8. The Homelessness Experiment
8.无家可归实验

AI induced or not, career transitions require savings. I didn't have any, so I tried homelessness in Hong Kong's tropical jungle 🏕️. It was amazing and I learned a lot. More below.
无论是否受人工智能影响，职业转型都需要积蓄。我当时没有积蓄，所以尝试在香港的热带丛林里过流浪生活🏕️。这感觉很棒，也让我学到了很多东西。更多内容请见下文。

Context & Motivation背景与动机

For context, this story happens in 2016 when I'm studying in Hong Kong. I got there on a scholarship that makes money so scarce the only expense left to optimize is rent. Lowering it is my only chance at not having to spend years saving up in a finance job before I can afford to build companies. So why not try homelessness and see if I can take it?
先说背景，这个故事发生在2016年，当时我在香港读书。我靠奖学金来香港读书，但钱却少得可怜，唯一能优化的开支就是房租。降低房租是我唯一的机会，这样我就不用在金融工作上花好几年积蓄才能创办公司。所以，为什么不试试无家可归的生活，看看自己能不能接受呢？

Finding a Place寻找一个地方

To test homelessness, you need a tent and a location. Finding a good spot takes three days of touring the university's surroundings with two criteria in mind: distance to the university and the probability of being found over the next 6 months. This last one sets a very high bar. For example, the area below the campus swimming pool seemed ideal, but its structure is likely to get audited from time to time.
要测试无家可归者的情况，你需要一个帐篷和一个地点。找到一个合适的地点需要花三天时间在大学周围巡查，并考虑两个标准：距离学校的距离以及未来六个月内找到的可能性。最后一个标准要求很高。例如，校园游泳池下方的区域看似理想，但其结构可能会不时受到审计。

The winner is by the coast. Traffic is minimal because the rocks are hard to climb, especially when the tide is high, and the thick tropical jungle vegetation can be used as camouflage. There's no flat ground to pitch the tent, but it's nothing that 1 or 2 days of carrying rocks and wood chunks can't fix.
最佳地点是靠近海岸的地方。由于岩石难以攀爬，尤其是在涨潮的时候，所以人流很少，而且茂密的热带丛林植被可以作为伪装。虽然没有平地可以搭帐篷，但只要搬一两天石头和木块就能解决。

The hideout藏身处

The Trial Learnings试验的教训

I borrow a friend's tent (thank you Kieran!) and decide to live in it for two weeks, just enough to get a realistic sense of the daily struggles.
我借了朋友的帐篷（谢谢 Kieran！）并决定在里面住两个星期，足以切身感受到每天的艰辛。

The rain's a pain. Day 3 at ~4 AM, I make a wrong move and boom, tidal waves gushing from the puddle my air mattress deflated into soak everything. Not the most pleasant, but nothing a good tent and heavy-duty tarpaulin can't fix.
下雨真让人头疼。第三天凌晨四点左右，我一个失误，砰的一声，潮水从我充气床垫漏气的那个水坑里喷涌而出，把一切都浸湿了。虽然不太舒服，但一个好帐篷和厚实的防水布就能解决。

The trial also invalidates my original thesis about the ideal tent being easy to hide but small. Turns out not being able to stand makes dressing up a pain, and limited indoor volume causes water vapor accumulation from breathing, which promotes mold over time.
这次试验也推翻了我最初关于理想帐篷易于隐藏但体积小的论点。事实证明，无法站立会让穿衣变得很麻烦，而且室内空间有限会导致呼吸产生的水蒸气积聚，久而久之就会滋生霉菌。

My original thesis of the ideal tent: discrete but uncomfortable
我最初关于理想帐篷的论点是：独立但舒适

Everything else seems very promising, so I decide to commit.
其余一切看起来都很有希望，所以我决定承诺。

Committing承诺

On February 4th, 2016, I become the proud owner of a tent that's twice the twice the size of a local university dorm room!
2016 年 2 月 4 日，我自豪地拥有了一顶比当地大学宿舍大两倍的帐篷！

