1. How much money would I need to be “rich”?

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  2. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
    Steve Jobs

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  3. Many of us can make more money. None of us can make more time — the latter should be treated with the respect it deserves.

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  4. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
    Bertrand Russell, A Liberal Decalogue

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  5. ‘Kindness’ covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.
    Roger Ebert

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  7. I wrote these comments in 2004. What hit me next was the person I was writing this to, and eventually I made my way home. My only regret is that I waited so long to do it. 

    I am now thirty. I have a little more grey and I feel a little more adult. I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress, especially in the last six months, and yet I still feel like I have a long way to go. You only know how bad you are at something when you start to get better at it. 

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  8. How schools kill creativity.

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  9. “No one shall bomb us into silence or shoot us into silence.

    Nothing will frighten us out of being Norway.

    The answer to violence is even more democracy.”

    Norway is one of my favorite places on earth for reasons like this. 

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  10. How did the hipster burn his mouth? He started eating pizza before it was cool.

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  11. In Dick Tracy, the future was one where our phones were integrated into our wristwatches. Now, our watches are kept on our phones.

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  12. For those that are as bummed as I am that Jet Blue will not be offering their All You Can Jet promotion this year, there’s still fun to be had flying multi-city itineraries for next to nothing. 

    Though it’s not as straightforward, applying for credit cards with award bonuses or buying miles outright and maximizing their potential can give you a similar experience to that which you would get with AYCJ. 

    Here’s a great post about using oneworld award miles to fly around the world for cheap. Citi recently offered 75,000 American Airlines miles on new credit card signups which may still be available. 

    Here’s a series of excellent posts on using British Airways miles to fly multiple stopovers with any oneworld airline for the cost of one award. Chase recently offered 100,000 BA miles, and will likely offer it again.

    US Airways is offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles. You can use these with any Star Alliance carrier and are allowed one stopover per award. Here’s a great post on how to maximise those miles. 

    I’ll miss the unforgettable experiences I had with JetBlue and AYCJ, and I hope they bring it back in the future as there are more things I’d like to do that I otherwise never would have, but there are other adventures to be had with other carriers. 

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  13. If you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.

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  14. Mostly good tips, but I disagree with a few. 

    • I’d never suggest someone eat at Subway in Norway, or anywhere else if they can help it. A discount grocery store (like Lidl) is cheaper, and there’s always better, local options. Hostels usually offer free breakfast, you can horde some of that for lunch, and there’s probably communal dinners and free leftovers in the fridge. Also, most don’t check if you’re actually staying there.
    • Don’t avoid “expensive” countries. I spent two weeks in Scandinavia and the UK for only a few hundred dollars. If I never visited these countries because they were “too expensive”, I would’ve missed out on some of my favorite experiences. Eat grocery food, sleep on trains, and visit free sights.
    • A laptop isn’t really necessary unless you need to work. A decent smartphone will do you fine.
    • A credit card with no exchange fees (like Capital One) is your best bet for purchases. It also makes it easier to keep track of your expenses and earns points/miles for future trips. Definitely have cash on hand in both local and popular currencies (USD, EUR, etc) but don’t use it unless you have to. 
    • If you do need to take out money, become familiar with your bank’s partners around the world. For example, Bank of America lets you take out money from Deutche Bank and Barclays ATMs for free. This is the cheapest, easiest way to withdraw money in local currency.

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