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Honestly I think digital nomads the least able to properly remote work due to their unreliable setups... WFH is a modern way toward a practical Distributism, be

by kkfx 2y ago

Honestly I think digital nomads the least able to properly remote work due to their unreliable setups... WFH is a modern way toward a practical Distributism, being nomad or "owning nothing" is the very opposite.

zmgsabst 2y ago
Most digital nomads are in major cities with modern internet and own nice laptops, Mac Minis, etc. I’m not sure what you’re imagining the difference is between my AirBnB condo and the one I previously rented — but I am curious.
- kkfx 2y ago
  I imaging that for WFH a laptop, a mini one in particular, is a CRAPPY thing, especially one bound to public WiFis and in general used via Wifi. For me, a 100% remote worker being reliable means having a good setup, composed of a desktop and maybe a spare one, all wired, in a LAN I control. I'm tired of those with laptops who are regularly not available or get tired quickly due to their crappy setups, with regular connections issues and safety issue as well. I also do not consider mobile connection as main connection reliable, a good backup to have yes, StarLink itself is a good to have backups, but not the main connection. To work properly we need good offices, a room, the home office, not arranged mobile-centric solutions.
  - zmgsabst 2y ago
    Okay — but that’s not how the majority of digital nomads work. Eg, I have a Mac Mini, monitor, keyboard, etc — and work from a desk in my studio. Exactly how I WFH during COVID, except that I pay AirBnB instead of a landlord. Almost nobody is working from a mini laptop full time - that’s fiction. And seems to be more your bias than anything, eg, plenty of regular employees do what you’re complaining about with laptops. Even at the office, eg, meeting from a lobby rather than their dedicated desk. (Which I myself did often, from the Spheres when at Amazon.)
gregjor 2y ago
A blanket statement like that doesn’t have much value. “Digital nomad” labels a wide range of lifestyles and people and professions. Some may have unreliable setups and struggle to work remotely. Others may have perfectly good setups and no problem making a good living. Some live off savings, passive income, or retirement checks and don’t need to work at all.
- kkfx 2y ago
  The limited reliability is not only their part: - living on wireless connections means being less reliable than being on FTTH, of course having a mobile backup/StarLink etc is a good thing, but A BACKUP not the main connection; - living on laptops in public spaces or in a van it's a bad setup, you get tired, you could get ambient noises, you could get infosec issues much easier than a desktop at home, in a dedicated closed room, maybe with a spare one. Of course a digital nomad who do not need to work because he/she have enough sources of income to live as an entrepreneur, a retiree etc nothing against, but a digital nomad who is an employee, well, it's a liability. I'm not against them as people, I believe in free will, I'm against digital nomad employees if I need to work with them as a colleague or a customer. That's is.
  - fullspectrumdev 2y ago
    Starlink, ironically, is more reliable than either of the FTTH providers where I live - in a first world country with a massive tech industry. Ambient noises/infosec issues - noise cancelling headphones and FDE with offsite (encrypted) backups resolves this. If someone was to steal my laptop right now, I’d be back online within “how long does it take me to buy a replacement laptop and restore from backup?”. It has happened before - I had a bag with laptop stolen on a business trip and was able to recover within a day and complete my work with fuck all disruption.
    - kkfx 2y ago
      Well, reliability does not just means "there is no neighbor who cut my aerial lines", means also normal performances with congestion, high RTT etc. While many jobs does not need special performance we still have many VoIP annoyances here and there, dropped frames from a video call, bad audio sometimes, the impromptu need to transfer a big amount of data as a normal thing like "ok, look, just download this 1Tb archive" etc. Noise cancellation is remarkable these days but you can't work for a whole day with some headphones on you NORMALLY, it might happen, I think almost anyone here have experienced that but a day it's a thing, every day it's another. I've felt the pain of some colleagues with their laptop while they have rejected the idea of a proper desktop setup stating how nice it is being with a tiny laptop in the garden etc, yes it might be some days, but not every day. Every day we need comfy chairs, standing desk, a good keyboard a good monitor etc. Many push against remote working are for real estate business and a certain economic model reasons, many others are for mere reactionary ideas, but some of them have good points about "way too many remote workers are not engaged, have little attention, are hard to find" etc and those in most cases are people with such "mobile setups" as their normal way of work.
fullspectrumdev 2y ago
It’s not hard to have a reliable setup when moving around. You just need a working computer, and a workable internet connection. Starlink resolved the latter. Even at home, my setup is literally a laptop on a table and some form of internet connection. It’s been the same for over a decade, just different laptops. You don’t need multiple monitors and a fucking special desk or seat to be productive - that’s the lie that companies marketing towards devs tell you. You just need a computer that works and a workable internet connection. The rest is a bonus. Some of my best work has been done in airport lounges, on trains, or in the passenger seat of a pickup truck with a mounted Starlink while going at Mach Jesus down some fucked up dirt roads in the middle of nowhere.

