The Art of Non-Conformity: Unconventional Strategies for Life, Work, and Travel

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Image by Marie-ll

Live from Amsterdam

Greetings from Amsterdam’s nice Schiphol airport, where I’m spending the day in transit after arriving early this morning from Minneapolis. Schiphol is one of Europe’s nicest airports, so if you’re going to spend 8 hours waiting for a late-night connection like I’m doing now, this is a good place to do it. It’s also super-easy to head into the city from here, and I’ll probably do that after posting this up.

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Hello everyone, thank you for reading my manifesto on world domination. Here is the first-ever Art of Nonconformity video update!

I should warn you first that this is good (I think) but not great. My friend Ken, the amazing videographer, brought all this crazy stuff to my apartment and we did the whole thing in two takes. Watching it later, I can see a few things I could do better for next time, so don’t worry– if you guys like it, we’ll do some more.

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Image by A11en

Due to the upcoming manifesto launch on Tuesday, my publication schedule will be a bit different this week.

Over the weekend I’ll be sending a short preview of the world domination report to everyone who is on my email newsletter list. If you’d like the preview, just put your name down if you haven’t done so already. As much fun as it might be, I promise not to steal your identity or sell you on anything except ideas.

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Live from British Columbia

This month’s Site Update takes place from the Amtrak Cascades train heading south to Seattle after a quick trip up to Vancouver, Canada. I had to go to the Vancouver airport to pick up my next Round-the-World plane ticket, and the quick trip that began at 6:30 this morning is almost over.

Vancouver is a cool city with a great airport. Once in a while, someone asks me for my favorite U.S. / Canadian airport, and at first I don’t know what to say since most of them are awful. But then I remember YVR up in Vancouver, a peaceful oasis in the desert of crowded and stressful places elsewhere on this continent.

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I had dinner with a couple of friends on Saturday night. While we were sitting outside on a warm Seattle evening, we spent some time talking about this writing project.

One of the things we discussed was how every day I write about my own stories, but I know very little about most of the people who read them. It’s all a little awkward, and I’m dying to know…

What questions do you have so far? What can I do better?

Here is my attempt to write to you, dear Firefox user or RSS reader over there on the other side of the screen. Are you ready? Here we go…

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