6 ms·

The peculiar thing about programmers is that they're the one profession that can easily work remotely and travel, and yet they're the one profession that doesn'

by edw519 15y ago

The peculiar thing about programmers is that they're the one profession that can easily work remotely and travel, and yet they're the one profession that doesn't. I believe that the ease with which one "can easily work remotely and travel" is affected far more by life situation than by profession. Modern technology has made it just as easy for non-programming electronic workers to do this, too. "Life situation" is another matter. Just a few of the things that make it difficult for some people to do this: - marriage - children - spouse's job - pets - caring for elderly parents/others - community commitments - financial responsibilities (mortgage, etc.) As one who is tethered to his home and family, I thank you, Alex, for allowing me to live vicariously through your year for the past 5 minutes. The stories were interesting and the pictures were beautiful. </BackToRegressionTestNumber127BeforeThePhoneRingsAgainAndTheCatNeedsFed>

jasonkester 15y ago
Being a Programmer (specifically a contractor or consultant) actually solves a few of those problems for you, since it allows you to throw money at them. Here's what I've been doing since saddling myself with wife, kid and mortgage: - Consult. Thus freeing your wife from needing to work (knocks off two items on your list). - Consult from the road. Thus taking care of those financial responsibilities. Other ways those problems go away if you're travelling and working most of the year: - Travel. Thus turning defining your community as "Travelling Rock Climbers", "Travelling Surfers", or simply "Travelers" - Kids might be hard. I chose to have them this year instead of 10 years ago, thus meaning I can bring them along - Pets are harder. Maybe a really big bowl of food and leave the toilet seat up? But the short version is that if you want to make travel a priority, you can. Pretty much any excuse you come up with is for your own benefit. I've met plenty of families on the road with school-age kids who weren't planning to go home any time soon. It's all doable. We'd love to run into you out here.
- iaskwhy 15y ago
  I have been travelling a lot lately because of my current work and would love to know more about these kinds of community. So you arrive at some country where almost nobody speaks English, how do you actually find anyone you can meet up with?
  - jasonkester 15y ago
    In my case, I tend to travel for rock climbing or surfing, and it follows that if you show up at a world class climbing destination you'll naturally find that a lot of other travelling climbers have beaten you there are are also staying for the season. After a few years of chasing rocks around the world, you start to notice that you keep running into the same people time and again. Even if you never actually talked to them when you were both on the beach in Thailand a few years back, and only said hi when camped at Ceuse (Southern France) last summer, by the time you run into them again in Kentucky you might as well introduce yourself because you'll certainly be seeing them again some time. Over time, you tend to gather lots of friends this way. And when you come back to spend another winter on the beach in Thailand you can guarantee that at least a few old friends will be there as well. Beyond that, most countries tend to have a few spots that attract travelers. Next time you talk to somebody who's been to Peru, ask where they went. They'll answer Lima, Huacachina, Nazca, Arequipa, Puno, and Cusco. In that order. Go to any of those places, find a comfy looking bar, walk up to a table full of scruffy looking people and ask where they're from. Next thing you know you'll have a half dozen new friends and a bunch of good stories. And if you ever go to China, you'll probably run into one of them at a similarly comfy bar in Yangshuo.
    - notahacker 15y ago
      A substantial proprtion of people are travelling alone and want to strike up a conversation with you, even though they're headed off somewhee else the next day. Youmight not even need to find a bar: the popular sights and major cities of the world are full of hostels geared towards encouraging their guests to meet fellow travellers (some more overtly hedonistic than others). They're easy enough to find in travel guides and hostel booking websites You'll also be surprised just how many local people speak English in the rest of the world, particulary when affiliated with the tourist trade (Latin America being something of an exception, but basic Spanish isn't the most difficult language for an English speaker to learn.) Posted from Puno
  - blacksmythe 15y ago
    It is easier to make friends from your own country abroad than at home, because ex-patriots are missing their friends from home and looking for other people to hang out with. Ex-patriots tend to hang out together, and are relatively easy to find, particularly in a country where your face makes you stand out as a foreigner.
- scarmig 15y ago
  Freeing your spouse from work, not your wife.
  - ajross 15y ago
    I agree with the sentiment, but the correction here is unwarranted. He starts the post with "Here's what I've been doing". Assuming the poster is actually married to a woman, it's not incorrect to use "wife" here. His use of the second person in the list that follows ("your wife" and not "my wife") looks like a grammar mistake, not a sexist goof.
