
Lewis Smith: The Itinerant Developer
February 3, 2016 | Podcast
A honeymoon in Thailand led Lewis and his wife, Jenny, to quit their jobs to start traveling, which turned into more than three years on the road. They have recently returned to the UK, where Lewis has taken on a six-month contract job, and they’re finding that just as travel gives you a better perspective on your home country, being home gives you a better perspective on your travel!
Most Memorable Location-Independent Experiences
House sitting in New Zealand for a couple while they went on a reality TV show. It was memorable for so many reasons: We got to stay in a beautiful old house in New Zealand’s most beautiful town. We got to watch our hosts on TV every night, on their own TV. We made some wonderful friends there and loved looking after their animals.
Also memorable, but for the wrong reasons, was when one of their cats was diagnosed with and died of cancer in our care, which was one of the most emotional things I’ve ever dealt with. After that house-sit ended, we took a six-week trip around New Zealand by campervan, which is probably the best travel experience we’ve had.
Biggest Surprise along the Way
Having been back home for a few weeks and effectively working a normal job, I’m a little surprised at how much I miss the digital nomad lifestyle. It’s always a fear that you will just fall back into the old way of life, but I really can’t see that happening in the foreseeable future!

In this episode
- Why Lewis took a contract job back home and what it’s been like so far
- How Lewis and Jenny turned their professional skills into remote work
- Tips and info on getting into app development and programming
- Top apps and tools Lewis recommends
- Creating an ergonomic work setup on the road
- Dealing with a sick pet while house sitting
- And so much more

Resources we talked about
Note: Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which means you may receive free credit or another bonus and I may earn a small commission or other benefits if you sign up/purchase using that link. There’s no additional cost to you, of course!
- Four-Hour Work Week
- Lewis’s blog post about tech tools
- Xcode for iPhone development
- World Time Widget app
- Slack chat and hashtagnomads
- Trello task manager
- MindNode mind-mapping software
- The Roost* laptop stand
- House Sitting World Facebook group
- Trusted Housesitters*
- Helpful post about things that can go wrong (and how to avoid them) when house sitting
- FindANomad.com
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