Customer Reviews

Life 2.0 : How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness

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I'm a 17-year resident of Palo Alto, California, land of the $700,000 fixer-upper, and it's indeed a wonderful place to live if you can afford the price of admission: safe, excellent schools, a mild climate, pleasant & bicycle-friendly tree-lined streets, and a community life strongly flavored by proximity to Stanford University. Unlike a number of the subjects interviewed in Rich Karlgaard's Life 2.0, I have been fortunate to enjoy (?) commutes of 20 minutes or less. Downsides? A few: high mortgage, state income tax and property tax bills-EVERYTHING costs more here-congested rush hour and weekend getaway traffic, and a workaholic culture in which one schedules a dinner with friends a month or more in advance and it is rare for a long-time neighbor to be more than a passing acquaintance.

Nonetheless, in recent years my wife and I have often pondered whether we might enhance our family's quality of life by relocating to a smaller community. So far, in the last analysis, it has always come down to, "They don't have my kind of work [biotechnology research] there."

This sort of yearning is part of aging ("When you're young, you want to get away, when you're old you want to go back...") and is not unique to the nation's post-boom cultural and economic circumstances. However in Life 2.0 Karlgaard has identified a number of economic and social developments that in the next 1 or 2 decades could well synergize, transforming "yearning" to "megatrend." These include the aging of the huge baby-boom generation; the prediction, well-informed by history, that the next 10-15 years will likely see below-average investment returns and wage growth; and the huge impact of the information technology revolution that enables much knowledge-or service-based work to be done from anywhere and will doubtless catalyze a great leveling of the world's standard of living over the next two generations. In my opinion, he makes a compelling case.

This subject could easily have been the substance of a ponderous ethereal academic tome or a dry compendium of statistical analysis intertwined with cadaverous prose that would put 10,000 people to sleep if they were running from a napalm attack. Thankfully the author has instead chosen to illustrate his thesis in an engaging way through real people's experiences. The lengthier interviews are devoted to the more unusual and exceptional folks-entrepreneurs of various flavors-who have made successful transitions to stimulating, productive lives in "flyover country." Shorter "sidebars" are also included as excerpts of letters he has received from others who have found happiness and meaning, if somewhat more modest success, in smaller communities. I found the combination very enjoyable and read the book in but three sittings-a remarkable achievement for a 51-year old father of a lively six-year old son who normally takes a month or more to read a book! In addition Life 2.0 was for me a very thought-provoking read on several levels: both in its relevance to my personal circumstances and future, and in a more global (or at least national) sense.

What didn't work so well? As a pilot myself, I think the segments about the author's experiences in personal aviation might have been better integrated. Reading the first part of the book, I imagined that the aviation-related segments would serve as a metaphor for the broader theme, describing the author's own journey through a difficult transformation: finding fulfillment and satisfaction in mastering a new set of skills, finally opening up a completely new set of opportunities and experiences. Instead this theme seemingly just faded away as the narrative progressed and came to no satisfying conclusion. However, the subject and style of Life 2.0 foreshadow future revised editions containing at least updated information and perhaps additional stories. These future editions would also be an opportunity for the author to more tightly weave the theme of personal aviation into his tale.

I enthusiastically recommend Life 2.0 as a very interesting and enjoyable book that will make you think differently about your own life and our society's future. I plan to give it as a Christmas present to a number of family members and friends! In the meantime, my wife and I may make a few investigative visits and domestic inquiries in places such as Payson AZ, Columbia CA, Groveland CA, Albuquerque NM,...

This book reminds me of "What Should I Do With My Life?" by Po Bronson, just shorter and with an emphasis on finding a more quality place to live. I didn't mind the side stories about the author's flying experiences and didn't think it took much from the book.

