21–30 of 88 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get a remote job and take the leap.. What else is holding you back?
Not all remote jobs will be open to you keeping constantly changing and non-standard hours, right? I think freelance and self-employment would be more suited to this lifestyle.
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…
By the end of the 6 months, I was really happy to be back in the U.S. but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything
Routine (as others have stated) in very important to define. If you are traveling with others, it needs to be expressed as soon as possible and if at all possible, define the items which might allow you the chance to break it. When traveling, so so so many opportunities will come up that will test your resolve to sticking to the routine.
Try staying places for longer stints. We averaged about 3 weeks at each place we stayed. This allowed us to stretch out the activities over time and not feel guilty about sticking to the routine or letting the kids just chill. It doesn't have to be 'go go go' all the time.
If you know where you are going to stay, spend some time figuring out where you are going to work before you get there. For me, it was hard to work at our flat/apt/house because the kids knew I was there and wanted to hang out with me because it was great having me around - compared to before we left having the normal 9-6 work schedule. It isn't always easy finding a place that has good internet, seating, and won't kick you out for hanging out all day on a couple cups of coffee. Coworking places are in most major cities, but hours can be limiting and they aren't always around the corner.
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…
I wouldn't say I got "tired of it", but when the time came to come home and I thought about it, I realized how exhausted I was. Even though we felt like we took it easy, it was physically & mentally draining. I think the excitement masked it, potentially artificially, where I just didn't know I was so exhausted, but was. I've tried to think of things which might have been impacted by that.
There are a lot of factors to go into to decide whether it's for you or not.
- The reasons why you do it: I am an Indian citizen, who cofounded a company in SF in 2012. I couldn't get a H1B visa (2 years in a row), so I worked on my company remotely until I could figure out an O1A visa. I did it because I can't get anything done at my parents' place in the Middle East, or with the shitty internet in India. I did it because it was the best among a few poor choices.
- What you hope to get out of it: I went in with few expectations, and so I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. All I was looking for was good food and quality internet. I got a lot of cultural exposure, interesting people, and a realistic understanding of what's important in life. Don't expect much pleasure and excitement from it, and you will be amazed by what you can find.
- Your financials/work: I was making a below-poverty-line SF wage, but not living in SF. I had way more disposable income than I did living in the Bay. Traveling is suddenly way cheaper when you don't have to pay a home-rent, and you're making American wages in Asia. Never had to stress about money. Eating into savings to travel feels scary and makes you not want to leave your lodging. If you are a contractor/freelancer, this is way harder to do I believe, as you have to synchronize with people who don't know your lifestyle or work patterns well.
- Your citizenship: This makes a world of difference in how pleasant and stress-free the experience is. I had to spend multiple weeks in between every set of countries procuring visas from India to go to the places I wanted to go. I had to write off destinations just because of the hassle of getting visas and not because of time or money. If you're EU/UK/American/Australian/Singaporean/etc, you can enter most countries without ever needing to go home, allowing you to conveniently hop around at your leisure.
- Diet: If you have dietary restrictions, I would honestly think this shit is not worth it. Maybe I value food more than most people, but if it weren't for the varieties of interesting and new foods that I could eat without fear or care for the ingredients, my travels would have been so much more stressful and so much less interesting and fun.
- Base cultural flexibility: Have you lived in multiple cultures before? Know how to not lord your culture as superior over others? Can take time to understand the realities of another country before you pass judgment about their morals and values? This is for the sake of both you and whoever you meet along the way.
I could go on forever, but if you have specific questions feel free to contact me via info in my profile. Also have written some small essays here:
http://keerthik.github.io/essays/#nomadchronicles
Edit: Forgot to add my conclusion that, while I was right that it was decidedly better than my alternatives at the time, I grew incredibly lonely, tired and frustrated with the limitations of the lifestyle, despite the freedoms it unlocked. I grew a TON over that time, but it wasn't free. I highly recommend trying it out if you have the opportunity, for a year at least when you do, not because it's pleasant but for the growth.
However, as some have mentioned there are some downsides that I find.
The two biggest ones for me that come to mind are while the lack of a routine seems amazing at first, it can seriously impact your productivity if you don't manage that properly and to me personally that is a constant and ongoing struggle.
With my girlfriend I have been lucky to build out a low to medium 6-figure consulting business in that time but my head sometimes hurts thinking of where things COULD be with more and better focus.
How much that impacts you (or how much that bothers you) is going to vary a lot between person to person. I consider it more of a personal fault than anything.
The other thing that has begun to bother me a little lately is all these hobbies you might want to do that aren't really possible.
To give you two examples last year while in New York, I took a course of woodworking, I absolutely loved it. However, when you pack up and move every 3 months you would never go out and spend money on buying equipment. I had another experience recently with guitar, I would love to learn it but to carry that around all the time is a huge pain that I just don't want to ever deal with.
At the end of the day, if it doesn't fit in a backpack, you can't really bring it with you. That can take some getting used to.
My experience is my own and can't be applied directly depending on what you are doing / where you are going but my experienced is based on:
- Being from the US and traveling South America - Working full-time for a US based company (not a freelancer)
The hard parts for me were:
- Internet is significantly slower in a lot of locations which makes your job extremely difficult. Especially if you need to do voice/video. A digital nomad needs good / fast Internet.
- Culturally there is a lot of adaptation that you need to go through. Sometimes things are slower or more bureaucratic in other countries. Banking was a nightmare, had my card skimmed twice, and sometimes shipments/deliveries never arrived or got stuck in customs for months.
- A lot of entertainment in the USA (Hulu, Netflix, etc) are not available in other countries which means you need to VPN to the US when you could already be on slow Internet.
- Working from a laptop 100% of the time wasn't great on my wrists, posture, back, neck, etc. A properly ergonomic chair and keyboard with a monitor consistently at the correct height for your neck is a wonderful thing!
- Not having my stuff. No extra electronic equipment, tools, furniture, etc. When you are traveling a lot you need to be a minimalist which means no collection of books, soldering irons, etc. Which is fun for a few months but the 3rd time you have to repair the plumbing in your rental in Chile you wish you had all those tools you collected in the US :P
All that being said. I would recommend anyone do it if they have the chance. Being uncomfortable, exposed to other cultures, and just doing something out the ordinary is life changing and you become (hopefully) a better person from the experience.
Most of the people you come in contact with will not be conducive to getting any kind of work done or anything that takes discipline. If you aren't careful, you will get sucked into this lifestyle and it will become very difficult to achieve any of your goals.
I did it for 3 years and enjoyed every minute of it but it is difficult. When people discuss being a digial nomad its similar to how people discuss sailing... it is glorified even though it is hard, we just don't talk about the hard times. My experience is my own and can't be applied directly depending on what you are doing / where you are going but my experienced is based on: - Being from the US and traveling South…
I've always wondered about that when people talk about "leaving it all behind". Parts of "it all" include the box of thumbtacks I bought when I was 17 and carted around til I was 26 and finally finished off the box, or the power drill my brother gave me, which I use frequently to improve my living space with hooks and shelving. Tools give me a sense of independence and control over my world, and I'm not sure the autonomy of being able to pick up and move every day replaces that.