Nomadic Standard Time

Computers & Mobile
Nomadic Standard Time
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Steve Roberts, the “high-tech nomad,” was one of my first hardware hacking heroes. I just started following him on Twitter, and via his feed, found this other nomadness site, Technomadia. It chronicles the technomadic lives of Cherie Ve Ard & Chris Dunphy. In this post, they talk about being on “Nomadic Standard Time,” and about the concept of “nomadic serendipity.”

The downside to living a life without a firm itinerary is that it’s awfully difficult to convey arrival times and destinations. When we don’t know where we’ll be even tonight, how can I tell our next rendezvous or host when to expect us? At first, this caused me a great deal of stress. Either we were rushing to meet a plan we conveyed, or we were afraid of leaving friends and family in a state of limbo.

It actually once contributed to a pretty major highway scare for us because we were pushing too hard to make an arrival date. Spinning down the interstate jack-knifed while towing a trailer was a wake-up call. Never again.

And thus now when conveying potential plans I always prefaces all dates and times being on NST – or Nomadic Standard Time.

A nomad, like a wizard, always arrives precisely when they are meant to.

Looking at their site, I had a moment of true wanderlust and thought: Hey, maybe *I* should become a technomad. It could happen. Since all my work is online, I can do it from anywhere, with the right tech.

Living on NST – Nomadic Standard Time

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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