The USD 410 dream tent
410美元的梦幻帐篷

This tent is incredible. It features:
这顶帐篷太棒了。它的特点是：

• An actually waterproof design
  真正防水的设计
• A 2.5-meters-high ceiling to stand comfortably
  2.5 米高的天花板，站立舒适
• A removable waterproof roof to be able to look at the stars directly through the mosquito net when the weather's good
  可拆卸的防水屋顶，天气好的时候可以直接透过蚊帐看星星

The view视图

The realtor listing also boasts:
该房地产经纪人名单还宣称：

• Scenic views of ocean sunrises
  海上日出美景
• Proximity to the gym (6 minutes and 26 seconds personal record), campus restaurants, and spotless public bathrooms
  靠近体育馆（个人记录 6 分 26 秒）、校园餐厅和一尘不染的公共卫生间
• Direct access to the ocean to windsurf
  可直接前往海边进行风帆冲浪

It's a dream place. At least it is in this context, given a not so fun fact is that I saw the same tents years later in the streets of San Francisco.
这真是个梦幻之地。至少在这个背景下是如此，但一个不太好笑的事实是，多年后我在旧金山街头又看到了同样的帐篷。

The Highs高潮

Who would have guessed this kind of intentional homelessness could be so heavenly?
谁能想到这种故意的无家可归行为竟然如此美好？

First, I get an intense feeling of inner peace. Instead of random 5:30 AM alarms from people sleeping in the next dorm room, I wake up to waves breaking on nearby rocks. Even things as simple as brushing my teeth goes from being a chore to something to look forward to because the view is just so beautiful!
首先，我内心感到无比平静。早上5:30的闹钟不再是隔壁宿舍里的人随机叫醒我，而是被海浪拍打岩石的声音吵醒。就连刷牙这种简单的事情也从一件琐事变成了一件值得期待的事情，因为眼前的景色实在太美了！

Magnificent sunrises (university view)
壮丽的日出（大学景观）

Also, this lifestyle helps to be productive. Having to go to the gym every morning to shower enforces discipline, not being able to have a light inside the tent forces me to spend longer in the library, and having a little oasis of peace outside of Hong Kong's hustle and bustle allows me to fully disconnect and sleep like a baby.
而且，这种生活方式也有助于提高效率。每天早上必须去健身房洗澡，这强化了我的自律性；帐篷里没有灯，迫使我花更多时间待在图书馆；远离香港的喧嚣，拥有一片宁静的小绿洲，让我可以完全放下一切，睡得像个婴儿。

Morning commute早上通勤

Downsides & Risk Mitigation
缺点和风险缓解

There are no lows as much as risk mitigation related constraints.
不存在与风险缓解相关的限制以及低点。

Getting busted by the police
被警察抓获
The biggest risk is getting found. Wild camping is illegal, and having to urgently find another place to live would disrupt my life, especially during finals season. There are a couple of mitigations:
最大的风险是被发现。野营是违法的，而且必须紧急寻找另一个住处会扰乱我的生活，尤其是在期末考试期间。以下是一些缓解措施：

• Make it a secret. I tell no one but the 3 close friends whose support I'd need if I get busted, make sure they understand the story would spread like wildfire, and have them swear not to say a word to absolutely anyone including their partners.
  保密。除了三个亲密的朋友，我不会告诉任何人。如果我被抓了，我需要他们的支持。我要确保他们明白这件事会像野火一样迅速传播开来。我让他们发誓，绝对不跟任何人说一句话，包括他们的伴侣。
• Hide the tent behind thick vegetation.
  将帐篷隐藏在茂密的植被后面。
• Spray paint the tent with camouflage shapes - I don't want to lower resale value, so I first try putting a friend 3 meters away from the tent and asking him to find it. Vegetation is so thick he can't. No need to spray camouflage!
  用迷彩图案喷在帐篷上——我不想降低转售价值，所以我先试着把一个朋友放在离帐篷3米远的地方，让他帮忙找帐篷。植被太茂密了，他根本找不到。没必要喷迷彩！
• Avoid ever using artificial light inside, which would turn the tent into a lamp.
  避免在室内使用人工照明，否则帐篷会变成灯。

