4 ms·

Digital nomads look away: Copenhagen is not your dream city, study confirms

11 points by ofou 5y ago

lapetitejort 5y ago
It seems digital nomads did not look away, and instead hugged the site to death. Anyone have an archive link?
- listic 5y ago
  I googled this mirror (?) https://nord.news/2021/11/08/digital-nomads-are-looking-away-copenhagen-is-not-your-dream-city-confirms-study/ https://nord.news/2021/11/08/digital-nomads-are-looking-away...
- Johnny555 5y ago
  It finally loaded for me, there's actually not much in the article, it links to this survey of global rankings: [1] https://sweetspotpr.com/wp-content/uploads/WorkMotion/MDPW/Copenhagen.pdf https://sweetspotpr.com/wp-content/uploads/WorkMotion/MDPW/C... Copenhagen has ranked poorly in The Cities Best Facilitating Remote Work: A Global Index[1], a new study compiled by WorkMotion, the global HR platform, which assesses 80 global cities’ suitability to remote workers.
mjevans 5y ago
What is a Digital Nomad? I sometimes wonder if I'm one. In a world where careers (like people had in the 80, 90s and earlier) are dead and gone, where corporations want employees to move around as serifs, does that make us all digital nomads? Unable to put down roots, to build personal value, to afford a house? (As if sufficient housing has been built at any time during my lifetime anywhere close to where I would like to live...)
- andrewzah 5y ago
  Digital Nomads are typically defined as people who earn a living through working remotely and live a nomadic lifestyle. E.g. staying for a few weeks here, a month or three there, etc. "where careers ... are dead and gone, where corporations want employees to move around as serifs [sic]" I guess I don't really know of any corps that make people move around constantly. I wouldn't count living in one spot for years as "nomadic". "does that make us all digital nomads?" Most people don't live nomadic lifestyles, so no. Maybe for a year or two before settling down, but I don't know very many people who really do travel often and live in a nomadic fashion.
amelius 5y ago
If you're a nomad you probably don't own a house, and every popular city looks bad from a financial perspective.
- siquick 5y ago
  Can only speak about city Sydney where I live, but here the rent is so much more affordable than buying. My place costs $3250p/m rent but a mortgage would be ~$6000p/m.
  - redis_mlc 5y ago
    Australia has tremendous (ludicrous) incentives for being a homeowner, far, far beyond America's tax credits. If you have a stable job, then you're a financial idiot for not buying a house in Australia.
  - poulsbohemian 5y ago
    How are landlords able to make those numbers work? Is it that the properties are long ago paid off so anything is profit? Where I live, rents track closely with mortgages so I'm trying to get my head around the financials of what you are sharing.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  Yes, I tell young people who think of travelling as a digital nomad to first talk to some recent returnees - who are broke and scrambling for a job in their home city! That might be ok as an adventure in your 20's, but the end result is not pretty financially. The exceptions to that either took a perm job with them on the road, or have the marketing skills to make it anywhere. I used to travel on business a lot, and luckily had the foresight to cancel my planned trip to Asia just after corona was announced. Otherwise I would have been stuck in an airport or quarantine facility for months, or spending thousands on long-term hotel rates. I've been in "holding rooms" in foreign airports before, and I never want that experience again.
andrewzah 5y ago
It's unclear how these cities were exactly ranked by category, e.g. how London is supposedly the #1 cultural city. The methodology page [0] simply lists EuroMonitor, MasterCard, Time Out, and World Stadiums as sources for Cultural Attractions. Seems pretty arbitrary. Most cities are pretty expensive to live in. As a DN, the main thing I care about is how complex the visa process is and what kinds of visas are available. Then, the public transportation situation. The rest can be subjective, and expenses etc can be lowered by not living directly in the city. edit: The thing about these sorts of rankings are they're just subjective. I would say Seoul deserves a significantly higher rating, but I actually speak Korean and value what Seoul offers. If you don't speak Korean or care about public transportation etc, then Seoul is going to have a much lower ranking. Similarly, Germany is just less appealing to me because I speak little German. (I know many people speak English there, but life is just far easier when you speak the primary language.) [0]: https://www.workmotion.com/best-remote-work-cities https://www.workmotion.com/best-remote-work-cities [1]: https://nomadlist.com/ https://nomadlist.com/
lordnacho 5y ago
Have to say, having grown up there and moved away for uni, it's quite a nice city. I have friends and family across the globe, people that I knew growing up, and of all the places, Cph is probably one of the best: - Town centre has everything in close proximity, and is walkable. It's reasonably dense too, so chances are you don't have to walk far. - The lakes give the place breathing room that is unlike any other city. They're large but not like a river where there's very limited crossings. Eg by comparison London is very much cut in two by the Thames. - There's a whole theme park right in the middle of town, you don't have a to do a whole day trip in a car to get to it. And there's another one just north of town, also easily accessed by train. - Public transport works, even for kids. Can't stress how big a deal I've found this to be once I discovered it having moved to other cities. You can cycle in many, many places too, including as a kid. That mobility really means you can have quite a different social life to many other places. You don't need your parents to drive you everywhere, and you can do several things the same day. - Yes, taxes are high. But if you're remote, how long do you really want to be there anyway? It's cold and dark in the winter. Summers are perfect, sun is out late but not too late, weather is warm but not oppressive. - Everyone speaks English. Even kids.