There are two things about the book which I had problems. First, the people profiled were high achievers and not typical of the average citizen that lives in high priced urban areas and is looking for an alternative. Technology has allowed for people to work in places outside of the large cities and it would have been nice to hear about "regular" people who have been able to make the transition to smaller places. The people in the book would probably be successful wherever because of the track record and capital that they had previously built. The second thing I had a problem with was the third section "150 Cheap Places to Live". There are places listed that I had not considered and merit further research. However, there are place listed, such as Boulder, CO, that are very expensive, unless you are downsizing from a house in LA, Silicon Valley, etc... Also, some of the choices are suspect. For example, Cleveland is listed under Bohemian Bargains, yet this city has the highest percentage of residents living in poverty. Omitted was Dallas, TX which has fairly low housing prices and a stable economy versus Austin, which is also reasonable, but not as diverse of an economy.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and it is a starting place for thinking about alternative locations to live.

Once you skim the flying blither, there is little other than clumsy narratives about people who have gotten their share of the pie moving out to expropriate the communities of those who have made do with less to build. Karlgaard seems to assume that relocating means one can immediately participate in social structures built painstakingly one year at a time. The author offers no suggestions about how to make a community better by being part of it, only shopping advice for those who are location "consumers". Perhaps "home" is now a commodity to be researched and purchased, but it will not be a place for the heart ot reside.

I purchased this book with high hopes, but what a disappointment! I am someone who has a big career in management consulting, but chooses to live in a small town in the Colorado mountains. The exact type of person Karlgaard claims to want to write about. Unfortunately, Karlgaard is not much of a writer.

He spends maybe half his pointless pages with tedious stories about learning to fly. Imagine someone writing about driving from city to city, including what the weather was, were they stopped for gas, and the occasional flat tire. This book is even duller than that.

The rest of his pages are filled with the obvious, the uninteresting, and the mostly unfounded views he has on life in small town America. For example, he proclaims that a college or university is key to a triving small city or town. Unfortunately, the empirical evidence shows that isn't true. Read Boomtown USA: The 7 1/2 Keys to Big Success in Small Towns by Jack Shultz, a much better book and grounded in more than just the author's opinions.

There is a trend of accomplished people escaping the coasts and moving to small towns and finding success and quality of life. But this isn't the book to help you understand that trend.

Really, I didn't find a single thing of value in this book at all.

Imagine its 1950, a venerable New York City publishing house, a young tech savvy writer is pitching a book premise that "refrigerated air-conditioning" is the "next big thing." AC will transform the sleepy sweaty South and trigger a multi-decade migration of Americans from the "frost belt" to the "sun belt". What happens? That aspiring author is unceremoniously booted out the door on to the Madison Avenue sidewalk with his unread manuscript tossed out right behind him. Such is the challenge for those predicting tectonic change. As we now know refrigerated air-conditioning was a really big thing, radically altering everything from work hours to home architecture to today's electoral map.

Flash forward to July 2004. Rich Karlgaard has a pitch to make in his new book, "Life 2.0" - there is a new exodus afoot. The forces of technology and social rebirth are converging to once again ignite waves of migration across America. This time its from the high priced cities and suburbs of America's east and west coasts to the small towns of the heartland. Rich has a unique position to comment on such a trend. He is the publisher of New York based Forbes magazine but lives in Silicon Valley where he pens his "Digital Rules" column. He saw the tech boom and bust first-hand and fully appreciates the turmoil and anxiety wrought on America's entrepreneurial and emotional psyche.

Rich points to broadband communication as the transformative technology that is removing the constraints of geography and already igniting migration from the urban cities to suburban and rural areas of America. His technology instincts are well tuned, with mentors like George Gilder and Carver Mead. He listens to the technology and he also listens to his readers who reply to his biweekly columns in great volume via e-mail. The anecdotes of their quests for new careers and new meaning to their lives were the catalyst for "Life 2.0." In 2002 and 2003 Rich logged tens of thousands of miles in his Cessna Skyhawk, barnstorming the hinterlands to meet the quirky and colorful people that make it fertile ground for America's next economic boom. Their zany and poignant tales are sprinkled throughout the book.

But there is more than just technology behind the thesis of "Life 2.0". In Chapter 13, entitled, "America's Renewed Search for Meaning," Rich weaves together the threads of the Fourth Great Awakening, the 9/11 Factor and the extraordinary success of Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life." In fact just before the first press run, Rick Warren agreed to write a forward for "Life 2.0."