by kkfx 2y ago

zmgsabst 2y ago

Most digital nomads are in major cities with modern internet and own nice laptops, Mac Minis, etc. I’m not sure what you’re imagining the difference is between my AirBnB condo and the one I previously rented — but I am curious.

kkfx 2y ago
I imaging that for WFH a laptop, a mini one in particular, is a CRAPPY thing, especially one bound to public WiFis and in general used via Wifi. For me, a 100% remote worker being reliable means having a good setup, composed of a desktop and maybe a spare one, all wired, in a LAN I control. I'm tired of those with laptops who are regularly not available or get tired quickly due to their crappy setups, with regular connections issues and safety issue as well. I also do not consider mobile connection as main connection reliable, a good backup to have yes, StarLink itself is a good to have backups, but not the main connection. To work properly we need good offices, a room, the home office, not arranged mobile-centric solutions.
- zmgsabst 2y ago
  Okay — but that’s not how the majority of digital nomads work. Eg, I have a Mac Mini, monitor, keyboard, etc — and work from a desk in my studio. Exactly how I WFH during COVID, except that I pay AirBnB instead of a landlord. Almost nobody is working from a mini laptop full time - that’s fiction. And seems to be more your bias than anything, eg, plenty of regular employees do what you’re complaining about with laptops. Even at the office, eg, meeting from a lobby rather than their dedicated desk. (Which I myself did often, from the Spheres when at Amazon.)

gregjor 2y ago

A blanket statement like that doesn’t have much value. “Digital nomad” labels a wide range of lifestyles and people and professions. Some may have unreliable setups and struggle to work remotely. Others may have perfectly good setups and no problem making a good living. Some live off savings, passive income, or retirement checks and don’t need to work at all.

kkfx 2y ago
The limited reliability is not only their part: - living on wireless connections means being less reliable than being on FTTH, of course having a mobile backup/StarLink etc is a good thing, but A BACKUP not the main connection; - living on laptops in public spaces or in a van it's a bad setup, you get tired, you could get ambient noises, you could get infosec issues much easier than a desktop at home, in a dedicated closed room, maybe with a spare one. Of course a digital nomad who do not need to work because he/she have enough sources of income to live as an entrepreneur, a retiree etc nothing against, but a digital nomad who is an employee, well, it's a liability. I'm not against them as people, I believe in free will, I'm against digital nomad employees if I need to work with them as a colleague or a customer. That's is.
- fullspectrumdev 2y ago
  Starlink, ironically, is more reliable than either of the FTTH providers where I live - in a first world country with a massive tech industry. Ambient noises/infosec issues - noise cancelling headphones and FDE with offsite (encrypted) backups resolves this. If someone was to steal my laptop right now, I’d be back online within “how long does it take me to buy a replacement laptop and restore from backup?”. It has happened before - I had a bag with laptop stolen on a business trip and was able to recover within a day and complete my work with fuck all disruption.
  - kkfx 2y ago
    Well, reliability does not just means "there is no neighbor who cut my aerial lines", means also normal performances with congestion, high RTT etc. While many jobs does not need special performance we still have many VoIP annoyances here and there, dropped frames from a video call, bad audio sometimes, the impromptu need to transfer a big amount of data as a normal thing like "ok, look, just download this 1Tb archive" etc. Noise cancellation is remarkable these days but you can't work for a whole day with some headphones on you NORMALLY, it might happen, I think almost anyone here have experienced that but a day it's a thing, every day it's another. I've felt the pain of some colleagues with their laptop while they have rejected the idea of a proper desktop setup stating how nice it is being with a tiny laptop in the garden etc, yes it might be some days, but not every day. Every day we need comfy chairs, standing desk, a good keyboard a good monitor etc. Many push against remote working are for real estate business and a certain economic model reasons, many others are for mere reactionary ideas, but some of them have good points about "way too many remote workers are not engaged, have little attention, are hard to find" etc and those in most cases are people with such "mobile setups" as their normal way of work.

fullspectrumdev 2y ago

It’s not hard to have a reliable setup when moving around. You just need a working computer, and a workable internet connection. Starlink resolved the latter. Even at home, my setup is literally a laptop on a table and some form of internet connection. It’s been the same for over a decade, just different laptops. You don’t need multiple monitors and a fucking special desk or seat to be productive - that’s the lie that companies marketing towards devs tell you. You just need a computer that works and a workable internet connection. The rest is a bonus. Some of my best work has been done in airport lounges, on trains, or in the passenger seat of a pickup truck with a mounted Starlink while going at Mach Jesus down some fucked up dirt roads in the middle of nowhere.