At the start of every working week, millions of people around the world get ready for something they do endlessly, joylessly and badly: a meeting.

The root of the rotten meeting is simple, says Madeleine de Hauke, a meeting coach and teacher in an Antwerp Management School. “We spend our lives and huge sums of money in meetings, but there’s very little investment (投入) into helping people run them effectively.”

Madeleine is correct. Running a meeting well takes skill. People need to know ahead why they are meeting, what they are supposed to achieve, who really needs to be there and how they should contribute. That sounds obvious but it is not, as anyone who has been to a pointless meeting knows. Yet meeting leaders are expected to learn all this on the job. I cannot remember ever being taught how to organize a meeting, and I have rarely had a job requiring me to do it.

I also like Madeleine’s descriptions of what she calls the Meeting Monsters: people who destroy meetings with all sorts of annoying behaviors. There is the cruel off-topic speaker. The non-stop noise in the background. The confusing rambler (夸夸其谈者). The rude multi-tasker. The mute who says nothing but emails later to say what was decided will never work.

The trouble is, we are all meeting monsters sometimes, says Madeleine. A good meeting leader knows how to stop this behavior, or make sure it never starts by making it clear what will and won’t be allowed.

A bad meeting is like a virus. By failing to produce good decisions it often requires another meeting to be held, then another and another. Luckily there is no need for a vaccine, just a bit more care and preparation, and an understanding that there is no shame in being taught how to lead a meeting well.

The phrase "digital nomads(游民)" suggests joyful people who escape their daily work to travel the world, working with laptops on beaches. Relevant statistics regularly made the headline: “There will be one billion digital nomads by 2035".

I started researching digital nomads in 2015, and it took me three years to develop an understanding of what might be going on. I've met hundreds of people who think of themselves as digital nomads and many more who have dreamed about becoming one. The first thing I learned is that how people feel about the label “digital nomad" changes over time. People starting out often assume it's a permanent lifestyle, but that's rarely the case. One of my respondents explained, “I don't go around calling myself a digital nomad now. It's a bit silly." Indeed, there's still debate about whether it's a buzzword(时髦用语) or a real phenomenon. Some have even tried to figure out how “authentic" a digital nomad is, by how much they move from place to place. And there has been heated debate online about who's a real digital nomad, and who is merely self-promoting.

Most of the digital nomads I spoke to, who once had well-paid jobs, told me that they were escaping from deeply-rooted problems in the contemporary Western workplace. One of my respondents, Zeb, was working three restaurant jobs to pay the rent in San Francisco. The city sucked up all his time and money. This made him abandon his plans to sell recycled products online. Swapping expensive California for affordable South-East Asia helped Zeb to launch his own business. Lisette a skilled translator from Hamburg, Germany, is able to produce high-quality work quickly. She soon tired of the culture of presenteeism (出勤主义) at her workplace. She explained, “I'm efficient and I like to get the work done and leave on time. :Others were obviously scared to leave first, so they would sit at their desks and play with their computers."

Nearly 40% of British adults believe their jobs don't make sense. Their housing is of poor quality and too expensive, and the economies don't provide young people with wages they can live on. With these challenges, it's hardly surprising that those new to the world are already desperate to escape. Yet there are certain complexities that come with living as a citizen of the world. As Lsstte said, "Digital nomads can quickly become isolated." Digital nomads have to shoulder responsibility for almost every aspect of modern life: their mental health, daily routine, income, safety and shelter. Most digital nomads travel on tourist visas, which requires them to move regularly ---an experience my participants have described as disorienting (使人迷失方向的).

For those digital nomads who make a living as professional bloggers, it's also part of their job to sell the life-style. As a result, many try to present a stable and happy image online. Lissette explained, "There 's a danger---when my aunt sees my picture online, she thinks that everything looks so happy here on the beach. Of course, my digital identity always looks happier than my real life." But at some point, most of my research participants feel sorrow for the loss of some aspects, such as location dependence, regular work hours. or an office party. They miss some of the things they were escaping. Many nomads I've interviewed just pack up and go home without telling anyone. Being a digital nomad can be rewarding and offers an escape from the boring office hour. But it’s important that digital nomads think deeply about the importance of community and mental health in their lives. Freedom does not mean the same thing for everyone.