Working from a small bag

Over the last few years, my set of requirements for work has become smaller and smaller.

This is now what I need to function as a podcaster (which is what I do):

• a laptop with some software and internet access (often via a phone hotspot)
• a microphone
• a charger (this can be a battery)

That’s it. I can get it all in a tiny backpack.

Who would have imagined just a few years ago that remote / distributed work would become possible for so many?

The shrinking of all-the-tech. The improvements in batteries. The widespread coverage of much of the globe with WiFi / cellular networks. The online-first approach to software.

There are days when you realise just how utterly fantastic all of this is. The fact that millions of people are now able to work with very little overhead is truly profound. The world that we live in was the stuff of Star Trek to the 10 year old me.

Let’s remember though that pretty much all of the innovations that allow this to happen have nothing to do with you or me. The complex societies that we now live in allow people to specialise in whatever field they’re interested in, fine tune their small corner of the world, and we all benefit from it.

I had nothing to do with the advent of computing, networking, audio recording, microphone technology… nothing. Not a single aspect of the things that I use and need did I have any part in creating, but I can use them, and so can you.

Whatever industry you’re in, the same is true. You’re standing on the shoulders of giants, as well as armies of the important, but unnamed, people who made it possible to live in the world we do.

So at the end of 2025, I’m having a moment of being grateful for the ability to do things that I love, things that pay the bills, because of the toil, determination and implacable natures of millions of people who came before I did.