I believe this was the thesis of Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I feel there is no right answer, it’s a matter of temperament. Anywheres vs Somewheres could also be seen in frame or arguing the rightness of light vs. dark.
Excellent observation, Manon. Russel’s piece resonated because I wrote something related. Only after your comment I realised yes, we both refrain Kundera’s story! Written before digital nomads, yet about same thing. Here is mine:
I think of it more as a seasons-of-life thing. Most of my twenties were pretty nomadic (even with little kids), then we settled down for a decade or so in Amsterdam. As we’re looking at being empty-nesters, we’ve bought a little place in Italy, and started making friends there.
I also feel like there’s often conflation between staying put where you’re from and intentionally settling in a chosen place. You can fully commit and contribute to a place where you’re not from, and I feel like that should be encouraged, not maligned.
I also think Somewheres and Anywheres isn’t necessarily something you can apply Kant’s Categorical Imperative to. We don’t have to all make the same choices, and both stayers and goers enrich the world.
Both desires (stay/go) can live happy inside us at the same time. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. The danger is when, as in Brexit, nativists demand it can be only one.
Anywhere is something that is only possible because a whole heap of us choose to be somewhere; it's not like the anywhere's are spear fishing their own food every day, moving their flocks from pasture to pasture or building their own computers on the fly.
Loved this, Russell. It reminds me of the Sailors vs. Farmers metaphors. How the world needs both, but it's impossible to BE both, at least at the same time.
My wife and I (both in our 40s) prioritized freedom for years to travel, then settled down for 10 years and dived deep into community building and volunteering. After that, plus covid (which we enjoyed for the reasons you described) and a few health surprises, we were ready for another adventure, which we're on right now. International living, overland travel, etc...
I suspect (or know deep down) that we will circle back to a tight-knit community at some point. When remains to be seen! Here's to finding that balance. Cheers.
Interesting thoughts, thanks for sharing. Lately, I have been thinking and writing about "where is home, when home is wherever you are". If I put myself in the definition from this essay, I am a Somewhere who can still be Anywhere. While I am a full time nomad, with no fixed address, my home base is a sailing yacht. An 80-foot moveable feast with room for the comforts of home and a bit of luxury. While we travel constantly, we also bring our "home" with us. And that's a whole different way of being. We often stay long enough in our destinations to make friends and form community.
It's a very different form of nomadism than flying around with a backpack and laptop. More of a hybrid approach to a life on the move.
Do you also have no tax residency? And doesn’t your boat flag imply it’s legally a certain country’s territory? What about the credit card you use, and tthe SIM card. Both institutions require an address.
My questions are not meant to be malign - I myself look for a solution and was confronted with these issues. So far, I am leaning to think that freedom from a base, like people describe, does not exist today. It may well have been the case for the early travelers a couple centuries back. Today though I can’t see it. But aleays looking for ideas
An Anywhere forfeits their potential to really get to know a place, seeing it change over time in intimate day to day detail. They lack real connection to place. A Somewhere has meaningful time honored relationships with the local people, seeing them born, change with the seasons of life and ultimately pass. The Somewhere may leave their area from time to time, but the return to home is sweet, satisfying and savored. The perpetual visitor may feel like a citizen who belongs in the world, but simultaneously is rooted nowhere, feeling connected to everyone and no one, forever an outsider.
Yes. In fact, I have not met many true digital nomads: truly without a base. Each of them have, at minimum, their belongings stacked somewhere, which often is their parents attic. Where they go back, regularly, to see the dentist, the accountant, and school time friends. I’ve also met nomads in Egypt and India who spent their days on the phone with their real estate agent managing their London property that brings monthly income. Most nomads who brag about “not belonging” are cheating actually…
It's important to have a balance. If you stay a Somewhere for your whole life, you will not see enough different places, people, and cultures to learn and grow your perspective.
And if you stay an Anywhere, you may miss out on experiencing that feeling of deep community and watching something grow alongside you.
It's good to go on heroes journeys, and then return to home (or wherever you want to call home) a better person.
Oof yes, Russell! I spent years thinking I was “choosing freedom,” when really I was just staying untethered enough to avoid the deeper commitments that actually make life feel like home — people, place, rhythms, responsibility. Thanks for putting words to the tradeoff so clearly… it feels like an invitation to plant a few seeds on purpose :)
i really liked the clarity of thought thru your writing. to also take this a lil further as someone who's still making attempts at the idea of nomading starting last year - i mostly found myself somehow separate from 'the moment' and if i remember correctly was either succeeding or failing at living in it
I've also faced a few of those forks in my career, resulting in relocations and assignments to different situations and geographies. Keeping my options open, indeed, but never intending to only be in the next situation/location temporarily. We've enjoyed all the relocations, they have widened our mental horizons, but now we're settled in Zambia, which also feels good.
