I have a friend in a similar situation to you (in terms of travelling/freedom/finances). It doesn't inspire me to "find a better job". Frankly, it makes me suicidal (I don't mean that in a hyperbole way). I look at how successful he is and I think; I could never be that successful. He will be cavorting around the world carefree for the rest of his life, and I will chained to a cube (whether at this job or another, doesn't really matter) until I'm unemployable and on the streets.

Getting a better job is nothing like what you and people like my friend have. You guys are in such a different realm, and although I enjoy following along with his adventures, it also hurts when he (and I hear a bit of this in your post too) can't understand that most of us will never and could never be in that position. 90% of new businesses fail. I barely have enough savings to last a month if I was out of a job, so the risk of trying to start and grow a business is much more likely to put me into poverty than it is to put me into financial freedom.

When I encounter a service worker, such a waiter, customs official, bus driver, etc who seems rude and snappy, I try (this is hard for me) to think about what they might be feeling. They could be having a bad day. Maybe someone yelled at them. Maybe their boss is cruel and belittling, but they can't find another job. Maybe their kids or spouse is trouble. Maybe the table before me left a religious tract instead of a monetary tip.

I realize your post is tongue-in-cheek, and intended to be funny (and it is). But it's also a bit hurtful. I can imagine that exchange, and the customs official is completely demoralized. The question in your hypothetical dialogue are entirely legitimate: they need to know where you've been and what you're up to. Your responses, although accurate, are made in such a way as to say "I'm better than you." I know you don't mean it that way. The same as I have to spend time away from facebook just because the endless stream of travels of my friend depress me too much, I sometimes just need to not know about them.

I don't know if you've ever actually said that dialogue to a customs person, but I only request you think carefully. A lot of people struggle with self-deprecation and/or depression. And an exchange which it makes so clear that he/she/me are stuck trying to pay the bills and work two jobs while other people are free and have it all just drives the depression that much deeper.

I don't say you should give up anything, or that you didn't work hard. I'm sure you deserve everything you have! Please just don't rub it in the face of a stranger who is lower class than you :(

It's rare to get to see, paired tightly together, such a vivid example of what's going on inside the heads of two participants in an otherwise ordinary and well-meaning conversation (even though it's hypothetical, in this case). Both the traveler and the agent are projecting certain beliefs upon the other, and feeling certain ways about themselves that the other doesn't realize.

I don't know why, but I found reading this exchange really powerful. I think because it happens all the time for many of us (playing both roles), but we never stop to think about what's going on inside the head of the other person.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6277782

As fate would have it, my job description is the same these days, but I am in fact doing much better, financially. Still, it's worth noting that travelling the world doesn't in any way require one to be wealthy.

In what world is it your role to judge a person for going to work every day to feed their family?

"Basically, it's your opportunity to remind them that their job is to sit in a little cube talking to people who are actually out there leading exciting lives."

I'm trying not to read that sentence in the voice of a young English aristocrat from the 1920s, but that's how it sounds. Mocking the working class for the distasteful faux pas of needing a paycheck to survive?

You are blessed for having been able to find a way to live a life of travel and pleasure while others have to worry about which bills they can pay, hope they don't get sick, and dream of someday being able to take even one vacation. Does that mean you are better than them? You certainly seem to think so.

"One day they'll quit . . . the ones that need this sort of treatment . . ."

Honestly, listen to yourself. Are you some authority appointed to correct the misbehavior of your inferiors? No. You're a guy with talent who drew the right cards, played them well, and was rewarded with a life others would like to have. Learn a lesson about humility from my grandmother who grew up in the Great Depression, and reminded me always to tell myself "there, but for the grace of God, go I."

On a side note, I see that you are the founder of Twiddla. Not that the opinion of a single user matters, but as a user, I will now look for an alternative. I have no interest in supporting such arrogance.

They're probably a little annoyed that Mr Kester has negligently not bothered to retain the first half of his ticket, failed to deep track of when he left or what countries he visited, and was too stupid to fill out the paperwork properly. They may even roll their eyes thinking he's a bit of a smelly pig not to have changed his shirt in over a month and wonder why he couldn't afford to have more than one.

I'm pretty sure they don't give a crap about his software company, or have any use for his product, either. They're probably pretty content in knowing they have the federally mandated power to just just glance over at the big guy off to the side and within three minutes, Mr Kester will be bent over a table in another room with a couple of rubberized fingers up his ass.

If Mr Kester thinks he's making customs officials feel small and unimportant because he has such an "exciting life", or that he's in some way "evening the score" by bragging about having been in the Far East for over a year, I must say that "this sort of treatment" is rather too subtle for thick-skinned customs staffers. They really couldn't care less where he's been or where he's going, as long as he isn't carrying any contraband.

If he really wanted to make them feel that they're so much worse off than he is, he'd have to add, "... unlike you, with your shitty, dead-end job, sitting in a little cube," or some similar direct comparison. But that would probably get him taken into the other room.

Finally, I'm willing to bet that the agents aren't regular readers of Hacker News, so they haven't seen Mr Kester's post. In this case, ignorance is bliss.

