In this episode, Gabe Hollombe, talks about his adventures traveling throughout Southeast Asia while working for a company based in Australia. He discusses staying connected to the Internet and home-based coworkers, traveling with coworkers, and essential equipment for the vagabond programmer.
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Show Notes:
Gabe Hollombe (twitter / github / blog)
Tutoring Australasia
Pairkit.com
00:37 – Gabe Hollombe Introduction & Background
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- Los Angeles native
- Moved to NYC
- Has an English degree as opposed to Computer Science
- Currently calls Sydney, Australia home for the past 6 years
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01:48 – Traveling
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- Has traveled to and worked remotely from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, and Spain in the past 8 months
- Took two teammates and co workers from Sydney with him
- Earning Australian dollars; spending in Southeast Asia
- Devotes time to working half and half between company and his own other projects
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04:20 – Staying connected to the Internet while traveling
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- Ubiquitous free wifi in Southeast Asia
- Thailand = most wired out of all above-mentioned
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05:35 – Staying connected to the team back in Australia
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- Morning (daily) stand ups
- Time change between Southeast Asia and Australia works well
- Google Hangouts
- Fall back on Skype
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06:30 – Nha Trang, Vietnam
08:03 – Traveling with coworkers
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- Easier to work
- Keep each other focused and motivated
- Feel less isolated
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08:42 – Adjustment for “home team†to have coworkers working away
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- Flew the team to Vietnam about halfway through the trip
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10:28 – Tutoring Australasia
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- Connects students to tutors online, 24/7
- Intelligent matching system
- Real-time sharing
- Schools/public libraries can pay for a subscription
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12:11 – Lessons learned from making the change to working on-site to off-site
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- Communication
- Having conversations be captured in a place where everyone can see them
- 6 month sweet-spot
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14:18 – Start smaller (traveling)
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- Do a trial run with coworkers
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16:08 – Equipment for the vagabond programmer
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- Universal general power adapter
- Universal power board
- iPad
- Unlocked GSM phone
- Camera
- MacBook Air
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19:55 – Key advice for people working remotely
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- If you’re thinking about doing a trip like this, do it
- Saving more while working half as much
- It’s easier than you’d think
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22:45 – Pairkit.com
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- Gabe’s FREE! Beta pet project
- Makes SSH reverse tunneling easy
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