Most of our telecommuters only do about one week very couple of months and one of our guys hasn't been here in over 6 months. It depends on the job and the particular demand for face time.

While you make a good point krellin I'm not uncritically making these decisions, despite what it may seem! Lol.

The reason I feel earlier is better is that I don't want to interrupt my career progression once it has started, I want to devote myself fully to it. You know what I mean? You can't very easily just take 18 months off in the middle of your career to nomad around.

And besides, part of the travels are actually stepping stones to the career.

By the way, krellin, congratulations for your description of a webdip colony on Jamaica which is to date the only situation I can think of in which I would gladly share an abode with you.

Gotcha. I'll let him know I'm flexible to spend a lot of time there, then.

Can I ask, if you know, Draug, the reasons for your telecommuters being telecommuters for the most part? What reasons do they give? What is considered a valid reason? Lol

My cubicle neighbor telecommutes. I've been at my company for three months and I've yet to see him.

Thucy - let me ask you - what specifically are you doing right now? You are in a foreign country, working with people -- tell me what you are doing, what you are trying to teach people, etc? I'm curious. (No, this is not a set up for anything)

In most of the long-distance cases, they have lives where they are at and negotiated it as part of the job. They didn't want to move and the company wanted their skills and knowledge.

The ones closer to home do it for tax reasons. If they live in Mason or West Chester which is 40 or 50 minutes away (not nearly the distance you have) thne they work three days at home and two in the office and get to claim 60 percent of their local withholding back from Springdale. But we have one guy in our group (the hasn't been here in 6 months) that lives in North Carolina. Of course, he also happens to travel to customer sites (as do many of the client services developers - I just negotiated limited travel in my employment agreement for my wife's health issues) so he spends at least one week a month at a client site any how.

Thucy ... this is a complete win-win situation. You will be happy either way and I assume you will enjoy both. If you plan on starting a family, though, I think you should take the $$$ when it comes calling.

And maybe you can buy a place in Nola with all that money and rent it to me someday.

Krellin,

What I do right now is work as a summer fellow for AidData. Here's some online shit about it (I'm the David Hensley kid):

http://blog.aiddata.org/2013/08/students-catalyze-local-capacity-to-use.html
http://blog.aiddata.org/2013/08/beyond-access-to-use-building-local.html

http://www.lesoleil.sn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31191:repertoire-numerique-aiddata-un-nouvel-outil-pour-une-meilleure-lisibilite-des-actions-de-developpement-&catid=157:culture&Itemid=109

Essentially I'm here to identify people in civil society or researchers who would be interested in using geo-referenced data on aid projects in Senegal. And then I show them kind of how to get started using it. So that means meetings and presentations in French with Senegalese "stakeholders" as my sector insufferably calls them.

The idea is that if the public can have access to and the ability to use freely available data on foreign aid projects, their locations, fundings, and activities, then transparency and accountability as well as better coordination and allocation will follow.

In Williamsburg I was doing the data creation side called "geocoding" where we would read the long-ass project documents from the likes of the World Bank and USAID and code the locations they named for the projects to produce the geo-referenced datasets.

Throw in some GIS training and you have what I did this summer. I'm all alone here in Dakar though, my bosses are all back in Williamsburg.

New Orleans is a dump. Dream higher.

So Thucy - blather aside - what you are doing is working for an organization that wants to help other people put their lives in order, improve their countries, improve society, and you do this by planning and preparing? Would that be a fair summation? And you believe, I believe, this is a good thing for other people to be doing, yes?

So I'm confused as to why you want to run off like some madman across teh globe - which yes, has some sort of appeal, but is, (possibly, opinioins may vary) a wholly unresponsibile thing to do.

In other words, why do you think that everyone ELSE should be preparing and trying to improve their lot and life and be responsible and all that...but you think you do not have to be?

Am I missing something here? it's kind of like the drug councilor that can't wait to go home and get high every night..

I'm honestly not trying to be a dick, but in looking at your personal philosophy as stated in various forms, and what you have choosen to do, etc....it is in glaring contrast to what you view for yourself - so why don't the rules apply to you?

I think I missed a couple of messages here and there, but from what I get from it, Thucy wants to have a great time while helping the world, or maybe the other way around. Going around the world is not per definition irresponsible. If you know you can't keep on doing a good job for other people without going around the globe (still doing good jobs) for example, you are helping better long term by making the helping more fun. Not sure if that's the case here though.

I'd take the job:
New Orleans isn't going anyway and more money (and better work experience) will give you much better options in the future.