Light + tent = lamp
灯 + 帐篷 = 灯

Getting robbed遭遇抢劫
The simplest mitigations are to:
最简单的缓解措施是：

• Secure the tent opening zippers with a lock - it might look small but the only people likely to find the hideout are old Hong Kongese men who enjoy fishing and international students who enjoy rock climbing, two demographics trustworthy enough to stop at a lock.
  用锁固定帐篷开口拉链——它可能看起来很小，但唯一可能找到藏身之处的人是喜欢钓鱼的香港老人和喜欢攀岩的国际学生，这两个群体值得信赖，会在锁前停下来。
• Avoid storing valuables in the tent - luckily, aside from a laptop and two suits which I store in a locker on campus, I don't have any valuables.
  避免在帐篷内存放贵重物品——幸运的是，除了存放在校园储物柜中的一台笔记本电脑和两套西装外，我没有任何贵重物品。

Getting crushed by a boulder during sleep
睡觉时被巨石砸伤
The nearby cliffs make this risk non-zero. Touring the coast line doesn't reveal any recent landslide or boulder fall, but these can still happen during a typhoon. I decide to sleep at a friend's place whenever winds reach 35 knots. It will only happen 2-3 times during the whole semester, and every time I come back to a tent that's intact.
附近的悬崖使得这种风险并非为零。沿着海岸线巡视后，没有发现任何近期发生的山体滑坡或巨石坠落，但台风期间仍有可能发生这些情况。每当风速达到35节时，我决定去朋友家过夜。整个学期这种情况只会发生两三次，而且每次回来时，帐篷都完好无损。

Other limitations其他限制

• No food - even the tiniest snack is an invitation for wild animals to wreak havoc on the tent. This forces me to rely on the campus' restaurants, which aren't cheap (~$3/meal instead of $1 when homecooked), but this is more than compensated for by the lack of rent, and it's also better for social life.
  没有食物——即使是最微不足道的零食，也会引来野生动物，让它们在帐篷里肆虐。这迫使我只能依赖校园里的餐厅，虽然价格不菲（每餐约3美元，而自己做饭只要1美元），但房租便宜足以弥补这一点，而且社交生活也更方便。
• No electricity - luckily I can charge everything on campus.
  没有电——幸运的是我可以在校园里给所有东西充电。

The End结束

This heaven ends with killer weather.
这座天堂因恶劣的天气而终结。

During the winter, cold only starts to be a problem when the temperature drops below 2°C (35°F), which only happens twice. It's not comfortable, but thick blankets make it surprisingly manageable.
冬天，只有当气温降到2摄氏度（35华氏度）以下时，寒冷才会成为问题，这种情况只发生过两次。虽然不舒服，但盖上厚厚的毯子却出奇地容易受冻。

The real issue is heat. Hong Kong's summer is scorching hot, with temperatures routinely hitting 35°C (95°F), which translates into close to 42°C (107°F) in the tent. Sleeping there feels like getting slow-cooked in a sauna, and mold starts colonizing all textiles. Against the ever-rising temperatures, I must leave the tent late May, with a full month to go.
真正的问题是热。香港的夏天酷热难耐，气温经常高达35摄氏度（95华氏度），帐篷里的温度接近42摄氏度（107华氏度）。睡在那里感觉就像在桑拿房里被慢炖，所有纺织品上都开始长霉。面对不断攀升的气温，我必须在五月下旬离开帐篷，还有整整一个月的时间。

The insufficient ceiling ventilation system
天花板通风系统不足

ROI国王

Even if I have to cut it short, this experiment is already a financial success. Offsetting ~$450 in dorm room rent paid back the tent within a month, and saved me close to $2k over the 4.5 months.
即使我不得不缩短实验时间，但这个实验在经济上也算成功了。我花了大约 450 美元的宿舍房租，一个月内就还清了帐篷的钱，并且在 4 个半月里省下了近 2000 美元。

