Vagabond or Tourist?
The Seven Archetypes of Adventure
Happy Friday!
And a warm welcome from the Tower, where it’s been all kinds of summer.
For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society.
In this newsletter, I write stories that help you and me understand the world (and ourselves) a little better.
Sometimes I like putting things into neat little boxes.
ps: Thank you so much to the generous souls who have recently popped gold coins into my Paypal tip box. You know who you are, you lovely humans. 💚
The Seven Archetypes of Adventure
This silly little piece was somewhat inspired by this interview with Rick Steves, an American ‘travel teacher’, and somewhat inspired by a discussion with C (👋) about our own peculiar travel tendencies.
Before I get into it, I just want to say that the Seven Archetypes is not a hierarchy. They all have their place.
You might find yourself drawn to one or other Archetype, perhaps modulating between them all at different stages of your life, depending on what you’re searching for in that moment.
Perhaps the perfect adventure contains elements of them all, I don’t know.
I hope that the Seven Archetypes help you figure out what you need from an adventure, or help you have a cooperative conversation with someone else to make sure you both get what you need.
Holidaymaker 🏖
Success is… escape from the daily grind.
Favourite mode of travel… limo.
The journey is… an opportunity to hit the duty free.
My motivation is… pure pleasure.
My light side is… joy.
My dark side is… oblivion.
Tourist 📷
Success is… enjoying a well-planned itinerary of sights and experiences.
Favourite mode of travel… aeroplane.
The journey is… how you get to the next place.
My motivation is… specific curiosity.
My light side is… wonder.
My dark side is… mindlessness.
Traveller 🚂
Success is… living like a local, briefly.
Favourite mode of travel… train.
The journey is… the start of the adventure.
My motivation is… open curiosity.
My light side is… sonder.
My dark side is… exhaustion.
Explorer 🗺
Success is… breaking new ground (and coming back a hero).
Favourite mode of travel… submarine, polar sledge, spaceship.
The journey is… a way to discovery (and sometimes conquest).
My motivation is… physical map-making.
My light side is… discoveries for all humankind.
My dark side is… destruction of cultures and ecosystems.
Wanderer 🥾
Success is… losing myself.
Favourite mode of travel… foot.
The journey is… a spiritual exercise in serendipity.
My motivation is… metaphysical map-making.
My light side is… finding the unfindable.
My dark side is… never coming back.
Vagabond 👍
Success is… ‘nothing behind me, everything ahead of me’.
Favourite mode of travel… hitch-hiking.
The journey is… life.
My motivation is… going out to meet the universe.
My light side is… freedom.
My dark side is… addiction.
Pilgrim 🧙♂️
Success is… self-transcendence.
Favourite mode of travel… the mind.
The journey is… a metaphor.
My motivation is… going in to meet the universe.
My light side is… enlightenment.
My dark side is… madness.
So — are you a vagabond or a tourist?
I think I’m currently feeling about 60 percent Traveller, 40 percent Wanderer.
I’d love to hear which Archetype appeals to you most right now. Has your default Archetype changed over time? Does it vary from adventure to adventure? Do you too love a pie chart?
Ultimately, this is a silly little first draft based on how it feels to me — what’s your take? Contributions welcome.
Three Tiny Big Things
1. ‘Not being bored is why you always feel busy’
And four other interesting things you learn when you step away from your phone.
There is so much good stuff in Anne Helen Petersen’s round-up of critical writing on smartphone usage. The headline is from a piece by Kate Lindsay and I can’t resist another quote, this time from Sam Kriss:
A phone is a device for muting the anxieties proper to being alive.
Very Burkeman.
2. Wikenigma: An Encyclopedia of Unknowns
Wikenigma is ‘dedicated to documenting fundamental gaps in human knowledge’. That link will take you to a random example of something NOBODY understands.
For example:
A 2020 study from Stanford University has found that human body temperature — previously standardised at 37°C — has been steadily declining over the last 200 years or so. Using historical records, the research team found that the current average body temperature is probably now around half a degree lower.
AND NOBODY KNOWS WHY.
3. What the heck is this?
The end of cars, that’s what. Or the beginning of cars? I don’t know.
If you like this sort of thing, then make sure you drop by and say hello to your reviewer extraordinaire,
.Thank You
Huge thanks to all the paying subscribers who helped make this story possible. You know who you are. Thank you. 💚
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As always, thank you for your eyeballs and thanks for your support.
diwyc,
dc:
Wandering vagabond on a pilgrimage! 🥰🧡 I loved this so much! (Although I was disappointed there was no mention of a bike, I guess I don't need that on my metaphorical journey riding on the waves of my mind into freedom!
Love how you have laid this all out David.
I feel lucky to have experienced all these archetypes. But by far my favourite state of being is traveller/wonderer.