)I completely agree with @5to9 that in many instances the word "vagabonding" could be changed to "ERE" without altering the meaning of the sentence. I also like @JennyPenny's mention of "vagabonding" as a kind of bridge between chapters, and an ERE taster.
To me, and I suspect others, an ERE-lifestyle is made considerably more palatable with the promise of travel. Along the lines of @theanimal's quote, I travel very lightly (well, what I consider lightly - i.e. handluggage only for a month-long trip) in part because it is more cost-effective (not only does it cost more to bring a full suitcase on a plane, but you can avoid having to pay for late check-outs or exorbitant fees for storing your luggage if you make your bags easy to carry), but also because I feel a lot freer when not being physically burdened by too many things. The realisation of this while traveling convinced me to follow the same principles in the rest of my life. (Traveling with too much stuff is a pet hate of mine... I very much liked Potts' argument on p. 67 where he points out that "you will be traveling into a world of people who have pretty much the same day-to-day needs as you do" so you don't need to carry everything with you.)
I have long agreed with the list of variables @jacob outlines in ch. 1 of ERE - in order to make ERE happen, the things you have power over are 1) increasing your dissatisfaction with the present, 2) strengthening your vision of the future, 3) building a plan to get from present to future, and 4) lowering the perceived cost of the plan. Ch. 1 of Vagabonding views work as a way of declaring your own independence (later drawing on Coupland's notion of an "anti-sabatical"). I don't think these ideas are incompatible at all. As is stated in ch. 2 "Earning your freedom, of course, involves work - and work is intrinsic to vagabonding for psychic reasons as much as financial ones. To see the psychic importance of work, one need look no further than people who travel the world on family money". I know that disagreements over the definition of "retired" abound, but equally, I don't think that someone who "retires" on a trust fund is retired in the same sense as one who EREs.
There are some good money-related tips in this book that made me think of travel in a new light. For example, the fact that most cheap hotels and restaurants etc. tend to be locally owned, so your tourist dollars are more likely to support the local economy if you visit such places rather than patronising trans-national hotels and fast food chains.
I enjoyed Potts' stories from past travelers - helpful reflections in taking a stoic approach (may I never complain about customs procedures again after reading about the ordeals some travelers had to go through, writhing through dung to appease royalty!)
@JennyPenny, I was slightly uncomfortable with the author's coverage of female travelers too. There was something in particular about the line "Feminist theory, after all, is largely useless in conservative cultures" that bothered me, but I may be misreading it.
The discussions of 'authenticity' were interesting, and reminded me of How to Travel the World on $50 a Day (many aspects of this book did actually). I very much agree with considering other earthlings "your global neighbors", and with Potts' caution not to collect friendships and experiences like souvenirs (another reason I don't agree with how sites like Facebook frame and quantify relationships). Potts' point about there being a limited difference between the 'tourist' who goes to Egypt only to laze by the pool eating pizza and the 'traveler' who goes to Egypt only to smoke dope and eat felafel caused me to reevaluate some of my thoughts above. I do agree with the quote from Leroi Jones that luxury is a way of being comfortably ignorant though, and I think this applies not just to travel but to life in general.