
Is Being a Digital Nomad a Lie? - Naiiz
http://coastery.com/2015/digital-nomad-truth/
======
vinceguidry
A routine is an excellent thing to have even if you aren't a nomad. I have
countless little rituals I've collected and iterated on for years that serve
to ground me and make my time productive no matter where I'm at.

I've noticed two different kinds, bottom-up rituals and the top-down variety.
Bottom up rituals evolve organically out of whatever space / situation I
happen to find myself in. In some situations I find I need a daily walk to
help collect my thoughts whenever life is getting a bit too chaotic. Another
ritual I might use when my workload is high is to collect tasks onto a sheet
of paper, one per line. This happens perhaps twice a year and is a signal that
there is mental cruft that needs to be cleaned out. The process of clearing
out the list and striking the line items off of it is meditative and serves to
bring that cruft to the surface so I can deal with it.

Top-down happens whenever I decide I need to make a focused change in my life
and need a new set of ruts to run my wagon in. I started going to the gym
every day a few months ago. I have a very specific routine that I change from
time to time to keep it fresh. I often have to acquire things and maintain
them in order to keep the routine convenient so I don't have an excuse to skip
it.

It's gotten to where if I'm feeling unproductive, I start looking at my
rituals, have I stopped any recently without noticing? Do I need a new one?

~~~
vram22
That's a good idea about changing your routine from time to time. Had the same
idea recently.

------
avitzurel
Every time I see a laptop on a beach on Facebook I think to myself "Well,
that's a lie".

I've worked from home for the past 5 years and one of the "secrets" is to have
a dedicated home office as a work environment.

I personally don't see this working for the job I do. Never thought it's
actually a sustainable option for more than a couple of months at best.

~~~
dexterdog
But I see laptops on the beach on Facebook with the same frequency that I see
them at the office.

~~~
GreaterFool
I find it hard to work while on the beach. The sand gets everywhere, the wind
gets annoying and you have to watch out for the sun too! OTOH if you have a
house by the beach and you're just at the house, overlooking the beach...
that's a different story.

I'd rather find a cozy Starbucks. That's where the work gets done. Doesn't
matter the continent or the country :D The coffee quality varies a bit (good
in most places in Asia, passable in UK, ok in States) but it's "home".

In many places there are better alternatives. Cool hipster coffee shops and
whatnot but when I'm in a new location and need an anchor place I just go to
Starbucks

------
lordnacho
All my stuff is location-independent. I have cloud machines for anything
calculation intensive, and also for web infrastructure (naturally).

\- Best thing about being remote is scheduling. There's no commute, so that's
extra time to get things done. If you need more time before dinner, no
problem. If you have things done early, you can go wrestle with the kid
immediately.

\- Not everything you do requires 100% attention. Writing emails, updating
people on Slack, reading about some new tech, that can be done while you're
hanging out with the family.

\- You can be updated constantly. Some people would find this annoying, but I
like it that way.

\- You can spread your work out so it's lower intensity. If you're not on a
weekend trip with the family, you can get things done and still have time to
hang around the kids.

\- When you're travelling, you can still get things done. I've checked in code
from an airplane. You can visit friends in different places while not feeling
like you're falling behind.

\- It helps a lot to be self employed. Not sure I'd want to always be working
if I had an ordinary job.

------
11thEarlOfMar
I've daydreamed of one step beyond the Digital Nomad to 'Citizen of the
World'. The plan is fairly well formed, and combining a 'placeless' vocation
with such citizenship can make one globally and indefinitely nomadic.

My thinking is to spend one month in a locale, explore it to the extent I
desire, get to know a few people, learn how the locals live, and then move on.

The foundations of this lifestyle are Around-the-world air tickets from the
major carriers [0] and AirBnb. I like the notion of finding friendly AirBnb
hosts and learning from them what the local lifestyle is: Where they shop for
food, how they get around, what activities they enjoy, what their days are
generally like... Then spending a month more or less doing the same things. In
the meanwhile, working for pay as a remote consultant.

Total cost of this lifestyle would depend on the class of digs you want to
live in. Some cities are really inexpensive, say, Athens or Aukland. You could
be comfortable averaging US$125/day for a place and $25/day for food. Another
$25 for 'other stuff', entertainment, etc. Call it $175/day, 365/year, throw
in the air fare, health insurance and taxes, and you're looking at about
$85,000 in income to live this way.

What is interesting is that with this lifestyle, you don't need to own an
apartment, or a car, or closets full of clothes. So the money you spend where
you are is all the money you need.

[0] [http://www.staralliance.com/en/book-
fly](http://www.staralliance.com/en/book-fly)

