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How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad

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Re: How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad

#21

Post by mercer »

motters wrote: post #2

"Even though it might be obvious, during my travels I found out the hard way that creative, meaningful work, requires some routine. Changing your location once a week, working from benches, hammocks, cafes, bars and hostel floors is a cool way to fund your vacation, but it certainly doesn’t help you when tackling hard programming problems." And this is what I've also found. In order to be able to do anything of any s…

The way I see it, one doesn't need to actively travel constantly to be traveling. When I was dealing with a difficult project, I just stayed at one particular hostel for two months, and settled into a routine. It was an odd one, of course, but it still became a routine, and I could finish the project.

Re: How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad

#23

Post by kokey »

Vivtek wrote: post #14
kristiandupont wrote: post #5

Having been semi-location independent for 4 years now, I have come to a similar conclusion. The theory of decision fatigue -- that you get exhausted by making a certain number of decisions -- seems to be true to me. And the thing is that when you are in a new place, there is a large number of decisions to make about petty things like where is the nearest supermarket, where can I work out, how do I get proper internet…

Oh man, yeah, decision fatigue. I've been a freelancer (web work and later technical translation) since 1996 and we've moved, kids and dog and all, from Indiana to Puerto Rico to Budapest, at will - and the one thing that makes it difficult is that you're always asking, "Should we be staying here or going somewhere else now?" It never stops. The kids are having allergy problems? Let's move to the Caribbean! The Carib…

I can also relate, we should start a Moving Around Anonymous. I find that we don't always consider all the costs before choosing to hop off to the next location, cost in time and energy, but also financially. That said, it doesn't feel like we can settle.

Re: How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad

#24

Post by pieterhg »

I have been practicing this lifestyle since April when I moved from Amsterdam to Bangkok & Chiang Mai. While I recognize some parts of the article, I think the general tone is off.

Constantly traveling and working won't work for most. But settling in one place for at least 6 months, finding a good office or co-working space with fast internet, and getting into a routine (like the article states) CAN actually work for many people. It does for me.

Also since you're in a new place, you also have plenty of opportunity to do weekend travels to other countries, as well as local leisure activities. In case of Thailand, that means you can be on the beach in 2 hours from anywhere, or if you're not into that, enjoy the wild nature. And life is cheaper in many of these places.

Not for everybody, but definitely do-able.

Re: How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad

#25

Post by graeme »

RyanZAG wrote: post #3

Far as I can tell, the argument here boils down to "can't concentrate on coding while traveling". When put in a simple statement like that it becomes very obvious that the statement depends entirely on the person. Many people have little difficulty opening up their laptop and forgetting the rest of the world for an 8 hour stretch, and this would be the type of person who would do well as a digital nomad. If you need…

One issue is that it can be hard to get an 8 hour stretch if your days are also filled with the minutiae of travel of decision-making.

I find it very hard to get substantial work done on certain projects when I have even a few interruptions in my day.

Re: How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad

#27

Post by contingencies »

Yes, moving around is a pain. Power adaptors, crappy internet, lost days in airports, missing luggage, carrying things, finding decent accommodation, worrying about visas, changing money, etc.

I'm location independent and change base-cities every year or so. I also spend maybe 6 months per year on the road.

Honestly, I get more coding work done when I'm at my home-of-the-time. But a lot of the soft stuff: running in to people in related industries whose brains I can pick, spotting new potential hires, thinking up powerful bizdev ideas, etc. all happen far more on the road. I often stop for extended periods .. a week is typically the minimum.

I've found the most important thing to manage is my own motivation: if work is getting in the way of relaxing, I can it for awhile. If relaxing is getting in the way of work, I can it for awhile.

Being in a stationary, fixed environment with ongoing overheads and investments in random rapidly depreciating junk (like vehicles) is personally not a good situation for me. I get demotivated pretty immediately. On the other hand, sometimes transient living feels like it's getting long in the tooth, too. If that happens, I tend to switch it up a bit and pop cultures, rent a place longer term. The grass is always greener, right? As it turns out: often it is. And when you go back to somewhere you'd been before, both you and the place have changed.

Bonus poem excerpt (sorry to those scrolling!):

They'll allow me to choose,

Where to settle anew,

Be it in east or west.

But with dollar now sliding,

And frequent poor tidings,

The orient does rather seem best!

Aye if USA visas,

Berkeley feminist divas,

Could yet warrant a tired "may-be"...

With all due respect,

Most are pains in the neck,

And I love a good foreign lady.

So at present juncture,

(Passed global acupuncture)

I dream happily now of returning...

To the rhythms of life,

Of an eastern respite,

From the world of democracy burning.

Re: How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad

#28

Post by _delirium »

mercer wrote: post #21
motters wrote: post #2

"Even though it might be obvious, during my travels I found out the hard way that creative, meaningful work, requires some routine. Changing your location once a week, working from benches, hammocks, cafes, bars and hostel floors is a cool way to fund your vacation, but it certainly doesn’t help you when tackling hard programming problems." And this is what I've also found. In order to be able to do anything of any s…

The way I see it, one doesn't need to actively travel constantly to be traveling. When I was dealing with a difficult project, I just stayed at one particular hostel for two months, and settled into a routine. It was an odd one, of course, but it still became a routine, and I could finish the project.

The successful travel/work people I know do it in that style, moving between cities on a monthly or bimonthly basis, not daily. They'll typically spend 1-3 months in a city, renting a place on AirBnB or a local rental site, then move to another city.

That removes a lot of the problems discussed in this blog post, like not knowing if you'll have internet access tomorrow, and not being able to guarantee you can spend 8 hours tomorrow on a project.

It's also how I personally prefer traveling, even just purely for vacation purposes: have a relatively stable temporary base where you can leave your stuff, and then explore the local area for a while (both the city you're in, and day trips to nearby places). When I spend only a few days in a city I never feel like I really see it or understand it, so I don't like doing the whirlwind backpacker-style trips where you're moving to a new place every day or two.

Re: How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad

#29

Post by personlurking »

kokey wrote: post #23
Vivtek wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man, yeah, decision fatigue. I've been a freelancer (web work and later technical translation) since 1996 and we've moved, kids and dog and all, from Indiana to Puerto Rico to Budapest, at will - and the one thing that makes it difficult is that you're always asking, "Should we be staying here or going somewhere else now?" It never stops. The kids are having allergy problems? Let's move to the Caribbean! The Carib…

I can also relate, we should start a Moving Around Anonymous. I find that we don't always consider all the costs before choosing to hop off to the next location, cost in time and energy, but also financially. That said, it doesn't feel like we can settle.

> Moving Around Anonymous

or perhaps Digital Nomads Anonymous. I feel like it's in my DNA.

Re: How I thought I wanted to become a digital nomad

#30

Post by _delirium »

personlurking wrote: post #12
SyneRyder wrote: post #6

"Stay in one place for a while" is fantastic advice. One week is barely enough time to get settled - every time you move you need to find stores, amenities, cafes etc. Two weeks is much better (and you'll appreciate the place more), but even longer is better if you really want to get work done. A nice room is great advice too - makes a huge difference to your happiness if you can wake up each morning to an amazing vi…

Even staying in one place for 2-3 months means having to continuously find those stores, amenities, etc. Sure, it's more stable to stay a few months but having to constantly settle in new places is tiring...I can't imagine having to do it every week or two!

I wouldn't do it every week or two, but every few months is doable if you travel slowly, since you can reuse a lot of your knowledge in other cities. Once I got reasonably comfortable with Copenhagen, for example, getting comfortable with Malmö or Helsingør was a quick incremental adjustment, since many things are similar.
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