A few years ago I sold all my stuff to explore the world, creating 12 startups in 12 months and building $1M+/y companies as an indie maker such as Nomad List and Remote OK. I'm also a big pusher of remote work and async and analyze the effects it has on society. Follow me on Twitter or see my list of posts. My first book MAKE is out now. Contact me
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Taipei is boring, and maybe that's not such a bad thing

Asia, Taiwan, Tech, Travel, Nomad List, Remote working
May 3, 2017

I lived in šŸ‡¹šŸ‡¼ Taiwan for 3 months. Here’s my TL;DR on Taipei: great food, friendly people, mellow vibes, great for working, great infrastructure and slightly boring but in a good way. Here’s what happened:

Why visit Taipei?

Soooo….I’m not brand namedropping, but I wanted to see if my algorithm for cities was getting accurate. I’m User #0, so how about it tells me where to go and seeing if it was actually right?

When I went on Nomad List and selected mild (not too hot) weather, fast internet, safe and relatively cheap, it kept recommending me Taipei. It wasn’t always #1 but, consistently in the top 5 for those queries. Now I was in Bali, so it was only a few hours away.

I’d been to Taipei before in 2014, but only for a week. I was a noobmad. I stayed in the city and tourist center (around Taipei Main Station):

More pics of Taipei, as requested by @marckohlbrugge ^___0 pic.twitter.com/ZtWGcQ9SL1

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) August 28, 2014

Terrible decision. Back then I remember it felt mostly just really boring to me. There wasn’t much to do, it wasn’t that lively and nobody spoke English. I mostly saw some tourist attractions (of which there were, like, about 4, haha). But didn’t really gave it a chance.

Let’s try Taiwan again

It’s been 3 years since. And cities change. And I changed. A LOT. So let’s try again and stay for a bit longer. How about 3 months?

I arrived. First thing (and I recommend everyone does this wherever they arrive ALWAYS), get a 4G SIM card:

It’s only 1000 TWD (or $33) for UNLIMITED 4G! And it’s VERY fast. The only other country I know that has this for foreigners is South Korea.

If you tell me 4G is not trivial, it’s not for me. It literally affects how much I like a place now. It means I can talk, share photos/videos with my friends wherever I am. It means I can go anywhere, open my laptop, tether my 4G and do some work. 4G should be a human right.

When I arrived for the first week I booked an Airbnb in Datong.

There’s a few hipster areas in Taipei and I’d say this is one of them. I don’t have much to say about Datong. It’s better than the tourist center around Taipei Main Station. But also not much to do. The other hipster area is Da’an, where I moved soon after. Let’s talk about Da’an.

Da’an

Da’an is my favorite area. It’s the center of Taipei for fashion, shopping, hipsters, mixed Taiwanese and foreigners a like. Da’an itself is pretty giant and it has lots of sub-neighborhoods with third wave coffee shops, boutique vintage fashion and lots of excellent (and cheap) Taiwanese and (not so cheap) Western food.

šŸ‡¹šŸ‡¼Taipei pic.twitter.com/lX4xHYKyVd

— Pieter Levels @ šŸ‡ÆšŸ‡µ (@levelsio) April 25, 2017

For Taiwanese, Da’an is supposedly expensive af. But internationally it really isn’t. I had a good deal but I paid $23/night for a clean studio with bathroom right smack in the center. The more normal price would be $40/night. That’s $1,200/month for an Airbnb. That means the rent is generally half here, so $600/month. As I said, that’s pretty cheap to live in a really cool area. I was told houses here cost upwards of a million dollars. Okay.

Economy

Now, if you’re not Taiwanese. You might already have been in contact with Taiwan in your daily life. Your iPhone is made in China, but by a company from here called Foxconn. You used to have a laptop that always broke and it was probably by a company from here called ASUS. You might not have an ASUS laptop but there’s a 30% chance your laptop is still made by a Taiwanese company called Quanta, who actually makes the laptops sold by Dell, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba. Their microchips are great and they’re probably in almost every electronic device you have made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC). This is most of their entire economy. It’s high tech AF. And it’s for a reason. They’re smart AF too. They’re the highest educated people in the world.