~~~
mcorrand
How would you work out the visas and taxes though?

~~~
jrallison
Did almost exactly this for all of 2014 (part of 2015). With a US citizenship,
and visited 10 countries for a month+.

Working remotely for a foreign corporation generally isn't against the terms
of a tourist visa (consult the specific country you're visiting). All
officials I asked had no problem with it, from South America/Asia/Europe
(Germany will actually let you stay longer, up to 2 years, if you're a remote
worker/freelancer). You do need a work visa if you're planning to do work for
a company that exists locally (competing with the locals, etc).

It was hugely income tax advantageous. There's a huge US tax credit if you
aren't living in the US (your first $95-120k tax free), and I wasn't staying
long enough in any country to meet their reporting requirements.

~~~
11thEarlOfMar
What types of places did you stay in?

I had forgotten the income tax advantage for expatriates. Makes it even more
compelling.

~~~
jrallison
Mostly Airbnb's, an occasional hostel/hotel if I didn't plan ahead.

My routine when arriving in a new country would be to quickly find a place to
stay and a coworking space, then explore the city/country when I wasn't
working.

------
bitL
It's about whether you can manage your time properly - I thrive in a "digital
nomad"-style work.

I programmed on the beach in Barcelona via their free Wi-Fi, overlooked
Pu'uhonua o Honaunau while writing some advanced math/programming stuff, had a
blast jumping off bungy, rafting and MTB downhill in New Zealand between the
session of writing world-class code many people use now etc. It's all about
whether you can _focus_. Learn to focus 100% on what you need to do, leave
your brain rested by doing crazy inspiring things on a side and you'll manage
digital nomad lifestyle and your output will be far higher than sitting in an
office, especially open one. I noticed when I focus for 3-4 hours on some
tough problem, then interrupt and do something completely unrelated or sleep,
I get surprisingly many ideas quickly leading me to a solution. If I just sit
in front of a monitor, it might take a week to solve the same. Weird, but
works for me.

~~~
hluska
> I noticed when I focus for 3-4 hours on some tough problem, then interrupt
> and do something completely unrelated or sleep, I get surprisingly many
> ideas quickly leading me to a solution. If I just sit in front of a monitor,
> it might take a week to solve the same. Weird, but works for me.

Oddly, I have almost this exact same experience. If I work on a tough problem
for 3 or 4 solid hours and then either do something completely different or go
to sleep, I usually come back with at least three or four plausible solutions.

