A guide to working remote and not paying rent
ghuntley.com
ghuntley.com
Humans are capable of much more care than seeing their children during school holidays and otherwise "hopping in and out of" their lives.
Otherwise, nice article for the childless IT class. Could be split better though, I did not read it to finish.
The cope is strong... "I'm really doing all this for them".
As a man who became the primary parent as my kids got older I think this is a tragedy. Its not good for women (more work) or men (deprived of fulfilment) or children (less attention from parents overall).
We seem to be able to accept that women are capable of taking on traditionally male roles (especially in the workplace) but not that men can take on traditionally female roles (at home or at work).
Home ownership is the core of Australian national identity[0]. Since the 1990s, government policy has made speculation on residential property extremely lucrative. Mass immigration is used to keep the economy growing (GDP per capita is falling). House-building has not kept pace. Reduced funding for the TAFE (Technical and Further Education) system has ensured an undersupply of tradespeople. In one state, privatisation of building standards enforcement has led to a large number of defective buildings, including high-rise apartment blocks with structural defects.
On the other hand, living in one of the state capital cities is increasingly necessary. The economy has few industries, most of which are dominated by a small number of very large businesses. Despite its reputation, Australian society is authoritarian, and employees are still expected to work from an office five days per week.
The median house price in Sydney is AUD 1.6MM; the household income needed to pay a mortgage on this principal is AUD 350k. The median income in New South Wales (of which Sydney is the capital) is AUD 70k.
Australian manufacturing died when shipping was containerised. There was a time when resourceful Australians invented novel products (the Victa lawn mower, the Hills Hoist clothes line), but now that international airfares are more affordable, those Australians now move to other countries (mainly the UK and the US) before becoming inventors.
Australia exports iron ore and coal to countries that make steel (chiefly China). All of Australia's material culture is imported. Australian agricultural produce is increasingly packaged in China before being sold in Australian supermarkets.
Australia does not have a bright future.
> A five-bedroom grand Federation manor at Roseville traded for $6.8 million at auction on Saturday.
> The winning couple, one a teacher and another also working in education, placed a single bid of $10,000 above an opening vendor bid of $6,790,000 to secure the property.
Seems pretty bright to me.
Vans you can live in don't fall from the sky for free. In the long run they might be less expensive than renting, but one would need to do the math on that and have a really close look at the numbers to be sure.
Also, why is he even doing this? To save money so he can build a home for his kids? Where's that home located? In the middle of nowhere? I don't understand the "Why" in this case because it seems like some effort of being able to save money by not living in a flat or a house so he can save money to build a house in the end.
I guess you can do it that way, but if you're able to work fully remote, find a nice place that doesn't cost much and enjoy not needing to fix your compost toilet?!
Well, I guess it's just not for me...
You can find some of the author's motivations here: https://ghuntley.com/a-new-chapter/
I obviously can't speculate beyond what's in there about the author, but for me, living in a bog standard apartment and working remote to support kids isn't exactly blog-worthy content. I used to live in apartments, and most of the new construction in the US is very cookie-cutter and sometimes depressing.
So, here's what mine would be:
1) a challenging hobby that's useful and more engaging in off-hours than more computer hobbies. Building a livable van certainly seems more interesting than living in an apartment to me.
2) changing scenery at a whim, given the time investment to find a place
3) a van that you can resell or give to your kids
I'd still choose a detachable RV though since it's probably way more comfortable for the price. Sure, I lose out on some options to stay for the night, but that isn't an insurmountable challenge if you can plan and live in a van. Living full time in an RV might also not be blog-worthy though.
I think there are easier and far less restricting ways to have something to blog about.
> 3) a van that you can resell or give to your kids
A van that's been lived in for a few years probably won't have that much resale value and it's not exactly the best thing to inherit (his kids would probably either have their own van by the time they get the inheritance or have decided against that lifestyle).
I guess it's fun if you're content being a Nomad. But I'm with the grandparent, this lifestyle is probably just not for me.
My naive question is why didn't he buy or rent a place in an inexpensive area further away from the Adelaide as a step-up to building own house instead? He could still work remotely, have a place to bring his kids to, not spend 3 years on settling to a lifestyle he doesn't seem to enjoy other than a savings vehicle, etc. etc. An honest question.
Also, why would the kids and wife want to go and live "nowhere" when he builds his dream house, don't they live an ok life where they are and don't need to relocate to a lifestyle that's not theirs?
The way I read it it's implied that they split up [0], so the (former) wife would need to pay rent either way.
[0] He also mentions getting custody as a target in an earlier post.
Once this house is done all those problems will resurface and changing places because it was, once again, one beer too much is not an option anymore.
Stuff you see with preppers all the time: fear, shame and cloaking trauma self-medicating with lots of liquor "a large pint" and "a couple of cans". But actually it's just fear.
I can relate from my past crisis years, but those problems, also with finding a place and money in general, vanish once you stop drinking to "solve" your problems and stop running away.
What do you presume the author is afraid of/running away from?
Genuinely curious, I have a hard time imagining the mindset you see these people in.
What they are running from is in my experience a repetition of the circumstances that got them to have their first drink and facing those. This way you cycle your social cycle every other years, work kinda the same jobs but in different places, etc. essentially repeating the lifestyle of your parents without evolving. Once you repeat the mistake of ending up in the same situation you wanted to get out of (but in a different city) or again lost all beginners trust to the locals, you just pin it up to the circumstances being "unsafe" or not fitting and go elsewhere.
I think the point that someone wrote there how to "convince" their wife of this lifestyle is another crucial part, as its hard to have someone stay with you while being a drunk without them acting out their own trauma with parents or similar, which will never allow the drinker to become healthy out of fear of him leaving or the caretaker gets fed up with the drinker and goes elsewhere. Only way to keep your spouse in this situation is keeping the fear up and providing "security" through material means.
