The Pains of a Digital Nomad

Over the past week I have been slowly moving all of my information to the cloud. For those unaware of what the cloud is, ultimately the cloud is a group of servers around the world that provide you with near limitless storage and processing capacity. In other words it is simply the concept of moving all of your data to an external storage device and accessing it remotely. On Monday I spent 12 hours backing up my computer aside from video files and MP3 files. Those will come next. I have now created a life in which my livelihood relies upon my ability to create content. Without being connected to my channels of distribution or my channels for content consumption I am worthless. Right now I am sitting on a bus to New York City that I chose because of its wireless access which of course no longer works as expected. Anxiety rapidly sets in and I can do nothing but wait. While I have not been rendered useless (thanks to my Blackberry), I feel powerless without the luxury of browser tabs. At one point I would have considered these thoughts part of being a "geek" but now it is simply the thoughts of a digital nomad. Digital nomads are slowly becoming more widespread and I'd imagine that we will only see this trend continue. Soon enough I will have access to living rooms in 3 cities and queen size air mattresses in each. What about my mail? Well I have now outsourced that as well and receive regular emails with scanned versions of messages whether they are solicitations from credit card companies or the much anticipated bills. The goal is to remove all restrictions on location so that I can maximize my interaction with people in the same field. Is it possible to run a large business as a digital nomad? Definitely but there are obvious downfalls of constantly being on the go. For one, you need to hire completely self-motivated individuals that can work without your oversight. Finding those individuals can be extremely challenging. Additionally, the life of a digital nomad doesn't make much long-term sense as it applies to relationships. Ultimately family is what causes the death of the digital nomad. While the digital nomad can travel and stay connected to the "cloud", being gone for months at a time probably isn't the best idea for those looking to raise a family. For the time being though, I am trying to perfect the life of a digital nomad. Do you follow a similar lifestyle or is this idea completely foreign? If you are a digital nomad, what lessons have you learned that you can impart on others?

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The Pains of a Digital Nomad

Nick O'Neill

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Nick O'Neill