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(More customer reviews)I'm a 17-year resident of Palo Alto, California, land of the $700,000 fixer-upper, and it's indeed a wonderful place to live if you can afford the price of admission: safe, excellent schools, a mild climate, pleasant & bicycle-friendly tree-lined streets, and a community life strongly flavored by proximity to Stanford University. Unlike a number of the subjects interviewed in Rich Karlgaard's Life 2.0, I have been fortunate to enjoy (?) commutes of 20 minutes or less. Downsides? A few: high mortgage, state income tax and property tax bills-EVERYTHING costs more here-congested rush hour and weekend getaway traffic, and a workaholic culture in which one schedules a dinner with friends a month or more in advance and it is rare for a long-time neighbor to be more than a passing acquaintance.
Nonetheless, in recent years my wife and I have often pondered whether we might enhance our family's quality of life by relocating to a smaller community. So far, in the last analysis, it has always come down to, "They don't have my kind of work [biotechnology research] there."
This sort of yearning is part of aging ("When you're young, you want to get away, when you're old you want to go back...") and is not unique to the nation's post-boom cultural and economic circumstances. However in Life 2.0 Karlgaard has identified a number of economic and social developments that in the next 1 or 2 decades could well synergize, transforming "yearning" to "megatrend." These include the aging of the huge baby-boom generation; the prediction, well-informed by history, that the next 10-15 years will likely see below-average investment returns and wage growth; and the huge impact of the information technology revolution that enables much knowledge-or service-based work to be done from anywhere and will doubtless catalyze a great leveling of the world's standard of living over the next two generations. In my opinion, he makes a compelling case.
This subject could easily have been the substance of a ponderous ethereal academic tome or a dry compendium of statistical analysis intertwined with cadaverous prose that would put 10,000 people to sleep if they were running from a napalm attack. Thankfully the author has instead chosen to illustrate his thesis in an engaging way through real people's experiences. The lengthier interviews are devoted to the more unusual and exceptional folks-entrepreneurs of various flavors-who have made successful transitions to stimulating, productive lives in "flyover country." Shorter "sidebars" are also included as excerpts of letters he has received from others who have found happiness and meaning, if somewhat more modest success, in smaller communities. I found the combination very enjoyable and read the book in but three sittings-a remarkable achievement for a 51-year old father of a lively six-year old son who normally takes a month or more to read a book! In addition Life 2.0 was for me a very thought-provoking read on several levels: both in its relevance to my personal circumstances and future, and in a more global (or at least national) sense.
What didn't work so well? As a pilot myself, I think the segments about the author's experiences in personal aviation might have been better integrated. Reading the first part of the book, I imagined that the aviation-related segments would serve as a metaphor for the broader theme, describing the author's own journey through a difficult transformation: finding fulfillment and satisfaction in mastering a new set of skills, finally opening up a completely new set of opportunities and experiences. Instead this theme seemingly just faded away as the narrative progressed and came to no satisfying conclusion. However, the subject and style of Life 2.0 foreshadow future revised editions containing at least updated information and perhaps additional stories. These future editions would also be an opportunity for the author to more tightly weave the theme of personal aviation into his tale.
I enthusiastically recommend Life 2.0 as a very interesting and enjoyable book that will make you think differently about your own life and our society's future. I plan to give it as a Christmas present to a number of family members and friends! In the meantime, my wife and I may make a few investigative visits and domestic inquiries in places such as Payson AZ, Columbia CA, Groveland CA, Albuquerque NM,...
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Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their HappinessDo You Know Where Your Happiness Lies?In The Purpose Driven Life, I consider the question "What on earth am I here for?" This book considers another important question: "Where on earth should I be living?" Is where you live worth the stress? No one is forcing you to stay where you are. It's your choice. —From the foreword by Dr. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven LifeWould you be happier if you lived somewhere else? A place where the quality of life is greater than the cost of living? Such places do exist—you just have to look a little harder to find them. The answer probably doesn't lie in the big coastal cities: the cost-of-living gap between those urban areas and the heartland is an immense chasm. And yet the "sophistication gap" between these regions is steadily shrinking—cable tv, computers, fax machines, cell phones, and broadband Internet access are making it possible to work almost anywhere.Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard wanted to explore the new appeal of "flyover" country, and he decided to sky-hop around America in a single-engine Cessna, talking to people—those with a nose for entrepreneurship, a faith in technology, and the willingness to take a chance—who found their bliss in places like Green Bay, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa; and Bozeman, Montana.America offers up scores of these gems—cities and towns with a winning combination of low cost of living and high quality of life—and Karlgaard provides an in-depth look at the country's 150 cheapest (and greatest) places to live.Life 2.0 is the story of those who are living larger lives in smaller places, and a road map for those who want to follow their lead.Where is your happiness? Check out Life 2.0's "150 Cheapest Places to Live" section, featuring dozens of cities and towns that offer the good life at a great price.
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