31–40 of 44 posts
What's with all this 'mission' talk? You are coders, stop that BS. (worked in places like Libya and Uganda, never felt it was my mission! Had to follow requests made to my employer,thats it)
Ok, forget the packing lists, advice, and all this survivalist stuff. All I want to know is what _kind of jobs_ requires preparation like this. This is not covered in the article, I have an impression - deliberately so.
Yes, deliberately indeed. But I as suspect you may believe, I didn't work for the military. I worked for NGOs, governments bodies, the UN and WHO, and of course the private sector. At home I have a fridge, hot water, heating, nobody is shooting guns except in the shows I can stream in HD thanks to fiber while eating an organic avocado. So it's easy to forget a huge part of the world is not comfortable. But those area…
Interesting read. As a former 100% travel road warrior in semi-exotic places (data centers in developing countries), I'm very surprised he's checking in bags though, that's just asking for trouble. I presume it's the big hunting knife that makes this unavoidable, but is this really that necessary?
If someone wants to do something like this, I hear the Red Cross has pools of technical experts for emergency response situations. Does anyone have experience about that?
The ICRC, as I understand it, works more across international lines, but their “technical” experts tend to specialize in aspects of international humanitarian law rather than technology per se.
You certainly can, though, support domestic relief operations for the American Red Cross. Disaster Support Technologies roles tend to have more of a helpdesk flavor than the remote, wild-and-wooly jack-of-all-trades kind of experience that the OP describes. And there are also information and planning functions on large disaster relief operations, where your data analysis and GIS chops might be put to good use.
Those jobs sometimes unfold in austere conditions—think after a hurricane or a wildfire—but they’re extremely well-supported, by contrast to the OP’s missions: you’ll have a safe and dry place to sleep, plenty to eat, the national warehouses will get you the stuff you need (albeit maybe not today), and so forth. The training is thorough and the crowd is mission-oriented. You can even work I&P roles remotely.
Interesting read. As a former 100% travel road warrior in semi-exotic places (data centers in developing countries), I'm very surprised he's checking in bags though, that's just asking for trouble. I presume it's the big hunting knife that makes this unavoidable, but is this really that necessary?
> But in our context, I am not a tourist. First, I need to perform, second, where I go I may not have shops. Or much of anything really.
Just the supplies to stay functional without being able to rely on any local infra (food/water/shelter/medical) makes not having a checked bag challenging IMO.
I'm on-roster with a tech NGO (sounds like he does something similar?) and travel with a duffel that gets checked in addition to my carry-on backpack. Backpack has "here and now" stuff. A change of clothes, lots of socks, laptops, GPS, satphone, granola bars. Basically whatever I need to live for a day or two and get started doing site surveys so I'm not totally useless even if the duffel gets held up or lost.
Duffel gets _everything_(1) that I need to do what I've been sent to do, which gets bulky and usually makes airport security unhappy: Tools (EMT shears(2), multitool, screwdriver, wrenches to assemble VSAT dishes, ethernet crimpers, etc). Food/MREs for half a week of working hard, maybe a small drone if it's legal. Sometimes cable and network equipment if it's a small response and nobody is pulling stocks from UNHRD.
Granted, I usually do field networking instead of coding, but the basic idea is the same. Sometimes you have to do the project even if it means sleeping in a house with no roof on an island with no power after a hurricane.
1. Technically, everything short of local transportation. 2. TSA doesn't mind the EMT shears, but airports south of the equator kept confiscating mine.
What's with all this 'mission' talk? You are coders, stop that BS. (worked in places like Libya and Uganda, never felt it was my mission! Had to follow requests made to my employer,thats it)
Ok, forget the packing lists, advice, and all this survivalist stuff. All I want to know is what _kind of jobs_ requires preparation like this. This is not covered in the article, I have an impression - deliberately so.
Flying million line km grids 80m above ground at 70 m/s, driving, logging drill hole samples, positioning base stations, ground truthing the "new" WGS84 GPS datum against hundred of older paper maps and many many old ellisoids and datums, etc.
It's good to be unfazed by vehicle failures, supply chain breakdowns, political upheavals, coup d'état, unexpected bad weather, wild fires, and so forth.
Suprise nuclear testing was one interesting day on the job.
Interesting read. As a former 100% travel road warrior in semi-exotic places (data centers in developing countries), I'm very surprised he's checking in bags though, that's just asking for trouble. I presume it's the big hunting knife that makes this unavoidable, but is this really that necessary?
A bit above where he mentions checking a bag, he says: > But in our context, I am not a tourist. First, I need to perform, second, where I go I may not have shops. Or much of anything really. Just the supplies to stay functional without being able to rely on any local infra (food/water/shelter/medical) makes not having a checked bag challenging IMO. I'm on-roster with a tech NGO (sounds like he does something similar…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A bit above where he mentions checking a bag, he says: > But in our context, I am not a tourist. First, I need to perform, second, where I go I may not have shops. Or much of anything really. Just the supplies to stay functional without being able to rely on any local infra (food/water/shelter/medical) makes not having a checked bag challenging IMO. I'm on-roster with a tech NGO (sounds like he does something similar…
Did TSA care about the magnesium heaters in the MREs or did you fish them out first?
Interesting read. As a former 100% travel road warrior in semi-exotic places (data centers in developing countries), I'm very surprised he's checking in bags though, that's just asking for trouble. I presume it's the big hunting knife that makes this unavoidable, but is this really that necessary?
The knife is probably to deter someone messing with you thinking you're an easy target.
But as I say I rarely use it. It's like insurance. Maybe it's more like a totem at this point.
Also my experience with showing off a weapon is escalation. And I'd rather stay very far away from physical conflict. Not for moral reasons, simply because it leads to outcomes I don't like.