But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life.

- Hunter S. Thompson


Hi, I’m Russell.

Post Nomad is about finding meaning by staying in place.

What do I mean by that?

I’ve been location-independent for 10+ years, and I’ve visited more than 40 countries—but at some point, I realized I’d actually been over-valuing freedom and novelty, and under-valuing community, relationships, and investing in something that lasts.

For a long time, I made choices to preserve my options; I wanted to work from anywhere, go anywhere, accomplish everything.

Eventually, though, I began going back to places that felt like home:

  • I bought a house in Rumney, New Hampshire, near a major climbing mecca.

  • I pulled back on obsessive goal-setting and reoriented my life to better follow Hunter S. Thompson’s advice about finding a way of life.

  • I started thinking more about my own legacy, and started talking to and learning from others about what they plan to leave behind.

  • And finally, I fulfilled a dream by buying an old, stone fixer-upper in Spain and moving there in 2023.

I still travel, but nowadays it’s about finding places, communities, and ways of life that I want to keep going back to. That and working on the renovation of my Spanish property.

✍️ If you’re currently on a similar search, or have a great story about a community you found, a place you love, or a legacy you admire, reach out and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.


What you’ll find in this newsletter

Here, you’ll find me talking to others about how they think about finding home and building a meaningful legacy, as well as tracking that journey for myself.

I’ve recently written about living in New Zealand, kitesurfing in Mexico, salsa dancing in Prague, and house-hunting in Italy—with more to come. 🇮🇹 🇲🇽 🇨🇿 🇳🇿

Some of my most-read posts though are about finding meaning and the stories we tell ourselves about our life and work:

  1. Metaphors: the ‘Life Path’ and Denali. Life doesn't have paths—it's a wilderness, and you have to choose a direction

  2. But beware of looking for goals. Ways of life and returning from Mexico

  3. Ability to conform. Conforming is an important skill for achieving civilizational goals—I just happen to rank a little lower on it

  4. The fifth value. How I do annual goal-setting, simplifying life, and why I started taking away goals rather than adding them.

  5. How I fell out of love with Washington D.C. My decade in D.C., raising my son, and how I changed from the kind of person who goes there.


💸 Why pay?

Fundamentally, I make my living as a writer. And as the founder of Substack has so eloquently written, ex-journalists like me have few good options other than the subscription model.

The old model of chasing views in exchange for ad dollars wasn’t just broken — it was soul-destroying for writers, and some would say corrupting for the institutions. It made for cheap content aimed at the masses.

I wrote about this extensively in one of my first posts: The different ways to make money with online content, and what the decision says about your values.

The subscription model is about my direct relationship with you, the reader. 🫶

If you think, like I do, that the brightest future for writers doing this kind of work is driven by models like this one, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber now:

What you’ll get:

  • Every post, including my trip reports & semi-weekly updates

  • Access to all issues in the archives

  • Ability to participate in subscriber-only comments

Subscribe to Post-Nomad

✍️ Finding meaning by staying in place 🏠

People

Location independent for 10+ years. Based in Barcelona, bought a stone fixer in Spain 🇪🇸, where I'm building 🛠️, climbing 🧗‍♂️, kitesurfing 🌊, & writing ✍🏻.