6 ms·

Years ago I sort of did the digital nomad thing for about 8 years in Western Europe, but I managed to spend a good amount of time in every continent but Antarct

Years ago I sort of did the digital nomad thing for about 8 years in Western Europe, but I managed to spend a good amount of time in every continent but Antarctica. I earned between $25k and $100k a year working about 10 to 20 hours a week and spent most of the money on alcohol and women. I had to work pretty hard the first couple years just to kick-start the whole thing though. The final year was a total blowout and I played video games all day and partied 5 or 6 nights a week. I ended up killing the business through neglect, but that final year of total freedom was worth it. The bad part was that I ended up in my early 30's with no money, no job, and a very unattractive CV/Resume. The good part is that I was socially transformed. I'm way more confident now, especially around groups of strangers. I never wrote about this before nor have I ever written a blog, but I met plenty of people living similar lives. Anyway I guess my point is that there are plenty of people out there doing things without blogging about it. But you're not going to meet them online.

bythckr 6y ago
a serious question, what "work" did you do? I am curious to know what kind of profession has the option to be a digital nomad. They only one I figured is being a journalist or a writer. What types of business do you do being a nomad?
- austhrow743 6y ago
  Software development is huge with remote work.
- steveklabnik 6y ago
  I don't know if I ever identified with "digital nomad," but I have traveled a lot. Roles that are what is now called "developer relations" or similar effectively force you into an adjacent lifestyle. Freelance development can often support this kind of thing. Basically, any sort of remote job.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Similarly, I've never thought of myself as a "digital nomad" and actually do own a house. But prior to travel shutting down, it would absolutely have been practical for me to put my stuff in storage, ask a friend or family member to let me use their address as my home address, and live at least around the Americas or Europe as I saw fit. Given that I was traveling 1/3 of the time anyway, what's another 2/3rds?
    - steveklabnik 6y ago
      Yep, exactly. What's kind of amusing/terrible is that while doing this I was almost always living in very high COL areas, while a digital nomad would be off somewhere extremely inexpensive. Oh well, money isn't everything.
      - ghaff 6y ago
        I actually did this for someone who was basically living on the road for an aerospace company for a number of years. They shifted most bills etc. online and I kept my eye out for anything critical such as drivers license renewals and forwarded that kind of thing to her company's mail forwarding PO Box.
        steveklabnik 6y ago
        Yeah. Some of it I was only able to make work because a partner was willing to work with me on the money side. In the long term it wasn’t fair, though.
        ghaff 6y ago
        It's almost certainly easier than it used to be because you can do so much online, everyone has a mobile number, etc. There are even basically "address as a service" services for mail forwarding and the like. Still, there's probably more peace of mind (and it's probably somewhat more legit) to be officially living somewhere with someone reliable even if you just happen to almost never be there. When I was doing it for my friend, it was never that big a deal. But stuff did come up every now and then that needed to be handled.
- JamesSwift 6y ago
  It was pretty popular for online poker players when that was big
- ghaff 6y ago
  In principle, any job that you can do fully remotely. Having said that, you'll need a home base where you "officially" live and can legally work from--and, if you're an employee of a company (i.e. not an independent consultant), you probably need to be up-front about what you're doing and many companies may have issues with the legal ramifications. That said, in practice, before the pandemic I traveled about a third of the time so having some sort of nominal home base in the US and otherwise being on the road really wouldn't have been that much of a stretch compared to my usual. I do marketing-related stuff for a computer software company.
specialist 6y ago
"...and spent most of the money on alcohol and women." "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds [women] and fast cars – the rest I just squandered" -- George Best https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Best#cite_note-10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Best#cite_note-10

bythckr 6y ago

a serious question, what "work" did you do? I am curious to know what kind of profession has the option to be a digital nomad. They only one I figured is being a journalist or a writer. What types of business do you do being a nomad?

austhrow743 6y ago
Software development is huge with remote work.
steveklabnik 6y ago
I don't know if I ever identified with "digital nomad," but I have traveled a lot. Roles that are what is now called "developer relations" or similar effectively force you into an adjacent lifestyle. Freelance development can often support this kind of thing. Basically, any sort of remote job.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Similarly, I've never thought of myself as a "digital nomad" and actually do own a house. But prior to travel shutting down, it would absolutely have been practical for me to put my stuff in storage, ask a friend or family member to let me use their address as my home address, and live at least around the Americas or Europe as I saw fit. Given that I was traveling 1/3 of the time anyway, what's another 2/3rds?
  - steveklabnik 6y ago
    Yep, exactly. What's kind of amusing/terrible is that while doing this I was almost always living in very high COL areas, while a digital nomad would be off somewhere extremely inexpensive. Oh well, money isn't everything.
    - ghaff 6y ago
      I actually did this for someone who was basically living on the road for an aerospace company for a number of years. They shifted most bills etc. online and I kept my eye out for anything critical such as drivers license renewals and forwarded that kind of thing to her company's mail forwarding PO Box.
      - steveklabnik 6y ago
        Yeah. Some of it I was only able to make work because a partner was willing to work with me on the money side. In the long term it wasn’t fair, though.
        ghaff 6y ago
        It's almost certainly easier than it used to be because you can do so much online, everyone has a mobile number, etc. There are even basically "address as a service" services for mail forwarding and the like. Still, there's probably more peace of mind (and it's probably somewhat more legit) to be officially living somewhere with someone reliable even if you just happen to almost never be there. When I was doing it for my friend, it was never that big a deal. But stuff did come up every now and then that needed to be handled.
JamesSwift 6y ago
It was pretty popular for online poker players when that was big
ghaff 6y ago
In principle, any job that you can do fully remotely. Having said that, you'll need a home base where you "officially" live and can legally work from--and, if you're an employee of a company (i.e. not an independent consultant), you probably need to be up-front about what you're doing and many companies may have issues with the legal ramifications. That said, in practice, before the pandemic I traveled about a third of the time so having some sort of nominal home base in the US and otherwise being on the road really wouldn't have been that much of a stretch compared to my usual. I do marketing-related stuff for a computer software company.

specialist 6y ago

"...and spent most of the money on alcohol and women." "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds [women] and fast cars – the rest I just squandered" -- George Best https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Best#cite_note-10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Best#cite_note-10