Dima Pashutskii — From Stationary Sysadmin to Nomad Software Engineer

Check the full transcript and show notes at: https://nerdontour.net/dima-pashutskii-from-stationary-sysadmin-to-nomad-software-engineer/ Dima Pashutskii spent his twenties answering support calls, watching logs, and wearing a suit in a Moscow bank. Then he got fired, learned to code, and left. In this episode, recorded on Skype from Bali in July 2020, we talk about the months it took him to land a first client on Upwork, the two-day job he did for five dollars, and why that review was worth more than the money. We also get into location-based pay, the twenty-hour week he tracks honestly instead of a forty-hour week he would only half work, and his argument against originality: nobody opens an original coffee shop, so stop waiting for an original idea. Plus Taiwan as the most underrated country in the region, and eating vegetarian across Asia with a purple cow app. About Dima Pashutskii Dima is a Russian software engineer turned indie maker. He went from technical support to server administration before teaching himself to code, then left Russia in 2018 with his wife Nika for four years of nomading around Southeast Asia. They settled in the Netherlands in 2022. He quit his job in 2024 and now builds his own products, including Influesque and Search to Play, and posts on YouTube about freedom, money, and intentional living. What we cover The odd jobs, from construction sites to McDonald's, that he does not regret Three or four months of Upwork applications before a single client replied Two days of work for five dollars, and why the review mattered more Location-based pay at Toptal and Facebook Twenty tracked hours a week versus forty half-worked ones Travel months and settle-down months, and finding your own ratio Building side projects without waiting for an original idea Timestamps (00:00) - Start. (00:36) - Why a Skype recording from 2020 is finally seeing daylight. (03:01) - Hello from Canggu: Dima checks in from the Bali hub. (03:40) - St Petersburg and Moscow: two cities, one long-distance relationship. (04:28) - Fired on a Friday; moved to Moscow the same day. (05:57) - Gatchina, Karelia, and why Peter the Great built a European city. (08:09) - Moscow's rush as a career accelerator, mental health tax included. (10:16) - McDonald's, construction sites, and Dima's stint as a children's clown. (12:01) - The case for doing manual work before you do knowledge work. (14:26) - Lisbon for three months: the Schengen ninety-day ceiling as a travel plan. (16:02) - Learning to code from a Russian site teaching SICP in JavaScript. (19:35) - Upwork: sixty applications a month and four months of silence. (20:15) - Two days of work for five dollars, and the review that made it worth it. (21:36) - Fiverr, Toptal, and where the marketplace race to the bottom starts. (23:03) - Location-based pay: your rate decided by your postcode, not your work. (24:32) - Automattic versus Facebook on pay parity, six years before everyone else argued about it. (26:08) - Off the platform: direct contract, hourly billing, twenty tracked hours a week. (27:53) - Learning Story and 100DaysOfCode: building in public before it had a name. (31:52) - One community for all your learning, instead of a community per course site. (35:14) - Nobody opens an original coffee shop: the case against waiting for an original idea. (36:58) - Indie Hackers, MakerLog, and the pull of owning your own products. (37:23) - Digital Nomad Journey: writing the visa and banking guide he needed when he started. (40:51) - Sixteen cities: Hua Hin by accident, Chiang Mai by reputation. (41:36) - Taiwan is underrated: bullet trains, west coast cities, and the friendliest people in Asia. (44:17) - Singapore for a week, Penang for months: choosing a base. (45:26) - Travel months and settle-down months: slowmadding before it had a hashtag. (48:41) - Going vegetarian on the road, and where HappyCow stops helping. (52:15) - The pizza fallback, and why nothing actually changed when he quit meat. (54:16) - Yoga in the room, meditation without an app, and cities with no pavements to run on. (56:31) - Wrap up. Dima Pashutskii and his projects Blog — freedom, travel, money, and intentional living YouTube — his main creative outlet since 2018 Now page — what he is working on today Influesque — YouTube influencer marketing platform, his current focus Search to Play — Letterboxd for video games Arcade Hub — Apple Arcade games database Taco Digest — newsletters turned into a personal email digest GitHub — his code X — the account he nomaded under as @guar47 Listen to all Nerd on Tour Podcast episodes on your preferred app Podcast Website: https://nerdontour.net/podcast/?utm_campaign=PodPlatforms&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_source=ShowNotes&utm_content=Organic YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nerdontour Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/46dwoqx Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7ncVtvERp058pd7AkIf0wy?si=hqKFLI6yT5Wt8WFF7AbApA Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/dltrbnoy Other Podcast Apps: https://podnews.net/podcast/i9n39 RSS: https://feeds.transistor.fm/nerd-on-tour-podcast Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZvspP4gu3fdAD4Nx2OQBkJi9za-qEj5G Let's connect Threads: https://www.threads.com/@nerdontour Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nerdontour/ X: https://x.com/nerdontour LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/piotrekbodera/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nerdontour/ Telegram: https://t.me/nerdontourFeed Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@nerdontour BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/nerdontour.bsky.social Support Nerd on Tour Podcast If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and share it with a fellow nomad. 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