This image, taken a few years ago at the Go Viral festival, a SXSW-style “influencer” gathering in Kazakhstan, evokes an anecdote I share on page 166 of The Vagabond’s Way.
I had been invited to Almaty to talk about digital nomadism and travel storytelling to the assembled audience of Central Asian artists and entrepreneurs. Since my travel media expertise didn’t extend to digital metrics and algorithms, I kept my message focused on things like staying vulnerable to surprise and meeting new people on the road.
Though my talk got a nice response from the Kazakhs who attended, I was vexed by a question that went something along the lines of “I loved your talk, and you clearly understand travel, so why is it that you only have four thousand Instagram followers?”
My full reflections on this query are spelled out in the book, but the gist of it is that “influence” — that is, dynamic, life-enhancing ideas — is not something that can be measured by a digital metric.
Indeed, receiving wisdom from other people is not the same as reading an Instagram caption, or even attending an art/technology festival and listening to people like me speak from a lectern; it’s something you show up for — and endeavor to apprehend — through person-to-person interaction. That’s why travel matters.
Note: “Dispatches” are short vignettes, profiles, and mini-essays written and posted from the road, often in tandem with my Instagram account. I don’t host a “comments” section, but I’m happy to hear your thoughts via my Contact page.
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