14 ms·

Is Being a Digital Nomad a Lie?

92 points by Naiiz 11y ago

avitzurel 11y ago
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.
- davnicwil 11y ago
  Yeah, we all know that you can take a laptop down to a beach and do something productive, but it surely won't be as optimal as time spent working in an air-conditioned coworking space or cafe, or at home. If you're working on the beach you're not really at the beach, and you're not really working. You're getting a poor experience on both sides. I think anyone who's actually tried it, in all sincerity, would probably attest to this. If you have access to a beach you're much better going somewhere optimal for work, saving some hours in gained productivity, then heading down to the beach for lunch or after the working day for some actual relaxing beach time.
- dexterdog 11y ago
  But I see laptops on the beach on Facebook with the same frequency that I see them at the office.
  - GreaterFool 11y ago
    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
- jamesrcole 11y ago
  For the past twelve years I've been most productive either at a cafe or on the train. At either of those places I know what I'm there to do and there's an inherent time constraint that I find conducive to productivity. For me my home office is the worst place to try and get things done
- funkyy 11y ago
  You can actually do it if you are only overlooking the process of product/service creation. So lets say your task is to just control if all is done properly. For example if you resell things and you have set everything up. You got many reports that come and then go. You got a person that handles the whole process, but just in case you need to approve everything. So when the report comes from your processor, you just have a quick 5 minutes look and then you are free again. Since reports come at random times and it is better if they are forwarded asap. Now, you can enjoy all the time in-between and obviously this is not holidays but you are not on holidays. You live there. A lot of people will not understand how it is to live in holiday places and travel the world. It quickly becomes just another place and if you have everything figured out, work will allow you to enjoy the free time you get.
marinintim 11y ago
"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
pontifier 11y ago
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 11y ago
  Do their kids have friends, or are they just being dragged along on dad's vacation?
bitL 11y ago
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 11y ago
  > 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 11y ago
    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.
- vram22 11y ago
  Cool lifestyle. Done some of that kind myself. >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. I don't think it's weird. There are many anecdotes of that sort of thing being helpful with work, particularly mental work involving problem-solving. E.g. >"and do something completely unrelated or sleep" The German chemist Kekulé discovering the structure of benzene in a dream - read about it in school chemistry class: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#The_ouroboros_dream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#The_ourobor...
bluedino 11y ago
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.
lordnacho 11y ago
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.
laotzu 11y ago
>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
Mz 11y ago
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.
elboru 11y ago
Does any digital nomad could share a bad experience with laws against working remotely in a foreign country?
ecito 11y ago
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 11y ago
  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
mr_luc 11y ago
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.
vinceguidry 11y ago
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 11y ago
  That's a good idea about changing your routine from time to time. Had the same idea recently.
11thEarlOfMar 11y ago
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 11y ago
  How would you work out the visas and taxes though?
  - kauffj 11y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler There are several countries that will offer you citizenship by investment, including some with visa-free entry to US and Canada. Of course there is no guarantee this will last or that you personally will be able to travel (see Roger Ver).
  - bduerst 11y ago
    I assume they're thinking they'll enter these countries under the pretense of vacationing.
cgrusden 11y ago
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-schedule-your-days http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/5/19/stay-productive-schedul... 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
xiaoma 11y ago
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/

92 points by Naiiz 11y ago

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.

davnicwil 11y ago
Yeah, we all know that you can take a laptop down to a beach and do something productive, but it surely won't be as optimal as time spent working in an air-conditioned coworking space or cafe, or at home. If you're working on the beach you're not really at the beach, and you're not really working. You're getting a poor experience on both sides. I think anyone who's actually tried it, in all sincerity, would probably attest to this. If you have access to a beach you're much better going somewhere optimal for work, saving some hours in gained productivity, then heading down to the beach for lunch or after the working day for some actual relaxing beach time.
dexterdog 11y ago
But I see laptops on the beach on Facebook with the same frequency that I see them at the office.
- GreaterFool 11y ago
  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
jamesrcole 11y ago
For the past twelve years I've been most productive either at a cafe or on the train. At either of those places I know what I'm there to do and there's an inherent time constraint that I find conducive to productivity. For me my home office is the worst place to try and get things done
funkyy 11y ago
You can actually do it if you are only overlooking the process of product/service creation. So lets say your task is to just control if all is done properly. For example if you resell things and you have set everything up. You got many reports that come and then go. You got a person that handles the whole process, but just in case you need to approve everything. So when the report comes from your processor, you just have a quick 5 minutes look and then you are free again. Since reports come at random times and it is better if they are forwarded asap. Now, you can enjoy all the time in-between and obviously this is not holidays but you are not on holidays. You live there. A lot of people will not understand how it is to live in holiday places and travel the world. It quickly becomes just another place and if you have everything figured out, work will allow you to enjoy the free time you get.

marinintim 11y ago

"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

pontifier 11y ago

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 11y ago
Do their kids have friends, or are they just being dragged along on dad's vacation?

bitL 11y ago

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 11y ago
> 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 11y ago
  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.
vram22 11y ago
Cool lifestyle. Done some of that kind myself. >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. I don't think it's weird. There are many anecdotes of that sort of thing being helpful with work, particularly mental work involving problem-solving. E.g. >"and do something completely unrelated or sleep" The German chemist Kekulé discovering the structure of benzene in a dream - read about it in school chemistry class: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#The_ouroboros_dream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekul%C3%A9#The_ourobor...

bluedino 11y ago

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.

lordnacho 11y ago

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.

laotzu 11y ago

>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

Mz 11y ago

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.

elboru 11y ago

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

ecito 11y ago

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 11y ago
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

mr_luc 11y ago

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.

vinceguidry 11y ago

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 11y ago
That's a good idea about changing your routine from time to time. Had the same idea recently.

11thEarlOfMar 11y ago

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 11y ago
How would you work out the visas and taxes though?
- kauffj 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler There are several countries that will offer you citizenship by investment, including some with visa-free entry to US and Canada. Of course there is no guarantee this will last or that you personally will be able to travel (see Roger Ver).
- bduerst 11y ago
  I assume they're thinking they'll enter these countries under the pretense of vacationing.

cgrusden 11y ago

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-schedule-your-days http://www.sofetch.io/blog/2015/5/19/stay-productive-schedul... 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

xiaoma 11y ago

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/