What would they say, those Neolithic nomads of the Eurasian steppe, if they could see their modern namesakes? While our ancestors’ itinerant lives were driven by the need to find fresh pasture for livestock, the digital nomads of the 21st century travel in order to see the world. They sleep not in tents and yurts, but in hostels and Air-bnbs. In place of a hardscrabble existence, today’s nomads, armed with only a laptop and a dream, pursue a life of ease and the sort of work-life balance that might actually deserve to be called balanced. 

The idea of working remotely while traveling has only been possible for the past decade, thanks to the increasing availability of mobile internet and the transition of many white-collar jobs into the virtual world of emails and video calls. Accord...