Remote work: or, travelling to expand your mind

I’m remote. I work in & lead a remote team and have done so, or at least been a part of one, for over 2 years now. I love it for not having an AM/ PM commute, for having the freedom to structure my day the way I want to, for a change of scenery when I travel. But something keeps coming up more and more — what I get exposed to by getting out of my own bubble.

Vinyl is still relevant. Did you know?

I was back home in Austin, Texas this past March, sat out having a drink, checking up on some of my projects on my phone in some of my down time and overheard a bit of an exchange between a group of people near me. (Ok, call it eaves dropping, but don’t judge, they were pretty loud).

What one person was talking about was a new business he had been setting up to allow new bands to get pressed onto vinyl. I was surprised! Do people still want that? Aside from the odd collector don’t people want the convenience of digital music?

This is not a digital marketing scheme, a new way to discover/ download music, this is a large group of bands who want to be physical, to be pressed into wax. This guy saw it and set up to provide that service. This is not about the music industry or records, it is about a new idea, or an old idea brought new again. Either way it is something most of us would not have thought about. I know in my life, working from home, occasional trips around the UK, the bubble that is London; I was never exposed to such an idea.

Payments in Germany. Cash money, baby.

I met a new nomad and all around interesting person yesterday afternoon in London for a coffee. We were talking about the lifestyle, what we work on, how we work, UX, UI, delivery, strategy, all those fun things certain types of us folk find fascinating. It was a great conversation, and it led us on to other things outside of our direct work.

She comes from Germany and was telling me, after purchasing a flat white and a cinnamon roll, about her experiment to not pay with cash the entire time she is in London. I was intrigued. Was this to do with all the fintech stuff I had recently been introduced to?

Nope, not at all. It was a reaction to transaction in Germany. She was telling me most businesses prise cash over card payments. They begrudge having to give a percentage of their earnings to a bank for the privilege making a transaction. If they get cash in hand, all the profits are theirs.

Because of this, she wanted to see if she could not touch cash at all for the next few months.

What does this have to do with remote work?

Without travelling I would not have these insights into other cultures and ways of doing things. I would never have encountered these stories (almost first hand), nor would I have been in the right frame of mind to receive them. To have them impact me and drill into my long-term memory and conscious thinking.

Without the ability to remote work I would not have had these opportunities to be in these places, speak to/ listen to these people and discover these stories.

Remote working, travelling is not always time away from your day to day, but about learning, about other things happening you would never know about.

It also changes your mindset, your thought processes and your receptions to new ideas. It puts you in a receptive state for the new. Not being sat at a desk, but being out in the world and having your mind in travel mode makes these discoveries so much more poignant and punctuated. If I had been sat on the tube in London or on a bus to the airport reading this in the paper, I would not have been as impacted by them. They might have washed over me.

I think remote working, getting your mind out of a 9 to 5, cubicle/ office walls, meeting rooms, all those other things which stop your mind from looking at the new in the world, helps to foster creativity, innovation and at the very least, a new energy & passion for what you are doing. Which can be such an important thing no matter what job you do.