In light of the pandemic and countries slowly opening up again, I thought I'd ask this question that appeared back in 2015 [0].
Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
1–10 of 461 posts
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
#2It was great. I'd do it again. I'm not sure what you're looking for. Is that it?
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
#3I am always wondering how these data nomads are actually sustaining themselves. As a freelancer, I had quite some hard time to find paying gigs, not to mention that most of the time I was asked to work on premise.
This said, I do not claim to be the smartest guy when it comes to business, nor to development…
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
#4I am always wondering how these data nomads are actually sustaining themselves. As a freelancer, I had quite some hard time to find paying gigs, not to mention that most of the time I was asked to work on premise. This said, I do not claim to be the smartest guy when it comes to business, nor to development…
In my experience most of the "travel blogger" industry is fake in that they project a self-sustainable journey when in reality they have a lot of money to lean on or they peddle "exposure" to smaller establishments that comp their stay.
Very few people actually do the couchsurfing or couponing style because to most people that approach is miserable and/or dangerous.
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
#5It can get a bit exhausting to live in hotels and small apartments because you rarely have a good work setup.
Most of the time there is no good working desk and chair.
Also, working on a laptop is bad for your posture.
I have yet to try bringing an external monitor while I travel. Maybe that would be a solution. Or renting one where I stay.
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
#6It can get a bit exhausting to live in hotels and small apartments because you rarely have a good work setup. Most of the time there is no good working desk and chair. Also, working on a laptop is bad for your posture. I have yet to try bringing an external monitor while I travel. Maybe that would be a solution. Or renting one where I stay.
Another option is taking a keyboard and mouse with you and elevating the whole laptop as if it were the monitor instead.
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
#7I did the digital nomad thing shorter term - for a few months. Kinda fun but I still found work even more invasive on my time than at home. Everyone’s having fun and relaxing at the beach while I’m sitting at the reception area trying to connect to the crappy wifi to upload my work or join a call. Or I’m sitting at a hotel room all day/night working because the time difference is weird or just working in a coffee shop every day is not any more fun than at home. It was killing the spontaneous adventures part of travel which is the truly fun part.
Later in my life business travel killed my love of travel to the point I dread getting on a plane and now I just go to nature near wherever I’m living at instead.
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
#8I am always wondering how these data nomads are actually sustaining themselves. As a freelancer, I had quite some hard time to find paying gigs, not to mention that most of the time I was asked to work on premise. This said, I do not claim to be the smartest guy when it comes to business, nor to development…
They're billing dollars and paying baht or rupiah.
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
#9After we got married back in 2010 my partner Natalie and I quit our jobs with the intent to travel the world for as long as we could get away with.
We ended up starting a startup together in Morocco, applied to YC from Luxor in Egypt, got accepted, moved to Mountain View and spent the next three years running a startup before getting acquired.
It kind of ruined the honeymoon!
Natalie wrote up the full story here: https://blog.natbat.net/post/61658401806/lanyrd-from-idea-to...
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?
#10In 2019 I went on a solo Biketouring trip spanning across Canada, USA, Peru, NZ and Taiwan lasting 10 months.
While obviously the means of transportation was draining both physically and mentally it was amazing to be truly immersed in region I was currently visiting.
In general it was great but if I were to do it again I would go way easier and slower on my bike instead of trying to race it plus I would have shortened the trip to last at most 4 months - after 10th National Park or so I stopped appreciating the location as much because I was comparing it to some other that I saw just a couple of weeks before that and the wow factor was no longer there. Seeing too much on the short span of time is a curse of such a trip imho.
All in all it was great and I’d do it again but slightly differently and definitely not as long.
P.S. (Finding job in covid after the tour was really hard despite my data science/ml engineering profile.)