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

Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

fireshouter.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 85 posts

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#61

Post by selfhoster11 »

ulzeraj wrote: post #49
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I suspect in the next 5-10 years there's going to be a big backlash against people from western countries exploiting their economic privilege by living in developing countries. What kind of backlash are you thinking of? When I think of a digital nomad, I'm thinking of a rich white kid spending their money in a holiday destination year round.

Rent, property and living prices being adjusted to the purchasing power of the western visitors driving the original low income population away from whichever region gets more popular. Its similar to what I call hipsterization. Rich and privileged persons moving to an undeveloped area they deem cool, fancy cafes are opened and real state prices skyrocket.

FYI, hipsterization is called "gentrification" by most people talking about the phenomenon of original communities being displaced by an influx of wealthier workers (and they are, by and large, hipsters in the areas where I've seen it first hand)

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#62

Post by selfhoster11 »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #43

I don't think I want to go back working on a laptop on random furniture. I did it for almost two years, and as soon as I got a bigger place I bought two desks, a big giant chair, 32" monitor, fancy keyboard, external webcam, mic, etc etc - and I love it.

I experienced something similar. After working on a laptop for a good part of 2 years, I finally bought a desktop. It felt like I could breathe again.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#63

Post by selfhoster11 »

blunte wrote: post #57
cersa8 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They say "sitting is the new smoking". I work standing, with my laptop mounted on a tripod. The nice thing is that I can often work on my laptop in the garden. Sometimes I do a moderate workout on a stepper if the work doesn't require carefully touchpad / mouse input.

I'm waiting and hoping for a good VR work solution. This would look really stupid, but I can imagine a split keyboard with each half strapped to my upper leg, VR glasses, and... well that's all! For the last 15 years, almost all of my computer work, gaming, Netflix, etc. stuff is done standing. I find sitting unpleasant now (which makes 12 hour flights a literal pain sometimes). I'm almost never tired standing, even…

Same. I'm excited to try out VR for productivity in a few years, when it all matures and the prices mellow out.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#64

Post by selfhoster11 »

Reason077 wrote: post #25

I somewhat agree about the storage unit. I've certainly spent far more on my storage unit over several years than the value of all the stuff that's in it. On the other hand, it's kind of nice having a safe place to store various things which have some sentimental value. It's also a good way to figure out what things you actually need in your life. Has something been sitting in storage for 2 years and you haven't miss…

You must have never been hit with an acute attack of the "I need a Nokia N95 to fax cable to get something done" syndrome. 2 years is a while, but some things have a usage frequency much longer than once every 2 years.

I keep stuff in my storate unit largely because it's a cheap way to declutter my owned flat. A lot of my hobby retro tech is something I'll end up repurchasing at some later point anyway (except in worse condition and for far more than I would want to spend on it), so that's another argument.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#65

Post by selfhoster11 »

walrus01 wrote: post #32
Reason077 wrote: post #25

I somewhat agree about the storage unit. I've certainly spent far more on my storage unit over several years than the value of all the stuff that's in it. On the other hand, it's kind of nice having a safe place to store various things which have some sentimental value. It's also a good way to figure out what things you actually need in your life. Has something been sitting in storage for 2 years and you haven't miss…

If you live in a house with a garage that has a lot of stuff stored in it, you could do the same calculation and find that the money paid to the mortgage per square foot of garage is more than the value of the things stored in it. Or if you have a full basement with maybe 100 sq ft of stuff stored in it. But there's also a value in having those things available when you want them. And value in simply having the utili…

Exactly. People underestimate how important availability is, to put it in IT terms.