11 points by ofou 5y ago

lapetitejort 5y ago

It seems digital nomads did not look away, and instead hugged the site to death. Anyone have an archive link?

listic 5y ago
I googled this mirror (?) https://nord.news/2021/11/08/digital-nomads-are-looking-away-copenhagen-is-not-your-dream-city-confirms-study/ https://nord.news/2021/11/08/digital-nomads-are-looking-away...
Johnny555 5y ago
It finally loaded for me, there's actually not much in the article, it links to this survey of global rankings: [1] https://sweetspotpr.com/wp-content/uploads/WorkMotion/MDPW/Copenhagen.pdf https://sweetspotpr.com/wp-content/uploads/WorkMotion/MDPW/C... Copenhagen has ranked poorly in The Cities Best Facilitating Remote Work: A Global Index[1], a new study compiled by WorkMotion, the global HR platform, which assesses 80 global cities’ suitability to remote workers.

mjevans 5y ago

What is a Digital Nomad? I sometimes wonder if I'm one. In a world where careers (like people had in the 80, 90s and earlier) are dead and gone, where corporations want employees to move around as serifs, does that make us all digital nomads? Unable to put down roots, to build personal value, to afford a house? (As if sufficient housing has been built at any time during my lifetime anywhere close to where I would like to live...)

andrewzah 5y ago
Digital Nomads are typically defined as people who earn a living through working remotely and live a nomadic lifestyle. E.g. staying for a few weeks here, a month or three there, etc. "where careers ... are dead and gone, where corporations want employees to move around as serifs [sic]" I guess I don't really know of any corps that make people move around constantly. I wouldn't count living in one spot for years as "nomadic". "does that make us all digital nomads?" Most people don't live nomadic lifestyles, so no. Maybe for a year or two before settling down, but I don't know very many people who really do travel often and live in a nomadic fashion.

amelius 5y ago

If you're a nomad you probably don't own a house, and every popular city looks bad from a financial perspective.

siquick 5y ago
Can only speak about city Sydney where I live, but here the rent is so much more affordable than buying. My place costs $3250p/m rent but a mortgage would be ~$6000p/m.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  Australia has tremendous (ludicrous) incentives for being a homeowner, far, far beyond America's tax credits. If you have a stable job, then you're a financial idiot for not buying a house in Australia.
- poulsbohemian 5y ago
  How are landlords able to make those numbers work? Is it that the properties are long ago paid off so anything is profit? Where I live, rents track closely with mortgages so I'm trying to get my head around the financials of what you are sharing.
redis_mlc 5y ago
Yes, I tell young people who think of travelling as a digital nomad to first talk to some recent returnees - who are broke and scrambling for a job in their home city! That might be ok as an adventure in your 20's, but the end result is not pretty financially. The exceptions to that either took a perm job with them on the road, or have the marketing skills to make it anywhere. I used to travel on business a lot, and luckily had the foresight to cancel my planned trip to Asia just after corona was announced. Otherwise I would have been stuck in an airport or quarantine facility for months, or spending thousands on long-term hotel rates. I've been in "holding rooms" in foreign airports before, and I never want that experience again.

andrewzah 5y ago

It's unclear how these cities were exactly ranked by category, e.g. how London is supposedly the #1 cultural city. The methodology page [0] simply lists EuroMonitor, MasterCard, Time Out, and World Stadiums as sources for Cultural Attractions. Seems pretty arbitrary. Most cities are pretty expensive to live in. As a DN, the main thing I care about is how complex the visa process is and what kinds of visas are available. Then, the public transportation situation. The rest can be subjective, and expenses etc can be lowered by not living directly in the city. edit: The thing about these sorts of rankings are they're just subjective. I would say Seoul deserves a significantly higher rating, but I actually speak Korean and value what Seoul offers. If you don't speak Korean or care about public transportation etc, then Seoul is going to have a much lower ranking. Similarly, Germany is just less appealing to me because I speak little German. (I know many people speak English there, but life is just far easier when you speak the primary language.) [0]: https://www.workmotion.com/best-remote-work-cities https://www.workmotion.com/best-remote-work-cities [1]: https://nomadlist.com/ https://nomadlist.com/

lordnacho 5y ago

Have to say, having grown up there and moved away for uni, it's quite a nice city. I have friends and family across the globe, people that I knew growing up, and of all the places, Cph is probably one of the best: - Town centre has everything in close proximity, and is walkable. It's reasonably dense too, so chances are you don't have to walk far. - The lakes give the place breathing room that is unlike any other city. They're large but not like a river where there's very limited crossings. Eg by comparison London is very much cut in two by the Thames. - There's a whole theme park right in the middle of town, you don't have a to do a whole day trip in a car to get to it. And there's another one just north of town, also easily accessed by train. - Public transport works, even for kids. Can't stress how big a deal I've found this to be once I discovered it having moved to other cities. You can cycle in many, many places too, including as a kid. That mobility really means you can have quite a different social life to many other places. You don't need your parents to drive you everywhere, and you can do several things the same day. - Yes, taxes are high. But if you're remote, how long do you really want to be there anyway? It's cold and dark in the winter. Summers are perfect, sun is out late but not too late, weather is warm but not oppressive. - Everyone speaks English. Even kids.