"Life 2.0" closes with a list of 150 towns and cities, where the living is good and the dollar goes far. The categories: Porch-swing communities, Happy Hootervilles, IQ Campuses, Steroid Cities, Bohemian Bargains and Telecommuting Heavens.
Ashby M. Foote III, 27 July 2004

I've been reading this book during my 75 minute one way train commute into Midtown Manhattan, and it has confirmed a lot of what my wife and I have been discussing over the last few years regarding the Internet, outsourcing, rural living, etc., etc. The people profiled in this book are indeed highly educated, highly ambitious people, and I suspect that for the naysayers in the crowd, that may be the first step. As one of the interviewees in the book points out, it would be tragic if you are a great artist, but decided to spend your life as an accountant, trudging to/from a non-descript office, day in, day out, day in, day out...

To me, the ultimate message from the book is that we all need to critically examine ourselves, our strengths, weaknesses, and innermost desires, then think about how these can be translated into a meaningful work and home environment. Think hard, visit a few places, get a high-speed Internet connection, and go for it! Regret is a terrible feeling with which to live.

Everytime you pay your mortgage, you will think of this book, Life 2.0. First, full disclosure: I've known the author Rich Karlgaard for sometime. I used to write for him when he ran Upside Magazine through his current job as Publisher of Forbes Magazine, and he has said nice things about my books. But I was totally unprepared when I started reading Life 2.0. I finished it in two sittings - it was that enjoyable. It is a lot of fun following Rich as he flies his plane around the country, meeting those that fled, figuring out if you can make it without living in New York, the Bay Area or near other expensive rat races. His conclusion: you can, which is what makes this an important book in a post-industrial America.

So here is my blurb:
The New Yorker ran their famous cover of a Manhattan's view of the world, with nothing beyond the Hudson River. From both 10,000 feet and at ground level, Rich Karlgaard fills in the map. His new book, Life 2.0 is a must read for anyone who has ever contemplated jumping off the treadmill, or getting on one in a less stressful town. Karlgaard finds that life is just as good, and often better, in America's undiscovered thriving communities. His focus on both people and economics honed on the pages of Forbes gives backbone to his conclusions that you can have your cake and eat it somewhere else.

Rich Karlgaard, the Publisher of Forbes, has written an outstanding book. It is a combination of Peter Mayle's best-selling "A Year in Provence" and Howard Schultz' "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time". Like Mayle and Schultz, Rich shows us that a fulfilling professional life can be achieved by going outside of the big urban areas of America. In fact he invites us along to ride in the co-pilot seat (metaphorically), to visit a lot of great business people residing in the smaller cities of America.These are locations he has visited and found to be great places to start a new company.

If you like President Bush's conservative politics, you will love this book. If you like Senator John Kerry's goal to end corporate greed and end the outsourcing of good jobs to China and India, you will love this book!

This book refreshes your spirit and Rich has done a great service to all of us who love our work but would like to move out of the congested urban cities of America, with his list of "150 Cheap Places to Live".

Oh, did I tell you about the great Hot Turkey Sandwich they make at the Madonna Inn Restaurant in the small town of San Luis Obispo California...Rich would really like that city.
Gary Plantz
Managing Director - California
The National Graduate School
San Diego, California

There are a lot of elitist, bi-coastal snobs who think that the capitalist world spins on a New York to Silicon Valley Axis of Opportunity. And the rest of the US is flyover country. Life 2.0 offers hope to the self-absorbed, un-fulfilled yuppie currently experiencing the humiliation of career failure: get a U-Haul buddy! There is plenty of opportunity in Boonyville! Gee, there is opportunity away from both coasts? What shocking news! This is a really big secret that must be exposed in a book! Why didn't the 150 million people in flyover country tell any of the important people on either coast of this fact?

