Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?

I'm going to download the book to get some travel ideas / tips... going to have a gap year after my degree (starting this summer!)
I made a donation now, and some more once I've actually read it - I believe in giving value to people, especially those who give value to me.

I did this yesterday in fact: the awesome game _'World of Goo',_ which had a massive problem with piracy, is letting you pay what you want.

On Apple, I don't like them either because they cover things up (heard about the exploding iPhone anyone), and aren't open with apps etc like Android is. When you think about it, if many people are jailbreaking their iPhone, doesn't that tell you something? They tell us it's impossible for Macs to get viruses. Which is nonsense of course... we just need enough Macs out there for it to become profitable for virus-writers and there we go. Windows is probably more robust because it's been through the wars already.
End of Apple rant - I actually went a got an iPod, but that was only for the 120gb capacity. Not a bad piece of hardware.

Everyone with the "free download" comments needs to immediately impale themselves on the sharpest, closest object they can find. He's letting you decide what to pay, not saying take it for free.

If you're a scumbag and don't believe in paying people for work you receive value from, then by all means steal his book. He's nice enough to let you call it a free download so you don't get down on yourself.

Aaaanyway, the iphone is great for travel, and it has a perfectly good keyboard (yes, you can type with 2 thumbs). You can also jailbreak/unlock it and do anything that a computer can do and more, since it is in fact a computer with all the standard input/outputs, even if it sacrifices some ease of use for portability. I take it you don't like Apple. Me neither... that was until they came out with the iPhone ;)

awesome book dude! and major props for the free download! definitly one of the most inspirational books ive read. now everytime i walk thru my house i cant help but look at all of the shit that i dont need and it really makes me want to get rid of it. whenever the book comes out in a paper copy let me know!
i'll gladly pay you to mail me one!

Tynan -
A friend and I recently discussed the nature of blogs "turning computer screens into mirrors to admire our own chiseled-chins and oh-so-mysterious-eyes."
The desire to give and to share, without compensation, without flaunting our wonderful lives, is rare.
The approach to the "sale" of your book is refreshing.
Don't know when I'll get a chance to read it, but I donated - more to applaud your efforts than to get the product. F*ck the "I'll-donate-when-I-have-money-" attitude. It's a BS, cop-out mentality.
Keep up the good work.

Sounds like I need to rewrite the part about the iPhone. I wrote that a while back and apparently a lot has changed with it. I don't follow it closely because the low resolution screen and lack of keyboard make it useless to me.

Tynan

Hey Tynan,

I respect the book. For someone who hasn't followed your blog or doesn't know about this kind of lifestyle at all, it's a very valuable resource. I've forwarded it to many of my friends who I think will be interested in the topic and maybe buy it.

As a long-time reader though, I didn't find anything new in the book and am glad not to have paid for it. That was a fair deal, and I hope it's working out financially for you too. You've covered everything on the blog. It's practical to show to people who don't want to spend a week re-reading old blog posts, but wand to get the gist of Life Nomadic.

Also I agree with Clay. Get over your Apple-Phobia. It's kind of funny how you bash the iPhone for things it can do perfectly well. This and some other cases shed another light on your claim to have found the absolute best gear. In many cases that's just the gear you like. It isn't objectively better in any way. It's also tailored specifically to what you do. I get that that's your expertise, but a change of gear configuration would be nice. For example, I hate taking pictures and video and am happy to do it with the crappy camera in my iPhone. I'll take one device where you take FOUR! Camera, phone, camcorder AND mp3-player? Welcome to the 21st century, Tynan. They build those all in one piece now.

Great work all in all though. Just having you out there is an inspiration for vicariously-living people like me.

Oh yea, I hate how you cram every corner full of quotes. Many people do it, but it's just awful. Tim Ferriss makes it work in his book, but most of the ones in your book are just annoying to skip over. One day, books will be just quotes from other books. I dread the day.

I got to agree with the posters above about the iPhone -- all of the things you mention in the book that the iPhone can't do, it can actually do perfectly with free apps from the App Store. In fact, I used my iPhone for all of those purposes while traveling the world about a year ago. I would consider myself a "serious traveler" and I relied on my iPhone a lot and it did everything I threw at it. It is clear from your writing that you aren't an Apple fan, but I would recommend taking an objective look at their offerings now.

Also, from my experience, I would recommend staying away from craigslist for finding apartments in lower-income countries. Prices are generally very inflated and aimed toward rich tourists from the USA and Europe who don't mind getting ripped off. You're much better off going through the local listings in the city's newspaper or a web site like CompartoDepto.com (which has listings for a lot of countries but specializes in South America). If you don't speak the local language, have someone from a hostel translate when you call. I generally paid up to about half the price of craigslist listings using this method.

Otherwise, I thought the information in your book was pretty solid. Good work.

Tynan, this is incredible! The book is awesome and I can't even say how happy i am that you can get it for free- that's really an "outside the box" idea. I'll donate some money to you as soon as I'll have it!

Tons of great info in here. Love how you're offering it for whatever people can afford/want to pay.

The plane section alone saved me about $350, and I've been looking for a good bank for a long time now, schwab is perfect. (bank of america ended up charging me over $200 in fees during my 2 months in europe)

you already convinced me to get rid of most of my possessions in previous posts, and i'm going to give the nomad lifestyle a try for a few months, during which i'll put everything in to figuring out how to make at least $2000 per month online. like you said, few things are more motivating than the prospect of perpetual travel.