Dirtbag Rich by Blake Boles: A Book You'll Probably Like

How Dirtbag Rich looks in Santiago de Compostella

You might be thinking to yourself: 

“Ditching your job and running off into the woods is self-indulgent and irresponsible. People shouldn’t do that (literally or figuratively).” 

The thought makes sense. Perhaps the most fundamental human emotional need is to feel valued. To be happy, you have to feel useful. And in order to feel useful, at a bare minimum you have to pull your own weight. You can’t just opt out and run away.

That’s an adaptive impulse, and I’m sure it was implanted by millions of years of evolution. 

But the counter argument is that people who run off into the woods (literally or figuratively) do have value: 

• A counterculture is just a collection of people who opt out and run away. 

• Monks and nuns are just religious people who opt out and run away. 

• Pilgrimage traditions have provided average citizens with an avenue to opt out for centuries. 

• Writers and journalists run away intentionally and report back what they find. No one to the political left of Augusto Pinochet says that they’re useless.  

Pico Iyer gestured towards the idea when he described Henry David Thoreau’s iconic effort at opting out in Walden: “Thoreau stepped away from the world only so that he would have more to give back to it.”

Sometimes people need a break from life in order to cope.

It’s hard to solve complex problems when you’re living in the midst of them. 

Sometimes you need to step back and view life from the outside to see it in its proper perspective.

And when the system isn’t working, sometimes the only way to improve it is for people to step out and build a different one.

So we need to figure out how to do it, right? 

Blake Boles’ new book, Dirtbag Rich, is an argument for the value of opting out, and a guidebook for doing it sustainably. 

I’ve been planning to write a review since the book release in March, partly because “dirtbag rich” is a term that was coined in The Dirtbag’s Guide to Life. Blake’s book builds on a concept I birthed. That makes it my literary grandchild or something, doesn’t it?

But the more important thing is that, if you like my writing, you’ll also probably like Dirtbag Rich. I think you should know about it, because I want you to know about things you’ll probably like.

What sort of opting out does Dirtbag Rich encourage? 

This is a paraphrase, but here is the core dirtbag dilemma as Blake frames it: 

1. Normal life is unsustainable. It grinds you down and wastes your time and energy and breaks your soul. 

2. But dropping out to pursue your passions (in this case, going into the woods to live like a dirtbag) is also unsustainable. You need money and relationships and a sense of meaning in life. Eventually “opting out” can break your soul as well.

So what do you do?

Blake’s suggestion is to pursue “the magic trifecta.”

Once again this is a paraphrase:

1. Figure out a life strategy that will give you sufficient time flexibility to pursue your passions. 

2. Figure out how to make enough money quickly to provide for essential needs and long-term stability (and don’t waste time making more than that).

3. Make sure both your passions and your paid work provides you with deep purpose, so that life feels good both when you’re working and when you’re out on adventures.

If you can achieve those three things, you may not have a lot of money, but you’ll have everything you need. Enough time. Enough money. Enough adventure. Enough meaning.

That will make you truly dirtbag rich.

What’s in Dirtbag Rich?

The book is a well-organized collection of stories, philosophical musings, and practical tips aimed at helping people achieve the “magic trifecta” in their own lives.

A lot of the material is based on Blake’s personal experience. He is a thoughtful, engaging writer, and the book often feels like a memoir of a dirtbag rich life, written from the reflective perspective of midlife. These sections are where Blake’s writing is the strongest, in my opinion. 

They may also be the sections where many readers will have the hardest time relating. Blake has lived an unusual life. We hung out on the Camino Mozárabe for 10 days in March, and my impression is that he’s an iconoclast and non-conformist to a fault, and his biography reflects that. He’s never had a proper, long term job, and he’s built a career out of telling kids that they shouldn’t go to school. (Well, it’s not exactly that, but unschooling and homeschooling are his primary professional niche.)

But for me, iconoclasm is a forgivable sin. All of us who do the stuff that I write about here have our issues and eccentricities. (Who doesn’t these days?) And it takes an unusual sort of person to chart an unusual path. If you think about it, that’s what’s required to write a book like Dirtbag Rich.

And in any case the book is not primarily autobiographical. Blake also distills ideas from an interesting cross-section of modern literature, and an expansive series of interviews with people who’ve attempted to make the dirtbag dream sustainable.

My biggest actual problem with Dirtbag Rich is that I finished wanting to know more about the interviewees’ perspectives.

Thankfully, Blake made the clever decision to conduct his book research through a series of podcast episodes, and the 40+ hours of interviews go much deeper than he’s able to in the book. 

Dirtbag Rich (the podcast) fills in the gaps in Dirtbag Rich (the book) and fully fleshes out the experience. If you think the book sounds interesting, I would highly encourage you to also check out the podcast. 

(If you want a place to start, here’s the episode featuring Angel and me.)

So everything works out in the end.

In the final analysis…

If you’re looking to make a sustainable and responsible practice of running off into the woods–for your own good, or for the good of society–this is an inspiring, accessible place to start. 

Dirtbag Rich has strong philosophical overlap with my book, The Dirtbag’s Guide to Life. If you’re here because you like that, I’m confident you’ll love Blake’s book too. Alongside Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding, it’s the best “how to” guide that I’ve come across for people who want to build a meaningful life by opting out to explore alternative paths.

If you want to know more, Blake said that this interview on Backpacking Light is the one to listen to, if you’re only going to listen to one.

Otherwise, you can pick up Dirtbag Rich wherever you like to buy books.