There's a 50% chance that we're both weird and a 50% chance that you're onto
something....:)

~~~
snuxoll
Anecdotes are fun, but I have the same experience. One of the benefits of
working from home is I can go play with my daughter for 10 minutes when I'm
stuck spinning my wheels, afterward I usually have the solution I've spent 2
or more hours trying to come up with.

------
mr_luc
I think a lot of people are enamored with something more specific, like a
"digital backpacker," someone who acts like a backpacking college kid, and
then wonders why months of bus travel, hostel living and camping aren't
conducive to knowledge work.

I spent age 22-30 in remote coastal South America. I may have been a digital
nomad, but I wasn't a backpacker.

I always had a "home base."

Having a "home base", and _living_ somewhere for at least a couple of months
(rent a place, or even buy a house, which is what I finally ended up doing in
a little fishing village) is far from what some would consider being a
"nomad," but personally I think it's more edifying.

Why are you traveling? Is it really that you love packing and moving? Or are
you trying to find great places to _live_ in? Focus on the living part first.

------
cgrusden
We work remotely. All of us. Remote worker or Digital nomad, pick whichever
you feel like sounds better to you.

We have several blog posts about this topic since the entire company is
'Remote'. A couple blog posts that you all might find useful straight-from-
the-source below, I've listed them in importance from what I think is the
biggest bang-for-the-buck for remote workers.

Schedule your days: [http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/5/19/stay-productive-
schedul...](http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/5/19/stay-productive-schedule-
your-days)

How to work remotely: [http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/8/4/how-to-work-
remotely](http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/8/4/how-to-work-remotely)

How NOT to work remotely: [http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/8/3/how-to-not-
work-remotely](http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/8/3/how-to-not-work-remotely)

Last but not least, all of our 'desks', some have offices to stay focused,
some don't: [http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/7/23/so-fetch-
desks](http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/7/23/so-fetch-desks)

------
ecito
I've been digital-nomading from a sailboat for the past 3 years... Works great
as I get to have my office and take it wherever I want in the world (on the
coast). See my previous comments for more info.

Since I sorta have a base for work I'd call myself a remote worker. I rarely
work outside the boat, nothing ridiculous like working at a beach... So at the
end of the day it's just a home office, so it's not too hard to get back into
the work mindset after changing location as everything is static inside.
Except my backyard changes all the time. I'm currently in downtown Barcelona
after taking some time off the cross the Atlantic.

The lifestyle is not for everyone, sometimes it's quite hard, and I wouldn't
say it helps my work that much... It's just something I enjoy doing (sailing
and changing location), but have to compromise and do some work from time to
time.

~~~
trstowell
I've been planning and saving towards working remotely, with a stretch-goal of
doing so from a boat. Would you mind sharing some details about your boat-
type/unexpected costs?

trstowell[at]gmail

------
bluedino
Not knowing anyone where you go, or being 'lonely' has a positive side. John
Carmack used to get a hotel room in a state where he didn't know anyone, so he
could work for a week without distractions.

------
Mz
It's do-able. Perhaps if _adventure_ is the goal, it's kind of a lie. If you
have other goals, it can be awesome. It helps if you have a background where
moving around was normal.

I do freelance work online. I went "nomad" nearly four years ago, but
generally use a less glamorous label. I self identify most of the time as
_homeless_. But having portable income and a past life as a military wife who
moved and traveled a lot on a budget has empowered me to design a new life
from the ground up to replace a life that simply did not work with one that
did.

My income is gradually increasing, I have traveled enough to feel comfortable
that I have finally found a city that should work for me for the foreseeable
future and I am currently researching what I will need to do to go from
sleeping in a tent to owning a house.

I think it is kind of a lie to think you can do portable work and be "free" to
just live life as one big adventure. The fact that you have to work prevents
you from playing tourist every minute. But, having been a military wife, I
already knew what I could and could not get out of moving around. So I didn't
have unrealistic expectations.

------
pontifier
I know a very successful digital nomad. He, his wife, and their 3 kids have
lived in an airstream trailer for the past several years. He has a good job,
which he works remotely, and they move to a new location every 1-2 weeks.

His kids have explored every state and national park, and every museum of
note. I envy that life more than a little.

They have a blog at CurrentlyWandering.com

~~~
gohrt
Do their kids have friends, or are they just being dragged along on dad's
vacation?

------
xiaoma
Digital nomads certainly aren't limited to freelancers. There's a wide
spectrum of careers ranging from "normal FT but away from the office" to that
with flexible hours to occasional high value freelance projects to running
businesses where income is decoupled from hours of work.

Amazon FBA, kindle ebooks, online courses, affiliate sales, SaaS, mobile apps
and high traffic ad-monetized sites are fairly common self-funded businesses
for digital nomads.

I actually wrote a fairly detailed piece on the topic recently:
[https://toshuo.com/2015/what-is-a-digital-
nomad/](https://toshuo.com/2015/what-is-a-digital-nomad/)

------
laotzu
>We have become like the most primitive Palaeolithic man, once more global
wanderers, but information gatherers rather than food gatherers. From now on
the source of food, wealth and life itself will be information.

-Marshall McLuhan

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elboru
Does any digital nomad could share a bad experience with laws against working
remotely in a foreign country?

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marinintim
"Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word _no_."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines)

