What is the concept of a Digital Nomad.
Well the common description of a Digital Nomad is someone is digitally mobile and who's work life is mobile too. this gives the freedom to work anywhere, using WIFI hotspots, mobile tethering for online connection, working out of shared spaces B&B hostels etc, basically anywhere.
There are many pros and cons to living the Digital Nomad lifestyle and there are plenty of websites discussing it.
Digital nomadism has been a growing trend over the past few years as we have become more digitally connected and as trends become popular they also become corrupted, by faceless marketing where it has become just another tool in convincing individuals into thinking they need to purchase premium and wildly expensive items to achieve the official badge as a professional "Digital Nomad!". This is false, unsustainable and doomed to failure, at least for the individual.
When it comes to the concept of a Digital Nomad I think there are many levels, the ultimate I guess is to be totally nomadic not just digitally but physically as well.
Here I am going to talk about incorporating a little bit of digital nomadism into your life and my current setup and a bit of philosophy around it. This is where it is going to get a bit nerdy and I will be talking about using Linux specifically Debian Distribution and all that good stuff.
My philosophy at the core is Balance. That's it. Everything I do in life, I look for balance.
So when it comes to following a digital nomadic path, I look at how I can balance my grounded life with my nomadic life. Everybody will be different and have different needs different lifestyles etc. You need to find your own personal balance.
Now your digital needs will be different to mine, the Laptop or device the OS it runs the applications that are required. Accessories will vary depending on your needs my kit below will not be for everyone.
My current level Is to be able to grab my kit and work from generally anywhere, whether I am online or not. I do have a fixed residence and I do have a job that has a physical office, In that job I do have the flexibility to work remotely some of the time depending on what I am doing. I also have another profession or passion maybe and that is doing what I am doing right now, and this can be done anywhere. Unfortunately there is not a great deal of income to be made in blogging/vlogging, so it is more of a hobby than a job.
Ultimately I would love this to be my full time profession but the reality, I need to make money and do all the adult stuff that comes with being an adult!
Correction: you can make allot of money Blogging/Vlogging it's just very hard to do so.
Of course this doesn't mean you cant work towards becoming more nomadic. and that's the key phrase right there! **"Becoming more nomadic"** at your own pace in your own time.
**Whats my kit?**
My kit is quite lowspec and that's how I like it. Its minimal but efficient. It fits my needs and I don't need high end equipment to do what I do.
* Laptop - Thinkpad X250 sub $500
* A phone for tethering and other phone related things, If video is needed an added powerbank is a good idea.
* Various cables, usb keys and a usb hub
* A no name bag to carry everything in
* An Umbrella of course.
My laptop is the core of my kit it would be difficult to do my work without it. I have Debian 12 (Bookworm) installed. For a while I ran Xebian which is a Xfce Desktop on top of Debian Sid. I have since transferred this to another machine.
Why? Well Xebian (Debian Sid) is Debian's development platform so it is continuously rolling similar to Arch or Opensuse Tumbleweed. Where as Debian 12 (Bookworm) is the latest stable release from Debian and when discussing stability Debian is king!
Running a rolling release you will at some point run into breakages where you will need to open the hood and get you hands dirty to fix them. This is fine if you have the time and you are always connected to the net. but in a nomadic world there is very likely the possibility that you will be off grid at times, so you need stability and reliability.
**Example:**
If you run a rolling release you ideally should be running updates at lease every few days to keep things in check and avoid unwanted surprises.
When running Xebian it would not be uncommon to get a few hundred or more packages updates a week.
Where as Debian maybe one or two on average.
Now if you were offline for a couple of weeks you could easily rack up 700+ update on a rolling release and because of the nature of rolling releases being bleeding edge, it would be highly probable that one or more of those updates will cause disruption or breakages to your system, that you will then need to take time to research and fix.
Now running Debian in the same scenario you would get a handfull updates when back on line and as it is Debian you can be sure that those packages are thoroughly tested before they are release, that is the nature of running an LTS (Long Term Support) distribution such as Debian.
Don't get me wrong there is a place for rolling and a place for stable.
As mentioned earlier I run Xebian but not when I am mobile.
There are many levels of nomadic life, and there are really no rules, even though there are plenty of influencers that will tell you otherwise e.g. 'Ten Rules of to becoming Digital Nomad' You can blow your rules out your back end for all I care!
What ever your level is embrace it and work with it, whether you are heading off into the wild unknown or just sitting in your back yard with your laptop, you are on the nomadic the path.
Ref:
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