(Part 2) Best products from r/digitalnomad

We're so happy we could offer helpful experience. :-)

We by no means have it all figured out and are continually learning and adjusting our approach. Beforehand, we weren't sure exactly how working together would pan out, but we had a positive outlook. Plus, we set out not knowing how long-term travel would affect each of us (we had a few unexpected results, some were good and some were challenges to overcome!).

We know you asked about working together, but if you'll allow us, we have another tip that worked well for us overall. Maybe it'll apply to you too?

A few months into traveling we read The Relationship Cure by John Gottman, PhD. (actually we listened to the audio version together). We completed the exercises, talked through parts of the book, and made individual notes on things that could be better. We highly recommend it.

Lastly, if you're interested (please don't feel obligated) we wrote a post where we talked about traveling and DN'ing together. We're each other's best friends and love each other dearly, but the constant changing of environments can be pretty rough at times. You can read it here: Traveling as a Couple: Survival, Growth and the Pursuit of Harmony

Again, we don't have it all figured out by any stretch of the imagination, and what works for us may not be right for you guys. It's awesome and bodes well that you care to ask for help and see what things you can do to improve something (that sounds) like it's already going well. We'd love to hear how things go as you continue to DN and begin working on projects together. PM us and keep in touch! Maybe our paths will cross and coffee or dinner is in order! :-)

One could make a ghetto channel bonding router of sorts fairly simply, but that's probably overkill for the average lone nomad.

Or with the advent of thunderbolt/usb3.1, you could even just do it with your one computer if you aren't doing a vehicle.

Speedify will let you bond a bunch of connections together and short of thousands and thousands of dollars in equipment, it's the best thing going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhBeD5fRAmY

you can just keep slapping wan connections in whenever you are. take an arbitrary number of 4G, wifi, ethernet sources and combine them for bandwidth and latency improvements.

As a thought exercise lets take this picture and built out something for it.

1 person, 1 laptop, carry-on travel mode style. It's gonna be very Dongle-y, so it's practical mostly for when you camp out somewhere for a while to work. This probably isn't worth setting up at the airport unless you are trapped a good long while.

That laptop we want to have a solid peripheral bus with lots of bandwidth. Ideally Thunderbolt 3, but the 10gb USB, or honestly probably even the 5gb USB is gonna do for most people anyway.

Then we get a hub device with lots of ports on it.

This thing probably has at least USB3.1, and thus 5.0gb of bandwidth there probably.

amazon makes a perfectly serviceable hub with external power option:
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-USB-10-Port-Power-Adapter/dp/B076YRWV6Z/

Then you grab a few usb3.0 to gigabit ethernet adapters for flexibility of input:
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-1000-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter/dp/B00M77HMU0/

plus some USB wifi adapters (so you can get on multiple wifi networks at once)

This is apparently the amazon favorite. Having an actual antenna is nice.

https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-1200Mbps-TECHKEY-Wireless-Network-300Mbps/dp/B07J65G9DD/

plus USB 4G modem sticks you can put local sims in. This is all gonna depend on where you travel. NA is different from Asia, etc.

Verizon offers one for $250 they claim works in 200 countries. On the other end, a Huawei stick that works in most of the world is like $60 and you can just keep popping sims in and out of them as you travel around and grab local ones. You can probably even just buy modems locally too as you travel. If you aren't buying from a carrier in north america, it's generally gonna be easy and painless.

You could also use phones as well. cheap ones have modems that can max most towers anyway, and they mostly all use the same antenna design now.

Some little baby usb extensions so you aren't fighting to fit things in your hub:
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Black-Extension-Adapter-Cable/dp/B00S2N2Q4U/

All those things are tiny and can go in a little electronics roll or bag or something at the bottom of a backpack:
https://www.amazon.com/ProCase-Electronics-Organizer-Universal-Accessories/dp/B01EN4PP4E/

Check out the Asus Zenbook lineup. I got the UX305UA two years ago and I fucking love it.

I was torn between the XPS, Yoga, and Surface but I don't regret my decision at all.

I didn't choose XPS because of the weird camera placement and its design didn't suit me. The MS Surface had terrible battery life and I still see my friends struggling with their surfaces, lol.

___

Things I love about the ux305:

• Design is super clean and made out of aluminum. It feels very rich.
  
  
• Screen is bright and color accurate.
  
  
• Lightweight, you can really stuff the laptop anywhere you want, lol.
  
  
• The laptop runs ice cold while having the fan run very quietly. It's amazing.
  
  
• Trackpad has a 'glass' texture to it with subtly glitter-finish to it, it's captivating to say the least.
  
  
• Keyboard key-travel is short but precise and firm. Hands down the best keyboard I used.
  
  
• Even after 2 years, I still get solid 9 hours of battery if I use WiFi sparingly with medium brightness. Few weeks ago I forgot my charger and had to stay at a job location from 9pm to 5pm coding. I left the site with 15% charge!
  
