Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive • Hacker News Board

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#51

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 4:45 PM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #22

jacquesm wrote: post #20

Try that while raising a couple of children.

Exactly. How does this Neunomadic lifestyle last beyond a single generation?

I don't even think you can make it last beyond a single generation, try this when you're 60+, when you are in need of a stable environment due to medical issues and so on.

It's great in theory when you're healthy, in your early 20's to early 30's, when you are independent and have no dependents, when you are living in a climate that is favorable, and when you're living in a city.

If any of those circumstances are not met you'll be either in a lot of trouble or you're most likely going to change.

Those that don't have the option to change we call street people.

And living off other people's couches and/or fridges and such does not make you an independent.

I can see a good reason for doing with 'less stuff', but this extreme is simply not realistic on anything but the smallest of scales.

It'd be tough if all your friends decided to do it tomorrow and you'd all want to sleep on each others' no longer existent couches...

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#52

Post by azim » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 4:47 PM UTC

Daniel42 wrote: post #28

Dornkirk wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you self-employed or do you work freelance or who do you work for and what do you do? I only ask because this is something I'm very much interested in doing myself, but I'm very apprehensive about making a big change like this due to job/money concerns.

Same thing for me. I just got my CS master degree and now I want to discover the world with only my bike, my laptop and my reflex camera, a few month to a couple of years at the same place... But I'm worried by the first move. Where I live I got a lot of job opportunity but I don't know if I will be able to find a job in another country quickly enough and it doesn't work very well remotely.

Look for a job where you can work remotely. Many US-based companies are striving for an increasingly remote workforce in order to reduce their cost of doing business. At my first job out of college, at a large tech company, they actually wanted us to be remote so they wouldn't have to pay for office space.

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#53

Post by nudge » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 4:48 PM UTC

lzw wrote: post #34

My co-founder and I have been doing this for three years. We have two backpacks and we are nomadic. Interestingly, it isn't online services that have enabled this so much as a lifestyle choice. We value travel and figured it was cheaper to run our startup in most parts of the world than it was in our origin city. We don't use a lot of online services for our business. Biggest one is Gmail, really, and hosting. Things…

I would be interested to know, simply because I wonder about it for my own projects, how you deal with (the possibility of) server/db/other problems with your site when you are going somewhere that has no internet access.

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#54

Post by lzw » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 4:49 PM UTC

andresmh wrote: post #49

lzw wrote: post #34

My co-founder and I have been doing this for three years. We have two backpacks and we are nomadic. Interestingly, it isn't online services that have enabled this so much as a lifestyle choice. We value travel and figured it was cheaper to run our startup in most parts of the world than it was in our origin city. We don't use a lot of online services for our business. Biggest one is Gmail, really, and hosting. Things…

Do you travel only to places with good internet connection?

Not intentionally. It has sorta happened to be that way so far. Apparently this internet thing has been adopted widely.

But the intention is to be able to be fully productive with only an occasional or intermittent internet connection.

Really developed countries: We have internet where we stay. This is more common than we expected.

Developed countries: We use mobile broadband for occasional net connectivity on demand, and use email and SMS to notify us about important events. So far all of our services are manage hosted so I've never gotten a "the server is down" message.

Undeveloped Countries: Plan is to check in once a week with a cybercafe or wifi hotspot.

GSM is a global standard and so, with an unlocked iPhone you can get pre-paid SIMs with dataplans.

Fortunately for everyone Apple is now selling unlocked iPhones as a matter of course in countries with multiple iPhone carriers, like Canada, France, Germany and the UK.

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#55

Post by lzw » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 4:52 PM UTC

nudge wrote: post #53

lzw wrote: post #34

My co-founder and I have been doing this for three years. We have two backpacks and we are nomadic. Interestingly, it isn't online services that have enabled this so much as a lifestyle choice. We value travel and figured it was cheaper to run our startup in most parts of the world than it was in our origin city. We don't use a lot of online services for our business. Biggest one is Gmail, really, and hosting. Things…

I would be interested to know, simply because I wonder about it for my own projects, how you deal with (the possibility of) server/db/other problems with your site when you are going somewhere that has no internet access.

We're using AppEngine and it hasn't been a problem at all. This is part of the reason we chose AppEngine.

I'd be very hesitant to choose anything where I have to manage the host myself.

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#56

Post by rdouble » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 5:02 PM UTC

In the past I've lived sort of like this and found it quite lonely and alienating. What the article doesn't mention is that nobody really wants to hang out with the weird guy with no stuff and no apartment. If you're single, only really strange and desperate people want to date you. I also found that the act of finding another place to stay quickly became tedious. In the past, nomads were out being nomadic with the rest of their huge nomadic tribe. They weren't just bouncing around settled society with a laptop by themselves.

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#57

Post by thesethings » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 5:06 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #20

Try that while raising a couple of children.

Actually, I've read some very moving accounts by people who are nomadic with kids.

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#58

Post by scott_s » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 5:07 PM UTC

pchristensen wrote: post #40

scott_s wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is the psychological cost of never knowing where you will sleep.

There's a big difference between the space for you (important) and the space for 200 DVDs, or 60 changes of clothes, or a set of lawn tools, or rarely used sporting equipment, or ...

Indeed, there is, but at least one of the people profiled in the article doesn't even have a space for himself.

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#59

Post by rdouble » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 5:10 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #51

joezydeco wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. How does this Neunomadic lifestyle last beyond a single generation?

I don't even think you can make it last beyond a single generation, try this when you're 60+, when you are in need of a stable environment due to medical issues and so on. It's great in theory when you're healthy, in your early 20's to early 30's, when you are independent and have no dependents, when you are living in a climate that is favorable, and when you're living in a city. If any of those circumstances are not…

Many retired people get rid of all their stuff and do the RV nomad thing.

In the future when nobody has enough money to buy a house or a bunch of stuff in the first place we'll probably be seeing more nomadic seniors.

Re: Meet the minimalists living out of a hard drive

#60

Post by derwiki » Mon, Aug 16, 2010, 5:14 PM UTC

kellysutton wrote: post #24

billybob wrote: post #6

An illusion. You're as attached to your digital possessions as you were to your physical ones. You just have different preferences.

I definitely agree with this and think it's fascinating. I feel the same attachment to my digital possessions as I do my few physical ones. The difference, however, is how much physical space each option consumes. I should also point out that I needed the iPad for my job, as I develop apps from time to time.

Do you feel like you have less to worry about though? One of the advantages of this minimalism seems to be being able to walk into your room and not being overwhelmed with everything you own. So, even if you own as much music, books, etc.. out of sight, out of mind?