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Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

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Re: Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

#41

Post by pieterhg »

I've done it from 2013-2016, on and off.

What many people do is travel then think "this is it, I want to do this forever", then travel, isolate themselves from their home communities, live in cheap places, make some money, share cocktail by the pool photos on Instagram with a hashtag #nomadlife and then get clinically depressed. Then they return to their home countries after 3 years, but they've lost touch with their old communities. And everything is expensive. And it's cold. Now they're worse off than before they left! That's not the way to go.

The issue is that most people present the digital nomad lifestyle it as a black and white thing. You're either a 9 to 5 wage slave who hasn't escaped the system yet, OR you're a "broken-free" digital nomad and then you have to give up your home life completely, keep moving around from place to place for years and it'll supposedly be awesome. I did it, and it was fun for about a year until it got VERY tiring.

It shouldn't be black and white. Digital nomad stuff should show us that we can have more freedom in terms of location. That means, deciding "I want to live/work in X for the next 3 months". And going for it. Then coming back home. If you live in a cold place, you might want to skip the winter altogether. If you have a particular hobby you'd like to immerse yourself in, move to the place in the world where you can do that (like tango in South America or learn about sushi in Japan) for a few weeks. Then go back.

The feeling of being in a strange place is amazing. New smells, tastes, people etc. That's why travel is so exhilarating. I've been from Asia through Europe through Latin America. It's completely changed my personality and perception of reality for good. But it doesn't mean we need to do it full-time.

Balance is still something that has to arrive in the digital nomad community (and I'm in it).

I moved back home and use it as a homebase to fly everywhere. I like that I have the freedom to take a taxi to the airport and be there in 10 minutes, board a plane with my laptop in a carry-on backpack and fly somewhere random, work from there and stay there until I get bored and fly back. That's extreme freedom and it means I still can have my home life and friends + have amazing travel experiences.

Balance!

Re: Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

#43

Post by _rjlt »

pieterhg wrote: post #41

I've done it from 2013-2016, on and off. What many people do is travel then think "this is it, I want to do this forever", then travel, isolate themselves from their home communities, live in cheap places, make some money, share cocktail by the pool photos on Instagram with a hashtag #nomadlife and then get clinically depressed. Then they return to their home countries after 3 years, but they've lost touch with their…

You're essentially still paying the rent/mortgage costs of having a fixed home + any travel expenses. I thought the advantage of the DN lifestyle was that you didn't have the costs of a fixed home and could funnel that towards seeing the world.

Re: Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

#44

Post by pieterhg »

_rjlt wrote: post #43
pieterhg wrote: post #41

I've done it from 2013-2016, on and off. What many people do is travel then think "this is it, I want to do this forever", then travel, isolate themselves from their home communities, live in cheap places, make some money, share cocktail by the pool photos on Instagram with a hashtag #nomadlife and then get clinically depressed. Then they return to their home countries after 3 years, but they've lost touch with their…

You're essentially still paying the rent/mortgage costs of having a fixed home + any travel expenses. I thought the advantage of the DN lifestyle was that you didn't have the costs of a fixed home and could funnel that towards seeing the world.

You can easily mitigate that by just Airbnb'ing your place out when you're not there.

Re: Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

#45

Post by twblalock »

pieterhg wrote: post #44
_rjlt wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're essentially still paying the rent/mortgage costs of having a fixed home + any travel expenses. I thought the advantage of the DN lifestyle was that you didn't have the costs of a fixed home and could funnel that towards seeing the world.

You can easily mitigate that by just Airbnb'ing your place out when you're not there.

Or just make enough money that you can afford to pay your mortgage and travel at the same time.

Re: Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

#46

Post by bwb »

I did the digital nomad thing for all of 2012, 2013, and 2015. It was a blast and I loved the people I met and the places I got to see. I stayed in one place for 12 months, and otherwise moved every 2 to 3 months once a visa ran out.

The thing you miss is friends and community when you are moving that much. But, you save a ton of money, especially if you stay outside the USA for 330 days out of 365. The tax savings basically paid for all my travel and housing :). For 2015 my wife and I were traveling, it is def hard on a spouse to be isolated esp when she wasn't doing online stuff. But still fun :)

I just bought a house and I am settling down, and it feels good to have an office. I hope to still do 1 to 3 months a year living somewhere else.

Re: Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

#47

Post by et-al »

kfrz wrote: post #22
snhorne wrote: post #14

I didn't have a bad experience, but just got tired of it after a while. Here are a few reasons: When you're an expat you meet a lot of people, but it's hard to form anything but superficial friendships because everyone is always on the move. You can always become friends with locals, but cultural/language differences get in the way. While it may not seem like it now, your digital nomad life will eventually become pre…

Yeah, I don't get why a lot of people are locked into a binary view point about it -- the beauty of this lifestyle is that you can just pick a spot and settle. I like to think of it as a walkabout to see more places before I decide where I want to settle.

I think when "digital nomad" is mentioned, readers' minds generally conjure up a person who never stays at a place longer than 3 months. There's a notion of constant movement.

On the other hand, "expats" are people who are relatively settled on year-long contracts with a rented flat.

I'm not agreeing with the binary, but there's a common image that comes to mind.

Re: Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

#48

Post by ghaff »

neom wrote: post #42

I was the Chief Technology Evangelist for a company and traveled full time for about 300 days in 2013/2014, while it was a great deal of fun and I made some life long friends, the lack of consistency eventually drove me a little nuts.

Something similar. I'm on track to hit about 130 days on the road this year and I was something similar last year. Combination of work and vacation with the two mixed together somewhat.

On the one hand, I start to get antsy when I'm in one place for too long and really enjoy meeting new people and seeing new places. But it's a lot of days of living out of a suitcase. And one gets to miss seeing people and going to events at home--and just miss relaxing at home and having access to the activities there.

This isn't what most people really talk about when they say digital nomad, to be sure. But there are a lot of similarities. In some ways, business travel is easier--expense accounts, decent hotels, a lot of structure. At the same time, you're constantly moving and often don't have an option to so much as put some snacks in a fridge.

Re: Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

#49

Post by jaegerpicker »

timmaah wrote: post #10

I've done it for 4 years now.. and love it.. for the most part. We (my wife and I) do it in an RV around the US and I know that a backpack lifestyle would not be for us. We have enough of a "normal" lifestyle with our own bed, a full kitchen, 9-5 hours.. that it works extremely well for us. There are plenty of downsides. I miss having a large workspace to do hands on (non computer based) projects. Friends are harder…

I love the blog, I definitely day dream about doing this once the kids are grown and moved out on their own. I love the idea of a laptop and some LTE connections being all I really need.

Re: Ask HN: Did some of you try the digital nomad lifestyle and not like it?

#50

Post by ghaff »

aianus wrote: post #31

The main problem (and the reason I mostly stopped) was diet. I don't like ethnic food and it was ridiculously expensive and time consuming to eat at Western restaurants 3-4x a day (rarely had access to a kitchen). Ended up clinically underweight and moved back home.

You don't say what ethnic food but it's easy for me to believe this. I was in Japan recently. Personally I love the food there and am generally a very non-picky eater [1]. But a bunch of us were talking at dinner one night about how difficult Japan (and really Asia generally) would be for someone who wasn't OK with eating a lot of unfamiliar foods, prepared in unfamiliar ways, when they would frequently not even be terribly sure about what they were ordering or eating.

[1] Well, in many respects, but I am fussy about general quality as I perceive it. I just don't generally care what cuisine the quality cuisine is from.

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