Code on the Road: Laid off? The one thing you absolutely need to do on the first day (opens in new tab)

This is why I hope to be earmarking half a million for a trip around the world in a few years. I may only end up using a tenth of that, but I don't want to limit myself in terms of activities: scuba diving, mountain climbing, safaris, maybe a few expensive hotels, foreign clubbing, etc.

All with a laptop at hand.

Agreed. This is pretty much the greatest article ever. The funny thing was I've been thinking about going to Thailand this summer anyway, so this article pretty much clinches it. I get my diploma in a couple weeks (I failed twice at dropping out) so this is the time to do it.

Oh yeah, highly recommend the book, a lot of his ideas seem controversial, but there are a few points worth taking away from the book. There's also a nice podcast on his website.

Yeah, this is the way to do it. Instead of quitting your job and traveling, travel while you have a job. Someone I work with routinely travels around the world and lives with friends for a few weeks. As long as there's the Internet, you can get plenty of work done, and have plenty of time to enjoy the world. Why sit at home and chat on IRC when you can just go live with other programmers for a while. (We work on a lot of open source stuff, so it's always good to hang out with the other contributers. If you don't have a lot of hacker friends, this approach might not work.)

Anyway, I liked what I saw :) so I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow for this purpose. It counts as work, and will be quite fun.

Did you give them prior warning? What was your negotiation like (cordial or walkout?) Or did it just come out of the blue? I came back from a trip from Guatemala and was spouting off about quitting and going there the week I came back so the element of surprise is not there (and not in my non-secretive personality).

We have tulips too (Seattle).

The point is that you are free to stay as long as you want and not have to rush it. A few weeks in a new place is rarely enough to get a real feel for it and experience everything that place offers.

Besides you'll probably be spending less traveling in 3rd world countries than you will living in a tech centre in North America or Europe.

You may actually save money by doing this. Depends on currency rates vs the country.

fourhourworkweek.com -> pretty good resources, if you haven't heard of the book already

Good luck buying anything from Ebay while in Nigeria :)

It's funny, but internet access is a lot easier to find in the developing world than it is in the US or Europe. In the States, it's all private and corporate DSL with the occasional unsecured wireless router to be found.

In rural Cambodia, it's a little building in the village with public terminals. These get used by the locals since they can't afford a machine or connectivity of their own, and by tourists who are happy to pay the equivilant of a dollar an hour to check their email.

Generally, they don't mind if you push the keyboard out of the way and plug the ethernet cable into the back of your laptop.

All in all, it's about 1000x easier than trying to find a pub in England with functioning Wifi.