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Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

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161–170 of 282 posts

Re: Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

#161

For me, this is the number one reason that I work remote. Here was my thought process: - Identify the thing you really want to do most in life. - Find the place in the world where you can do that the best. - Find a house there. For me, as a rock climber, that meant moving to a little village near Fontainebleau, France, where they keep the best Bouldering in the world. For you, it might mean finding the best concentra…

But what if the place you really want to be is... wait for it... the office. I get that's not a popular choice, but there's few things I love more than going to work. I know, I'm in a niche, but it's a thing. I am a passionate workaholic, I can do a lot of it from home, but I do my best work in the office with others and, damn, do I miss it.

Re: Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

#162

For me, this is the number one reason that I work remote. Here was my thought process: - Identify the thing you really want to do most in life. - Find the place in the world where you can do that the best. - Find a house there. For me, as a rock climber, that meant moving to a little village near Fontainebleau, France, where they keep the best Bouldering in the world. For you, it might mean finding the best concentra…

Hey! Would you mind detailing a bit of your process. Indoors climber here, and planning a vacation trip to Fontainebleau in the next 1-2 years (depending on state of pandemic).

Few questions come to my mind: - Where was your initial setup (France, EU, overseas)? - How much savings did you have? - Which industry? - Are you working remote as FTE, or are you freelancer/consulting/having your own company? - How's the internet, doctors, infrastructure?

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

#163

For me, this is the number one reason that I work remote. Here was my thought process: - Identify the thing you really want to do most in life. - Find the place in the world where you can do that the best. - Find a house there. For me, as a rock climber, that meant moving to a little village near Fontainebleau, France, where they keep the best Bouldering in the world. For you, it might mean finding the best concentra…

But what if the place you really want to be is... wait for it... the office. I get that's not a popular choice, but there's few things I love more than going to work. I know, I'm in a niche, but it's a thing. I am a passionate workaholic, I can do a lot of it from home, but I do my best work in the office with others and, damn, do I miss it.

Nothing bad about that

Re: Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

#164

For me, this is the number one reason that I work remote. Here was my thought process: - Identify the thing you really want to do most in life. - Find the place in the world where you can do that the best. - Find a house there. For me, as a rock climber, that meant moving to a little village near Fontainebleau, France, where they keep the best Bouldering in the world. For you, it might mean finding the best concentra…

I don’t disagree with you but I want to highlight a similar-but-different choice. For me, remote work (years ago and now financial independence) has meant staying close to my family, in the same neighborhood I grew up in.

I still take a few months off to go live in Japan or wherever every year, but I mostly use freedom to optimize for relationships instead of activities. I still see the same group of highschool friends every week - going on 25 years now.

It’s not as adventurous, but this is what my life is about.

Re: Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

#165
post #13

WA. No state tax. Nice nature. Not completely overrun with corona like most of the other no tax states. Post pandemic, somewhere in Western Europe hopefully. Some place that actually cares about its residents unlike this shithole country that's doing everything in its power to ensure the most corona cases and deaths possible.

I'd love to move to Norway or Iceland.

Iceland is known for its horizontal rain (i.e. rainfall combined with 50+mph wind). Add long days in the summer and long days in the winter. Add no trees at all. It's a somewhat extreme place.

Re: Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

#166

For me, this is the number one reason that I work remote. Here was my thought process: - Identify the thing you really want to do most in life. - Find the place in the world where you can do that the best. - Find a house there. For me, as a rock climber, that meant moving to a little village near Fontainebleau, France, where they keep the best Bouldering in the world. For you, it might mean finding the best concentra…

I don’t disagree with you but I want to highlight a similar-but-different choice. For me, remote work (years ago and now financial independence) has meant staying close to my family, in the same neighborhood I grew up in. I still take a few months off to go live in Japan or wherever every year, but I mostly use freedom to optimize for relationships instead of activities. I still see the same group of highschool frien…

Indeed, you're actually following the 3 steps. Your "thing" just happens to be family & friends, so naturally the best place to live for doing that is where those people are.