Now this is normal life for those and it was for me too, because big parts of society rely on people working mindlessly towards a goal they will never reach, so it's hard to judge them for it. But i would stay away.
To add more than just insult, which is not my goal: When you put the drink down issues just disappear. It's not about having to endlessly live through the situations that make you open a drink - if these situations repeat and you don't drink, they will resolve within days.
Good luck!
I just straight-up do not believe that dollar amount, lol
You had to have bought a terrible van and went to a terrible mechanic that was maliciously breaking things so you'd come back for that to happen. Vans are work horses and usually simple compared to regular consumer vehicles.
simple, it certainly was. it was so simple it didn't have water cooling or an oil temperature gauge, and having to rebuild the engine twice in three months (due mostly to overheating) was a big part of why it was so expensive
looking at current vans, though, it seems like it would be easy to spend fifty or a hundred thousand dollars on a van that was still too small to stand up in? so i'm not sure my choice was obviously bad; i just lacked the knowledge to use the old van effectively
Does anyone proof read blogs any more?
One off comments, fine, but if you’re going to the effort to publish something on a blog?
This isn’t a typo, this is a difference between 400 and 1700.
The author mentioned they were having a few beers, I think we should give them a break. I understood what they were saying.
[0] Although you could argue that typo is an example of a minor mistake and used as such, making it a valid comparison.
400 a month is insanely cheap, 400 a week is insanely expensive. That completely changes the context.
This article raises many more questions than it answers lol
What's the point in being homeless if i still have to work?
I've been thinking about this problem and I've identified several sub-problems which need to be solved first in order to set the stage for a solution:
1. Identify and leverage flaws in the socio-economic system as narrative-fodder to destabilize civil society.
2. Wait for it to devolve into war, nuclear threats, etc... To make cities unappealing.
3. Now, the caravan option looks increasingly better, relatively speaking. Repeat from step 1.
Easy peasy. This is way easier than becoming a multi-thousandaire and buying a house. I'm an entrepreneur so I always go for the shortest-path solution.
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.
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.
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.)
“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.
- 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.
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.
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.
I don’t. I work on an iPad Pro from all over the world. I freelance for different kinds of customers. No one cares where or when I get the work done. I have worked like this this for over ten years. And I know many DNs who get their work done with their own portable setups.
You need to learn more about how DNs actually work, because it seems you base your criticisms on a caricature. Co-working spaces have a lot more DNs than gardens or beaches.
I have worked in IT for almost 45 years. At no time have I thought enough programmers knew what they are doing. We just have more now, and more dumb ideas funded by VCs and greed. If we’re headed to another bubble bursting it will come from stupid money invested in AI, not from nomads working on laptops.
If I have to transfer 1TB of data through my own laptop, I’ve catastrophically fucked up somewhere.
As for noise and headphones: You get used to working with noise.
> Every day we need comfy chairs, standing desk, a good keyboard a good monitor etc.
I literally have not had these for my entire career, bar a short stint where I had a couple of monitors.
Desk is “whatever fucking desk”, at office or at home. Same for chair.
Keyboard? Nice to have but I do fine with whatever laptop keyboard so long as it works.
It is entirely possible to work effectively without all the nice to haves, it just requires some motivation. For me, that’s earning a fat cheque.
In the sense we can talk, yes, they do a remarkably great job, but the real quality is very low, sufficient to work, but definitively not good, and that's one of the reason why so many dislike remote.
> As for noise and headphones: You get used to working with noise.
Again yes, of course your output will suffer as you... In the history humanity have passed through an incredible amount of sufferance and we are still here, but those who have had certain experiences have certainly not lived well.
> I literally have not had these for my entire career [...] It is entirely possible to work effectively without all the nice to haves, it just requires some motivation. For me, that’s earning a fat cheque.
Witch might perfectly meet your desire, but what you produce will be of a different quality, because your target is just earning as much as possible, not produce advancement for the τέχνη, not to evolve, and that's exactly why current capitalism couldn't be sustained and produce mostly garbage. We witness no more real revolutions, no more tangible advancement except in the human pasture techniques and business for business to the point that even the WEF advocate a great reset.
The places DNs tend to go usually have excellent and cheap 5G service, particularly in Asia.
Executives and sales people have worked “on the road” for decades and I don’t recall anyone calling them a liability to their employer. DNs can and do use the same hotels and co-working places as those more temporary travelers. I can get a good fiber connection at a temp office down the street here in Bangkok for a few dollars a day, with fast 5G as backup. I can’t find that in most US cities.
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.
The problem with this is that average amenities - ability to cook your own food, wash your clothes, access to electricity, water, internet is not a given when you have a van, and you might need to accept more time consuming, less effective, more costly and less reliable alternatives. And if you consider time being money, you can quickly end up in the red.
And not to mention vans, which are expensive to buy, run and repair.
I'm pretty sure if he decided to move 100km away from his chosen tech hub, he could rent a property dirt cheap.
There's no need to plan anything or prepare baggage or get used to sleeping in different places or pay anyone or deal with any businesses or setup camping gear: you just input the destination in the satellite navigator, drive there and can go to sleep as usual at any time (and potentially you can even find on BlaBlaCar/similar someone willing to drive the van for you in exchange for a free ride).
...
> I'm half a pint into authoring this blog post
...and it shows!
It's always been a country of swaggies, less so now, but working on the move and camping are in the DNA of many.
I’m sorry but this has got to be satire?
Wait until you hear about people who have kidney stones, then you'll really know you're missing out.
This man might have been kicked out of his own house and had his family taken from him by the courts, and is now struggling to survive and maintain some form of contact with his children. While anonymous hackers gleefully hurl insults at him.
Custody still defaults to the mother in many places.