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The remote dev / nomad culture needs to DIE now: 1. For people in the demographic of the, "environmentally aware" middle class. They sure do love to travel aro

The remote dev / nomad culture needs to DIE now: 1. For people in the demographic of the, "environmentally aware" middle class. They sure do love to travel around on high polluting jetliners. 2. The arbitration of salaries might seem tempting, but are they paying tax whilst in the country? Most of these nomads don't pay tax and their economic benefit is minimal (partaking in the local economy to buy their coco puffs and artisanal coffees). The hypocrisy I experienced of some dev's complaining about the dilapidated infrastructure in Italy whilst being there as a "tourist". 3. "I want to go a city with a good level of English" - Amsterdam, Munich, Berlin, Lisbon, Madrid. They don't want to go and experience a small town in Greece with no amenities or "English Expat Meetup" group. 4. Productivity (f(x) = internet connection x time difference x work equipment) I will take a remote dev in their homeland, over hiring a jet setter dev. 5. Relationships, I am not sure what some of these nomads are running away from / towards. They are extremely flaky in professional relationships, I wonder if that also is the same for personal relationships too. It makes it hard to share knowledge with these types. Pooof! They are gone now, "oh well so much for that Wiki page they promised to update before they left". ----- Conclusion - the nomad worker is the apex persona of the entitled middle class malaise. </end rant> I did consider becoming a nomad worker at one point, then I realised it's a terrible lifestyle. You have to grow roots to grow, doesn't matter if its a "boring" town. You have to grow up and realise someday that you can't keep being a rolling stone. Note: I am not against people moving to a better place for life /career / personal reasons. It's when it happens 10-20 times in the space of 10 years, that you need to start asking yourself hard questions

rorykoehler 6y ago
I can guarantee you I traveled much less as a nomad (though I wasn't intentionally doing it or calling myself a digital nomad, working remotely is what I always did) than when I worked in corporate land pre-pandemic.
wackro 6y ago
On your second point: the upcoming wave of nomads will be spurred on by companies in _their own countries_ allowing remote work. It won't be tax-dodging freelancers. Furthermore, plenty of countries have double taxation treaties. The UK has one with Portugal, for example. My understanding is that you can work from Portugal for a UK company and pay tax only in the UK, as long as you're not a tax resident of Portugal. The 'tax resident' bit is complicated, but the point is that the UK and Portugal have agreed to it. And I don't mean to be snarky, but when other people's free choices rile you up this much, maybe it's you that needs to start asking hard questions of yourself. A couple of your points are good, but it sounds like you're projecting your own problems onto others.

rorykoehler 6y ago

I can guarantee you I traveled much less as a nomad (though I wasn't intentionally doing it or calling myself a digital nomad, working remotely is what I always did) than when I worked in corporate land pre-pandemic.

wackro 6y ago

On your second point: the upcoming wave of nomads will be spurred on by companies in _their own countries_ allowing remote work. It won't be tax-dodging freelancers. Furthermore, plenty of countries have double taxation treaties. The UK has one with Portugal, for example. My understanding is that you can work from Portugal for a UK company and pay tax only in the UK, as long as you're not a tax resident of Portugal. The 'tax resident' bit is complicated, but the point is that the UK and Portugal have agreed to it. And I don't mean to be snarky, but when other people's free choices rile you up this much, maybe it's you that needs to start asking hard questions of yourself. A couple of your points are good, but it sounds like you're projecting your own problems onto others.