On a recent podcast I was on, I was asked why I took so many risks. I stuttered for a second before answering the question because I was trying to think of an example of a big risk I took. I couldn't think of any, so I had to answer the question in a different way.

At the same time, I understand why people have the perception that I take a lot of risks. I think the difference is in how we perceive risks, and I'd argue that my method of doing so is more accurate.

When I calculate risk, I look at the statistics and before blindly applying them, I ask how relevant they are to me as an individual.

In some cases, they're fairly universal. My risk of dying in an airplane crash is the same, per mile, as anyone else's. The financial risk I accept by investing in a particular stock is the same as well.

This feels like a slightly ironic title, as today I spent sixteen hours showing my cousin and her boyfriend around one of my favorite cities in the world, Budapest. No work, except for writing this post before I go to sleep.

On the other hand, the only reason I can take a full day off and not wish that I was working is because I'm in the habit of getting massive amounts of work done in short periods of time.

We all get work done. It's easy to find time to send an email, do a couple errands, and make some progress on a project. But how do you do the big things like write a book, start a new site, or find and purchase a property?

You're going to be disappointed when I tell you the answer because it's obvious and it's not a hack.

Due to CruiseSheet growing and my new coaching project, my income has gone up quite a bit compared to previous years. This has been a strange transition for me, as I'm used to being the guy who doesn't really make much money, but does clever things to maximize it. Now I have a more normal income.

So far I haven't really changed, but I suspect that if things keep going well I will be less relatable to people who don't make too much money when I talk about money. For that reason, I'd like to freeze this moment in time and explain how I think about and use money. I suspect that my habits will mostly stay the same, but you never really know.

People think about net worth and income, and while those numbers are useful, they're just a small part of the picture. Focusing on them will cause you to make mistakes.

The two factors I always think about are runway and quality of life. If those numbers are high, then nothing else matters. They are a complete picture.

I have a technique that I use to deal with a lot of situations that I call setting strong defaults. It started with dating as a means to eliminate the ridiculous and common "but where do YOU want to eat?" loop where each person keeps asking the other person where they want to eat, and tons of time an energy is wasted on a decision no one really cares about. Now I use it for many things, from dating to work.

There's a balance in relationships where women typically want a man to lead in decisions, but also want to be heard and to have the option of having input. Very often men don't realize this and they keep asking their girlfriend what they want to do, only to have the question flipped back to them. They think that they're being nice, but actually they're imposing the responsibility of having to choose on their girlfriend.

To solve this problem, I decided that I would always suggest something with the assumption it would be what we chose, but would always agree to counter-suggestions. So I'd say something like, "Hey, how about if we have dinner at Chipotle?"

If she says that she wants to go to a different restaurant, then I'd just accept and we'd go there, since I don't really care where we eat and my primary motives are to not spend a lot of time deciding where to eat, and to make it easy for her to not have to decide where to eat.

I'm about halfway through a transatlantic cruise, which means I'm also halfway through writing a new book. This time I'm writing a follow-up to Life Nomadic, since so much has changed about traveling and being a nomad since I wrote my first book. Also, the tech section in that book is embarrassingly out of date, so it's time for a refresh.

This time I'm focusing on what it takes to be a nomad in a sustainable way. I'm talking about maximizing points and miles, finding flight deals, beating jet lag, packing, gear, government programs like APEC and Nexus, how to make money, how to learn languages, cruising, and flight tricks. I'm also going to get into depth on what I think is the future of nomadism, which is buying properties with your friends.

I'm keeping this post super short because I have a ton more I have to write for the book today, but I wanted to ask for early feedback. What do you want to hear more about? What would make the book super valuable to you? My primary goal is to enable people to fit as much travel into their lives and budgets as they want.

###

When you travel most of the time and do it with only a small backpack, eventually all of your travel gear becomes very high quality. You buy something nice, love using it, and it retains its utility for a long time. If you buy something low quality, it breaks or frustrates you, and you end up replacing it with something high quality, which lasts.