Remember, if you take the Job, you can always change your mind, you can move to New Orleans at any time (it might not be as convenient as right now, but that option will always be available), if you pass up the job opportunity, it could be a while (years) before you get another offer that gives you the same experience or pay, let alone both.

The other advantage of more money is that with it comes more options, I'd assume you have more then one dream, and the limited money that comes with living in New Orleans means you will have less options to do what you enjoy (be it another trip to the developing world, or any other dream vacation, or any luxury goods you my want), and you could be stuck in New Orleans for an unknown amount of time.

The job is the safer option, for you can always quit, it gives you more money, and it will likely give you more job options in the future.

A man can follow his heart, but honestly I think you'd be a fool to not take the job.

*anywhere not anyway
*may not my

However as the 'evil' capitalist, I don't have a dream city. I feel no personal attachment to anywhere, and so long as its in the free world, I'll be living in the city which provides a job I enjoy, for a pay I want, which ever city that may be.

@krellin

I think Thucy made a pretty strong case for how travel would help his end goal.

@Fasces

The city one lives in matters a great deal more when one lives their bed from time to time.

*leaves

You are posting too frequently, please slow down.

Just take the damn job.

"The city one lives in matters a great deal more when one lives their bed from time to time."
Well obviously each city is going to be different, but not that different. I'll add the specification that I will preference English speaking countries over non-English speaking countries, so I can communicate with the locals, but theres no major differences between the personalities of the people from country to country.

Sure different countries have different past times, watch different sports, etc. but I'm good at assimilating. I watch the sports that people around me are watching (right now I watch mostly american football and hockey, back when I lived in England it was cricket and rugby, when I lived in Kenya it was cricket and soccer), I partake in the activities that everyone around me is partaking it, to relative enjoyment, and at the end of the day I do end up spending most of my free time staring at a screen, so what difference does it make if I'm streaming youtube vids/playing video games in Melbourne or in Anchorage?

I don't see a big difference between the differences in cities because at the end of the day, so long as we're in a stable and free country most cities are the same:
They all have bars providing the same alcohol, cinemas showing the same movies, McDonalds providing the same burgers, they all have airports leading to the same tourist hotspots.

As a place to live, I don't see much difference between where you end up choosing to live and personally, what my job opportunities are as well as my after tax income adjusted for purchasing power will likely be the biggest factor in determining where I chose to live the bulk of my working life.

Abge - I know he did. Honestly, he'll probably do fine whatever course he takes. I'm not saying either choice is a bad one -- the appeal of travel and all that is...well, it's appealing. But he is asking a question, seeking advice, so the response is to question motives, see what the plan is, etc. He said he is not married to the plan as described, etc, so I ask questions. I'm honestly *not* trying to criticize him, I'm questioning, as he is seeking advice. All of us can give him advise, and he has received advise to do both options...i.e. the advise is worth the text on my screen. The only advise he can really listen to is himself, based upon the things that people cause him to think about.

I'm 44, I have an established career (of sorts...one of many along the way, and probably not my last, either)...and I know that it would sure be nice to have had a better nest egg growing right now, instead of doing a lot of spending and NOT planning for my future in my youth. So I'm offering advice in the form of questions. There is nothing wrong with that.

@Fasces

There is an enormous difference between Boston, NYC, Portland, OR, and Chicago, just to pick 4 random US cities.

@krellin

Yeah, I thought most of your questions were relevant and helpful. But, since he had already addressed how both his plans would help people long-term, I just wasn't sure why you asked that particular question.

@Abge: I'd like the hear the differences, since from my experience they are inconsequential.

As someone who has lived in 7 different cities across 4 countries and 3 continents in the last half of my life (aka since I was 9), from my experience that aren't huge, surmountable differences between cities.

There are some differences between cultures, but hardly any, an I've been able to assimilate relatively quickly each time.

Sure. Here are a couple examples:

Boston shuts down very early. Most bars close between midnight and 2am. Also, because Mass still has a lot of Blue Laws, it can be quite hard to find alcohol outside of bars.

Portland is much friendlier towards cyclists and pedestrians than other cities. Bike lanes are much better integrated and are more ubiquitous.

It is fucking imposible to drive in NYC. I've tried it an it's miserable. But, it's not all that safe to bike either. It's also much denser than a city like Portland or Boston.

Fair enough, traffic (car or bike) isn't something I really considered.

2am is late enough. I'm generally home by 3 nowdays...

@Fasces - As an adult living on your own, different cities also present other challenges and issues. You mention half your life and 9. Presumably you are college age which means you are just now living on your own. When you are suddenly truly on your own in a different city or even country with no familial support (I would assume at 9 you were with family), even little things can make a huge difference.

