Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#121

Post by lafar6502 » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 8:37 AM UTC

smm2000 wrote: post #77

jbutewicz wrote: post #23

I got laid off from a job I was at for four years. Always wanted to travel but with school and work never had a chance for any extensive travel. I took two trips on my time off. USA Road Trip. 14 days. 17 states (NJ, PA, MD, VA, TN, NC, MS, LA, TX, NM, CO, KS, MO, IL, IN, KY, WV). 6,000 miles. Total for two people: $2750. Per person: $1375. Per person per day: $98. http://jbutewicz.com/usa-road-trip-video-concluding-…

Nice trip but your daily driving distance is insane. 428 miles/day is ~7 hours driving per day. It's pretty much driving the whole day. I recently did 2500 miles/20 days trip and felt that I was driving too much.

7 hours? Maybe, if you never stop and never leave motorway. 8 h drive, 8 h sleep, remaining 8 h for finding place to stay, packing & unpacking stuff, eating and other necessities - doesnt leave you much time to interact with local or experience new culture.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#122

Post by orthoganol » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 8:40 AM UTC

curiouscats wrote: post #109

orthoganol wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's not for everyone. True, it's heavily dependent on whether that person is into 'adventuring', i.e. enjoys stepping out of their comfort zone, enjoys changing up their lifestyle, and seeks out those challenges. I have had a blast, met up with developers in the cities I stayed in, advanced my career by finishing projects for my portfolio (also worked remotely), went on constant dates via online dating in the loca…

I agree it isn't for everyone. But there are many different types of people it is for. I don't really fit with "stepping outside your comfort zone" etc.. But quoting and traveling and working online works for me. I think way more it is about this type of thing being in your comfort zone. When I hear people talking about how they stepped out of their comfort zone it seems to me they just aren't comfortable plodding th…

Not sure why you're assuming people do it so they can seem cool to others, and not just because they like challenging themselves and exploring the new.

Overall it seems like you're looking for a basic philosophical debate about 'plain happiness' vs. constant challenge and growth. It's a big topic of course, but to me it comes down to satisfaction vs 'plain happiness'. The scientist or inventor who toils day on end, literally sacrificing themselves to enact a vision, in my opinion experiences deeper satisfaction than someone who, to use your example, has found a way to be content working their 9-5 office job with basic consumerist lifestyle of restaurants, craft coffee, etc... One is not better than the other, but one is more satisfying, in my opinion. I think always seeking 'growth' and challenging yourself in whatever you're doing lends itself to satisfaction, and, while a lot can be achieved at home, a challenging lifestyle of setting up shop in the new cities and cultures, seeking new people, seeking new experiences, lends itself to growth and satisfaction. (Don't be a perpetual nomad, but doing it a few months per year is about the right balance.)

> When I hear people talking about how they stepped out of their comfort zone it seems to me they just aren't comfortable plodding through an office for 40 years. Doing that is outside their comfort zone.

I think people who believe that there is deeper satisfaction in constant challenge, would just respond to this by saying, well yes, not living as satisfying a life as I could is in fact outside my comfort zone.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#123

Post by Throwaway90283 » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 8:41 AM UTC

Jack000 wrote: post #74

vosper wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is one of the most useful responses to the question, and I suspect it's closer to the average experience. I have done a decent amount of traveling, and so have most of my friends, and my opinion (and theirs, I think, through our conversations) agree with this. None of us are extremely introverted, or extroverted - I'd say we're pretty normal, unremarkable people. On the nomad matter I would go further, a…

I had planned on making the nomad transition permanently, but now I think 3-6 months is the way to go, like an extended vacation. I thought I needed a complete lifestyle change, but I just needed some time away from everything. some more points I thought of: - I packed a full suitcase with everything I thought I'd need (mechanical keyboard, projector to replace my tv, a full week's wardrobe etc) and it turned out to…

Use couchsurfing, and search for hosts that 'want to meet up', and were online in the past week. There are tons of people interesting in showing travelers their city, so send them messages. Or, check the couchsurfing forums and meetups. It's usually just a bunch of locals and travelers grabbing drinks. Popular cities have hundreds of people attending and daily events, while less popular cities might have 5 or 10 people getting together for drinks once a week. There are always new people at every meetup, so you'll fit right in showing up at the pub alone and joining the group.

Or, if you're staying somewhere for a few months, then offer couchsurfers a couch to sleep on. People are always passing through, so you give an interesting person your couch for a couple of nights, and discover the city with them.

It's made my travels a lot more fun, and I now pick places to live that are popular on couchsurfing because it's that much easier to meet people.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#124

Post by bewe42 » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 8:51 AM UTC

kosma wrote: post #41

Strange how all the stories here are positive & cheerful. I did the very thing two years ago, mostly due to peer pressure and reading too much HN, and it was a disaster. I didn't meet any interesting people, had no exciting adventures, tasted no great food, had no job opportunities, and pretty much only existed, lived in crappy hostels, drank bland coffee and burned all my cash reserves. I came back tired, broke, lon…

My experience was not that bad but I would do things differently next time. What I realized was that I do enjoy traveling and living in new cultures but I hate being a tourist. I loathed staying in hostels and having to meet new people constantly. Also going from city to city felt routine after a while

Next I'd rather stay in one place and do something there. Eg attending a language school or do some work.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#125

Post by seanmcdirmid » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 9:05 AM UTC

Nathannn wrote: post #119

I'm currently doing this. I've been out for about 3 months, currently in Taipei, and hopefully I'll be out for a year. I did quit my job but I didn't quit working. There's contract work that I've done on and off for the last month. It's only part time though, which is good. Since I make iOS and Android apps, it's fairly easy to get contracting work, and it's nice to not have to worry that much about money. I've happy…

I have developed a taste for Nescafé, especially the cold stuff in cans, so much so that I miss it when I'm back in the west (Switzerland used to have a lot of it, but they don't seem to sell the long skinny cans there anymore).

