Wealthy self help guru only owns 15 things (article)

[Rogar]

I enjoyed this article about James Altucher, who donated all of his belongings except 15 things.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/fa...guru.html?_r=1

[flowerseverywhere]

It seems wierd to me. Nowhere does he equate his life to self satisfaction or happiness.

[ToomuchStuff]

Doesn't mention why he and his wife divorced, or anything about visitation. Wondering since he "floats" between friends and airbnb's, how that affects it, or how a judge sees it.

[Tammy]

I read his book. His thoughts are all over the place. I loved parts of it and felt like I was talking to a snake oil salesman in other parts. He has unflagging optimism - which is very appealing to me in this world of sadness and pain.

[razz]

Exactly how is he considered wealthy? No stocks, no assets, just the income from the internet? Money sitting in a bank is bleeding worth daily. Not a well written article but a fluffy, feel-good one that may be the purpose of that piece. Interesting to read though to see how another is thinking.

I enjoyed this article about James Altucher, who donated all of his belongings except 15 things.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/fa...guru.html?_r=1

[catherine]

I actually have been following Altucher for a while. I even have his book Choose Yourself. His blog entries are all as predictably wacky as he is.

He is probably an entrepreneurial genius--his self-help bit is to be an idea person. To just generate idea after idea, writing them down in a notebook. As you can probably tell from the article his own ideas are extremely scattered and diverse. Reading this, he doesn't seem that emotionally stable, frankly. He takes everything to extremes. So you get burnt by the stock market and then you write a book proposing that the whole stock market is a scam? You blow millions of dollars on expensive real estate and then your reaction is to get rid of everything except for 15 things?

I agree that he may not be the one to teach us about happiness. I like him because he's entertaining reading and he's an idea man. But if I want advice on how to live my life, I'll stick right here with you guys.

[Rogar]

I think he is less wacky than Suelo, who lives in a cave in Moab and doesn't believe in money. Of course none of us are going to go to either extreme any more than we are going to build a house of stone like the whacky Nearings. What I did appreciate is his example of living on (much) less after exploring the American dream of wealth and finding it doesn't work. He actually does list his four pillars of happiness and they are rather simple, but is more realistic than some smiling new age type self-help gurus he categorizes rah-rah positive thinking high fivers with forced smiles. His promotion of entrepreneurship as an alternative to traditional education and jobs was refreshing. He seemed to me like a promoter of one aspect of simple living and I appreciated the fact that he is promoting it and appears somewhat popular.

I guess I took these positive things as my items of interest. Maybe I caught more of the grain and less of the shaft than others.

[catherine]

I think he is less wacky than Suelo, who lives in a cave in Moab and doesn't believe in money. Of course none of us are going to go to either extreme any more than we are going to build a house of stone like the whacky Nearings. What I did appreciate is his example of living on (much) less after exploring the American dream of wealth and finding it doesn't work. He actually does list his four pillars of happiness and they are rather simple, but is more realistic than some smiling new age type self-help gurus he categorizes rah-rah positive thinking high fivers with forced smiles. His promotion of entrepreneurship as an alternative to traditional education and jobs was refreshing. He seemed to me like a promoter of one aspect of simple living and I appreciated the fact that he is promoting it and appears somewhat popular.

I guess I took these positive things as my items of interest. Maybe I caught more of the grain and less of the shaft than others.

No, I agree-as I said, I've bought his book and I get his emails, and I love his ultra-creative approach to life. And yes, you can say the Suelo and the Nearings are wacky (as are most visionaries and creatives), but the article portrayed him as having extreme reactions to life events, as opposed to acting out of a core belief that's steady over time--that's all I was saying.

ETA: Actually, the article did him a disservice in a way. I went back to the book Choose Yourself, and it does have some very interesting things to think about.

[Teacher Terry]

I would think he would run out of places to stay for free. That is using your friends.

[Tybee]

I would think he would run out of places to stay for free. That is using your friends.

I'm sure he could just stay at a hotel, with his money. Or cruise ships.

while Scott Nearing also irritated me(way he treated Helen, holier than thou attitude) , the way the Nearings chose to live was pretty awesome, and they built two houses (first in Vermont, second in Maine) and forged a farmstead around their beliefs, which included the balance of work and play that Catherine mentioned, as well as music, a strong social life, and a commitment to vegetarianism, all of which appealed to me.

I can't understand how you build a life around an Ipad, but I know that may people do, and then blog about it, and have lots of followers. So I guess dreams and aspirational lifestyles change over the generations.