Saves a lot of work with step three! All the best.

Re: Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

#168
post #162

For me, this is the number one reason that I work remote. Here was my thought process: - Identify the thing you really want to do most in life. - Find the place in the world where you can do that the best. - Find a house there. For me, as a rock climber, that meant moving to a little village near Fontainebleau, France, where they keep the best Bouldering in the world. For you, it might mean finding the best concentra…

Hey! Would you mind detailing a bit of your process. Indoors climber here, and planning a vacation trip to Fontainebleau in the next 1-2 years (depending on state of pandemic). Few questions come to my mind: - Where was your initial setup (France, EU, overseas)? - How much savings did you have? - Which industry? - Are you working remote as FTE, or are you freelancer/consulting/having your own company? - How's the int…

I started doing this back before Remote was really a thing. So initially, I'd work short 3-6 month contracts on-site in the 'states with 9-12 month stints of travelling in between.

Eventually, as it became more possible, I started lugging a laptop along and doing client work from the beach on rest days from climbing. I'd sometimes stop in one place for a month or so just to go heads down for a client or on my own project stuff.

In 2011, I took a full-time contract for a fully remote company in the 'states, while living in England. I was their furthest "remote" employee at the time, though they quickly started hiring more once they realized that it worked. There were guys on the team working poolside while digital nomadding around the world by the time I left 5 years later.

France happened after a long search to find a good surf break to set up shop at. The issue there is that surf always happens right next to the beach, where they keep all the $5M houses. Or in places full of grumpy expat American surfers that we decided we didn't want to be our sole source of potential friends.

Climbers, on the other hand, don't get grumpy and territorial over climbing areas. They're just generally lots of fun to be around, so the only real trick is to find a place that you won't climb out. Most crags have only a few hundred routes at the level you'll be operating at (even factoring in improvement from living next to said crag), so lots of cool places (including Tonsai beach iteslf) got ruled out on those grounds. Font, however, has 30,000 problems recorded and new 7th grade lines going up at the rate of about one every 3 days. It'll be tough to catch up.

As to living, it works itself out. They have doctors, grocery stores and schools everywhere in the world. Do what the locals do and you'll be fine.

Hope to see you out here one of these days!

EDIT: It occurs that I actually wrote a whole article on this once. Shoulda just linked it:

https://expatsoftware.com/articles/guy-on-the-beach-with-a-l...

Re: Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

#169
post #157

Not moving at all because I'm remote temporarily and I'll likely have to move back to a big city in a few months. Another thing to consider is that if you're young and don't have a family yet, moving to a remote location where you'll be completely alone just so you can pay less for rent seems kind of dumb. Yet another thing - nobody's job is all that secure right now. Even if attitudes towards remote work have change…

> moving to a remote location where you'll be completely alone just so you can pay less for rent seems kind of dumb. I’m sorry but this just strikes me as an extremely black-and-white view of the world. I for one moved to a village after college, work remotely for about 10y, and couldn’t be happier. I have a decent sized house, my backyard is the start of a small forest, and I’m in a city in about 1h of traveling. To…

> but I can equally make a case why moving to a city to pay high rent prices seems kind of dumb.

No one moves to a city to pay high rent prices. The higher rent is a tradeoff that you make for certain benefits of living in a big city (which may or may not be worth it for each individual). My point was that when you move to a remote location purely for the lower cost (which people do), you're making another set of tradeoffs that are often ignored.

Re: Ask HN: Newly Remote Workers – Where Are You Moving?

#170
If I could, I would move to Medellín, Colombia. It's beautiful modern city with friendly people and there seems to be a lot of digital nomads there to connect with.

And since I would only get to stay 180 days per year in Colombia, I would probably spend a few months in Costa Rica and in the Peruvian Amazon.

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