Who?

Andrew MacPherson: Explorer / Serial Entrepreneur / Technophile

• Studied Multimedia in college
• Bought a kilt.
• Studied International Business in college.
• Started a hedge fund.
• Closed hedge fund because of new government regulations.
• Started an internet marketing company.
• Sold everything I owned, moved to another country, and semi-retired.
• Closed internet marketing company because of new government regulations.
• Promoted from internet sales manager to marketing director in less than one year. Got bored.
• Hired by a web development company and owned the company in less than one year. Got bored.
• Started advertising agency / consultancy.
• Started sailtotrail.com
• Started planning a crazy expedition.

What?

• Harness the power of the sun, earth’s surface forces, and humans. Okay, harnessing the power of humans sounds bad. Let’s say… Converting my own human power into electricity. Better?
• Advocate for zero emission energy, ocean preservation, sustainable living (and climate sensibility in the process)
• Explore as much as the surface of the earth possible
• Leverage global communications for geographic independence
• Share knowledge to encourage and enable other to do the same
• More adventures
• Die
• If anyone plays “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes at my funeral, I’ll come back to haunt them. Just sayin’

When?

The real fun begins when the new boat is launched. August 2010? (fingers crossed)

Where?

As much as planet earth as possible. Currently on the Pacific Ocean on the West Coast of The United States of America

Why?

Insert cliche of choice here. Culture and socialization are the cards we’re dealt, but neither was not developed with current knowledge and understanding. Thus, its constructs are not necessarily positive, let alone optimal. Living life on one’s own terms is the gist.

How?

How is it possible to travel the entire globe without burning fossil fuels? HOW do you do it?

• Sailing: Inter-continental distance travel with a net energy expenditure of zero. As such, sailing is the pinnacle of optimization between high distance, and low energy consumption.
• Cycling: Intra-continental short-long distance travel and terra-local detail exploration in developed areas. Only input is human power.
• Kayaking: Aqua-local detail exploration.
• Hiking: Intra-continental short-medium distance travel and terra-local detail exploration in undeveloped areas.

Yeah, I get the logistics of how you physically move around, but how do you manage to sustain the lifestyle? How do you DO it?

Philosophy (metaporical!): Shoot. Aim. Repeat.

A few hacks:

• Geographic independence via advanced communications networks. This lifestyle still requires addition of value to others in exchange for remuneration.
• Most peoples’ biggest expense is for occupying physical space in which to live. If you live on a boat and use it as the base of all your operations, this expense potentially plummets to zero. As a structural dwelling, boats are still an expense, but they can avoid the cost of occupying physical space. This is a hugely important distinction.

Yeah, I get that some drastic deviations from standard society driven lifestyles are concerned, but you have zero college degrees, no trust fund, and have never been told you should be a model. How do YOU do it?

Ha! Good question.

• Deconstruction. I’ve read English translations of some of Derrida’s work and most of it simply confuses me, but the gist is… “undoing the oppositions on which [things are] apparently founded, and to the point of showing that those foundations are irreducibly complex, unstable or impossible.” -Wikipedia. Question everything. Assume nothing. Break things down to learn the important parts of the foundation. Ignore the irreducibly complex, unstable or impossible. Reverse engineer yourself, your life, and your tools accordingly. We can just call it skepticism with a pinch of critical thinking if you prefer.
• Be an information sponge. I have no degrees issued by colleges, but I read all the time and learn as much as I can… a natural curiosity helps. Nearly all of humanity’s information is available for free on the internet. Libraries are great.