Back in 2007, Mike Elgan wrote an article about The New Bedouins that really struck and excited me. In it he talked about a trend towards digital nomadism that was starting to take off. The “digital nomad” term was already 10 years old but the technology was finally in place to make it a reality. This was more than just “working from home;” it was the ability to work from anywhere in the world where you could find cell and WiFi service. As I wrote in 2011, this seemed natural and inevitable to us geeks but appeared positively weird to the rest of the population. A year later, even The Economist was taking notice.
For most of my career, I was trapped in a soul-sucking cubical farm and yearned for the freedom promised by the Bedouin life style. These days, many engineers wouldn’t consider a job that didn’t offer flexible workplace arrangements and it’s no longer strange or surprising to find folks working from some exotic location or even the local coffee shop. The practice has become so commonplace that Elgan has revisited the subject in another article declaring that the term “digital nomad” is now obsolete. It’s just something those who are inclined and have a job that makes it possible do. The same technology that makes it possible is used by everyone now and the term—which originally meant someone who used that technology that work from anywhere—is no longer needed.
I think the term is still useful to describe someone who practices workshifting but I take Elgan’s point. The dream has finally been realized. Some managers, of course, still resist workshifting but they’re likely the same ones who think open offices are a great idea and that software engineers are fungible.