There’s more reasons for this. Historically, China’s intellectual elite fled during the Cultural Revolution as it wanted to reset its culture to zero (just like Cambodia did). That meant libraries were burnt down, scientists and professors were persecuted and murdered. Meanwhile, Taiwan did the opposite organizing the Chinese Cultural Renaissance. That’s why many people have said to find the real old China, you have to go to Taiwan, because China destroyed their history. That’s very interesting.

You might also know Taiwan from their politics. They call themselves China, but they’re not actually China (not anymore). The big story here is that the young people don’t really give AF and just wanna be happy and do cool stuff. It’s kinda clickbaity to still call yourself China. Get over yourself, Taiwan, it’s 2017.

Infrastructure

The fact that they’re high-tech means that their internet is super fast and solid everywhere. Their 4G is also on-par with the best in the world, which is Korea. Generally, technology is approached just very proper in Taiwan. Government somehow gets it and most interfaces you’ll use in Taiwan will work very very well.

I can only guess here but it seems the government is filled with smart high educated tech-enabled people. The government even has a Minister of Digital Affairs, who’s a self-described ā€œcivic-hackerā€. How great is that? Take notice countries!

Non-digital infrastructure is also solid. Roads are not broken down like in South East Asia. Sidewalks are all pedestrian and wheelchair friendly. A lot of thought seems to go into the way people live, work and play in this city.

Culture

Taipei pic.twitter.com/lX4xHYKyVd

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) April 25, 2017

So what’s the vibe here? Culturally? Well, it’s pretty unique. You can see the strong Japanese influence in their aesthetics. It’s still here. Girls wear giant lenses to make their eyes look bigger (that’s a predominantly Japanese thing) and their make up looks strongly Japanese, not at all Chinese. ā€œOh Pieter, why do you talk about how people look?ā€. Well, because it’s a pretty good indicator of their cultural influences.

Generally, fashion seems a bit behind, let’s say 5 years, of that of for example Korea (which leads the trends in Asia now). In that way it’s a lot like the Netherlands, people don’t have a strong focus on dressing up (especially not outside the hipster areas of Taipei) and dress mostly functional.

Then there’s that definite Western vibe. As in, people talk, move and behave very Western (unlike the rest of Asia). Now, there’s not many foreigners here at all. So I can only presume that comes from the Taiwanese diaspora (that means people living outside the country), which is massive and predominantly in America. That means you get lots of American-born Taiwanese and Taiwanese studying and working in America. You know a few of them probably, like YouTube’s co-founder Steve Chen and Yahoo’s co-founder Jerry Yang.

City

What about the city? Taipei has one skyscraper. It’s Taipei 101. And it’s looks lonely, as if it could use some friends. There’s a reason for this though, Taiwan is heavily prone to earthquakes. And skyscrapers aren’t a very good idea then. There are more lots of 100m+ buildngs, but they’re not exactly skyscrapers.

Now, apartments here look clean and modern from the inside. But really dirty from the outside.

My new house in Taipei could use a rinse ā€ā™€ļø pic.twitter.com/vmcKDj3Ohk

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) March 7, 2017

Someone said it’s because when it’s typhoon season, all the buildings get a natural rinse. Good point. They also just don’t seem to care about the outside of the buildings. Just like the Hong-Kongnese really.

It’s so calm

Another thing is, it’s a dense city but somehow it’s not busy on the streets. There’s so much space. I’ve never seen any crowds in the street in Taipei. That has a very calming effect.

Actually, yes, that’s the keyword. Taipei is calm. It doesn’t stress me out like Tokyo or Bangkok or (sometimes) Bali does. It’s not loud here. It’s not busy. People are mellow. I’d go as far to again call Taipei boring, but unlike when I was here 3 years ago, now I like that it’s boring. It’s boring in a good way.