No. If you came away with that impression then you may have misread my intent.

My stance is that mean people deserve to live an unhappy life. No more. Nice people, as noted in the comment you responded to, receive no such treatment from me. Mean people get a fictionalized account of a person leading a much better life than themselves, delivered by a person who in actual fact is not likely leading a much more interesting life at all.

As a mean person, the theory goes, one can continue being mean and thus unhappy. Or they can start being nice and be treated nicely. Notice how class does not enter into it at all.

Is it not enough that you've managed to retire as a young man and lounge on the beaches of Thailand, do you also need to be treated with smiles and deference by people who still have to go to work every day? They have a job to do, and your abuse isn't going to help anything. At best, it'll just make the experience that much worse for the person in line behind you.

Empathy is not something that can be forced on a person, and a comment on a web page isn't going to make you change your attitude or think about anyone else's life, but then again, being a dick to customs agents isn't going to help, either, so I guess we're both wasting our breath.

I think Jason made the mistake of not clarifying in his comment that he only does this to agents who are rude to him first. Now his comment has turned into a new story by itself with a lot of angry comments.

I feel sorry for Jason because he seems like a nice guy who just didn't properly proofread his comment before posting and he's now getting a huge ass kicking as a result.

I've had these same people greet me with a big smile, ask me how well I'll do in a race (they had already met many people doing the same race) and wish me good luck.

Airports are stressful places and traveling in general can also be stressful. My opinion?

Being rude is not your privilege. It won't fix a broken system. It just makes you personally feel better, at the expense of another. We're all much better than that - or so I should hope.

The assumption that those who aren't out traveling are beneath him and deserve the ill treatment that he's intending (whether they realize he's intending to be abusive or not).

There have been people like jasonkester that have appeared in my life before. When times have been good they didn't inspire me, but were just good fun. When times have been bad, their example pushed and motivated me to get my life back on track. They may never have known what kind of good they did for me, and they may have even departed from my life, but I'm extremely grateful for the time they spent with me.

I really don't want to wear the same t-shirt for 40 days in a rainforest, and I really don't want to emulate jasonkester's travel plans; I'm allergic to spiders and nature! However, if I got stuck stamping passports or asking whether you'd like fries with that, I'm quite sure his passion would be quite invaluable as a reminder to sort my life out.

What jasonkester did can be done unpleasantly. Nobody likes people that say "nah nah nah nah boo boo my life is better than yours!", but I just don't get the feeling that's how it went down in this instance.

I've worked in service industries (of which I'll lump in TSA and Customs officials for now) and have been on the receiving end of it, polite or cordial people are welcome to talk about their experience, but then you get people like a friend of mine that would rather make them feel miserable about what they do for a living (the reason I can only take him in small doses these days).

What specifically does your friend do to piss you off?

With the TSA he likes to derail the process (unless he's short on time). Not just asking for a pat down rather than the scanner (if I gave myself more time at the airport I'd likely do the same), but to the point of abusing the worker rather than making the system itself slow down. Also, he has little regard for those behind him in line, and doesn't mind delaying them a few minutes so he can feel better about himself.

As I haven't spent much time with him (physically parted ways after college) the past few years I can't really recall any more specific incidents, but it was a reason that, in college, it took us about 6 months to become friends. I thought he was a jerk, and I was right, he just happens to be a good friend as well.

> Basically, it's your opportunity to remind them that their job is to sit in a little cube talking to people who are actually out there leading exciting lives

As a foreigner, this is exactly what you don't want to do. Pissing them off is a very, very bad idea. I've had many things said and done to me at the entrance to the US that I'd rather avoid in the future.

This is unfortunately correct. The border agent has final say in letting you into the country (regardless of the legitimacy of your documents).

I'm not a tourist, it's my right to enter my own country.

I'm so sorry for not contributing anything of value to the conversation, but that's the funniest thing I've read all week! I've gotta try this next time I don't have a connecting flight!

Sorry, dude. My bad.

Therefore, if any wrath is unleashed on me it won't be because of you. Carry on!

That'd be about as about as not getting art in the foam of my latte! I'd write a letter!

It was pretty fustrating to have to wait sometimes up to hours (Dallas airport sucks) to know that I was going to get sent to another screen and wait anywhere between 15 minutes and 3 hours to get out, the people were also almost always overly aggressive.

One thing I will say though is there are huge differences in border culture. JFK is uniformly unpleasant to enter/ Houston is pretty bad too. I have rarely had unpleasantness in Seatac.

(I got in.)

Another gem: “No way anybody takes a 75-day vacation, I don’t even take two weeks.”

I for one do not understand their obsession with clothes. It seems to me that they focus on people with very little luggage.

You have a great life. Appreciate it but also appreciate others. Being successful doesn't have to mean being a jerk.

There's no requirement for privilege, or even "living wage" to lead such a lifestyle. As such, I appreciate that you thought I was somehow successful, but by most objective standards, I was just a homeless guy.

If a border officer was rude to you, then be a jerk to him, not some random stranger who just happened to be in same situation to him.

But in actual fact, I was doing that thing you describe in your second paragraph. As it states in my original comment.