This book is a difficult read. The author (Richard Karlgaard) never misses an opportunity to describe in atrociously dull detail the takeoffs and landings in his small plane - it's every bit as tedious as someone describing their search for parking spaces before each business meeting. And each meal and alcoholic beverage consumed by the author is described in sophomoric detail:"The availability of cold Corona beer served with a slice of fresh lime wedged into the bottle's neck is my own admittedly narrow test of urbane sophistication. Ah, here they come, liquid gold!". The reader gets the feeling that this book is just documentation in attempt to write-off Karlgaard's new found flying hobby as a business expense on his tax return.

The book is written in three distinct parts - and the parts do not flow together; they seem to be written by different authors. With different editors. Part one is full of really dull details related to the aviation experiences of a newbie pilot; interspersed with meetings of former coastal snobs who have moved to the hinterlands. These meetings are short on character development and long on declaring victory. Just about everybody profile repeats the same mantra: "My house is three times bigger than the one in Silicon Valley, at one third of the price! And my daily commute is measured in minutes, not hours! The sushi at the minor league baseball park isn't as good as San Francisco's, but we get all the culture we need when the regional dinner theater hosts Davis Hasselhoff's `Phantom of the Riverdancing Nutcracker, on Ice' each Christmas. And I haven't missed any of my daughter's soccer games yet!" Part one also has profiles of relocated coatal snobs who pen their own life story, with the same mantra repeated over and over. We get the point! A house in French Lick, Ind. is cheaper than on in San Jose. Enough already. Why not throw in some statistics to liven things up? This anecdotal stuff is very repetitive.

Part two is actually pretty good - assuming the reader can slog through 178 pages of minutia to get there. Karlgaard makes many interesting observations about the application of technology; falling prices world-wide, global outsourcing; and the benefits of being the low cost producer. However, just when the book was getting good, Karlgaard makes a significant boner on page 196 when he tries to illustrate the difference between a portfolio returning 14% and one returning 7% over 18 years. He says the portfolio earning 14% would be worth $1,000,000 when the 7% portfolio would be worth $250,000. That's wrong. The 14% portfolio would be worth $782K, and that assumes that the portfolio is fully funded now, and no future contributions will be made. If the portfolio is going to be funded over the next 18 years, then the 14% portfolio will only be worth $503K, not the million he claimed. He overstated the difference by 28-99%. And this is from a Forbes editor, no less.

Part three of the book lists 150 cheap places to live. Some of the cities have brief descriptions that nothing more than cut-and-paste jobs from the local chamber of commerce. I think Karlgaard's administrative assistant cobbled this together. The result is nothing more than a disjointed compendium of useless information about small towns, their local festivals and attractions. For instance, when Bowling Green, Ohio gets too quiet, Toledo is a short drive away. Is this a positive or negative to the folks in Bowling Green?

Spot on! I live in Sandia Park, NM @ 25 miles from Albuquerque. I am an independent geologist and work from a home based business. I moved from Dallas, TX 11 years ago to escape the city and live in the Rocky Mountains. So let me reiterate your article and you will feel happy to know that your article was correct.

Ten years ago I purchased 2.2 acres of mountain forest property, at @ 7,500 feet msl, a gated community with abundant water. All homes in my community are 2-acres or more and all homes have a minimum value of $275 to $300K. The Albuquerque International Sunport provides easy and close access to CA and the west coast where the majority of my projects are and my family enjoys the shopping and dinning in Albuquerque within 20 minutes or so. Recreational activity is a 12-season affair. Ski and golf in the same day with an abundance of National Forest and BLM land in all directions. The property I purchased was $38,000 with utilities and a community water system, I designed and built a 2,000 sf home for $160,000 which includes the land. My mortgage is less than $150K. I live on a post card with a 200 mile view of the Sandia Mountains, the Monzano Mountains, Ortiz and the Sangre DeCristo's.

My next option for a place to live would be Reno/Sparks Nevada. Close proximity to mountains, large airport, relatively cheap housing in the farther suburbs and a variety of climates. Great book and should be inspiring for the people who want to get away and enjoy a quality of life not found in the suburburbian congestion.

Tony Herald

A-Team Consulting, Inc.
94 Angeles Vista Circle
Sandia Park, NM 87047