I genuinely feel that part of digital nomadism's popularity is the lack of freedom to stay in the places people even with strong passports wish to move to as immigrants with minimal paperwork and hassle, so they compromise on that limitation and visa hop around the world instead
Excellent observation. Many countries literally require you to leave after a few months until you invest heavily in finding a legal solution to stay - which most people shy away from, as hoping to the next destination is simply easier.
I loved this article. I spoke to my situation so much. We have been nomading since 2006, but found ourselves in Scotland when my MIL got sick and we were the ones who had the flexibility to come and live with her. My husband's school friends welcomed us back as though he hadn't been gone 30 years. After she passed, in speaking about restarting our nomading, with me complaining about Scottish weather, one friend said (quite aggressively), "There are more important things than weather you know." It made us set up our lives so we are multiple Somewheres instead of constant Anywheres.
Community and belonging become blurred concepts when you move a lot. I can connect with what you said - freedom makes it harder to be satisfied, and that also goes for people and conversations. I have a few bases I return to, and in these places I witness the lives of friends, if only every few months or years.
I now also have my own space where I started growing trees. Some days it feels like a dream coming true, other days it feels like a responsibility I’m not ready for.
I recently went through a similar process. I’ve been an Anywhere almost all my life, being in love with the Mediterranean and wanting to leave Poland for good, but at a certain point I began to appreciate my home country again, and when Russia attacked Ukraine, the idea that Poland could be next was a catalyst that changed everything.
I still travel a lot, and I love it, but that sense of rootedness gives you peace of mind you can’t really feel being a 100% Anywhere person.
Being “Somewhere” creates space for meaning. In fact, commitment is prerequisite for meaning: any life project that results in some kind of contribution that makes you satisfied - be it family, or study, or nonprofit social work - requires settling somewhere. Then, you apparently lose the lightness you were made for. A paradox. I tried to explore it here, in my own story below. Thank you for the story, you managed to tackle on a topic dear to me:
I believe this was the thesis of Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I feel there is no right answer, it’s a matter of temperament. Anywheres vs Somewheres could also be seen in frame or arguing the rightness of light vs. dark.
Probably about time I read that. You're the second person recently who's mentioned it.
Oohhhh 🫠
Excellent observation, Manon. Russel’s piece resonated because I wrote something related. Only after your comment I realised yes, we both refrain Kundera’s story! Written before digital nomads, yet about same thing. Here is mine:
https://nomadicmind.substack.com/p/the-third-column-of-sicilia
This also made me think of Kundera’s themes!
I think of it more as a seasons-of-life thing. Most of my twenties were pretty nomadic (even with little kids), then we settled down for a decade or so in Amsterdam. As we’re looking at being empty-nesters, we’ve bought a little place in Italy, and started making friends there.
I also feel like there’s often conflation between staying put where you’re from and intentionally settling in a chosen place. You can fully commit and contribute to a place where you’re not from, and I feel like that should be encouraged, not maligned.
I also think Somewheres and Anywheres isn’t necessarily something you can apply Kant’s Categorical Imperative to. We don’t have to all make the same choices, and both stayers and goers enrich the world.
I totally agree! That’s something ive been thinking and writing a lot about recently!
Both desires (stay/go) can live happy inside us at the same time. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. The danger is when, as in Brexit, nativists demand it can be only one.
Anywhere is something that is only possible because a whole heap of us choose to be somewhere; it's not like the anywhere's are spear fishing their own food every day, moving their flocks from pasture to pasture or building their own computers on the fly.
Haha yes!
Loved this, Russell. It reminds me of the Sailors vs. Farmers metaphors. How the world needs both, but it's impossible to BE both, at least at the same time.
My wife and I (both in our 40s) prioritized freedom for years to travel, then settled down for 10 years and dived deep into community building and volunteering. After that, plus covid (which we enjoyed for the reasons you described) and a few health surprises, we were ready for another adventure, which we're on right now. International living, overland travel, etc...
I suspect (or know deep down) that we will circle back to a tight-knit community at some point. When remains to be seen! Here's to finding that balance. Cheers.
Interesting thoughts, thanks for sharing. Lately, I have been thinking and writing about "where is home, when home is wherever you are". If I put myself in the definition from this essay, I am a Somewhere who can still be Anywhere. While I am a full time nomad, with no fixed address, my home base is a sailing yacht. An 80-foot moveable feast with room for the comforts of home and a bit of luxury. While we travel constantly, we also bring our "home" with us. And that's a whole different way of being. We often stay long enough in our destinations to make friends and form community.
