Digital Nomads

[Luziyca]

If I had the resources to do so (which I don't), I might be willing to maybe give that lifestyle a try: beyond my immediate family and some family friends, I don't really have a lot of social ties, so I could probably get by sort-of well, especially if it's in western Europe or in Australasia. Then again, given I am the sort of person who once I found something I like, I will order it until the end of time if I go to the place that has it, I'm not sure if I want to go through the whole process.

[Krasny-Volny]

Not interested.

My last job required constant travel and turned me into a nomad. Duration of the travel for a particular assignment varied from half a week to two months at a time. Due to this, it was more economical to live out of a cheap hotel between trips than get my own place. It was impossible to have any kind of a routine. Maintaining a consistent diet and sleep schedule was difficult when my schedule looked like that. The idea of having a steady romantic relationship was a joke, even though I gave it my best shot. The best you can manage are dates here and there before you're whisked away again. No real amount of time spent in any one place means no time to form any connections to any one place, either. Friendships suffered. Relationship with family suffered. Overall social life suffered. I couldn't join a sports team, social club, or community organization attached to any one place due to the constant travel. I was lonely and felt rootless and insecure in the sense that because I rotated so often across the country, I didn't really have a home.

Some people live for that nomadic lifestyle and love seeing new sights. I am not one of those people! Having had to live this lifestyle for work, I'm never voluntarily doing it again. I don't want to camp out of a different hotel or Air BnB every week. I don't want to work in a new state every month. It's too much.

I left that job and am preparing to take a new one that's geographically static. I think I like the stability of being able to remain in one place for a while.

[Adamede]

Not interested.

My last job required constant travel and turned me into a nomad. Duration of the travel for a particular assignment varied from half a week to two months at a time. Due to this, it was more economical to live out of a cheap hotel between trips than get my own place. It was impossible to have any kind of a routine. Maintaining a consistent diet and sleep schedule was difficult when my schedule looked like that. The idea of having a steady romantic relationship was a joke, even though I gave it my best shot. The best you can manage are dates here and there before you're whisked away again. No real amount of time spent in any one place means no time to form any connections to any one place, either. Friendships suffered. Relationship with family suffered. Overall social life suffered. I couldn't join a sports team, social club, or community organization attached to any one place due to the constant travel. I was lonely and felt rootless and insecure in the sense that because I rotated so often across the country, I didn't really have a home.

Some people live for that nomadic lifestyle and love seeing new sights. I am not one of those people! Having had to live this lifestyle for work, I'm never voluntarily doing it again. I don't want to camp out of a different hotel or Air BnB every week. I don't want to work in a new state every month. It's too much.

I left that job and am preparing to take a new one that's geographically static. I think I like the stability of being able to remain in one place for a while.

Couldnt have said it better my self. I moved a lot growing up, and for those same reasons I think are why I have such a hard time socializing, they certainly play a role now.

[Infected Mushroom]

I like the idea of working online (from behind a camera or an online account) but I don’t like constant travel (the uncertainty, the anxiety, the troubles in securing travel and housing arrangements and having to constantly re-familiarize).

[Esternial]

Why Florida? If I was going to be a digital nomad, I’d probably choose someplace cooler, like Britain.

Ick,

Caribbean beaches ftw

If I had to work remotely 100% and I could convince myself to do it, I would probably work for a company based in either the US or Switzerland and live in either my own country or one with a lower cost of living.

[Laka Strolistandiler]

Lucky you, living in a first world country, being an upper middle class person, etc.

Can’t relate because I live in an authoritarian shithole

[Esternial]

Lucky you, living in a first world country, being an upper middle class person, etc.

Can’t relate because I live in an authoritarian shithole

Any of us able to connect to the internet and post on this forum is already inherently lucky to some extent compared to others.

There's always someone worse off, and always someone better off than you.

Don't spend your life comparing yourself to others. I know it's not easy, but it's certainly worth the effort to try and keep ourself from turning our own mindsets into a shithole.

[Laka Strolistandiler]

Lucky you, living in a first world country, being an upper middle class person, etc.

Can’t relate because I live in an authoritarian shithole

Any of us able to connect to the internet and post on this forum is already inherently lucky to some extent compared to others.

There's always someone worse off, and always someone better off than you.