Most importantly, this expriment triples my runway. Living in Hong Kong without a dorm room would push rent up to at least $700 a month, meaning the ability to crash in a tent lowered my soon-to-be monthly expenses from $1k to $300 a month. And that's without taking into account the interest rates from having to take a loan.
最重要的是，这个实验让我的资金周转率增加了三倍。在香港，没有宿舍的话，每月房租至少要涨到700美元，而能住在帐篷里，让我的月支出从1000美元降到了300美元。这还不包括贷款利息。

Community Support社区支持

I’d hate to impose on a single friend’s hospitality for two whole months, so I start openly telling everyone about the tent. The word spreads like wildfire. I get dozens and dozens of hosting invitations! I'm in shock - even people I barely know warmly invite me into their homes. It's really touching.
我可不想让一个朋友帮忙招待我整整两个月，所以我开始公开地告诉所有人我的帐篷。消息像野火一样迅速传播开来。我收到了几十个招待邀请！我震惊了——就连那些我几乎不认识的人也热情地邀请我去他们家做客。这真是太感人了。

To spread the burden, I accept many invitations but limit my stay to half a week. This turns into a surprisingly intense experience. I get to meet people in their most intimate space and bond over late-night conversations in ways that never would have happened otherwise.
为了分担压力，我接受了很多邀请，但只停留半周。这反而成了一次出乎意料的、紧张刺激的体验。我得以在他们最私密的空间里与他们见面，并在深夜的闲聊中建立起联系，而这种联系在其他情况下是不可能实现的。

Also, it's insane how wildly different are the lives of people who go to the same classes in the same university! One host is a Chinese friend who lost his dad and barely sees his mom who works night shifts in a Chinese factory across the border. Their tiny flat is constantly dark because aren't any windows, and electricity's too expensive. To pay the bills, they cram 4 foldable beds into a room and rent them online for $13 a night. And he's still generous enough to invite me into his home!
而且，即使是同一所大学上同样的课，人们的生活也大相径庭，真是不可思议！一位房东是一位中国朋友，他失去了父亲，几乎见不到在边境另一边的一家中国工厂上夜班的母亲。他们狭小的公寓里总是一片漆黑，因为没有窗户，而且电费又贵。为了支付电费，他们把四张折叠床塞进一个房间，在网上以每晚13美元的价格出租。但他仍然慷慨地邀请我去他家！

Right after, I find myself in an exclusive condo with a cinema, music rooms, sauna, restaurants, bars, and multiple pools. My host is a banker who asks me to stay a longer because he feels a bit lonely. We have long conversations about him being sick of Hong Kong, which has us realize he's not sick of the city as much as of his monotonous life in the city. There's so much to be lived here! Just a few kilometers away, friends who later host me are launching their first rap album, prototyping fixed-wing drones in the living room, and discussing the Vedas by the house shrine.
紧接着，我入住了一套专属公寓，里面有电影院、音乐室、桑拿房、餐厅、酒吧和多个泳池。房东是一位银行家，他邀请我多住几天，因为他觉得有点孤独。我们聊了很久，聊到他厌倦了香港，这让我们意识到，他厌倦的不仅仅是这座城市，更多的是他单调乏味的城市生活。这里还有太多值得体验的地方！就在几公里外，后来接待我的朋友们正在发行他们的第一张说唱专辑，在客厅里制作固定翼无人机的原型，并在自家的神龛旁讨论吠陀经。

Learnings学习内容

This experience changed my life.
这次经历改变了我的一生。

First, it gave me a sense of freedom from the material world. Removing runway related anxieties allowed me to make bolder moves, like directly focusing on entrepreneurship instead of taking a job for years to save up. A decade later, I still feel freer knowing I can survive on close to nothing.
首先，它让我感到从物质世界中解脱出来。摆脱了与“跑道”相关的焦虑，让我能够采取更大胆的行动，比如直接专注于创业，而不是打工多年攒钱。十年过去了，我仍然感到更加自由，因为我知道自己几乎可以不费吹灰之力就能生存下去。