  ____
  
  
• Dave2D review of UX306
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075N1YHVK/ref=twister_B076DMS1F7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Sorry I'm so late replying!! I don't check this account all that often. Our remote bookkeeper does things like invoicing, sending out statements and reviewing expenses. We have a pretty simple business so there's not a lot to do, but the big thing that's helpful is staying on top of customers who owe us money. As they say in collections... "early and often!" :)

We don't use a bookkeeper for this but I could imagine it would also be helpful to have someone sharing reports with owners on a monthly basis of income, cash flow, etc...

Another area of referrals for you may be people who are called "virtual assistants." Those are people who help super-busy small business executives to keep their lives organized (see this book as an explanation). Someone who works as a V.A. could perhaps refer you work (and v.v.). Building up referral networks would be another great way to build your book of business. Good luck! :)

6-12 year olds get bored easily but they're also insanely easy to entertain, and one way is with props. The only ones I've ever used are these finger puppets which are really useful for teaching, as well.

"What is it?" "It's a..."
"What color is it?" "It's..."
"What is it doing?" "It is ___ing..."
"Can it...?" "Yes it can / no it can't"
"Where is the Duck?" The duck is behind the dog." etc. (all other prepositions, too).

You'll be teaching these things to so many students in the level 0-2 range that having props just makes it so much easier (you'll figure out routines and patterns that work for you and do the same ones over and over, using the props in the same way, but the kids won't know and they'll always love the hell out of it).

Oh, I guess I also use markers as props, but not to write. Just to teach "It is a marker. It is green." "They are markers. They are green" As well as this/that/these/those and a few other things. I never use props unless they help make teaching something easier, and they really do!

Every lesson has one song at the beginning. You don't have to sing it, you can read it in a friendly way if you want. That was explicitly told to me during orientation, but it might be a good idea to sing in the interview. Also, smiling is insanely important and if you know anything about child psychology you know why. Basically the singing is them trying to make sure you're super not self-conscious and since you're dealing with 6-12 year olds, why should you be?

During actual lessons you can just use the song as reading practice if you want, since no parent would complain about more practice. There's also a song at the end of the lesson but I've never done it and no parent has ever minded (I think they would prefer an extra minute of lesson content).

I can't speak for anyone else, but I follow:

• [The Escape Artist] (http://www.escapeartist.com/) (lots of practical, useful information written by multiple bloggers)
  
  
• Natalie Sisson, [The Suitcase Entrepreneur] (http://suitcaseentrepreneur.com/entrepreneurs-blog/) - author of a [best-selling book on location independence] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0473251248/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0473251248&linkCode=as2&tag=battleforthew-20) who publishes a free blog without asking you for your email address.
  
  
• Jesse Krieger at [The Lifestyle Entrepreneur] (http://lifestyleentrepreneurblog.com/) is similar, with a [best selling book] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1614486271/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1614486271&linkCode=as2&tag=battleforthew-20) and a location independent writing business
  
  
• Sharon Gourlay at [Digital Nomad Wannabe] (http://www.digitalnomadwannabe.com/), because she publishes a breakdown of her income results every month
  
  
• Anna Wickham at [The Worldly Blend] (http://www.theworldlyblend.com/) - makes a living as a writer and content marketer, not a coder
  
  A lot of other people follow [Tropical MBA] (http://www.tropicalmba.com/), [Thrilling Heroics] (http://www.thrillingheroics.com/) and the granddaddy of them all, [The 4 Hour Workweek] (http://fourhourworkweek.com/blog/).
  
  Hope this is helpful, good luck on your journey and best of the holidays!
  
  

I have used an Optoma short-throw as a second monitor many times. I like that it's bright enough to see in a bright room too - not just pure darkness. I've used it as you are talking - for small monitor set-up but also projecting a 20' screen on the side of a barn for an outdoor movie-night.

It has fast enough response times that I've used it for video gaming as well which is super useful. It weighs like a pound and I have Harry Potter books bigger than it; it packs easy.

Bonus: the price has dropped a few hundred dollars since I purchased it in 2017! I went back and looked for the listing I bought it from and I found it listed twice on Amazon - here and here

I have a Mac, work in disconnected environments, generate a few gigs of new data every week, and have been obsessed with backups for as long as I can remember.

My goal is automated incremental backups of my entire machine with proven software. I've settled on Crashplan, SuperDuper, and two WD portable drives.

Crashplan backs up my home folder to the cloud when there is a connection and it also backs up to Drive 1 every fifteen minutes or so. I then use SuperDuper for nightly images of my entire machine to Drive 2.

Crashplan keeps every single change and it's great to recover from software bugs and accidental deletes. SuperDuper's nightly images are great for fast rollback and to mount my drive on pretty much any Mac.

