Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

[AxelHeyst]

Peter Lindberg's article Overwise, underlived today seemed to fit here best.

“Overwise.” What a good word. I’ll understand it as having excessive knowledge about living while lacking the embodied wisdom from the lessons of doing things, making mistakes, and being foolish.

An adjacent phrase: “underlived,” which I’ve seen defined as “to live in an overcautious or unfulfilling manner.” While the underlived are not always overwise, the overwise are always underlived. The lived do not have time for the excessive thinking that leads to overwisdom.

[Western Red Cedar]

I recently heard an interview with Daniel Troia about a film he made about cycling across the US with no food or money. Here is a trailer for the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8s_1p09P60

"We Are All In This Together" traces Daniel Troia's cross-country bike journey with no food, no money and search for human connection. The film captures the interactions that Troia has with the people who lend a helping hand and shows that those who face the most adversity in their lives, often have the most to give.

Here is the interview I heard:

https://rolfpotts.com/podcast/bicycling-the-usa/

He also has a film available on YouTube about his tour through Europe (Two Wheels to Freedom):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Bw-6gYdqNw

[Ego]

What a nice kid!

Back in the early 90s, Mrs. Ego and I went to the author talk and signing at a local bookstore for The Kindness of Strangers, the book that motivated him to do his journey. I remember leaving the bookstore really troubled by the story he told. While the message was inspiring, I couldn't get past the fact that he was begging for help, mostly from people who did not have the means to help themselves.

Basically, this kid did the same thing, but I like him and I like what he did. I am not sure why the two strike me as different. Anyway... good for him!

[Western Red Cedar]

While the message was inspiring, I couldn't get past the fact that he was begging for help, mostly from people who did not have the means to help themselves.

Basically, this kid did the same thing, but I like him and I like what he did. I am not sure why the two strike me as different. Anyway... good for him!

They discuss this dynamic a little in the interview with Rolf Potts. His plan for riding across the US was to rely heavily on dumpster diving, and to a lesser extent a network of friends, people on social media, and the broader cycling community.

They talked about the fact that those with the least to offer were often the first to offer up help. He wouldn't even be asking for anything, but other homeless would offer food or water when they saw him on the street. After talking with some of them, he realized that it was important that he accept their help, because it was a way in which they could be of service and maintain some of their own humanity.

[Ego]

I look forward to following this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q5C7sCVoac

[Western Red Cedar]

Some inspiration from Casey Neistat. 17 years pursuing the impossible dream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IiTdSnmS7E

And a follow up reminder to Do Hard Things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StMltAX0mp0

[zbigi]

Some inspiration from Casey Neistat. 17 years pursuing the impossible dream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IiTdSnmS7E

And a follow up reminder to Do Hard Things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StMltAX0mp0

Personally, I'm not inspired. Too much of a Goggins vibe to this guy - "do hard, pointless things for narcissistic reasons". At least he doesn't do Goggins' self-hate.

For comparison, this is someone I find inspiring:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki

He voluntarily got locked up in Auschwitz during WWII so that he could learn in details what was going on there. While he was in the camp, he organized an underground resistance movement, consisting of hundreds of inmates. After he gathered enough information, he escaped, and wrote a report on what he saw, which was the first source of information on Holocaust available to the Allies. Shortly after the end of the war, he again did a similar thing - he was sent by Polish government in exile (residing in London) to report on the doings of Soviet-backed communist government that took over Poland.

[7Wannabe5]

Yeah, I also like me some spreadsheets, and I think the journey is the point of any of these difficult metric-based challenges, but running is such an obvious choice. I don't know if you would ever see anybody on this forum want to take on Elon Musk in the most children by multiple wives challenge. Although, the human I know of IRL with highest ranking (15/3) was an engineer by profession, and he made the kids I knew put themselves through college by working at fish factories in the summer. So, more of a "Cheaper By The Dozen" frugal type. According to an Existential Risk expert who was recent guest on Nate Hagen's videocast, the original E.R. guys defined an existential risk as being anything that would prevent humans from spreading out across the galaxies, which kind of makes sense from an extremely long-term perspective, and/or if you consistently tend towards Maximization in Optimization mode. Obviously, this is not true of typed as INTj Musk, because he also wants to set a record for Minimizing government spending. Maybe ENTJ type would be the most consistent Maximizer? Dunno. People are weird, but they do tend to stay fairly consistent in their form of weirdness.

[AxelHeyst]

Any time someone puts down or comparisons someone else's post in this thread, I'm going to post a Goggins and/or Jocko inspiration-porn video.

I worked out to this video today. And it felt great.