Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

blog.mobilejazz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 197 posts

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#41

Post by personlurking »

ben_pr wrote: post #8

I'm in Puerto Rico, moved here from the states two years ago. There are a number of tax incentives for people wanting to start tech companies here. Google Puerto Rico Act 20. Short version: "Act 20 offers a four (4)% corporate tax rate for Puerto Rican businesses providing services for exportation, 100% tax-exempt dividends from earnings and profits derived from the export services income of eligible businesses, and…

> there are a lot of other things to like here

Can you list a few?

Some questions I have, if you don't mind: How do you like Rincón? Do you need a car if in SJ? How much is Spanish used over English? Are living costs cheaper? Thx

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#42

Post by jreed91 »

ben_pr wrote: post #8

I'm in Puerto Rico, moved here from the states two years ago. There are a number of tax incentives for people wanting to start tech companies here. Google Puerto Rico Act 20. Short version: "Act 20 offers a four (4)% corporate tax rate for Puerto Rican businesses providing services for exportation, 100% tax-exempt dividends from earnings and profits derived from the export services income of eligible businesses, and…

I just traveled there for a vacation and fell in love. Any places to look for those wanting to find jobs in PR?

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#43

Post by gbog »

obstacle1 wrote: post #33
Hytosys wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I predict there is much more to parenthood besides fostering adventure, unfortunately. Educational and social stability come to mind. Relocating your family for two entire months is easier said than done.

The kids get two months off every summer. Take them then. Consider it a vacation. The most capable, adaptable, and accomplished adults I know moved around a bunch as kids. It forces you to learn how to live in the world and get out of your comfort zone. The most anxious, bitter, and underperforming adults I know grew up in the prototypical suburban bubble environment. End meaningless personal anecdote.

Well, I know of some people whose parent moved from one city to another every year, for professional reasons. And they had hard time building long term relationship with kids of their age, which means having a childhood with mostly adults "friends", and it is not good for everyone apparently.

I still agree, and in fact kids are often more adaptable than adults. Usually they can handle change, and it is good for the mind to experience different worlds.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#44

Post by pyre »

obstacle1 wrote: post #33
Hytosys wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I predict there is much more to parenthood besides fostering adventure, unfortunately. Educational and social stability come to mind. Relocating your family for two entire months is easier said than done.

The kids get two months off every summer. Take them then. Consider it a vacation. The most capable, adaptable, and accomplished adults I know moved around a bunch as kids. It forces you to learn how to live in the world and get out of your comfort zone. The most anxious, bitter, and underperforming adults I know grew up in the prototypical suburban bubble environment. End meaningless personal anecdote.

> The kids get two months off every summer

Depends on the country / school system. Not all kids have 3 months of "summer break."

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#45

Post by vbcr »

neindanke wrote: post #27

Is what they're doing legal? I'm pretty sure a tourist visa means you can't use it for work (activities for which payment is received or capital is gained), even remote work. I'm told that the Thai government is pretty harsh in punishing such things.

Not sure about Thailand, but this is true for USA.

My colleague's wife is on H4 (dependant) visa and prior to coming to USA, she had a job in India. We talked to a lawyer and then with USCIS and both of them confirmed that it is not a possibility that she can work remote here in USA on H4 even though she gets paid in India.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#46

Post by znq »

normloman wrote: post #38
bart42_0 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, clear. It can be a great way to run project in a lovely pressure cooker. Everybody 7days per week involved/committed without the distraction of homely nuisances. I'm very interested in your camper-van-blogpost And Mauritius is great!

Do you realize how evil that could sound? "I can force everyone to work 7 days per week by moving them to an island, miles away from their friends and family." If you need people to work 7 days per week, that's a problem. Hire more people, or set longer deadlines. Emergencies happen, but working late for a whole week or more is a systemic, productivity and morale sapping flaw. But you're right. Mauritius is great!

In our specific case in Thailand we never worked more than the usual 8 hours a day and on the weekends we organized trips together. So our goal was not to have people put together so that they work more, but rather have a good time and adventure together.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#47

Post by znq »

vbcr wrote: post #45
neindanke wrote: post #27

Is what they're doing legal? I'm pretty sure a tourist visa means you can't use it for work (activities for which payment is received or capital is gained), even remote work. I'm told that the Thai government is pretty harsh in punishing such things.

Not sure about Thailand, but this is true for USA. My colleague's wife is on H4 (dependant) visa and prior to coming to USA, she had a job in India. We talked to a lawyer and then with USCIS and both of them confirmed that it is not a possibility that she can work remote here in USA on H4 even though she gets paid in India.

What you can do though is travel to the US for business purposes.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#48

Post by slayed0 »

iolothebard wrote: post #28
eyeareque wrote: post #16

I worked remotely from Tahiti for a few months. It was an amazing experience that I'll always cherish. Now I just need to convince my new boss to let me do this again somewhere else. For those of you in the pacific time zone (sf bay). If you're interested in doing this, I recommend Tahiti or Hawaii. It's three hours off from pacific time during the summer months but only 2 hours off during winter. You can easily work…

Lol, 8am Pacific Time. If the developers I worked with were in by 10am scrum I was surprised. I called it CA time. Roll in at 10am, 1.5-2 hour lunch, surprisingly most everyone gone at 5pm because kids or something else. My coworkers would ask me how many hours I was working, to which I'd reply 40. How many are you working?

I am a developer in SF and work in finance. We are all in the office before 6am PT to be ready for the market-open at 6:30am. No one leaves for lunch as the market is still open. These things change quite a bit industry to industry, shop to shop. It's not necessarily a developer thing, just a business culture thing.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#49

Post by jon-wood »

iolothebard wrote: post #28
eyeareque wrote: post #16

I worked remotely from Tahiti for a few months. It was an amazing experience that I'll always cherish. Now I just need to convince my new boss to let me do this again somewhere else. For those of you in the pacific time zone (sf bay). If you're interested in doing this, I recommend Tahiti or Hawaii. It's three hours off from pacific time during the summer months but only 2 hours off during winter. You can easily work…

Lol, 8am Pacific Time. If the developers I worked with were in by 10am scrum I was surprised. I called it CA time. Roll in at 10am, 1.5-2 hour lunch, surprisingly most everyone gone at 5pm because kids or something else. My coworkers would ask me how many hours I was working, to which I'd reply 40. How many are you working?

Did they get the work done? If so, why do you care how long they took for lunch and when they got out of bed?

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#50

Post by rogerbinns »

Expensify take the whole company somewhere every year. Big picture about it http://blog.expensify.com/2013/10/25/ceo-friday-how-to-take-... http://we.are.expensify.com/offshoring/

There are reports in the archives http://blog.expensify.com/category/company-life/ including Portugal, Croatia, Thailand, Vietnam ...

Post reply on HN