Wish I could live like him one day. So sad I'm living in Hong Kong which is just a big city with nowhere to go.
150 days of living and coding in a van
121–130 of 445 posts
Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van
#122I am doing something somewhat related. I built a Jeep Wrangler into a house on wheels [1], and am driving around Africa for two years. I am freelancing for Magazines, and earning money through my website and social presence. I have not done any coding on this trip, mostly becuase I find it hard to get remote work that meets my flexibility needs - i.e. weeks off-grid and only occasional checkins/calls. Last time I dro…
I found your webpage three years ago when preparing for my silk road motorcycle trip. Never thought that you were a HN member as well. Beautiful Jeep, if somewhat overengineered for my taste! :-D
Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van
#123Very inspiring, I wish I could try something like that for a while. Question: do you still declare your income in your home country (Germany, I assume) or have you found a different solution?
I know the OP. He is declaring his income in Germany.
Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van
#124I'm curious - don't people miss big monitors when coding on a laptop? I've done a fair amount of coding on laptops while travelling and it's okay, but I feel like a big monitor is optimal for most work and wouldn't want a permanent situation with just laptop. I like to have logs, command line, and editor all visible, and ideally a browser too. The editor alone is much more useful in a big window where you can see a f…
If I'm in full-on development mode, I like to have at least one separate screen, though for more casual maintenance stuff I'm happy on a laptop. I seem to recall DHH (Basecamp/Rails) said in the past he frequently developed on an 11" MacBook at some point, only using a monitor when sat at a desk, so I guess it's doable.
I do all my dev and other work on a 13" MacBook Air and have done for years. I haven't had a desktop monitor since my last gig with a client in the City.
Yes, the ergonomics suck relatively speaking, especially now that my eyesight is getting worse with age (and from falling off a Segway!), but it means that I can work anywhere and my desk at home can be tiny.
Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok, here one of those nomads for already mmm... 12 years? Not all of us want to escape. We just want to see the world and learn. I grew up in a small town, I dont have a place I could call home apart the earth... On the other hand, I know there is an increase of people that want to escape, but maybe they have a reason to do it. City life is not for everyone. Many of us want to have a slower life, cherishing small thi…
Hi, I have a question, maybe too personal, feel free to answer or not... Do you have children? I do and many rules are inhibiting nomad life (even shortly). Kids are obligated to go to school for example. If this was more relaxed, I'd love to go away for several months at a time (I have a small caravan with a bunk I made for the two kids). I'd love to teach them about everything while traveling Europe. But the kids h…
I dont have kids yet. I totally acknowlede that its quite a different thing when you have kids and this lifestyle becomes quite impractical (not impossible though). Probably the day I have kids I will do similar to what you do :)
My point is that there is not one way of living. I was raised in a way where I had to follow just one path but seeing people living differently made me realize the diversity of lifestyles and made me aware of so many options in life.
Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van
#126Nice, I am not going to do exactly this but I am planning to live more freely in the coming years.
MGTOW life seems like a much better way to live.
Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van
#127I am doing something somewhat related. I built a Jeep Wrangler into a house on wheels [1], and am driving around Africa for two years. I am freelancing for Magazines, and earning money through my website and social presence. I have not done any coding on this trip, mostly becuase I find it hard to get remote work that meets my flexibility needs - i.e. weeks off-grid and only occasional checkins/calls. Last time I dro…
Nice to see the prices of most of the things. How much has the car itself and all of the additions cost you total up until now, and how far into the two year period are you?
Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
> competition for ... spouse > In particular, finding your long-term partner can be a huge struggle in a big city in times of Tinder where nobody is committed anymore You're projecting here -- the article never mentioned anything related to a partner. Also, wait what? COMPETITION for a spouse? If you look at your desired gender that way, I think it might actually do you good to live as a nomad for a while. "Nobody is…
Think you misunderstood. My message was that people who do this nomad thing are doing this because they struggle with city-life and my bullets were examples why they might struggle. I just said finding long-term relationships got harder because of Tinder and the current zeitgeist. I didn't say that I struggle: I didn't bail out and went the nomad route. I know that it's tough but once you got used to it, you learn, a…
Thank you. I still think "Tinder and the current zeitgeist" is a status quo isolated to certain circles (although big ones). There are still tons of people out there who bond and click pretty naturally.
I for one am not very happy in my current city anymore but that might be because of shitty rented flats. Currently actively seeking my own place but my internal voices never give me a moment's peace because I think I want to live by the sea, which is practically impossible in my country because the "cities" there are awfully small, boring, and have mediocre Internet.
Oh well.
Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van
#129Not all spouses would agree to the van life how do you deal with this ?
Break up and go for it. Your life, your choices.
Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van
#130I'm doing the same in Israel for almost two years now! The photos-haiku-blog is in Hebrew, but well photos are universal. http://bus.house/
It's amazing that you can do this even in a small place :). Gives us hope that this lifestyle can be opened up to more people regardless of what passport they have / country they live in.