    - scarmig 15y ago
      Hmm, a lot depends on how you read the context of the list. It's always best to give the most generous interpretation, so I retract that. I'm amused/interested in how your comment changed the upvotes and downvotes my original had. Before it was positively received (+11 at the point I checked), but that was enough to drive it down to a +1 (no, there's no grave injustice here, no one should think to re-upvote it out of some misplaced sympathy). I can definitely see how your point would nullify it, but actively driving almost a dozen downvotes? HN folks are a fickle bunch =)
- JadeNB 15y ago
  > - Consult. Thus freeing your wife from needing to work (knocks off two items on your list). Some people, freed from needing to work, still want to work. I would not give up my job even if I were independently wealthy.
  - gurkendoktor 15y ago
    Especially if that wealth comes from your SO and not yourself, making you totally depedent. That's even worse than just being bored without work.
    - jtheory 15y ago
      Totally agreed -- my wife & I have both spent time financially dependent on the other, but we're best when we both have incomes. There's a kind of fresh air that gives to a relationship -- the unspoken undercurrent is "I could leave but I don't want to" vs. "it would be incredibly difficult for me to leave, so I really hope things keep going well". The dependent spouse has far more skin in the game, in every interaction, whether the earner takes advantage of that or not. If you're both comfortable that you're capable of making a good income at short notice, that would have a similar effect (and one of you can take some time off when you have a kid, travel the world, etc.), but you'll need a solid career first to give you that confidence.
neutronicus 15y ago
TheCatNeedsFed Are you, by any chance, from around Western Pennsylvania?
- keiferski 15y ago
  After this rain, the car needs washed, too.
  - mashmac2 15y ago
    And the lawn needs mowed!
- edw519 15y ago
  Yes. You deduced that from 4 words in a closing tag? Scary, en at. Maybe you can help me with the text parsing logic that feeds the Business Intelligence for Email app I'm writing.
  - neutronicus 15y ago
    Pittsburgh just made an impression when I worked there. :p
    - mbesto 15y ago
      Yins all scary!
mbesto 15y ago
I thank you, Alex, for allowing me to live vicariously through your year for the past 5 minutes. This comment made me perk up. I've eliminated all of those things you mentioned from my life and replaced them with: 1. Alcohol 2. Traveling 3. Triathletics In the last 3 years I've been to over 20 countries, been to every continent (except antartica), boot strapped two companies in NYC and have completed a half-ironman (and on my way to do a full next year). I realize I couldn't have done any of that if I had any of those aforementioned responsibilities. Random, but honest (meta) question: Would people be interested in reading more about this? I always feel like if I blog about these things it would just sound like bragging.
- cgag 15y ago
  Definitely interested. It sounds like you're living the life I want to live. Damn this cube...
  - sixtofour 15y ago
    "Damn this cube." I immediately had a picture of a mime.
- felipemnoa 15y ago
  Definitely interested. I would read your article/book.
- kayoone 15y ago
  id love to read it!
- haraball 15y ago
  Please do! I find these stories very inspirational, in a life hacking kind of way.
- tome 15y ago
  Hang on. You mean you've removed your marriage, children, pets and caring for elderly relatives from your life?
cageface 15y ago
The peculiar thing about programmers is that they're the one profession that can easily work remotely and travel, and yet they're the one profession that doesn't. Just don't try to build a business as an indie iOS dev if you want to travel. I've been trying to do this for the last year but this week Apple disabled my iTunes account, insisting that I'm not allowed to access it from Asia since my credit card account is a U.S. account. They've categorically refused to budge on this so now I can't even update apps I've bought through iTunes or the Mac App store. Since the apps I write have to be able to interoperate with other music apps, they've effectively shut me down.
- pault 15y ago
  I had this problem when I was living in Thailand. I just set up OpenVPN on my linode, problem solved. http://library.linode.com/networking/openvpn http://library.linode.com/networking/openvpn
  - cageface 15y ago
    Good idea, but I don't really feel comfortable building a business at constant risk of some new whim from Apple's security algorithms. I know quite a few other iOS devs have made this work but I feel like I've had the better part of a year's work yanked out from under me and I don't want to take a chance of that happening again.
    - pault 15y ago
      Oh, that.
    - coob 15y ago
      Well if you're going to let a minor inconvenience like geo-restricted service access prick your plans maybe it's not for you.
      - cageface 15y ago
        I don't really feel comfortable building a business on a platform that requires me to break its rules to support it. Who's to say that whatever hacks I put in today will work tomorrow?

