Digital Nomads

Where is "the office?"

Some of you are reading (or posting) from "the office." For many, that is a place you get in your car, ride your bike or hop in "the tube" to reach. For some, that's a room down the hall, a corner of the kitchen or the basement, next to the washing machine.
And some, like me, enjoy the digital connectivity of a third party, like Starbucks, Westfield, Barnes and Noble or some other such coffee house, book store, mall or other public place.

No fewer than three articles in the last seven days have commented on the concept of "digital bedouins" - people, such as me, that are remote, connected, and working.
At one time, there was a stigma attached to those who didn't strap on the tie, and head out into cubicle-ville, to perform their daily labors. But, when I can answer emails from my phone, have conference calls from my computer, and use my TV to surf the web... what essential elements of the "office" am I missing?

I communicate with friends and co-workers via instant message or email (which I used to do on my cubicle-bound job, rather than walk down the hall to actually TALK to them...), for many of my friends, my cell phone is the only number they've ever known. What difference does it make then? Heck, if I was extra tricky, I would re-enable my virtual PBX system, and I could forward message via computer, to my home, my cell, my Skype account, etc - all in a manner transparent to the caller.

Does business get done? I don't know. Its certainly not for everyone. It requires discipline and focus. But, I recently completed the acquisition of a small retail establishment - never having met the opposing party or their counsel (only interacting via phone and email), and meeting my client three times in person, all at a Starbucks. The remainder of our work done via phone, fax and email.

The two women next to me just completed a transaction for one of them to (sadly) sign up as part of a multi-level marketing scheme. On the other side of me, the owner of a local salon, meeting with a contractor about an upcoming expansion and construction project. In the corner, a sales rep for a technology company, finishing up a phone call, and entering in sales data into his company's online ordering portal.

Business is business. Whether you're in a suit and tie, with a suite overlooking the water - or in a coffee house with a laptop and a business card.

Its the digital age. pull up a chair, get yourself some coffee, and get to work.

I Blame Van Halen

There can be only one explanation - Van Halen.

Once again, in the news today, another high school teacher has been charged with "allegedly" having improper relations or contact with one of their students.
Honestly now- as most guys will tell you, the only illicit contact most high school sophomores "allegedly" have, is with their imaginations and if they're so inclined, the hand lotion of their calling.

I was BAFFLED at the frequency with which some of these kids are seeing their professors in flagrante delicto - more than your average waitress at Hooters during Spring Break!!

Want Proof?!

http://wizbangblog.com/2006/05/11/florida-teacher-in-hot-water-over-swimsuit-photos.php

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11943967/

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,255581,00.html

But then, clear as day - it came to me - Its all Van Halen's fault.

Think about it - Most of these young, impressionable (and about 70% of the time, attractive and blonde) teachers or teachers' assistants, etc HAVE to have just recently acquired their teaching credentials. Which puts most of them in their mid to late 20's to mid 30's. They are the product of Mtv (or MuchMusic, for you Canadians out there).

Who knows what kind of psychological toll the endless replay of those hypnotic riffs of "Hot For Teacher" hath wrought!!?! Certainly, Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth laid it all out there for us:

I heard about your lessons, but lessons are so cold. I know about
this school. Little girl from cherry lane, how did you get so bold ?
How did you know that golden rule ?

I think of all the education that I missed. But then my homework was never quite like this. Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad, I'm hot for teacher. I got it bad, so bad, I'm hot for teacher.

The hair twirling, bright lights, knee socks... It all makes sense now.
These women aren't the student-seducing harlots the media makes them out to be - They are victims.
Victims of unrelenting Van Halen mind control.

I think we need a telethon.

In Praise of Earphones

I have it all figured out.

These days, you can't throw a stick without striking the random, black concert-t-shirt clad hipster or latte-sipping soccer mom, bearing the mark of 21st century technology: The stereo earbud.
Of course, now, you can listen to music on your ipod, your "zune" (all 10 of you who purchased one), your cell phone, or any one of a number of other devices designed to immerse you in your own personal concert-space.

Notice - I say "designed." Because, now I understand what their true alternative purpose is. I got the slightest inkling of their utility on my recent trip to Italy and London - But, its been a few visits to the local Starbucks to really have it hit home.

Earphones give you a license to ignore people.

Its simple, its brilliant, its powerful. Its so common now, that it pretty much borders on "polite." With earbuds in, no explanation is necessary as to why you don't induldge in the manic rantings of the over-caffinated person sitting next to you on the plain. No need to address the incredibly inappropriate public disclosure of lesions, draining wounds and stock room encounters being discussed over cappucino at the table next to you.
No more pretending not to have change when the constant stream of homeless, crazy, pseudo homeless (or pseudo crazy) vagrants accost you down the boulevard.

Even as I sit and type this, I can ignore, vacant-faced, the idiotic drivel among the husband and wife, sitting next to me, outlining their life - from the genetic level on (HELLO!!! TOO MUCH SHARING!!!).

Its my theory that some of those fellow tube-riders in London, ignoring the plaintive pleas for spare change, didn't even HAVE ipods - Just earphones on, with the wire disappearing into the folds of their jackets.

Its the perfect reverse "cone of silence."

Consider me a convert.