Jon Jandai ted talk-life could be much easier-good!

Hi, I was just watching a tedx talk of this guy from Thailand which I will leave a link to below. What he says parallels in many ways the things I learned, AFTER I got out of college. He is saying basically, life in our modern world is way too complex, and could be much easier, if we could get rid of much of the cultural programming that has shaped each of us since we were toddlers. He has a new record ,in my book, for ease of life as far as hours worked is concerned. When he went back to his village to live, after having been in Bangkok trying to make his way in the "modern" world, he took up the old farming ways of his ancestors again, and worked 2 hours a day, for 2 months a year doing his farming! That was all the time it took! Watch the video for the other details of how he lives simply. I have found many other sources over the last over 20 years of examples of people who live simpler, yet more fulfilling lives, working much less than 40 hours a week. One of the first people I ran across in the early 90's were the homesteaders Scott and Helen Nearing. They worked 4 hours a day-their "bread labor", then they chose to have 4 hours of study of interests of their own choosing, and 4 hours of socializing/entertainment. I also came across a book called -Stone Age Economics- by Marshall Sahlins, in which he describes the average work week of our stone age ancestors being about 3 hours per day, with much time for socializing, story telling, rituals, games, etc. ,etc., hardly the grueling existence usually depicted. Then there were also many examples of much shorter working hours in the "Simple Living" literature, and one of my all time life changing books-Your Money or Your Life- by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, transforming our ideas about money, and how we can, practically, get out of the rat race in a fairly short period of time, or at least curtail the amount of time we spend at jobs we don't like. Permaculture fits into all this, because it is the perfect activity for when we have all that now-freed up time, and plus I think it is a natural outgrowth of the permaculture philosophy, of smart planning, stacking functions, independent thinking, simplifying, etc. etc...... Oh ya-here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21j_OCNLuYg.

Thanks for sharing. I've embedded the video below.

I love this video. I watched this about a month ago and it didn't change my view so much as re-enforce it. Like you, I learned about it after getting myself in a load of debt from school, which keeps me working at a job I dislike. But I have my garden and my family, which brings me the most happiness. Still, this man has it figured out. Without getting too preachy, I think messages like this are what should be taken away from people like the Buddha and Jesus - live life around what is most important. Shelter, food, family, water. If you have these in abundance you are truly free. We can have all these things early in life, but society keeps us working until old age because that's all we know, or some silly idea of "advancing technology", which leads to more waste and destruction. All for coins, or pieces of paper.

It will take me a while to get out of the debt I'm in, but this is the last of it. No mortgages or car loans for me. I want to free myself of the shackles!

Hi Burra and Dougan,
Thanks for embedding the video. Dougan, I would definitely check out the book " Your Money or Your Life", that I mentioned in the post-it's worth a look, should be in a local library. The author really transformed my ideas about money, and many ideas about faster, creative ways of getting out of debt,if you have it, and also building up that nest egg, so you have the freedom to do what inspires you. Definitely Not your average personal finance book-once again ALTERNATIVE thinking. Cheers.