The Voluntary Life

Personal freedom comes from individual choice and individual responsibility, as opposed to collective identity and collective responsibility. If you want to achieve personal freedom, don't join imaginary teams. Listen to the episode to find out more! Show Notes: TVL 244 Thinking Rationally Part 2: Imaginary Creatures and Machines TVL 245 Thinking Rationally Part 3: Anti-Rational Ideas

Jake's guide to the most helpful books on entrepreneurship, including why each book is recommend and what you can expect from it. As mentioned in the episode, if you want to get a free copy of Jake's book "Negotiate For Mutual Profit", sign up to the TVL mailing list here . Show Notes: Becoming an Entrepreneur: How to Find Freedom and Fulfillment as a Business Owner by Jake Desyllas The Lean Start...

I choose to parent without violence or aggression. This means I eschew various actions that a lot of parents still consider acceptable- actions such as spanking, hitting, yelling, psychotropic drugs, circumcision, and so on. In this episode, I explain my own reasons for choosing to practice peaceful parenting. Show Notes: What Is Peaceful Parenting? Parent Effectiveness Training by Thomas Gordon T...

Jake's guide to the best books on pursuing financial independence. Some of the books are must-reads, whereas others are suggested for specific purposes or additional information only. No country-specific books are included, so the list is relevant regardless of where you live. Listen to the episode to find out why I recommend each book and what you can expect from them. Show Notes: Job Free by Jak...

A discussion of a very thought-provoking article by the late Harry Browne, called " A Gift for My Daughter ". The episode includes a recording of Harry reading his own words. Harry's ideas had a huge influence on me, but I don't agree with him about everything. This article is particularly interesting because it explains an important truth, and yet I think it also demonstrates one of Harry's most...

In this episode I am joined by my wife Hannah Braime to discuss William B. Irvine's book, A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy . This book argues that the philosophy of stoicism is relevant to modern life and can be used to help you live well, according to your own values. We recorded the episode for the Psychology Book Club . I am sharing it here because the themes are highly re...

A listener asks: "How do you cope with family and friend pressure to buy bigger and better and to have an expensive wedding and kids, which leaves you with no ability to save and get ahead in life?" What do you think? Listen to the episode to hear my response.  

Why do people spend so much of their disposable income on consumption and save so little towards their own financial independence? This episode presents four competing theories that try to answer this question: Theory 1: People are brainwashed into consumerism by advertising. Theory 2: Spending escalates as people try to keep up with their peer groups. Theory 3: Central bank policies have undermin...

Many people who write about financial independence emphasise the benefits of self-sufficiency and DIY as part of their lifestyle. Will it help your journey to financial independence to try to be self-sufficient? Does it make financial sense to do your own repairs and renovations? This episode provides a different perspective. Show Notes: Job Free by Jake Desyllas TVL Episode 225: Comparative Advan...

John Holt was a leading figure in the school reform movement, who became increasingly interested in how children learn outside of school—what he called "unschooling." He wrote many influential books about alternatives to schooling and he helped start the modern homeschooling movement. His book Escape From Childhood  provides a thought-provoking critique of how most adults treat children, and a vis...

In his book Stop Acting Rich , author Thomas Stanley explained a way to calculate your relative net worth, taking into account both your age and your income. He used this calculation to create a wealth index, which you can use to judge whether you are on the path to FI, or whether you are burning more of your income than you should. In the episode I explain how the wealth index is calculated and p...

An historical overview of rational ethics, focussing on the revolution in moral philosophy that happened during the Enlightenment. Although there was amazing progress during the Enlightenment, the contradictions of enlightenment thinkers eventually led them to lose their way on ethics and abandon a rational approach to morality. Understanding this background is helpful if you want to use rational...

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 V...

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 irrati...

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...

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 Wri...

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 Po...

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 ta...

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 wit...

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...

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...

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 Note...

Back in episode 217 , my wife Hannah and I spoke about the beginning of our adventure moving to Panama. In this episode we talk about a lot of big changes that have happened since then! The episode provides an insight into our story, but it also touches on many themes important to The Voluntary Life. We discuss travel, minimalism, and adapting to big changes in life. Show Notes: TVL Episode 217: P...

Entrepreneurship is not just about building a business, it is also about building yourself. I see entrepreneurship as an intensive personal development program. This episode is from a recent interview that I gave about this topic on the Valiant Growth podcast. Show Notes: Valiant Growth Podcast Becoming an Entrepreneur by Jake Desyllas Job Free by Jake Desyllas Drive by Dan Pink

This episode contains the introduction of the audiobook version of Jake Desyllas' latest book, Job Free . Whether you want to achieve financial independence and retire early, or simply never work for anyone else again, this book provides an essential guide to the different lifestyle-design strategies open to you. You can get hold of the audiobook on Amazon  and  Audible , and it will shortly be av...