I've been a nomad for about two years and this system has worked well for me. It keeps your data lived in three places locally (laptop, two drives) and uses the cloud as the fourth location.

If you have a good connection, you can keep the laptop and drives in the same place. If you don't have a good connection, keep the laptop and drives separated.

The big gap in this system is in restoring the OS and apps. Your OS can only be restored with a recovery partition on your Mac and your apps from SuperDuper drive. If either of those are gone, you are going to be in for a rough time.

Hope this helps.

I've been visiting / living in Thailand since 2011, it's a great place to be based in and live. I've traveled most of the country and provinces overland, much of it on a motorcycle, and probably seen as much of the country as anyone alive. I'm fluent in Thai and wrote a book on how to speak Thai: https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Thai-Easiest-Immediately-RocketPack-ebook/dp/B07DK6XT8P

If you think it only deserves two weeks you're only experiencing a very narrow slice of backpacker/tourist Thailand. Leave Khao San, Sukhumvit, Nimmanhamein etc.

Almost any country can be wonderful if you find the neighborhood you love to live in. I didn't like my first week in Seoul but when I discovered Jongno, I fell in love. Same with Kadikoy in Istanbul. In Bangkok I love Thonburi, it feels like home to me.

For me the best why to learn is by doing.I started with a little app idea I wanted to build and jumped into sites like codecademy.com to learn JavaScript and html sintax.

I mixed the courses with step to step progress for my idea.

Once you have your first app and learn the sintax you can switch to topics like ObjectOrientedProgramming. Buy a pair of books and start another more complicated project. Try this book https://www.amazon.es/gp/aw/d/144934013X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?__mk_es_ES=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1527450273&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=head+first+javascript&dpPl=1&dpID=51qQTSKL2nL&ref=plSrch

Once you complete two projects you will be prepare to learn cross skills like version control(git), building process (webpack), console commands and IDE (webstorm).

That was my path before my first fulltime job. Working with other developers, work following two-eyes techniques and read tons of code from others will be a huge step un the process.

In only two years I became a senior software developer in one of the cooler companies I met.

Hope you have the same luck as I did.
Any help you need just tell me!

IMO, you are asking the wrong question. Saying
>what skills can I learn to support {lifestyle}

is putting your goals ahead of your employer's/client's goals.

Flip it on it's head:

>What are some skills I can learn that will make me invaluable in my job?

Whatever your next job is, ruthlessly innovate, experiment, and bring value to those you work with. Spend a year there building career capital and then cash that in for a job that includes the opportunities you want - like remote work.

Cal Newport wrote "So Good They Can't Ignore You" and I highly recommend you give it a read.

FWIW, I work remotely for my company, am well paid, and travel full-time, but in my conversations with them, my travel has never come up. All our interactions are about me bringing value to their business.

I recommend focusing on the same.

Good luck!

There are brand names making them. Go into any Samsonite store, they'll have branded adapters. Go into Best Buy and there's probably an Insignia one. Go into Tumi and there's probably really expensive Tumi ones. But in terms of adapters (not converters), they're all the same thing. You're paying $40 for a Tumi adapter that probably came out of the same factory as every other adapter. And, they aren't even that compact.

They're metal and plastic that makes one shape into another. There's not much to them, so paying extra for a brand probably doesn't make sense. The exception might be if you want something with a fuse and a ground, you can go with these, but for most travelers, just a universal one works.

The best one I've found is the Kikkerland. It's just a few pieces of metal connecting your plug to the outlet, arranged in a clever way that always fits. It's probably not a brand you've heard of, but that adapter is quite well-respected by a lot of DM's and considered a great choice. Even then, it sort of gets looser and looser over time and it does feel flatly cheap. I mean it's $10.

Been traveling with this rig for over 7 months and across 4 continents.

This photo was taken in a co-working space in Lima Peru. I much prefer working out of co-working spaces as opposed to wherever I’m staying (mostly Airbnb’s) - productivity/work first, adventure and travel come second.

Happy to answer any questions. Cheers!

Edit: Here is a list of all the components since everyone is wanting to know.

• Laptop: Macbook Pro Touchbar version with 4 USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports
  
• Stand: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EP48NMY (tons of other brands with similar designs)
  
• Monitors: Asus Zenscreen - https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ZenScreen-MB16AC-15-6-Inch-Monitor/dp/B071S84ZW7 (they make one with an integrated battery, but I wouldn't want the extra weight)
  
• Keyboard: Kinesis Freestyle2 Blue with wrist pads, etc. Trackball Mouse: Kensington Expert Mouse Wireless
  
• Trackball Standard Mouse: Logitech MX Master 2S Extras: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MZBPS9R https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MXKJC4M
  
• Headphones: Sony Sony WH-1000XM3
  
  Photo of the backside of the rig:
  http://files.jacobt.com/lJMeLI1LuD