Ryo Chijiiwa, a software engineer who left it all behind, shares the benefits of off-the-grid living. Ryo Chijiiwa: I’ve learned a ton. I’ve learned some carpentry and architecture from designing and building my own cabin. I’ve also learned a lot about off-grid electricity, about the importance of water, gardening, wildlife, and self-reliance, to name a few things. But the fact that I gained knowledge and skills is hardly surprising.
What I think made this experience uniquely valuable for me, though, is that I’ve learned so much about myself. In many ancient cultures, venturing out into the wilderness alone was a rite of passage, a necessary step toward adulthood. In our society, on the other hand, isolation is feared and even stigmatized. yet, there’s a lot about yourself that you can learn only through isolation and solitude. sometimes, you can’t hear yourself unless you put yourself in an environment where there’s nobody else — no parents, no bosses, no peers. and knowing who I am, what my strengths and weaknesses are, and knowing what’s really important to me is invaluable because the truly difficult decisions in life can only be solved if you know who you are.
Ryo Chijiiwa: Absolutely. I’ve been a fan of the open source model for a long time now, and I think a big part of it has to do with my desire to share and contribute things, whether it’s code or knowledge. My entire journey, since the day I left Google, has been chronicled in my blog, Laptop and a Rifle, where I tried to make the whole experience pretty transparent. I’m also working on a book that’s filled with practical knowledge, which will hopefully be published as an ebook sometime later this year.
Ryo Chijiiwa: Alternative lifestyles can have a number of advantages. The major one, I think, is that it helps us strike a better work-life balance. For example, I don’t have to choose between working and living in a cabin in the woods because I can do both! one doesn’t necessarily have to choose between working and traveling — you can do both! At the very least, there’s so much more you can do when you’re not spending 60 hours at the office.
I think there are some benefits to society at large, too. Living in a 120-square-foot cabin in the woods and living purely off of solar energy probably helped me reduce my carbon footprint. after the March 11 earthquake in Japan, I was able to jet off and volunteer in the tsunami disaster area for two months, which would have been difficult to pull off if I had been tethered to a job and a mortgage. Also, by sharing what I’ve learned, I’m hoping that that information will help others realize their own dreams, and live healthier, happier, and more sustainable lives.
Ryo Chijiiwa: It’s very, very difficult. When I’m in my cabin, I’ve accomplished something of a middle ground, simply because I have a limited supply of electricity and my MiFi account has a 3GB per month data limit. The trend is clearly going in the other direction. Everything is going into the cloud, which means you’ll need an “always on” connection to have access to not just your email and social life, but your photos, favorite TV shows and your music.
Living in the woods, and going from being completely disconnected to being mostly connected, made me realize how difficult it actually is to incorporate technologies into our lives in a healthy way. The pace of technological change is so blindingly fast that we’re doing a poor job of adapting, not just at an individual level, but even as a society and as a species.
The environmental impact of technological changes that started two centuries ago only became apparent a few decades ago. it concerns me somewhat to think about how, two centuries from now, our descendants will look back on today’s technologies and the impacts they have on people, societies and our environment. There will likely be unforeseen consequences, some of which may prove to be undesirable. Unfortunately, only time will tell.
This interview was edited and condensed.
Related:
- Why “Delivering Happiness” is a must read
- Geeks at work
- How has the Internet Changed the Way you think?
- OFF=ON Trend and Ubiquitous Computing