by edw519 15y ago

jasonkester 15y ago

Being a Programmer (specifically a contractor or consultant) actually solves a few of those problems for you, since it allows you to throw money at them. Here's what I've been doing since saddling myself with wife, kid and mortgage: - Consult. Thus freeing your wife from needing to work (knocks off two items on your list). - Consult from the road. Thus taking care of those financial responsibilities. Other ways those problems go away if you're travelling and working most of the year: - Travel. Thus turning defining your community as "Travelling Rock Climbers", "Travelling Surfers", or simply "Travelers" - Kids might be hard. I chose to have them this year instead of 10 years ago, thus meaning I can bring them along - Pets are harder. Maybe a really big bowl of food and leave the toilet seat up? But the short version is that if you want to make travel a priority, you can. Pretty much any excuse you come up with is for your own benefit. I've met plenty of families on the road with school-age kids who weren't planning to go home any time soon. It's all doable. We'd love to run into you out here.

iaskwhy 15y ago
I have been travelling a lot lately because of my current work and would love to know more about these kinds of community. So you arrive at some country where almost nobody speaks English, how do you actually find anyone you can meet up with?
- jasonkester 15y ago
  In my case, I tend to travel for rock climbing or surfing, and it follows that if you show up at a world class climbing destination you'll naturally find that a lot of other travelling climbers have beaten you there are are also staying for the season. After a few years of chasing rocks around the world, you start to notice that you keep running into the same people time and again. Even if you never actually talked to them when you were both on the beach in Thailand a few years back, and only said hi when camped at Ceuse (Southern France) last summer, by the time you run into them again in Kentucky you might as well introduce yourself because you'll certainly be seeing them again some time. Over time, you tend to gather lots of friends this way. And when you come back to spend another winter on the beach in Thailand you can guarantee that at least a few old friends will be there as well. Beyond that, most countries tend to have a few spots that attract travelers. Next time you talk to somebody who's been to Peru, ask where they went. They'll answer Lima, Huacachina, Nazca, Arequipa, Puno, and Cusco. In that order. Go to any of those places, find a comfy looking bar, walk up to a table full of scruffy looking people and ask where they're from. Next thing you know you'll have a half dozen new friends and a bunch of good stories. And if you ever go to China, you'll probably run into one of them at a similarly comfy bar in Yangshuo.
  - notahacker 15y ago
    A substantial proprtion of people are travelling alone and want to strike up a conversation with you, even though they're headed off somewhee else the next day. Youmight not even need to find a bar: the popular sights and major cities of the world are full of hostels geared towards encouraging their guests to meet fellow travellers (some more overtly hedonistic than others). They're easy enough to find in travel guides and hostel booking websites You'll also be surprised just how many local people speak English in the rest of the world, particulary when affiliated with the tourist trade (Latin America being something of an exception, but basic Spanish isn't the most difficult language for an English speaker to learn.) Posted from Puno
- blacksmythe 15y ago
  It is easier to make friends from your own country abroad than at home, because ex-patriots are missing their friends from home and looking for other people to hang out with. Ex-patriots tend to hang out together, and are relatively easy to find, particularly in a country where your face makes you stand out as a foreigner.
scarmig 15y ago
Freeing your spouse from work, not your wife.
- ajross 15y ago
  I agree with the sentiment, but the correction here is unwarranted. He starts the post with "Here's what I've been doing". Assuming the poster is actually married to a woman, it's not incorrect to use "wife" here. His use of the second person in the list that follows ("your wife" and not "my wife") looks like a grammar mistake, not a sexist goof.
  - scarmig 15y ago
    Hmm, a lot depends on how you read the context of the list. It's always best to give the most generous interpretation, so I retract that. I'm amused/interested in how your comment changed the upvotes and downvotes my original had. Before it was positively received (+11 at the point I checked), but that was enough to drive it down to a +1 (no, there's no grave injustice here, no one should think to re-upvote it out of some misplaced sympathy). I can definitely see how your point would nullify it, but actively driving almost a dozen downvotes? HN folks are a fickle bunch =)
JadeNB 15y ago
> - Consult. Thus freeing your wife from needing to work (knocks off two items on your list). Some people, freed from needing to work, still want to work. I would not give up my job even if I were independently wealthy.
- gurkendoktor 15y ago
  Especially if that wealth comes from your SO and not yourself, making you totally depedent. That's even worse than just being bored without work.
  - jtheory 15y ago
    Totally agreed -- my wife & I have both spent time financially dependent on the other, but we're best when we both have incomes. There's a kind of fresh air that gives to a relationship -- the unspoken undercurrent is "I could leave but I don't want to" vs. "it would be incredibly difficult for me to leave, so I really hope things keep going well". The dependent spouse has far more skin in the game, in every interaction, whether the earner takes advantage of that or not. If you're both comfortable that you're capable of making a good income at short notice, that would have a similar effect (and one of you can take some time off when you have a kid, travel the world, etc.), but you'll need a solid career first to give you that confidence.

