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

‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

telegraph.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 133 posts

Re: ‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

#101

Post by witchesindublin »

rr808 wrote: post #62

One of the problems of digital nomads that come to my town is that they're introverted quiet people that would rather be on HN or reddit than be part of the community. Actually they'll never be part of the community as by definition they'll be off in a few months.

Reading some of the comments here, I think too many people (notably quite a few Americans) don't quite understand how severe cultural and philosophical differences between countries and cultures can be. It can very even between two people of the same race but different countries (say British Indian and Indian American). People in a certain country can have completely different ideas about what racism offends them compared to the same racial minority in another country.

Re: ‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

#102

Post by munificent »

karaterobot wrote: post #47

I know three different people who sold their homes, moved into sailboats, and set out to be waterborne digital nomads, sailing around the world and doing freelance work to support themselves. I know one guy who did the same thing, but with #vanlife. In all these cases, without exception, they regretted it within a year. My advice is, before you liquidate your assets, quit your job, upend your life... give it a dry ru…

> In all these cases, without exception, they regretted it within a year.

Did they regret that they did it at all, or did they want to stop because they realized they would regret it they kept doing it?

Have you talked to them after they've gone back to a stable life for a while to see if they still regret it?

I can definitely see it being a bad idea overall. But I can also imagine someone realizing "This isn't as great as I imagined, and I'm done but I'm still glad I got it out of my system and made a lot of memories."

Re: ‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

#103

Post by em-bee »

witchesindublin wrote: post #72
ipnon wrote: post #58

For what it’s worth America is one of the easiest if not the easiest place to be an immigrant, all things considered. You’ll find a community of your fellow countrymen already thriving, you have well established rights that are maintained by the rule of law, and so long as you try to fit in and work hard nobody will pay much mind. Many if not most digital nomads are Americans traveling from an open minded heterogeneo…

You represent what the problem with Americans tend to be. You assume that your culture and philosophy is the best, and then start to hate how all the locals hate you and blame it on their culture. Southern Europe and much of Asia has had inter-ethnic/inter-racial immigration for thousands of years and have developed their own ways of how ethnic groups live side by side and integrate/merge together.

parent comment didn't say that it's the best, but it's obviously the easiest for the modern digital nomad. in most other places integration probably happened over timespans of several centuries.

check the history of germans outside of germany. they lived in places for centuries and never integrated at all, but kept to themselves, except in the US.

in asia today foreigners are not expected to integrate at all. nor in africa. they will always stand out, and yes, maybe through intermarrying in a few centuries some will have integrated. but there is no place like the US where you can effectively integrate from day one if you have an open mind. i have lived in all these places so i speak from my own experience.

Re: ‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

#104

Post by balls187 »

witchesindublin wrote: post #98
balls187 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you seem to have no knowledge about how diverse many other parts of the world are, with much better results too. It's hard to pin point your opinion because it keeps shifting--are you saying the US has racism? Are you saying people in the US don't mix with other races? Are you saying American's don't have experience with other cultures?

All of them. I often attend a lot of events where you get diaspora from across the world, and one thing that all the Indians will agree on is that Indian American don't mix with natives as much as Indians in other parts of the world. This would be a type of racism in most European and Asian racism philosophies. The other point is that most minorities in the US are highly assimilated into American culture and American…

You're saying every US immigrant population has assimilated except for Indians, and that's why America is not culturally diverse as Europe?

Every ethnic group that has immigrated to America (including Europeans) formed communities with others from their own country of origin.

That isn't an American thing. That exists in every country. As does the disdain for immigrants who forcibly avoid assimilating into local culture. In fact, every major European country I know has seen rise in nationalism fueled entirely by anti-immigrant sentiment.

Re: ‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

#105

Post by ilyt »

wccrawford wrote: post #53
bombcar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is probably the linchpin. Same thing with "tourist hate" I've read about; I've never had any major issues anywhere I've gone, but then again I don't do the "stereotypical asshole tourist" stuff. "Influencer" is almost synonymous with "online asshole".

I feel the same about being a tourist. I've never felt unwelcome anywhere as a tourist, but I'm also not loud and pushy. They're happy to have my money, and I'm happy to have their hospitality. Even the locals that aren't actually involved don't really mind tourists that are nice. People who try to change things, whether it's actually for the better or not, are not well-liked. The locals like doing things their way,…

> and they won't like being told to be different, regardless of the long-term benefits.

wild assumption that just because something is different that it will be better. Especially when it usually comes from sheer utter ignorance and not being there long enough to understand, yet alone change for better

Re: ‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

#106

Post by ilyt »

witchesindublin wrote: post #99
manuelabeledo wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is nonsense, and definitely not a thing in Portugal.

It's famous that the Portuguese and Spanish live with their parents until 30s (increasingly 40s) and usually close to their grand parents.

Isn't that just housing market going to shit ?

Re: ‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

#107

Post by ilyt »

munificent wrote: post #102
karaterobot wrote: post #47

I know three different people who sold their homes, moved into sailboats, and set out to be waterborne digital nomads, sailing around the world and doing freelance work to support themselves. I know one guy who did the same thing, but with #vanlife. In all these cases, without exception, they regretted it within a year. My advice is, before you liquidate your assets, quit your job, upend your life... give it a dry ru…

> In all these cases, without exception, they regretted it within a year. Did they regret that they did it at all , or did they want to stop because they realized they would regret it they kept doing it? Have you talked to them after they've gone back to a stable life for a while to see if they still regret it? I can definitely see it being a bad idea overall. But I can also imagine someone realizing "This isn't as g…

I doubt they hated every single second of it. Probably just novelty wore off

Re: ‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

#108

Post by ilyt »

briga wrote: post #7

Are remote workers who don’t choose a digital nomad lifestyle somehow immune from being tired, lonely and hated by locals? As far as I can tell all of these issues are just as real for the average tech worker working in a big hub. The difference is being a digital nomad offers way more flexibility on how you live your life and the variety of culture you get to experience.

> Are remote workers who don’t choose a digital nomad lifestyle somehow immune from being tired, lonely and hated by locals?

If all you do is get out of your apartment to get groceries in and trash out and say good morning you will probably not be hated by locals.

If you need to do near-zero upkeep of the lifestyle (vs driving van around or whatever the nmoads to do), there is also pretty good chance you won't be tired.

And not being lonely is easier if you don't just leave after a month after getting to know someone.

Sooo yes.

> The difference is being a digital nomad offers way more flexibility on how you live your life and the variety of culture you get to experience.

You can just go on vacation if you want to experience culture a bit.

If all you want to do is to experience culture fair enough, it fits like a glove, but pursuing most other hobbies is far easier living "normal" life.

Re: ‘Tired’, ‘lonely’ and hated by locals: the reality for the digital nomad

#109

Post by ilyt »

ipnon wrote: post #58

For what it’s worth America is one of the easiest if not the easiest place to be an immigrant, all things considered. You’ll find a community of your fellow countrymen already thriving, you have well established rights that are maintained by the rule of law, and so long as you try to fit in and work hard nobody will pay much mind. Many if not most digital nomads are Americans traveling from an open minded heterogeneo…

Well, and the fact near-everyone in US speaks english. Ability to communicate is kinda a key thing.
Post reply on HN