Second, this experience increased my faith in humanity. It's still quite emotional to think about all the support I got from both friends and almost strangers who invited me into their homes. Also, meeting dozens of people in the intimacy of their homes changes you. Besides friendships, you get a much deeper appreciation for how insanely different people's lives are.
其次，这段经历增强了我对人性的信仰。想到朋友和几乎陌生的人邀请我到他们家做客，给予我那么多支持，至今仍让我感慨万千。此外，在几十个人的家中亲密接触，也改变了我。除了友谊之外，你还能更深刻地体会到，人们的生活是多么的千差万别。

Failed Attempts at Replicating it
复制尝试失败

Replicating this outside of Hong Kong turned out to be quite hard. I really showed how privileged of a setting I had earlier lived in.
在香港以外复制这种经历相当困难。我真正展现了我之前所处的环境是多么优越。

Berkeley Mountains伯克利山脉
I scouted for tent locations when I was later studying in Berkeley. There were several suitable spots in the mountains, but the only ones that were far enough to be safe from the local homeless were too far from the university.
后来我在伯克利读书时，四处寻找搭帐篷的地方。山里有几处合适的地方，但只有那些足够安全、远离当地无家可归者的地点，距离大学太远了。

Berkeley Sailboat伯克利帆船
Living in a van wasn't an option given I didn't have a driver's license, so I instead explored living on a sailboat. It turns out this requires a permit which locals said is really hard to get, but I found what seems like a loophole. Permits only seem required for American boats, not for foreign boats that are visiting the region. This means that you could in theory buy a boat in Vancouver or Tijuana, sail it to San Francisco, and rotate across marinas. I didn't explore this further as I found a crazy good deal with the local rowing team's house, but would love to hear from someone who tries it.
由于我没有驾照，住在面包车里是不可能的，所以我转而考虑住在帆船上。结果发现这需要许可证，当地人说很难拿到，但我找到了一个漏洞。许可证似乎只适用于美国船只，而来访该地区的外国船只则不需要。这意味着理论上你可以在温哥华或蒂华纳买一艘船，开到旧金山，然后在各个码头轮换。我没有进一步研究，因为我在当地赛艇队的房子里发现了一个超划算的优惠，但我很想听听有人尝试过。

Paris Cave巴黎洞穴
One close friend was looking for someone to rent his cave for about $100 per night. I of course proposed to turn it into a dwelling and raise the rent if he allowed me to use his bathroom from time to time.
一位好友想租他的洞穴，每晚大约100美元。我当然提议，如果他允许我偶尔用一下他的浴室，我就把它改建成住所，并提高租金。

First step was to rent professional air quality measuring devices (radon, mold, carbon monoxide, etc), which assessed the cave as safe.
第一步是租用专业的空气质量测量设备（氡、霉菌、一氧化碳等），评估洞穴是安全的。

Second step was to spend a night and measure CO2 buildup. After a deep clean that crushed both a personal and a professional vacuum cleaners, I quickly fell asleep - light insulation was pretty good - but woke up with intense asthma. We contemplated renovating the cave to fully sanitize it, but the combination of heavy investment, uncertain payout, and uncomfortable lifestyle had us drop the whole plan.
第二步是花一夜时间测量二氧化碳的累积量。深度清洁之后，我把个人吸尘器和专业吸尘器都用坏了，很快就睡着了——轻度隔热效果还不错——但醒来后却哮喘发作。我们考虑过翻新洞穴，彻底消毒，但巨额投资、不确定的回报以及不舒适的生活方式让我们放弃了整个计划。

Shackled to the Good Life
被美好生活束缚
I'm incredibly lucky to have met a beloved one who's worth every bit of not running more of such experiments, but I'd really love to hear from people who try them, especially so if that's about the sailboat in San Francisco loophole.
我非常幸运能够遇到一个值得我不再进行此类实验的挚爱之人，但我真的很想听听那些尝试过的人的意见，尤其是如果那是关于旧金山帆船漏洞的意见。

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原文链接：

https://corentin.trebaol.com/Blog/8.+The+Homelessness+Experiment