It seems difficult to code while walking outside. Perhaps one could shift ones career in such a way that at least it involves long talks full of philosophical discussions (thinking for example about Ray Kurzweil).
http://www.surveyingcareer.com/
P.S. We need your help!
Look, there aren't that many careers that will pay you $100+/hr on a short-term contract. Take one of those for six months, then go hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Then ride your bike to Florida.
That's a full year plan, half of which is spent outdoors, at the end of which you'll still be about $50k ahead of where you would have been if you'd taken a job planting trees for the forest service.
We really do have it better than just about everybody else. Do yourself a favor and take advantage of it!
Sadly, it's not immediately apparent how to turn any of this into a paying 'career' - unless your name's Ray Mears, of course, or you're prepared to do it full-time and become a hermit (tempting, sometimes, I know...).
One of my ideal visions for an outdoors-ish job would be making and installing energy producing wind-turbines from scrap, which is something I've been interested in for a good while now. You'd likely never get rich doing it but there's an increasing market for off-grid energy that may soon be enough to support a person.
You can find jobs like that at http://www.usajobs.gov/.
I do things like improve the lighting in my garage so I can work on various projects out there. I'm also thinking about taking up gardening.
I too have really felt the urge to get up and do real physical stuff lately. I wonder if it's part of the disillusionment of web 2.0. So much bad news about the economy,etc that I don't feel that working on the "next big website" is really going to pay off.
You need a head for heights.
This isn't far from where I live - I'd quite like to get into the engineering and particularly transmission side of radio (currently in programming although I have an amateur radio licence) but I don't fancy working 1,000 feet above the ground in a little cage... (look at the pics, they are stunning!)
Have to love tech and boats.
My grandfather worked as a forest ranger, and he seemed happy enough, although I'm not sure it was much of a geeky occupation (although he did know the common and latin names of a large variety of flora and fauna). My other grandfather, OTOH, worked on the instrumentation of early jet planes. Definitely geeky:-)
Wheel was a few thousand yrs ago.
My favorite hack of his was out of necessity. He started getting shoulder problems from stirring milk for hours every day, so he found an old motor and attached it to the top of his vessel with a large paddle and voila no more shoulder problems.
Who in hell would actually spend hours stirring milk for hours a day?
Saying that this is a clever hack is like saying "I know a guy who heats his water for a shower using a hot water heater, instead of jumping into cold water and thrashing his arms around for four hours - what a genius!"
OK, maybe I'm just using my dream job :)
I have recently taken up photography as a technical but low-stress pastime. It appeals to my programmer-brain and my under-utilized artistic appeal at the same time. It is also a great excuse to go to interesting place. As a bonus, part of learning photography is learning interesting things about cognition, vision and light. All cool stuff.
Photography listens to "intent" and "execution" nearly as much as programming, which makes it very appealing to me. It's remarkable to me how two very similar pictures at identical venues can convey very different feelings, based off intent and execution.
Programming while out of doors may not be as satisfying as you might think. One is still very sedentary for very long periods: hot weather feels hotter, cold weather much colder, and buzzing insects more annoying. You may miss having a whiteboard or your printed-matter library handy. Also, outdoor furniture typically makes a terrible substitute for proper office furniture.
On the plus side, eye strain is less of a problem given the built-in eye relief of long focus outdoor viewing. And trees and birds make very pleasant office companions who will always respect your privacy.
Ultimately, I find the out of doors better for reading (email, tech papers, the occasional HN link) or reviewing code than actually programming.
Thanks for the thoughts. Ideally I would find a tablet with a great outdoor screen. This makes sense if reading is the preferred outdoor activity.
I work as a software development freelancer and often work outside with a laptop or just pencil and piece of paper.
Maybe it is only about balance, so a job that involves lot's of field work (eg for data collection) and some "home" work (data processing) might be good.
He is in shape, tanned and happy, so I have given up trying to make him go back to computers. ("Join the dark side... we can drink coffee throughout the day!")
Personally, after doing a commute like his for just half a year, I took the first job I could find, moved 800 km and happily bicycle to work.
Well, this summer I'd prefer gardening even if it rains; I'll have to do Java the coming months.
Still, gardening or construction seems too limited to me. I want to change the world (not only my backyard, although technically it is a part of the world).
(My dream also includes hiring a cook from somewhere with really spicy food.)
Maybe you could get a telecommute job and do that, without too high a cost. (Boats aren't cheap, but if you stay at coral reefs in Asia, it might be OK.)
I don't know the subject, but a cruise ship seems like a more expensive variant of eating all meals at restaurants and going on a weekend trip every week? :-)
Salaries are kind of low, but that is only because they know the perks (room/board/travel) make up for it.