Don't spend your life comparing yourself to others. I know it's not easy, but it's certainly worth the effort to try and keep ourself from turning our own mindsets into a shithole.

Ah, the usual western optimism. The fact that there is someone in a worse condition than me does not excuse the fact that this country is a fucking shithole with no future.

[Bombadil]

Not interested.

My last job required constant travel and turned me into a nomad. Duration of the travel for a particular assignment varied from half a week to two months at a time. Due to this, it was more economical to live out of a cheap hotel between trips than get my own place. It was impossible to have any kind of a routine. Maintaining a consistent diet and sleep schedule was difficult when my schedule looked like that. The idea of having a steady romantic relationship was a joke, even though I gave it my best shot. The best you can manage are dates here and there before you're whisked away again. No real amount of time spent in any one place means no time to form any connections to any one place, either. Friendships suffered. Relationship with family suffered. Overall social life suffered. I couldn't join a sports team, social club, or community organization attached to any one place due to the constant travel. I was lonely and felt rootless and insecure in the sense that because I rotated so often across the country, I didn't really have a home.

Some people live for that nomadic lifestyle and love seeing new sights. I am not one of those people! Having had to live this lifestyle for work, I'm never voluntarily doing it again. I don't want to camp out of a different hotel or Air BnB every week. I don't want to work in a new state every month. It's too much.

I left that job and am preparing to take a new one that's geographically static. I think I like the stability of being able to remain in one place for a while.

Same for a previous job as well, lucky to spend a week at home per month. Yet there's a difference between choosing when and where you travel and having a schedule put upon you.

Lucky you, living in a first world country, being an upper middle class person, etc.

Can’t relate because I live in an authoritarian shithole

I noted in the OP it took some privilege to even consider. What's ironic for me is I can't get back to the increasingly authoritarian city I call home due to a government that doesn't give a shit about its people.

[Thepeopl]

I think being a digital nomad is easier for childless people.
I could "home school" my children and be traipsing around the world, true. But I would be robbing them of a greater personal freedom to make lifelong friends, visit extended family when ever they want and find their own sports club/ extracurricular activities like drama.

I understand that in USA, children don't even have that freedom. Car depending suburbs have robbed them of independence in their youth.

But, in the Netherlands it's normal for children to cycle/walk to school,library, sports, friends, playground, family by themselves. 9 year olds without handicap are legally allowed to use public transport without a supervisor.

By becoming a nomad, I'd make them more dependent on me. True, age is important, as is knowledge of language.
But, this is my biggest reason for not being a digital nomad.

[Samudera Darussalam]

Any of us able to connect to the internet and post on this forum is already inherently lucky to some extent compared to others.

There's always someone worse off, and always someone better off than you.

Don't spend your life comparing yourself to others. I know it's not easy, but it's certainly worth the effort to try and keep ourself from turning our own mindsets into a shithole.

Ah, the usual western optimism. The fact that there is someone in a worse condition than me does not excuse the fact that this country is a fucking shithole with no future.

Umm, apologize to intrude, but it's not really....Western optimism. As an Asian (not of the comfortable middle class kind, mind you), the older folks in my place will say the same thing.
Though, I do hope and pray that one day life will turn out better for you.

---

As to the OP, "digital nomad" is a new term for me but the concept is somehow familiar. During the height of the pandemic, some of the side jobs I took at the university went online so....well, it's flexible, to an extent. I can turn on the laptop and do the job from home or dorm depending on my location, etc., if that's included in the definition.

However.....in the future I might be looking for somewhere else if I want to pursue that lifestyle. Sadly, the country or at least the place where I currently live in doesn't really have a good (and fast) internet connection, and sometimes it causes certain problems to services such as Zoom that....well. Not exactly that bad tbh but lots can be improved.

[Ethel mermania]

I think being a digital nomad is easier for childless people.
I could "home school" my children and be traipsing around the world, true. But I would be robbing them of a greater personal freedom to make lifelong friends, visit extended family when ever they want and find their own sports club/ extracurricular activities like drama.

I understand that in USA, children don't even have that freedom. Car depending suburbs have robbed them of independence in their youth.

But, in the Netherlands it's normal for children to cycle/walk to school,library, sports, friends, playground, family by themselves. 9 year olds without handicap are legally allowed to use public transport without a supervisor.

