Hi. I’m Jon. Let’s cut to the chase.
In 2025, aged 45, I jacked in my career as a software developer and CTO, sold my house in the suburbs of a big city and moved to a tiny rural village in northern Spain.
To use a tech analogy, I held down the reset button on my life.
It’s not that I wasn’t happy, but something about modern, urban life wasn’t sitting well with me any more. Like so many of my peers, I feared the gradual creep of AI, surveillance capitalism and societal decay. I wanted out.
I thought long and hard about what I did want and landed on the concept of a modern hunter-gatherer. Now obviously I’m not interested in digging for tubers and dying before I’m 50. I want to pick the best bits. I want to live a human life, not an engineered 21st century grind.
Choosing what to keep and what to throw away when starting again is a challenge. I needed a framework, some self-imposed guidelines. That’s how the Paleolithic Principles for a Digital World were born.
Live Simply: Quit the city, quit the rat race, quit the expensive habits. Dedigitalise, deplatform, mostly shun AI, social media, consumerism and grind culture. Embrace minimalism, cheap living, a slower pace and real community.
Prioritise Health: Quit being sedentary, quit processed food. Embrace the outdoors, physical work, daily exercise and real, whole, local food.
Seek Adventure: Quit the desk, quit the screen, quit the four walls, quit repeating the same routine for decades on end. Embrace travel, nature, hiking, camping, the mountains and pushing your comfort zone.
Become Competent: quit being a digital one-trick pony. Shun specialisation, be curious, acquire knowledge, learn real-world skills (the ones our ancestors possessed), be autonomous, read more.
Freedom
I suppose what it all comes down to is freedom.
I came here, to this village and ultimately to this blog, to find freedom. Everyone seems to talk about freedom but what about actually making moves? What about daring to stick the middle finger up to the system and aggressively going after it?
If these ideas resonate with you, I’m delighted to have you around and look forward to hearing from you.
Subscribe, comment, like, recommend to others, message me. Or just read and enjoy. You’re free to choose.
