The Voluntary Life

Many ideas that have been debunked long ago nonetheless remain very popular. This episode highlights three popular irrational biases about economics, taken from Brian Caplan's book The Myth Of The Rational Voter. The biases covered are the pessimism bias, the anti-market bias, and the anti-foreign bias. Show Notes:

• All Previous Episodes in the Thinking Rationally Series
• The Myth Of The Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan
• Episode 90 Rational Optimism Versus Doom Porn
• The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
• Episode 227 Review Of The Better Angels Of Our Nature By Steven Pinker
• The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
• Entrepreneurship Part 4: Profit Is Sanity
• Episode 176 The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality by Ludwig Von Mises Part 1 (and Part 2)
• Episode 225 Comparative Advantage Is Mind-blowing

Politics brings out the worst in people. As the economist Joseph Schumpeter put it, "The typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental performance as soon as he enters the political field. He argues and analyzes in a way which he would readily recognize as infantile within the sphere of his real interests. He becomes a primitive again." This episode is about the problem of political irrationality. Why are political beliefs so irrational? How does this affect your life? Listen to the episode to find out more! Show Notes:

• All Previous Episodes in the Thinking Rationally Series
• The Myth Of The Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan
• George Carlin On Politics
• Michael Heumer on The Irrationality Of Politics

A review of Peter Breggin's book, Guilt Shame And Anxiety: Understanding And Overcoming Negative Emotions, originally published on another podcast hosted by Jake and Hannah, The Psychology Book Club Podcast. Peter Breggin's book is very relevant to many topics covered on The Voluntary Life. In the episode, Hannah and Jake discuss the challenging ideas presented in the book and how they can help you achieve greater psychological freedom. Show Notes

• Psychology Book Club Podcast
• Guilt Shame and Anxiety by Peter Breggin
• TVL 247 Thinking Rationally Part 5: Reason And Emotions

An interview with Jake by Fumnanya, host of The Limit Breaker podcast. The interview covers interesting questions on the topic of breaking limits in business and life, including Jake's influences, founding and selling a business, the path to a job free life, and much more. Show Notes:

• The Limit Breaker Podcast
• Becoming An Entrepreneur by Jake Desyllas
• Job Free by Jake Desyllas
• Jake Desyllas Writing Website
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• Getting To Yes by Fischer and Ury
• How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World by Harry Browne
• OmniFocus

This episode is an interview of Jake on the Valiant Growth podcast about getting started with productivity systems. A lot of people want to start using productivity tools and systems, but feel overwhelmed by all the options, jargon, and complexity. This episode will give you clear pointers about how to start simple and achieve massive improvements to your productivity. Show Notes

• Valiant Growth Podcast
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• The Power Of Less by Leo Babauta
• Other Productivity Episodes

One of my favourite productivity techniques is the Someday Maybe List— an idea from David Allen's book, Getting Things Done. Many people ignore this particular aspect of GTD, but I love it. This episode provides suggestions about how to get the most out of a kick-ass someday maybe list. Topics covered include:

• The Purpose of Someday Maybe List
• The benefits of managing your list in Evernote
• How tagging, sorting, images, and other Evernote features can make your Someday Maybe List more inspiring and useful.

Show Notes:

• Evernote
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• Episode 156: How To Unleash Your Creative Thinking
• Other Productivity Episodes

Youtube presenters Mike and Lauren are back to talk about travel with kids. We catch up about all the things that they have been up to since I last spoke to them back in Episode 164. Their adventures include having a baby in Costa Rica, buying an RV, transitioning to life on the road, and planning to buy a barge to live on in Europe! Show Notes:

• Episode 164— We Plan To Retire At 30: Interview with Mike and Lauren
• Mike and Lauren Website
• Mike And Lauren Youtube Channel
• Episode 254— Perpetual Travel With Kids Part 1: Interview With Go Curry Cracker

Jake was interviewed on World Wanderers Podcast about he sold a business, an apartment, and all of his stuff except one bag, to move to Panama. Jake shares what it has been like to live with less, and what the path to permanent travel has been like, including what has been done and what still needs to be done. He tells us what life has been like in Panama, and the pros and cons to life on the road.

Show Notes:

• The World Wanderers Podcast
• Job Free by Jake Desyllas

A fun conversation with Jeremy and Winnie from Go Curry Cracker. Back in Episode 162, we talked about their path to financial independence through extreme saving, and their lifestyle of perpetual travel in early retirement. In this episode, they talk about their experience of perpetual travel as a family. Their son Julian makes makes a guest appearance too! Show Notes:

• Go Curry Cracker
• TVL 162 Spend Little, Save More, Travel the World: Interview with Go Curry Cracker

Leo Babauta's book, The Power Of Less, is about using habits to help you focus on what matters in life. In this review, I talk about some of the most helpful ideas in the book, especially the suggestions about establishing a productive morning routine to kickstart your day. I also talk about some of the limitations of the book, and make suggestions for other useful books on this topic. Show Notes:

• The Power Of Less by Leo Babauta
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• The Power Of Habit by Charles Duhigg
• TVL Episode 178: Upgrading Habits
• All Previous Episodes On Productivity