No, it's a fair point krellin. Entirely fair, seeing as it's an issue I've extensively considered myself.

As abgemacht said, the WWOOF part and the Peace Corps part are less travel and more work. Unconventional work, granted, but work all the same. Work that ostensibly is helpful to people. At least I think it is. Agriculture is really important in my opinion, I hope in all of yours as well, lol.

So I'll leave those aside for the moment and just focus on the parts in between, where I'm just adventuring around like a moorless irresponsible privileged nomad. Lol. I assume that's what you were getting at, and rightly so. Again, it was not ever nor is it now my intent to unthinkingly go off on some nonsense "finding myself" crusade as the stereotype goes.

I have however found the more seriously I was willing to take the idea of long-term travel that it is a more feasible, logical, and practical option than its image often suggests.

So there is that - it is neither as expensive nor as fruitless as it seems. And thus less wasteful. I can get into that further, but straight to the heart of your question - is such a journey not comparatively useless to other things I could spend my time doing?

That is, at least in the bounds of my existing ethical system, the most poignant criticism. Couldn't I work this 40k/year job indefinitely and just donate 30k of it every year? Would that not in a sense be the best course?

It would, in a sense.

And I don't want to get *too* personal here, but to properly answer your question I suppose I'm forced to.

And you will be forgiven if you perceive that the reasoning I am about to give seems like hypocritical mental gymnastics. I am willing to entertain the possibility that this is the case. People are all, after all, as I am fond of saying, incorrigible hypocrites.

This is a list of justifying factors for such a trip, not listed in order of magnitude:

1. Social good produced by taking such a trip, good for both myself and for others. This means connections and friends made, relationships formed, cultures connected and understood, the economics of my voyage to a little bit of everywhere. These goods produced aren't very significant in magnitude, all they can really account for are the actual funds I would use on the trip itself. But the way I see it, travel is good for the traveler and for the world at large. This you can argue but I do see it that way.

2. Personal education, meaning languages learned, direct familiarity with places I've studied (I did study international relations after all), etc.

3. This is perhaps one of the more important, similar to personal education, personal skill development - taking a trip like the one I am planning will (and has in fact already) force me to learn important life skills that I'll carry the rest of my life. Resourcefulness. Adaptability. Trust. Humility. Practical skills as well like self-defense, backpacking, languages, and that sort.

4. This is the last one and the most personal, to sum it up, self-actualization. Basically, doing many of these things is my personal dream. Believe it or not, as much as devoting my life to public service is a dream, I am a human being with selfish desires as well, and traveling all over the world on a free-wheeling adventure has been one as long as I can remember. Why does this matter? Firstly, because as an egalitarian I have never said that one should forget oneself. There is a certain extent to which we cannot forget to do things for our own sakes, if only to be more effective (e.g. taking breaks makes you do better work overall). This is still not fully justified, however, because such a voyage, even if done in the cheapest of ways, remains extravagant when compared to the dearth of even the most basic necessities of countless millions all over this planet. The final justification, then, is that, in keeping with my idolization of Henry David Thoreau, I do not plan to do much for myself in the rest of my life, that is, I will provide myself the basic necessities (proper food, water, shelter, etc.) but in the most meager possible way. I fully intend to do this and already do in whatever ways I can now that I am coming around to believing as such.

And so you can think of this big trip as a kind of loan I'm taking out on the rest of my fairly allotted leisure through the rest of my life - I will give myself less in the future knowing that I have already fulfilled a selfish dream - how much harder then will it be to justify a month-long alcohol-soaked cruise in my 30s? Infinitely harder. And rightly so.

I don't know if that makes any sense. It probably doesn't. Lol. The tl;dr is that I think everyone deserves to do a few things for themselves, and this trip for me is indeed such an extravagance that I intend for it to be the bulk of things I do for myself in my life, with the rest of my life being (cheerfully, I must add, for it isn't some begrudged obligation) devoted to public service and voluntary poverty.

And voila. My convoluted way of moralizing this trip. Another way to put it would be that I would regret not doing it the rest of my life if I didn't, of that I'm sure.

I hinted at it before but I really believe becoming a "traveler" in the sense of John Muir or other famous vagabonds, including the legions of modern ones, has an intrinsic value that makes you into a better person (not to disparage my brothers and sisters to whom such a journey does not appeal in the least).

Anyway. Thanks for reading. Lol.

Update, by the way, I asked to telecommute, in short, he decline and re-offered assuming I relocate to Thrilliamsburg, ahem, Williamsburg.

I guess I will just say I am ostensibly willing and work out some terms, and then decide.

The truth is I kind of don't want to. The money would make things easier though.