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Food for thought

  • Human nature, feral edition

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    This was the place where I had a near-death experience similar to the one in Stand by Me.

    I am still breathing, which feels like decent breaking news. Chris McCandless is not. That detail hit me only a few months ago, even though he checked out over a decade back. His ride is chronicled in Jon Krakauer’s book and Sean Penn’s film Into the Wild. No spoilers here. Chris dies in the prologue too.

    I ran into the story while my head was already juggling big feelings. Folks love to label the guy without reading the footnotes. Online you will find every take from heroic dream‑chaser to flaky drifter with a loose screw. I am still standing in the aisle of that legendary bus, watching both camps argue, not sure which seat fits.

    Risk is a coin toss

    Chris tossed the coin. Heads gave him epiphanies, tails bit him hard. Smart dude, well read, still human. He reached a few conclusions, just not the ones he planned, and by then his clock had stopped.

    The catch in his dream was nonnegotiable. No modern crutches. Family, car, IDs, cash, even his birth name, all gone. Hard to call that right or wrong until you see where the breadcrumb trail ends. For him it was simply part of the blueprint.

    A quick detour

    Someone accused me of being obsessed with “wild” lately. Guilty. I ranted about it in another piece over here. Evolution breeds some odd backslides. People pretend they get themselves.

    So is wandering into unknown terrain with duct‑tape gear and half‑baked prep just a loud way to sign your exit papers? Maybe. Same odds as chain‑smoking, binge‑drinking, or commuting by bike in Brazil.

    Humans need rulebooks to keep from nuking the joint. Do not smoke. Do not drive drunk. Do not do drugs. Do not lie. Do not kill. Do not off yourself. We still rip the warning labels off, bend the jail bars, pitch the rulebook out the window, occasionally launch a toddler after it. Funny how we never jump ourselves.

    Chris was that rule‑breaker in high‑definition. He even warned everybody he might not be coming back. He did not. The tale did, though, and that might be the point.

    Trying to hack the world

    The guy questioned the script most people follow. Maybe he aimed to change the world, but “world” here was personal, bite‑sized. Everything and everyone inside his bubble. He just misjudged how much a single decision can rewrite that bubble.

    Nobody in his circle fully backed the plan. Makes sense. They wanted a cameo in his future and he was busy slashing pages from the script.

  • Wild Travelers: Hi Punkabbestia

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    Adventurers, backpackers, stray humans with a map tattooed on the brain. Pack an extra layer. Not for rain. For a brand‑new prejudice wrapped in polite smiles. Turns out the so‑called “developed” crowd still runs on tribal wiring.

    Quick mental detour before the mosquitoes bite. We live in a world of many worlds. Every time progress tries to glue two together, three more pop up like stubborn weeds. I warned you it was a weird trip.

    The spark? A real trip, heavy on backpack and reflection. A thought loop kept buzzing:

    First-world people can be downright savage.
    Yet, we Latin Americans carry that label. Go figure.
    I guess I prefer being savage.

    In Europe, birthplace of youth hostels and questionable techno, I spotted a different flavor of bias. Sexual hang‑ups might be dying there, racial ones still kick, and now this new strain: Backpacker Phobia. Culture clash or philosophical crisis? Hard to say. Being a backpacker is either a lifestyle or a wearable manifesto.

    I felt the stares. People swerved like I carried dengue in my pack. Hostel roommates finally named it: Punkabbestia. Italian for gutter punk. Cute. They swore folks were feeling paura, good old fear, around me.

    So I watched closer. Fear stared back. Fear of anyone who refuses the dress code: lone wanderers, immigrants, buskers, punkabbestias. Anything with legs, a pack, and no clear destination.

    That fear is an export of the shiny world. I have seen the same jittery eyes in “modern” South American cities (Hello Curitiba 👋😊). A backpacker breaks every template. No shape. No flag. Just a walking question mark. Even we do not know what is hiding behind the zipper.

    Maybe they are right to worry.

    Get ready. This prejudice is sprouting new branches. Stand tall. Flash a grin. A smile still bends arrows mid‑flight.

    Plenty of people swear this is not real. Maybe they have never met those feral travelers from Planet Elsewhere. The ones stubborn enough to learn a world that spins backward and never really belonged to them in the first place.

  • Faith Popcorn’s book CLICK

    This was a book recommended by a teacher to understand market trends. I gained some interesting insights.

    The first trends identified in Faith Popcorn’s book CLICK focus on four themes: cocooning, clan formation, the revenge of pleasure, and the adventure of fantasy.
    Together they form a road map that helps people ride the newest waves and get a “click” on the path to success. The book shows how to spot openings, take risks, and own the future, which is already knocking.

    Click through Cocooning

    Exploring the world, doing business, studying, watching big shows, and making friends without leaving the desk chair at home—safe and snug—is what Faith calls the stay‑at‑home trend. People want to build cozy, protected nests away from daily harshness, and that reality is closer than we once thought. Many jobs are already asking employees to have a home computer so they can work remotely.

    The flip side is serious: our homes may get so comfy and full of entertainment that we never step outside. Sheltered in private sanctuaries, we risk growing isolated.

    Click through Clan Formation

    People with shared interests find one another and create clans. We lean toward like‑minded groups because they give a sense of security in which to trade beliefs and ideas. Countless online conferences—global and local, across cultures and backgrounds—will pop up as hubs where small communities swap information. Everyone will find their crowd; as Faith says, “We are together on this planet.”

    Click through the Adventure of Fantasy

    Writer Thornton Wilder noted, “When we feel safe at home we long for adventure; when we have an adventure we wish we were safe at home.” The longing is clear—pleasure with safety, a break from tension through secure adventures in tourism, food, or virtual worlds.

    Imagination is the eternal click. It threads through human history, sparking emotion, creativity, and the thrill of feeling something never felt before, only envisioned. That is the first step to discovering the dreamed‑up inside everyday life.

    Click through the Revenge of Pleasure

    Desire is impulsive. People chase pleasure, thinking less about consequences and more about satisfying the urge while ditching rules and regulations. The revenge of pleasure is payback for what we endure. Folks increasingly hunt shortcuts to fix nagging problems, and the more time they spend in daily pleasure, the more they crave staying in that feel‑good zone.

    These four early trends reveal needs born from our evolution. They are not automatically good, yet they push us to rethink human behavior. Trends help us make sense of this complicated world of relationships.