He has some nice lessons like don't defer your happiness or think that some singular accomplishment will send your life into a state of eternal bliss. I also agree that not all of life, if not the majority of it is not in 'textbooks' or books in generals. Books have a ton of ideas, since that's what they essentially are... human thought put to page. Experiencing is very important to understanding, if not crucial. And I also agree that it helps to get outside your bubble and see why people think the way they do.
On the other hand, what I do find annoying is that attitude of, "if you don't travel, you're truly missing out on life and you're not really 'experiencing' the world." If you want to take a trip just to enjoy yourself, cool, but to pen it up to some mystical journey where people are having their eyes peeled back to a truly grander understanding of reality, I just think, "Yeah, whatever." These first-world nomads are not really 'experiencing' the world either.
When it comes down to it, if everyone pretty much wants the same things in life, I don't personally see the huge 'necessity' of traveling to learn about that. People pretty much work to procure their needs, and past that, they live their life, most in an attempt to find happiness, and you'll find that people attempt to do that in vastly different ways.
I find it a bit strange that people who have travelled to a variety of different places for a short time think they have really 'experienced' all these different cultures. It's more like you've briefly 'sampled' them. They've hit a couple of nice tourist destinations where people put on shows for the guests, maybe chilled with a few locals or family, seen a few strange traditions, and now they're cultural experts.
No way you can 'experience' or gain a significant understanding of a culture in a couple of weeks. You can sit and let your jaw hit the floor at some of their oddities that clash with your accustomed way of living, but that's not really understanding or really experiencing. Understanding takes living with them for a prolonged period of time and seeing WHY their culture is the way it is, how it was formed, and basically just putting yourself in their shoes for a while.
Visiting a place for a week or a month is pretty much like taking a human zoo trip and looking at all the odd customs and habits that those crazy people do and then moving on to the next exhibit. Just as you're not going to understand the way an animal really lives by staring at it in a cage for a few minutes, you're not going to really 'experience' a culture by chilling there for a couple of two weeks.