Not everything I traveled with was of the highest quality at first, but through that process it became so. I noticed that my mindset changed as my belongings became higher quality, and that convinced me to extend that standard across the rest of my life. At this point nearly everything I use at home or while traveling is the best available.

First, a word about quality, as I often see people who have things they think are high quality, but are not. At least by my definition. Quality is derived from purity of design and from best materials.

When something is designed, I want for it to be designed to complete its function as perfectly as possible, requiring the least from me, and only then to take into account aesthetics. For example, my watch is decent looking, but not as good as other watches. However, the operation of it is a dream come true. Breitling clearly understood that a frequent traveler (they designed it for pilots) would want to be able to know the time anywhere around the world at a glance, but would also need a way to switch between time zones effortlessly. And maybe he'd need to time things.

Most people don't live a life that's in alignment with what they want to do. That's not a criticism of any of those people; for our entire history as a species we have had to spend most of our time doing things we don't want to do in order to survive.

All of us are going to have to do things which we don't want to do. Next week I have to file my taxes. Two days ago I had to wake up at four in the morning. The problem isn't that we sometimes have to do things we don't want to do, it's that we choose life paths that lead towards goals we don't actually want.

This creates a doubly bad situation, because progress towards any goal is filled with things you don't want to do. There's some strategy around minimizing that and finding enjoyment in mundane tasks, but let's not pretend that having people do things which they don't want to do is something to strive for. Then once you reach a goal you didn't actually want, you don't feel as satisfied as you expected you would, the lack of satisfaction creates disappointment, and you have to start on something new again.

I'm fortunate to have a life where I basically love everything I do. I love programming, I love working through problems with people in coaching, I love doing real estate deals with my friends, and I love writing. In my leisure time I do things which really satisfy me, like drink tea with friends, do escape rooms, go to operas and ballets and symphonies, work on little side projects, build things, etc.

Today I woke up to the alarm I set on my phone. My bedroom curtains opened automatically, triggered by the alarm. I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth. On my mirror, which has a 40" LCD hidden behind it, I saw my agenda and noticed that one of my coaching clients had booked a session for Monday.

I made myself some tea, packed my bag, and headed out to the airport. As I left, my door and security door locked themselves, my water heater turned off (valve and power), the thermostat adjusted its setpoints, and the lights turned off. I hit one button and my vacuum left its dock and started vacuuming.

In that half hour, a lot of things happened automatically.

I haven't tracked it, but I'm guessing that having my curtains open automatically makes me get out of bed faster. It's much easier to pop out of bed when the sun is streaming in than when room darkening curtains are drawn. Let's say that saves me five minutes.

When I first bought my place in Vegas, I did it only because it was an incredible deal. As a frequent visitor to Vegas I assumed that I'd stay there once in a while, and AirBnb it out to recoup my costs. Or if it turned out that I really came to dislike Vegas after spending more time there, I could sell the condo with a small percentage loss that would amount to very little.

Fast forward two years and now I live here, as much as I live anywhere. I haven't analyzed my time, but I'd guess that I spend about half my year here, usually in one or two week chunks.

What strikes me most about Vegas is that it's certainly a place that more people should live. It's not for everyone, of course, but cultural assumptions about it are certainly keeping people out who should be in.

Here are some of the things I love about Vegas:

It's easy to analyze when things go poorly, but that it doesn't come as naturally when things are going well. When things are good it's very easy to just brush it away by assuming that the success was somehow due to you. I know I've thought that many times, especially when I was younger.

As I've thought about some recent successes, I've thought about the value of putting myself out there, making myself vulnerable to failure, with the aim of increasing my exposure to good things happening.

There are a lot of things that you can do to increase the chance of good things happening to you.

If you're dating, you're going to have the best chance at meeting someone good if you're on every dating site, always messaging people, and strike up conversations in real life with strangers you find attractive. You're going to face a lot of rejection that way, but that's the (relatively low) cost you pay to drastically increase your chances at meeting someone good.