neutronicus 15y ago

TheCatNeedsFed Are you, by any chance, from around Western Pennsylvania?

keiferski 15y ago
After this rain, the car needs washed, too.
- mashmac2 15y ago
  And the lawn needs mowed!
edw519 15y ago
Yes. You deduced that from 4 words in a closing tag? Scary, en at. Maybe you can help me with the text parsing logic that feeds the Business Intelligence for Email app I'm writing.
- neutronicus 15y ago
  Pittsburgh just made an impression when I worked there. :p
  - mbesto 15y ago
    Yins all scary!

mbesto 15y ago

I thank you, Alex, for allowing me to live vicariously through your year for the past 5 minutes. This comment made me perk up. I've eliminated all of those things you mentioned from my life and replaced them with: 1. Alcohol 2. Traveling 3. Triathletics In the last 3 years I've been to over 20 countries, been to every continent (except antartica), boot strapped two companies in NYC and have completed a half-ironman (and on my way to do a full next year). I realize I couldn't have done any of that if I had any of those aforementioned responsibilities. Random, but honest (meta) question: Would people be interested in reading more about this? I always feel like if I blog about these things it would just sound like bragging.

cgag 15y ago
Definitely interested. It sounds like you're living the life I want to live. Damn this cube...
- sixtofour 15y ago
  "Damn this cube." I immediately had a picture of a mime.
felipemnoa 15y ago
Definitely interested. I would read your article/book.
kayoone 15y ago
id love to read it!
haraball 15y ago
Please do! I find these stories very inspirational, in a life hacking kind of way.
tome 15y ago
Hang on. You mean you've removed your marriage, children, pets and caring for elderly relatives from your life?

cageface 15y ago

The peculiar thing about programmers is that they're the one profession that can easily work remotely and travel, and yet they're the one profession that doesn't. Just don't try to build a business as an indie iOS dev if you want to travel. I've been trying to do this for the last year but this week Apple disabled my iTunes account, insisting that I'm not allowed to access it from Asia since my credit card account is a U.S. account. They've categorically refused to budge on this so now I can't even update apps I've bought through iTunes or the Mac App store. Since the apps I write have to be able to interoperate with other music apps, they've effectively shut me down.

pault 15y ago
I had this problem when I was living in Thailand. I just set up OpenVPN on my linode, problem solved. http://library.linode.com/networking/openvpn http://library.linode.com/networking/openvpn
- cageface 15y ago
  Good idea, but I don't really feel comfortable building a business at constant risk of some new whim from Apple's security algorithms. I know quite a few other iOS devs have made this work but I feel like I've had the better part of a year's work yanked out from under me and I don't want to take a chance of that happening again.
  - pault 15y ago
    Oh, that.
  - coob 15y ago
    Well if you're going to let a minor inconvenience like geo-restricted service access prick your plans maybe it's not for you.
    - cageface 15y ago
      I don't really feel comfortable building a business on a platform that requires me to break its rules to support it. Who's to say that whatever hacks I put in today will work tomorrow?