It’s not all murders. Lots of suicides and people who just die and no one finds them for awhile.
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From what I’ve heard, that last one is usually far more grisly cleanup-wise than murders.
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Not the job, the fact that backpacking and “having fun” lead into it! Bwa-ha-ha-haaa!!!
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“liquid meat sack”
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He’s a blogger and podcaster (and, I think, made a shit-ton of money in finance some years ago).
What may look like romanticism to you or I is actually just a form of human-clickbait. This boing-boing article has generated thousands upon thousands of pageviews and google searches. It is a shrewd business move for Altucher.
Who knows how he actually lives, those details are deliberately vague. I am going to take wild guess and say that he probably sleeps in a private clean bed every night rather than in homeless shelter or group-home (and if he does “couch-surf” it is likely in the posh home of a friend). It is an insult to true homeless people for a man like Altucher to pose as “homeless”.
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A friend of mine works for the coroner’s office in LA. Trained undertaker. He says “if you’re going to kill yourself don’t do it in the bath tub. You think it’s a nice thing to do because there will be no mess to clean up. But there is no way you get a dead a body out of a bath tub that doesn’t involve me climbing in there with you and getting dead person all over me.” - he has a zine on tips even. 
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So, Jack Reacher plus two bags and a centurion card minus the height, charisma and self-awareness.
I’d be curious to know his tips for proper suicides. And not for reasons that you should be concerned about, honestly.
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Where did he pose as “homeless”?
The article says he doesn’t have a fixed address.
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That makes me realise that Jack Reacher could be described as a machine for converting coffee into violence.
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For four whole dollars it can be yours today!!
https://lastgasp.com/d/42361/how-to-be-a-considerate-suicide
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For most non-wealthy Americans, “no fixed address” = “homeless” (the unpleasant kind where you actually live on the streets). The cops often use the term as a bureaucratic euphemism.
He’s a very slippery writer who’s doing exactly what Angdis says he’s doing. For most people, giving up all possessions (including a home) happens under duress and leads not to freedom and joy but to the stressful life described here. Ask your typical street person with only a bag and backpack to his name about the “liberating” and “joyful” nature of his “minimalism” – if you dare.
And technically speaking, this guy must have a fixed address if he has a bank account and pays taxes. It may be a P.O. box, it may be his ex-wife’s or a friend’s or relative’s place, it may be a corporate shell, but it’s there – outsourced like a lot of other aspects of his life.
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I wouldn’t say clueless. Flaunting, maybe.
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[the gif of the guy from firefly oscillating between a confused expression and pointing.]
The phrase that comes to mind is “unreliable narrator”, a quality necessary for some to develop their “personal brand”. In this case for cultivating their image of possessionless bootstrapping, they don’t need anyone else, but they are always very very slim on the implementation, preferring to let those less romantic details slide as they would separate the “rugged individualist” lifestyle from the underclass who do not possss the same opportunity in life.
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I’m sure only a very small number do, but it is at least very plausible (I have no actual data here) that P(possession-free travel blogger | rich) > P(possession-free travel blogger | poor) even though the former is quite small.
More joy to this guy, though. Clearly it’s working for him. It wouldn’t work for me. I’m very forgetful, I don’t think about things I own that aren’t in front of me, so they don’t feel like a burden. I’m a bit of a hoarder and I rely on my wife to remind me that no, I rely don’t need a bunch of crap and should just get rid of it, and then I do. In the past 2 years I’ve donated 90% of my books and a bunch of clothes and kitchen things (in the latter case most people would still consider what I kept excessive, but I actually do use it all). But for me, having things in well-defined places cause less worry than having to find things when I actually need them. Also, I have a cat and a dog (no kids though) and no intention of giving them up or making them homeless.
Also, while I don’t know where this guy sleeps, I assume at least sometimes he pays for it. I also don’t know how long he expects to keep up his current lifestyle. But in the long run having a mortgage on a modest home where your monthly costs are fixed can end up a whole lot cheaper than buying things ad hoc whose price goes up every year. As others have stated, the Vimes theory of wealth, though I think Vimes overstates the correlation between price and quality for narrative effect.
I was confused by this because until I googled it my only association with that phrase was a Ben and Jerry’s flavor.
Yes, but some don’t realize they’re pretending.
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And this definitely happens. Never saw the neighbor 3 houses down from us and nobody else on the block had much to say about them. Anyway more than a few years ago there was a city coroner vehicle parked outside it. Turns out the occupant was not one to check in with family for long periods but usually holidays and didn’t check in for turkey day. They had been dead for over a month in the house. I did not envy that clean up team.
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Quoting for truth.
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Here’s a bit of interesting commentary on the Altucher’s interesting ethical stances: http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/02/28/annals-of-white-collar-crime-james-altucher-edition/
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Seems like that’s a big reason why they get flack, though - acting as if it’s an accessible lifestyle, failing to acknowledge the level of privilege required to live it.
The people I’ve read about were all men who made a bundle as entrepreneurs, and clearly had at least middle class upbringings. At least in a couple cases it sounded like they had at least gone through a period of having a bunch of crap that they then got rid of.
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