely feels like lack of freedom to me.