It means I don’t have to wait in lines everwhere, it means most restaurants are not crowded when you want to eat there. It means when you’re on a bicycle, actually in most little side streets (not the main roads though) you can safely drive in the streets. Generally, the sounds of the city are quite soft too.

And yes, before you ask, they have cats, ofcourse they do and they’re super cute:

Sleepy Taipei scooter cat is sleepy ^___^ pic.twitter.com/DYMFLmT176

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) February 16, 2017

Air quality

There’s one big thing that makes it hard to live in Taipei. The air is one of the most unhealthy in Asia.

And it’s not so much their fault, but China’s. When the wind blows east, China’s pollution goes straight to Taiwan. But it doesn’t pass over. Taiwan is pretty much an island that is half one big mountain that crosses it. And that mountain is so high it blocks the air pollution, so it gets stuck. I don’t really know what you can do about this except blowing up that mountain. But that’s probably unfavorable.

The unfortunate thing is, unless China fixes up its game, you don’t want to be living here for longer than a few years. Realistically, it will reduce your lifespan drastically.

Food

Okay, this is obviously the best part about Taiwan. The food here is excellent and comparatively cheap. It’s pretty much Chinese food. But it’s quite different. It has the tastes of traditional food, that means it’s less oily, less sweet than in China. A similar thing happened with Korean food, before the Korean War it wasn’t spicy at all. It was neutral. But when times get tough, you have to mask bad ingredients with, lots of spice and oil. That means in Taiwan, the flavors are generally much more nuanced and subtle. I like that.

Taipei Lunch

8x Xiaolongbao (or Chinese soup dumplings)

$4.96 (150TWD) pic.twitter.com/wT12oX46T0

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) April 24, 2017

There’s Xiaolongbao (literally: bamboo steamed buns). As a foreigner, you would call them Dim Sum. But it’s not really Dim Sum. It’s Xiaolongbao. They are hot and freshly made out of dough and have soup and meat inside. You get them in a basket of 8 for about $4.

Taipei lunch

Beef noodles

$3.20 (100TWD) pic.twitter.com/NqFvPdZYob

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) March 20, 2017

You can order them with other stuff like egg pancakes:

Midnight breakfast in Taipei with @reustle pic.twitter.com/J797BxSGpk

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) March 18, 2017

Arguably more famous is Taiwan’s beef noodles. I like them, but also don’t think they’re THAT special. Kinda similar to Vietnamese stewed beef noodles. You get a bowl of them for about $3.

Taipei dinner

Mixed pork and vegetable wonton soup w/ noodles

$2.47 (75TWD) pic.twitter.com/9xmcbyNVpi

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) April 13, 2017

Then there’s Wonton. Similar to Xialongbao, it’s dough packages with meat in them. But in Taiwan with a very different less sweet taste, maybe even slightly bitter. They sell it in a soup with vegetables for $2.50.

The only issue I have with Taiwanese food is, it’s relatively light weight. You need to eat a lot to fill up. I have to embarassingly admit every week I had to run to McDonald’s just to maintain my (already skinny) weight, and I’ve heard I’m not the only one.

EasyCard

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room (not really) and one of the coolest tings I’ve seen in a city ever: Taiwan’s EasyCard. It’s the most modern implementation of a digital payment and access card I’ve seen in any country. Most of us now use some form of touch-based public transport card where we’re from. But in Taiwan, you use this card not just for public transport, but for EVERYTHING.

I just bought a Hello Kitty key ring that I can charge w/ $$$ + it lets me pay for metro, taxi, coffee, dinner and groceries in Taiwan pic.twitter.com/clVzuqjyIh

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) February 15, 2017

The best thing is they can be in any shape or form. Mine is a Hello Kitty keychain with a chip inside

Using public transport with šŸŽ€Hello Kitty pic.twitter.com/ZOhQjbFHUo

— Pieter Levels @ šŸ‡ÆšŸ‡µ (@levelsio) February 16, 2017

I can access public transport with it.

