Jan
19
2010
Working Online in an Offline World
Author: Kyle
A cool breeze is hitting me on this shady patio as I look out on the lagoon in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. It is the first time I have felt that I could really get to work since I got here. There is no internet at my apartment and working in coffee shops when I don’t drink coffee just feels weird. Also the midday heat at some of those beach side vendors is just too much for my northern blood. I really haven’t worked in over a month now because of friends and family in to Puerto Vallarta for Christmas and New Years and then finding a place in Zihua that is comfortable enough to just sit and work.
One of my favorite bloggers, Tynan, just posted an article called “Do Something Now,” as well as some of the comments reminded me of why and how I started this journey three and a half months ago in the first place. I wanted travel in my life, and lots of it. I wanted to be meeting more people and have fun learning a language. I wanted to build a business that I could run from anywhere. I wanted to live a life that used the online world, and wasn’t run by the online world. When I arrived in this city, I fell in love with the atmosphere, the people and the landscape. This really is a great place to escape to (I have met a few that seemed to have gotten ideas from the Shawshank Redemption). I found myself an apartment for the month with one problem: no internet at home. I could have found another apartment, but I don’t think I could have found another place this nice for this price easily. I tried to find cafés that had internet, but they just weren’t working well for me, then I tried going to internet cafés that were air-conditioned but they cost an arm and a leg.
I started to get the idea that I needed to create a situation where I could work offline and just send in my work when I could get a chance. This was something I had thought about before, but had not really gotten set up. So I spent a few hours getting things ready, and started trying to work. I started making lists of things that needed internet and things that didn’t. Kinda like to-do lists for the internet cafés. I tried to only go to the computer when I had a list of things to do with the computer. And with the strong separation of work and access to the time drain of the web I got a nice set of things done, but at the end of every day when the cafés closed I would always feel like there was more I could have accomplished in the day. When I was working offline I would sometimes come up with a problem that I knew had been solved before and would usually just be able to look up, but instead I would have to wait or spend a few hours reinventing the wheel. I currently don’t think I’m ready for this kind of disconnectedness while working.
I talked with a friend over drinks and dominoes last night and he said I could use his mothers place. It really is ideal. It has a view, a breeze, internet and no hourly cost. I don’t think I’ll be able to thank him enough. I will keep working on this problem, but for now I have a place I can go where I can really get stuff done and have the internet at the same time.
Two hours a day of private Spanish lessons, an hour of homework and total immersion. I wish I could say it was easy learning a third language, but it’s not. With new words, false cognates and conjugation that removes the need for pronouns I find myself making many many silly mistakes. A common example is “¿Cómo estás?”(How are you?) to which I should reply “Estoy bien, gracias.”(I’m well, thank you) but instead I find myself saying “Estás bien, gracias.”(You’re fine, thanks.)