It's a very different form of nomadism than flying around with a backpack and laptop. More of a hybrid approach to a life on the move.
Do you also have no tax residency? And doesn’t your boat flag imply it’s legally a certain country’s territory? What about the credit card you use, and tthe SIM card. Both institutions require an address.
My questions are not meant to be malign - I myself look for a solution and was confronted with these issues. So far, I am leaning to think that freedom from a base, like people describe, does not exist today. It may well have been the case for the early travelers a couple centuries back. Today though I can’t see it. But aleays looking for ideas
An Anywhere forfeits their potential to really get to know a place, seeing it change over time in intimate day to day detail. They lack real connection to place. A Somewhere has meaningful time honored relationships with the local people, seeing them born, change with the seasons of life and ultimately pass. The Somewhere may leave their area from time to time, but the return to home is sweet, satisfying and savored. The perpetual visitor may feel like a citizen who belongs in the world, but simultaneously is rooted nowhere, feeling connected to everyone and no one, forever an outsider.
Yes. In fact, I have not met many true digital nomads: truly without a base. Each of them have, at minimum, their belongings stacked somewhere, which often is their parents attic. Where they go back, regularly, to see the dentist, the accountant, and school time friends. I’ve also met nomads in Egypt and India who spent their days on the phone with their real estate agent managing their London property that brings monthly income. Most nomads who brag about “not belonging” are cheating actually…
It's important to have a balance. If you stay a Somewhere for your whole life, you will not see enough different places, people, and cultures to learn and grow your perspective.
And if you stay an Anywhere, you may miss out on experiencing that feeling of deep community and watching something grow alongside you.
It's good to go on heroes journeys, and then return to home (or wherever you want to call home) a better person.
Oof yes, Russell! I spent years thinking I was “choosing freedom,” when really I was just staying untethered enough to avoid the deeper commitments that actually make life feel like home — people, place, rhythms, responsibility. Thanks for putting words to the tradeoff so clearly… it feels like an invitation to plant a few seeds on purpose :)
i really liked the clarity of thought thru your writing. to also take this a lil further as someone who's still making attempts at the idea of nomading starting last year - i mostly found myself somehow separate from 'the moment' and if i remember correctly was either succeeding or failing at living in it
I've also faced a few of those forks in my career, resulting in relocations and assignments to different situations and geographies. Keeping my options open, indeed, but never intending to only be in the next situation/location temporarily. We've enjoyed all the relocations, they have widened our mental horizons, but now we're settled in Zambia, which also feels good.
I’m your subscriber number 202!
I genuinely feel that part of digital nomadism's popularity is the lack of freedom to stay in the places people even with strong passports wish to move to as immigrants with minimal paperwork and hassle, so they compromise on that limitation and visa hop around the world instead
Excellent observation. Many countries literally require you to leave after a few months until you invest heavily in finding a legal solution to stay - which most people shy away from, as hoping to the next destination is simply easier.
I loved this article. I spoke to my situation so much. We have been nomading since 2006, but found ourselves in Scotland when my MIL got sick and we were the ones who had the flexibility to come and live with her. My husband's school friends welcomed us back as though he hadn't been gone 30 years. After she passed, in speaking about restarting our nomading, with me complaining about Scottish weather, one friend said (quite aggressively), "There are more important things than weather you know." It made us set up our lives so we are multiple Somewheres instead of constant Anywheres.
Community and belonging become blurred concepts when you move a lot. I can connect with what you said - freedom makes it harder to be satisfied, and that also goes for people and conversations. I have a few bases I return to, and in these places I witness the lives of friends, if only every few months or years.
I now also have my own space where I started growing trees. Some days it feels like a dream coming true, other days it feels like a responsibility I’m not ready for.
I recently went through a similar process. I’ve been an Anywhere almost all my life, being in love with the Mediterranean and wanting to leave Poland for good, but at a certain point I began to appreciate my home country again, and when Russia attacked Ukraine, the idea that Poland could be next was a catalyst that changed everything.
I still travel a lot, and I love it, but that sense of rootedness gives you peace of mind you can’t really feel being a 100% Anywhere person.
I even wrote about it on one of my Substacks.
https://culturedroughly.substack.com/p/the-old-roots-made-new-or-no-longer?r=12c85
Being “Somewhere” creates space for meaning. In fact, commitment is prerequisite for meaning: any life project that results in some kind of contribution that makes you satisfied - be it family, or study, or nonprofit social work - requires settling somewhere. Then, you apparently lose the lightness you were made for. A paradox. I tried to explore it here, in my own story below. Thank you for the story, you managed to tackle on a topic dear to me:
https://nomadicmind.substack.com/p/the-third-column-of-sicilia?r=31fxoh&utm_medium=ios