I’m certainly not the only one thinking about the psychology of packing a bag these days and, to that end, Medium has an interesting look at the mental effects of what we bring with us on a trip–and how we bring it.

Jan Chipchase, the article’s author, is a frequent traveler and the founder of design studio Studio D Radiodurans. He is also the maker of a USD $1,000 duffel bag called the D3 Traveller (really… my Tom Bihn Aeronaut sighed out of class envy when it saw me looking at it). While there are moments in piece where the tone is a bit too prescriptive for my tastes (plenty of “hardened travelers” use wheeled bags), his personal packing philosophy is very much akin to my own and he ends with a few things which work for him:

  1. Steer clear of wheels. They are the loan-sharks of weight and space. For a little up-front joy, you’ll be paying back for the rest of your journey.
  2. Limit luggage to one piece that fits into a business class footwell or under an economy class seat (about 42 litres). The impact is two-fold: if it’s weighed at check-in (and with that size it rarely is), the overhead weight limits don’t apply; and if the overheads are full it doesn’t leave your side.
  3. Leave 10% of your luggage space for what the journey has to offer.

That last one is actually something we’ll be exploring in the next installment of ‘Unpacked’, Traveler Tech’s own look at the how packing a bag can have deeper effects on your travels.

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Hello and Happy 2015! 🙂

Currently traveling in Myanmar and have just posted an update at Veritrope called ‘The Past and the Future’, which has some travel-y bits in it. Check it out!

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Steven Norton’s article for the Wall Street Journal about Starwood Hotel CEO Frits van Paasschen ticks a number of boxes for me: The travel and technology trends, of course, but also the larger idea that successful people can accept or reject technology based on whether it actually helps them.

Mr. van Paasschen certainly isn’t alone in ditching a PC for a tablet or a smartphone for the majority of his work and, while it still isn’t something that I would do, it’s nice to see a profile like this that highlights the emerging reality: These days, any PC/Post-PC discussion is really more about personal preferences than any hard limits of functionality.

One more nugget of interest deeper in the piece – a brief mention of how Starwood is using custom apps to connect data about its rooms with their reservation system.

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I love this CityLab post about photographs of Europe’s Abandoned Border Crossing.

Sam Sturgis’s profile of a project by photographer Ignacio Evangelista called ‘After Schengen’ serves as a visual reminder about the often arbitrary and fluid nature of national borders (and, perhaps, our attitudes towards them as well).

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A great idea and very generous offer from travel journalist extraordinaire, Sophy Roberts:

The concept behind her Fair Exchange Travel Service is simple – Send Sophy an email with the details of a trip you’re planning and she’ll send you recommendations on where to stay, what to avoid, and contacts for selected regional travel specialists.

In return, you agree to make a donation of any size to Facing Africa, a group that funds complex reconstructive surgeries for African children afflicted with Noma, an acute and ravaging gangrenous infection affecting the face.

It is an incredibly worthy cause and I think, not surprisingly for a group which Sophy supports, also exemplifies some of the most positive aspects of travel: Each surgical mission brings skilled help into Ethiopia, training for local doctors, and donates medical equipment before returning home.

Things don’t get much easier – or better – than this.

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