By Philip BrewerI wanted to be a digital nomad before anybody–before the term existed; before the technology existed; before most people even imagined that it would someday be possible to earn a living without ever being in the same place as your coworkers, bosses, customers, or clients.  Other people may have become digital nomads before I did, but nobody wanted to be one before I did.  
Three obstacles define the three paths to being a digital nomad.  
First, there was the technological barrier–one that has been largely overcome by the earliest digital nomads.
The Road-Warriors
People whose regular job required constant travel–salesmen, executives, managers and technical folks with far-flung teams–were nomads before they were digital nomads.  It was on their behalf that the technology was gradually beaten into submission.   I knew a lot of these folks–people who paid top-dollar for a computer (just) small enough that it would fit into a suitcase and (barely) light enough to be carried by one person.  An excellent article in a recent Economist, quotes Paul Saffo as saying that "nomads" is the wrong term for those early strivers:
Since these machines, large and small, were portable, people assumed that they also made their owners mobile. Not so. …

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