By becoming a nomad, I'd make them more dependent on me. True, age is important, as is knowledge of language.
But, this is my biggest reason for not being a digital nomad.

The idea is you can pick your permanent location. You wouldn't have to travel, you have a full corporate career from work at home.

So in the states say you had a special needs kid in a state with shitty services like Florida, you could move to New Jersey where the services are superb and still work for your Florida company for years and years


As to the travel place to place, I agree with you, I will leave that to my unencumbered peers. For the child's sake most I want to move them around is once or twice and the earlier the better

[Bombadil]

I think being a digital nomad is easier for childless people.
I could "home school" my children and be traipsing around the world, true. But I would be robbing them of a greater personal freedom to make lifelong friends, visit extended family when ever they want and find their own sports club/ extracurricular activities like drama.

I understand that in USA, children don't even have that freedom. Car depending suburbs have robbed them of independence in their youth.

But, in the Netherlands it's normal for children to cycle/walk to school,library, sports, friends, playground, family by themselves. 9 year olds without handicap are legally allowed to use public transport without a supervisor.

By becoming a nomad, I'd make them more dependent on me. True, age is important, as is knowledge of language.
But, this is my biggest reason for not being a digital nomad.

The idea is you can pick your permanent location. You wouldn't have to travel, you have a full corporate career from work at home.

So in the states say you had a special needs kid in a state with shitty services like Florida, you could move to New Jersey where the services are superb and still work for your Florida company for years and years


As to the travel place to place, I agree with you, I will leave that to my unencumbered peers. For the child's sake most I want to move them around is once or twice and the earlier the better

I moved a lot around as a kid, as in different countries. As such I have no childhood friends really, nor a place I'd really call 'home' in the traditional sense other than where I live.

There were some benefits, we literally moved countries two weeks after I shat in the pool of a schoolfriend during a birthday party. I'd be known as Shitty McPoolpants to this day if we hadn't scarpered..

[Thermodolia]

Not that big into it. I like the idea of having a home where I can always come back to.

I like my pool, my home, and my community too much to be a nomad.

However that being said I do love to travel

[The Pearl Kingdom]

Being a digital nomad sounds like a good deal if you can pull it off. A lot of competition for those kinds of jobs, though, 'specially since COVID.

[Bear Stearns]

people who work remotely 24/7 will see their jobs outsourced.

[Indomitable Friendship]

you need to have a good passport, you can’t have a criminal record, you can’t have too much debt

It's over.

[Shofercia]

Last month I went to see family for the first time in some 2 or more years. My company allowed me to work on a different continent, where I worked from 6am - 2pm, which I quite enjoyed given it meant I could enjoy nice, long summer walks and hanging out with friends.

I've returned to Asia, where I stopped over in Singapore to meet colleagues I hadn't seen in more than two years either.. and then..

..due to HK's asinine return restrictions, I'm not really that bothered about going back for a while. I can pay rent and bills online and so I don't physically need to be there.

There’s never been more interest in digital nomadism – “people who choose to embrace a location-independent, technology-enabled lifestyle that allows them to travel and work remotely, anywhere in the Internet-connected world".

..“To be a digital nomad, you need to have tremendous freedom – you need to have a good passport, you can’t have a criminal record, you can’t have too much debt,” says Beverly Yuen Thompson, associate professor of sociology at Siena College, New York, who studies digital nomads.

Link

Sweet, that's me sorted then..

So I'm thinking to just bumble around Asia for a while, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bali are all relatively easy to access and more places are opening up. My company doesn't really care where I am given I get work done. Right now I'm at a resort where I can work by the pool or go for a swim in the ocean after work, weather's good and food is great, and cheap.

However I do miss friends, not super sure where I might find communities though I'm sure a little research can solve that.

So, given the circumstances were right, would you become a digital nomad, or is it just a thing for overprivileged, kombucha drinking hippies with no real sustainable outcome?

What think ye great netizens of NSG?

Being a digital nomad's awesome! You travel around the world, meet cool people, explore the planet, get introduced to new ways of doing things, not to mention the dollar lasts a lot longer in certain places than where I'm at. I'm game! Also, I think this is the first time in a while I've been called a hippie on NSG