Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 75

Writing depends on the superficiality of one’s days

Graham Green on writing a book:

“I was trying to write a book that simply would not come. I did my daily five hundred words, but the characters never began to live. So much in writing depends on the superficiality of one’s days. One may be preoccupied with shopping and income tax returns and chance conversations, but the stream of the unconscious continues to flow, undisturbed, solving problems, planning ahead: one sits down sterile and dispirited at the desk, and suddenly the words come as th...

Re: “Let’s talk when you’re free”

Productive people are never “free.” They don’t have 15 minutes on their lunch break to “have a quick call.”

They don’t “kill time”—a terrible phrase. You can always put a window of time to good use if you work for it.

Productive people schedule their priorities—not always their time, but always their priorities. When they don’t have something to do, they find something to do.

By the way, it’s not that productive people don’t make time for friends, family, recovery, and play time. They do. But b...

Don’t Forget to Register for Free Money Next Saturday

Link: Register for $30 AmEx Credits

If you’re in the U.S., don’t forget to register for free money “Small Business Saturday.”

A few years ago, American Express created a new fake holiday to honor small business owners. As fake holidays go, it sure beats President’s Day—I like supporting small businesses, and whenever Small Business Saturday rolls around in late November, you have the chance to earn an instant rebate for every AmEx card you have.

The instant rebate varies year by year, and this...

Notes from Traveling Millennials: On the Road with Bud and Eva Simpson

This is a travel hacking case study. ( Read others or nominate yourself . )

When you’re young, it feels easy to appease your inner wanderlust by saying, “I’ll travel later in life.” Twenty-somethings Bud and Eva Simpson decided they didn’t want to live this way—and have spent the last year helping young adults learn to travel smart.

Tell us about yourselves.

We’re Bud & Eva and we just married in March 2014. For us, the perfect moment is waking up to adventure on a crisp morning, sipping a cup of...

Introducing “Upgrade Unlocked”: The Unconventional Guide to Luxury Travel (on a Budget!)

Open that champagne you’ve been saving for New Year’s—your new year of top-shelf travel can start right now!

We’ve been working hard and are excited to finally introduce Upgrade Unlocked: The Unconventional Guide to Luxury Travel on a Budget.

If you’d like to go to Bora Bora in January—or pretty much anywhere, anytime—this guide will get you there. You’ll learn about:

The college graduate who earned more than 1 million miles in a year

Hacking family and couples travel (adventure isn’t just for...

Coming Tomorrow: Luxury Travel on an Everyday Budget

Once in a while, we actually make new products for the Unconventional Guides shop.

Earlier this year we debuted the following great resources:

The Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing (in cooperation with Amber Adrian)

Designed to Sell (in cooperation with Jen & Omar)

Get Rich Slowly (in cooperation with J.D. Roth)

After another six nine months of work, we now have an all-new guide almost ready to go out the door.

What It’s About

The new project is called Upgrade Unlocked: The Unconventional...

Thoughts on Running & Depression from a 30-Mile Canyon Run

They aren’t my thoughts. Even though I like to run and sometimes struggle with depression, these thoughts come from Rob Krar, a new ultrarunner who holds the speed record for the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim run.

“For the longest time I think I was in denial that I had depression, and when I got in these episodes I would be mad at myself … and I would fight it. The biggest change for me was to accept it, recognize that I’m going into the hole, and just embrace it.”

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World Domination Summit

J...

“The Voice In Your Head Isn’t Lying” : Sara Lovett’s Quest

This is a quest case study. ( Read others or nominate yourself . )

Before it became a popular social media experiment, Sara Lovett had an original idea: to reconnect with her 166 Facebook friends in person. She quit her job, got in her car (sometimes with her poodle, Stanley), and drove across three countries to see everyone.

Here’s her story.

Tell us about yourself:

My name is Sara Lovett. I was born in Epsom, England and moved to Dallas, Texas as a teenager. After college, I dreamed of emulating a...

6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XIX

I. Around the World

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

One Man’s Long Ride Across the Americas from Calgary to Brazil — An epic, two-year journey on horseback
The Literary Salon in a Brooklyn Bar — When next in NYC, have a drink and read an anonymous short story
25 Hotel Hacks from Professional Travelers — Including a few you’ve probably never thought of
A Primer on Meritocracy — “America is the land of opportunity, just for some more th...

WDS 2015: First Round of Tickets Now On Sale!

Link: Registration Now Open

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I’d love to invite you to an adventure like no other. Next summer in Portland, Oregon, we’ll be hosting the fifth anniversary of the World Domination Summit… and you’re invited!

There will be great speakers.

There will be a world record (we can’t say what it is yet, but it will definitely be record-setting).

There will be parties (we pride ourselves on this, it’s true).

If you’re an introvert, that’s okay—many of us are, too. You’ll feel welcome and safe.

But most im...