Perhaps the clearest example of this is Uber, where it's not guaranteed to be available at all in your area at a time of your choosing, but the pre-booked cab service that costs 2x more will near-flawlessly arrive on time, every time.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#66

Post by selfhoster11 »

shoo wrote: post #34
iam-TJ wrote: post #23

Slightly left of topic, but the use of "nomad" in the context of "too much stuff" would be better described as 'asceticism'. Traditional nomadic life was about entire communities or extended families (rather than individuals), usually carrying their entire home and possessions with them either on travois or animals and/or carts, and travelling between home sites as the seasons changed or the food source moved. In cur…

> Having Siberian Huskies I once tried to figure out if I could live off the back of a sled and have the huskies be my means of transport. The sled would have needed to be 5 meters long and about 2 tall so I abandoned the idea! perhaps you just needed a few more huskies. is there anything like a rocket equation for dogsledding? e.g. each husky requires some mass of supplies which must be hauled which implies addition…

Sounds like an idea for Randall Munroe's next book.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#67

Post by archi42 »

walrus01 wrote: post #32
Reason077 wrote: post #25

I somewhat agree about the storage unit. I've certainly spent far more on my storage unit over several years than the value of all the stuff that's in it. On the other hand, it's kind of nice having a safe place to store various things which have some sentimental value. It's also a good way to figure out what things you actually need in your life. Has something been sitting in storage for 2 years and you haven't miss…

If you live in a house with a garage that has a lot of stuff stored in it, you could do the same calculation and find that the money paid to the mortgage per square foot of garage is more than the value of the things stored in it. Or if you have a full basement with maybe 100 sq ft of stuff stored in it. But there's also a value in having those things available when you want them. And value in simply having the utili…

I can totally relate to these observations:

1) We recently moved from a 80m² flat to a ~145m² house, plus 50m² of basement (860 -> 1560+540 sqft). We had a lot of stuff but it fitted well. Now the house is already equally full with things, but the only non-house-related item we got that takes up more space than before is the super automatic coffee maker. Thinking about it, this is because the actual living rooms did get only marginally bigger: A lot of the additional space is "hidden" because now each of us has a room of their own instead of a shared office. Which, for us and our relationship, is a tremendous boon.

2) Most of things we rarely use derive their value from being available on-demand. Especially for maintenance and repairs: When we rented a flat, all these tasks were the duty of our landlord. Now owning an older house of our own means we have to do that, and often having the proper tools & materials available is a huge boon. The most bulky item: The ladder for cleaning the roof rails. And then there is about a palette of various building materials I still need for all the necessary repairs/maintenance/improvements that we need to do.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#68

Post by selfhoster11 »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #51

I could not live without various physical hobbies that require workshops full of benches, tools, parts, and materials. I don't just want to own a guitar and a recumbent trike, I want the hobby of hacking on guitars and bikes. Even the tools are their own hobby. I don't just want to rent a few hours on a 3d printer, I want to hack on 3d printers. And forget my vintage computers, those are right out. They need shelves…

Yep. Digital nomad lifestyle is basically impossible if you're interested in vintage electronics. Spare parts or machines are sometimes extremely difficult to re-purchase, or even outright impossible to obtain.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#69

Post by ttyprintk »

camillomiller wrote: post #17
LouisSayers wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can bite you back quite bad Curious to hear what you mean by that?

Ask any digital nomads, and if they're not "bromads" they'll be usually ok to admit that they've experienced - at least at one point - a specific form of depression, mostly due to having to deal with all that comes with a self-imposed nomadic life (fleeting in-person relationships, lack of a stable community, lack of feeling "rooted", finding out how hard it becomes when you have to deal with serious health issues, a…

On the other hand, many expats I know are more impressed with overseas health care compared to the reputation of it back home.

Re: Help I can't become a digital nomad, I have too much stuff

#70

Post by mtmail »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #30
djdjfhsje33edh wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect in the next 5-10 years there's going to be a big backlash against people from western countries exploiting their economic privilege by living in developing countries. I've lived in various mostly developing countries for the past 7 years, and I'm not one to get hung up on the "white privalege" that's currently talked about in the west, but it is hard not to feel guilty at times at the tremendous advantages…

> I suspect in the next 5-10 years there's going to be a big backlash against people from western countries exploiting their economic privilege by living in developing countries. What kind of backlash are you thinking of? When I think of a digital nomad, I'm thinking of a rich white kid spending their money in a holiday destination year round.

Isn't it more rich kid working in a country, possibly very successful, without paying local taxes?
Post reply on HN