I don't know. If you live your self repeating life and weeks become months and months become years and then you go to say Korea for half a year and make new friends and pick up new routines and eat new foods and then you go back to your routine, isn't your life just better than if you hadn't gone? The new stuff might still become a routine, but it is still extra.
It helps if your life problems are true first world problems (viz. tech guy with million or more in savings but thinks the cushy job isn’t rewarding enough and wants more purpose or something). It doesn’t matter you’re sitting in Kyoto eating sushi if you’re depressed to begin with. Only therapy and treatment could help. Maybe.
Just a side note - you absolutely don't need to be millions rich to travel for extended periods. You just need to have few financial obligations that are location dependent.
In an extreme example (which some of us fantasize about), you could have all your necessary possession in two bags, have no "home" (and no car and no other anchors), and travel the world for less than many people spend living in one place. This is especially true if you take a US/EU salary and spend time in much lower cost of living places.
The comic seems to be saying that travel and living overseas doesn’t even help with simple problems like being bored in your routine beyond the very short term, which doesn’t really match my personal experience at least.
I guess it depends, I used to travel a lot when I was in my 20s (I guess it would add to about 5 years spread over 8 years period) and now after close to 10 years being home it just feel like it never happened: sure I do have some memories, stories and some connections on Facebook to people I haven't seen in many years. Don't get me wrong it was fun and interesting, but I guess thats it.
But maybe thats me, when I was traveling I was feeling happy and excited, but I feel same just walking in the park outside my home and actually looking forward to just get my coffee at usual place and spend time programming. Basically same routine, now I just have more comfortable setup.
You are missing the point. The article focuses on mindless tourism as a source of excitement rather than any deeper meaning. Just an embodiment of the hedonistic treadmill or consumerism.
