2023-09-16

• Stating it here for posterity. A dating app that connects people with American citizenship to people with EU citizenship. Solves many problems. Hopefully someday it exists.
  
• A while back, I read this PG essay about the idea that places “whisper” messages to people about what is important. He gives some interesting examples. In New York, the city repeatedly whispers “you should make more money”. I found this example, pretty uncontroversial, since everyone talks about how expensive everything is in nyc (e.g. rent, drinks at bars, dining out, etc). He also mentions Cambridge, MA (home of Harvard, MIT) as a place that repeatedly whispers “you should be smarter.” I haven’t spent much time in those places, but certainly wouldn’t be surprised if those ideas were implicit in much of what happens in that particular college town. And then he mentions Silicon Valley, which he claims whispers “you should be more powerful.” This one was a little harder for me to grasp intuitively, but I think it does ultimately line up with the ideas 1) SV is the land of startups, 2) startups are trying to “change the world” and 3) changing the world requires “power.” Overall, I found the essay interesting and an enjoyable read. I’d recommend it, if just for acquainting yourself with this idea that “places can send subtle messages about what you should consider important.” Recently, and the reason I bring this essay up, is that I had a conversation with a friend about the concept of “travel” and I think PG’s idea about “whispered ideas” presents an interesting lens on the topic of travel. Basically, I realized that you can distinguish “travel” from “tourism” using this “whispered ideas” concept. Specifically, you “travel” to a place when you are familiar enough with it to identify the “whispered messages” that place sends to its inhabitants. Travel is the act of going to a place and listening. Tourism, by contrast, is when you take the implicit messages of where you are from and apply them in a new place. You are not really “listening” in that case, and thus not learning about other ways to live (which is roughly what people seem to think is the highest ideal of “travel” as a concept). Looking at my own experiences visiting faraway lands, I think this perspective is actually pretty consistent with phases of my life where my travels were more “tourism” focused vs more recent phases that were more “travel” focused. In the past, when traveling, I would rush around to places considered “historically important” or “fun” or whatever, and try to cram as many as possible into the time I had. And those experiences were often quite good! With that said, what was going on there does map pretty cleanly to the idea that I was bringing the implicit messages from my life in the US (e.g. “you should have as many experiences as possible to live a fun, meaningful life”) and applying it in a new place, aka tourism. I contrast this with more recent travels. At some point, I stopped really planning events during my travels and took more of a “let things unfold” strategy. Notably, my trip to Indonesia looked like this. I think that was maybe my first foray into “listening” to my surroundings and letting that guide my travels. Though, I will note that there were still some elements of “we gotta rush to get here at this time or something bad will happen” which made it less “listening” focused (the main “bad thing” was this concept “it will get dark, and it’s supposed to rain, and we don’t know our way around on these mopeds”, which frankly are pretty legitimate concerns). Anyways, the other place that really stands out as a “travel” experience as opposed to a “tourist” experience, is my time in this village in the south of France. I think I’ve been here long enough, and spent enough time metaphorically “listening” to the rhythms of life, that I have a decent grasp on the “whisperings” of this part of the world. The main one is something like “you should slow down” or “there’s no need to rush.” This is a powerful, and often uncomfortable, message when coming from places like New York or Silicon Valley, that often send the opposite message. But I think that’s also why it’s so important and special to be here. This is the only place I have in my life where I feel comfortable doing nothing at all. There is no “should” here for me. It’s quite liberating, once you settle into it. And I think that kind of captures a lot of my current perspective on what is valuable about travel at all. There’s a lot of power in a whisper, there’s a lot of value in listening.
  
• Hmm another extension of the “places whisper messages that are important” is applying this to people. Expanding on that is left as an exercise to the reader.

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