Reimagining Passports, The Office Is Broken, Being Busy vs Being Happy
This week’s best links about borderless living.
--
Hej! I’m Lauren Razavi. This weekly(ish) post is where I share the best links about borderless living, plus updates about my writing, speaking, and activism work to enhance people’s understanding of digital nomads and the future of work. To keep in touch, follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my newsletter. Thanks for reading ✍️🌍✌️
Hey folks 👋
I’m writing today’s post from my bed office, where I sit surrounded by used tissues, cold remedies, and a dash of self-pity.
See, this past week, I began exercising my vaccine. I spoke at The Next Web conference and went to the after-party. There, the music was so loud, the only option was to lean in close to chat with other people. I also went out for dinners and drinks with friends. For the first time since March 2020, I took a casual approach to hugging hello and goodbye.
Now, I’m sick — for the first time in two years. The tests say I don’t have Covid-19, but I’m immunocompromised, so an illness that lasts a day or two for some people puts me in bed for a week. Unsurprisingly, it’s no fun at all. I’ve found myself thinking that I really enjoyed not getting sick for so long.
Maybe I’m leaning into a dystopian vision of the future, but I think it would be good to normalise less physical contact with strangers, and even more importantly, be bullish about staying home when we’re sick. Remote work is in the mainstream now and businesses are redesigning their operations and policies — so it’s a good time to take stock of our social norms around health, especially when scientists warn this likely won’t be the last pandemic in our lifetimes.
But there are questions: What do we lose if we give up handshakes with strangers? Does a kiss on the cheek make a difference to how we feel about the people around us? Or are we, humans, now evolved enough to shake off old greetings — and be better for it?
— Lauren
🌍 Links of the Week
🛂🔮 Why the Passport Needs An Upgrade (TED Talk)
Estonian entrepreneur and future of work visionary Karoli Hindricks sets out the case for a new age of frictionless, tech-driven global mobility — arguing our current systems for borders, migration and passports no longer reflect the world we live in.
🇪🇺🏝️ Is Europe the Ideal Place for Digital Nomads? (Economist)
Europe is a varied continent with good WiFi and few internal borders — features that digital nomads are very fond of. This reported story digs into the anticipated growth of Europeans trying out nomadic lifestyles now they can work remote.
🚉🏢 Is Going to the Office a Broken Way of Working? (New Yorker)
Cal Newport profiles remote work evangelist Chris Herd, who has become a Twitter power user in the last 18 months. His new-found internet fame is the result of his bold predictions about the future of work, life, and business.
🙏💻 The Highly Adaptable Habits of Remote Companies (Quartz)
How do the best remote companies stay organised and collaborate effectively? Three of the world’s leading players — one small, one medium, one large — share their tips and insights to help leaders and workers navigate the shift to remote.
✨🧠 Are We Too Busy to Enjoy Life? (Ness Labs)
Anne-Laure Le Cunff reflects on the damage a constant state of busyness does to our mental and physical wellbeing, unpicking the false sense of productivity that often comes with ticking items off the to-do list.
🌐👀 Apophenia: How the Internet Transforms the Individual into a Conspiracy of One (Edward Snowden)
This essay explores what psychology and sociology teach us about how humans respond to information overload, and how different ways of thinking can offer us “an escape hatch from our private worlds and back into the public sphere.”
🏛️ Nomad Politics
I interviewed Camila Russo, founder of the digital media platform The Defiant, as part of the Plumia Speaker Series. Our chat spans decentralized finance, ethereum versus bitcoin, and how crypto and other emerging technologies are set to shape the future. Watch or listen below 👇
