Ask HN: How did you go nomad? - sidyapa
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The_DaveG
Wife and I decided that we were done with the city and lack of space and
wanted to travel. Spent the next year downsizing as much as we could while
looking for remote first/only companies to make a jump. Found one of those
companies that wasn't necessarily large nor stable and bought a vintage
transit bus with the goal of making it at least 6 months to see how it went.
Two and a half years later, we moved on from that company and are traveling
slightly different, but the remote first companies and nomad lifestyle are
instilled in us.

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ivanvanderbyl
I went nomad after calculating that rent on my apartment in NYC was higher
than living anywhere else in the world.

So I just left behind everything that didn't fit in my backpack and a carry-on
sized suitcase, boarded a flight to Bali, and started a company remotely with
a friend in Australia.

5 years later we employ 24 people, all remote.

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bwb
2004... I was working out of Boca Raton FL as the first "official" employee
for a web hosting company. I convinced my boss (the owner) to let me move to
Dublin Ireland and work from there :). I landed on a Saturday and by Monday I
was set up by the amazing people at the Guinness Enterprise center with
dedicated internet and a small one-person office :).

I was maybe 23 years old... Crazy fun time in my life.

I ended up staying for about 6 months. After I got home I started several
companies with 100% remote teams. I've done the nomad thing every year since
then for 1 to 3 months and several 2 year and 1-year blocks. Now I have a
family and I just moved to Valencia Spain for 2 years to try it out.

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maxencecornet
While in Paris working as a freelance nodejs developer, I built a website that
was making me just enough to get by in South East Asia without having to work
(a bit more than $1k/month)

So I left France, and while living on the money generated by this website, I
tried to build a product

In the end, my website revenue dried up and I went back to France to work as a
freelance developer, after a year of digital nomadism in SEA

It was one of my happiest time in life

It feels like it was decades ago, time flies

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muzani
Why go back to France if you're freelancing? Why not work remote at a low
living cost?

~~~
maxencecornet
Remote clients are hard to find

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meiraleal
2014, I lost everything I had invested in my startup (founded in 2011) and
decided to go for a sabbatical year (without a penny and no work). After some
time, I liked the lifestyle and started to look for some small gigs with
software development until I found a full remote full-time job.

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sdiw
This is what I wish to do. Unfortunately, I don't have the courage to do so b
because I think I'd get bored traveling alone. I don't like city life much and
think of traveling to different places as I am a freelancer and I have that
luxury to go nomad.

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quaquaqua1
I tried to many times for the long term but then the only offer I received
recently was in person (client is stuck in 1980s mentlality)

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actionowl
Convinced my employer to let me work 100% remotely a few years ago.

~~~
taurath
What size? What is your role?

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actionowl
The engineering team for our division is about 30 people, the company as a
whole is much larger but our division has a lot of autonomy.

When I went remote I was a developer, now I'm managing an SRE team of 3
people.

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kleer001
For a short period of time. It's unsustainable.

~~~
stockkid
What were some reasons you found it unsustainable?

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kleer001
Economic. I couldn't find anyone who wanted a member of staff to not be tied
to one location. They were only contract jobs. And contract jobs are whole-
life-style wear and tear that are mostly avoidable.

Lifestyle. Moving around constantly was great in my youth, but thinking ahead
I realized it would be in my long term best interest (social and
psychological) to grow roots and settle down somewhere. That said, moving
around a lot got me the exposure and experience to know WHERE to land.

I'm glad I did it in my youth, but that's a window that's closed. I'm happy
where I landed and look forward to a comfortable yet challenging life.

~~~
meiraleal
I work fulltime for a outsourcing company that really doesn't care about my
location, just the delivery of working code.

Although after 5 years of nomading I also have this feeling of creating roots,
I've managed to do that going mostly to the same places every year for 2-4
months.

