I wasn’t planning on writing another post until I was actually back in the US, but I couldn’t resist. This is awesome.

I am sitting at McDonalds in Manila, and six Indian gentleman just sat next to me a little while ago. I had seen them earlier in the Hotel (Nichol’s Airport Hotel). They were also there the last two times we were at the Nichol’s!

After the second time I saw them, I started trying to figure out what was going on. They were always on their laptops downstairs (where there is wifi). There was never more than one, but it seemed that at least one was ALWAYS there.

I happened to get a room on the third floor. During the night I heard them coming in and out, speaking…well…Indian. When I looked on my laptop for wifi that night, I saw a surprisingly strong “NETGEAR” broadcast coming in. I didn’t make the connection until later that this was their router.

The third trip, I figured it out.

In my profession, I often work with outsourcers in India, Argentina, etc. I rarely outsource myself, but I have worked with clients who do and put me in direct content with their outsourced contractors. These contractors usually work in teams, but keep their firms small to avoid their ridiculously low rates from being dispersed too many ways.

These guys are one of those teams, living in the Philippines.

They live in the Hotel, eat breakfast at McDonalds each morning, and work round-the-clock hours by taking shifts.

It was very cool to see it from the other side. In the morning, they sat in a meeting over breakfast planning the delegation of the day’s projects. In the afternoon, they worked like crazy. And in the evening, most of them went out and partied, while one of them (the one who drew the short straw, obviously) stayed up all night appeasing irritable clients on Skype.

Of course, then I thought to myself “GOSH you’re nosy!”

Talk to you guys later.