Thailand has some great coffee shops in Bangkok, the rest of the country is ok but nothing special. Bali does ok also, and the phillipines...

I'm not a digital nomad though, I just need to get out of beijing every few months to stop from going crazy.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#126

Post by cconcepts » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 9:07 AM UTC

I had the benefit of taking some time before leaving to build a client base so I wasn't leaving "cold turkey". Have been living in the developing world and working remotely for nearly four years now and I really enjoy the freedom it has given me. Some of the challenges are:

1) Being alone all the time can make it hard to maintain motivation

2) Having multi-day fights with local ISPs when they randomly cut or throttle my connection (always have a backup mobile dongle)

3) In a hot climate, being tied to a laptop doesn't do great things for your body. I was previously working on physical construction projects 50% of the time and the other 50% was spent on the computer designing and managing those projects. Now I'm just on the computer 100% of my working time and find it hard to stay in shape - I find gym's unnatural but I have to deal with that in order to stay in shape.

4) Not seeing people eye to eye means you have to get good at written communication, fast.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#127

Post by jeremyis » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 9:23 AM UTC

aidos wrote: post #110

jeremyis wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious - when you travel, how do you find families to live with? That sounds really fun. - On week 3 of a (hopefully) ~9mos trip, in Chiang Mai.

As heliodor mentions below, language schools will sort you out. In Brazil I walked in and made gestures that I wanted to learn Portuguese (they refused to speak English, even though some of them could, a little). The conversation went on like that and eventually one of the staff took me on a bus to where I would stay with a family. I ended up with a relatively wealthy family, others at the same school were in totally…

Thanks for the great reply.

I want to end my trip by spending 3 months in Spain learning Spanish. I'm thinking of Valencia because I think it'll be fairly warm there even during winter months, it's somewhat central, I hear it's fun, and everyone speaks Spanish... Barcelona would be a really fun city to live in also but I think it'd be better to be surrounded 100% by the language I am learning instead of Catalan :-)

Before now, I've only heard of living with a foreign family as a thing younger students do. I'm approaching 30... would it be weird to do at this age or is it normal?

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#128

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 9:23 AM UTC

aidos wrote: post #110

jeremyis wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious - when you travel, how do you find families to live with? That sounds really fun. - On week 3 of a (hopefully) ~9mos trip, in Chiang Mai.

As heliodor mentions below, language schools will sort you out. In Brazil I walked in and made gestures that I wanted to learn Portuguese (they refused to speak English, even though some of them could, a little). The conversation went on like that and eventually one of the staff took me on a bus to where I would stay with a family. I ended up with a relatively wealthy family, others at the same school were in totally…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#129

Post by _b8r0 » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 9:57 AM UTC

I did this without quitting my job last year.

In 2013 my then wife of 10 years and I divorced. From when my primary employer broke up till mid january, I travelled Europe. Had a (mostly) great time too but it was a little too long. When I came back a leak had damaged most of my house, so I came stayed, fixed the leak, dried out the house in January and in February spent 6 weeks in Berlin. While there my ex-wife hadn't had that great a time so we agreed she'd stay in the old house and I'd travel for just over a year, knocking some cash off the divorce settlement in exchange.

I'm only a few months away from moving back, and while I enjoyed travelling I'm looking forward to being in one place for a while. Thankfully I travel a lot for work anyway, so filling in the spaces on extra weekends and things wasn't hard. I mostly stuck to Europe, so time differences weren't a major issue for me.

Partway through the year I met a girl in London, so I became more London based. Well, kinda.

One of the things I found travelling was that the longer I spent moving between places the less connected I felt to anywhere. Sometimes I felt that everything was so transient it felt pointless making the effort to meet people. After so much travel, the UK felt like another temporary destination instead of home, so I returned more or less permanently-ish and moved in with my girlfriend.

I'm still travelling a lot (this is my first full weekend at home in 7 weeks) but hoping to calm things down a little at least when I get my house back.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?

#130

Post by rukuu001 » Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 10:04 AM UTC

kosma wrote: post #49

zcase wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did it have to do with where you went? How would you do it differently next time?

The language barrier is a huge thing - especially if you're trying to live like a local (as opposed to being a tourist). I've been to Spain and England on that particular trip, and the latter was ten times easier simply because I could communicate more or less freely. Now, some people can get by even if they barely know the language - but make sure you're one of them if you decide to go that route. And no, being bare…

It's hard, but you can learn to communicate. I spent a year in South Korea without much more than 'hello' & 'thank you' at the beginning (was 'conversational' by the time I left). Just don't be afraid to make an idiot of yourself.