Westerly, Rhode Island 2018

Never Settle Down

Dear friend,

I’ve been living on the road with Cindy the last 2.5 years; “location independent”, “digital nomadically“, professional house squatting, couch surfing, or intermittent living; whatever you want to call it. What have I learned since then? A simple idea:

Never settle down.

Why settle down?

Westerly, Rhode Island 2018
Westerly, Rhode Island 2018

Reasons for “settling down”:

  1. Home for children
  2. Material comforts at home
  3. Societal expectations

Besides this, I’m not sure the benefits of “settling down”.

When I think about the human spirit, I believe we don’t have “settling” in our DNA. We desire to explore, conquer, and to take the unknown. We want to exert our power as explorers. We descended from our adventurous nomadic forefathers; yet somehow we have fallen victim to the comforts of modern suburban living, with a 2.5 car garage, 2 dogs, a steady income, gadgets and gizmos which confuse and complicate our lives. We have become victims to comfort, stability, and the tyranny of choice.


The upside of not settling down

To be clear, I’m not telling you how to live your life. You dictate how to live your own life. I’m just sharing my own experience and thoughts, to let you know:

There are many different options to living your life; many which aren’t mainstream or conventional.

The concept of “never settling down” is a contrarian way of living and thinking. And it’s flexible.

For example, I don’t think the concept of “never settling down” means to never have kids or live in a house. I believe it’s more of a philosophical concept:

Don’t make comfort, stability and predictability the aim or goal of your life.

Once you own a home, a nice car, and have money in the bank; then what? Tools are obviously useful to us, but they are not ends in themselves. We acquire tools in order to create, build, and make new things!

Thus ask yourself,

What do I desire to create, build, or make in life? And which tools do I need to make this possible?


Obviously I don’t have the answer for you, but for myself this is what I’ve discovered for myself:

  1. Comfort is the enemy: Discomfort is what leads me to come up with new ideas and to innovate. Thus by not settling into a home with a 30-year mortgage allows me to keep dreaming, to keep exploring, and to continue to come up with new ideas.
  2. Material things are overrated: The only real useful tools I’ve discovered are “content creation” tools; laptop, tablet, camera, phone, etc. A car is for transportation, not as a way to become “happier” in life. Owning a home is overrated; I prefer to live in cheap hotels (Saigon), to airbnb, or just crash with my moms. As long as I have eggs, coffee, and wifi; I have all my “necessities”.
  3. There is no ultimate objective truth, answer, or goal: Keep setting the bar higher for yourself, in terms of mental, physical, and philosophical strength. Keep experimenting with your photography and art. Seek to live to be 120 years old in excellent mental and physical health, and never stop exploring. And certainly, never settle.

BE BOLD,
ERIC