Renting a public bike in Taipei with Hello Kitty pic.twitter.com/dZcSSl8jZJ

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) February 17, 2017

Or access my coworking space. There’s many more appliactions, like renting a small car (kinda like ZipCar).

It’s really how it should be everywhere. And this chip can be easily integrated into phones in a few years. In fact, Taiwanese are ahead with that. They cut open the EasyCard, take out the tiny chip and glue it inside their phone case:

Public bicycles

There’s one more thing you can do with your EasyCard.

That is renting a public bicycle called YouBike.

They’re all over the city and it makes Taipei very attractive to live.

Renting a public bike in Taipei with Hello Kitty pic.twitter.com/dZcSSl8jZJ

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) February 17, 2017

First time, you register on a terminal next to each bike stall and from then you just walk up to a bicycle, touch your card, and it’s yours. I think the first half hour is free, then it’s 20TWD/hour, or $0.66/hour. The laws about bikes are weird, they want you to ride on the street. But that’s fairly dangerous in Taipei traffic (did I already tell you Taiwanese transform into crazy monsters when they drive cars), so you drive mostly on the sidewalks. Luckily, sidewalks are giant in Taipei and easily accomodate both pedestrians and slow moving bicycles.

Live streaming from my public bicycle driving to Taipei 101 because 4G ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø pic.twitter.com/5mPkA9HvnH

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) February 17, 2017

There’s an iOS app called YouBike in Chinese. But if you click the Map icon, it’ll show you a map of bicycle stalls around you to pick up or park your bicycle.

Trying to create a vicarious IRL GTA V via Twitter vibe for you here so I'm cycling through Taipei at night and streaming it pic.twitter.com/ogwqPGKktK

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) February 17, 2017

The bicycle has an in-built lock (which is a bit wieldy). But it means, you can park anywhere and go in for a coffee and then drive to the next place.

Now, I was hiking on a mountain and suddenly my phone rang.

I heard ā€œNi hao, xiasfdl kjsafd ksjd fsjfdā€.

I was like ā€œu wot m8ā€.

And he was like ā€œsir, where is your bikeā€.

OOOOOOH SHIIIIIIIIIIIITTTT YES THE BIKE THAT I RENTED 4 DAYS AGO. OOOOOHH FUUUAAAARARKRakrRKarkAKRkararkaKRkarakr.

ā€œUmm, I think I forgot to bring it backā€.

-ā€œOkay, well park it in the bike stall ASAP and call us, okay?ā€.

So I did. But I was on a hiking trip so it took me a few days to get back to Taipei.

When I came back, I called them and they told me ā€œyou have to pay 9000 TWD ($300) in fees for renting the bikeā€.

I was like ā€œbut but but butā€ and tried to do my puppy face over the phone.

silence

ā€œOkay but only this time, next time you pay, now you pay 200 TWD ($6), okay?ā€

  • ā€œYES THANK YOU GOOD TAIWAN MANā€

So don’t forget returning it to a bicycle stall though. They’ll hunt you down and make you pay. Maybe not the first time. Definitely the second time.

Taipei cafes are another thing

I don’t think Taiwanese realize they have a very peculiar type of coffee place. It’s hard to explain how they’re so different. But, they all have this desk lamp:

They all play this kinda emo music (yes, I love it):

In the day it’s a mix of people chatting and working, but in the evening it becomes mostly NTU students studying. Really great vibes cause everybody is silent and hyperfocused.

The cafes are filled with activist posters. A big thing now you’ll see here is rainbow flags as the law for legalizing gay marriage is going through parliament now. There’s a cool lefty East-Berlin vibe in these cafes. Not communist though. They don’t like communism here for certain well-known reasons šŸ˜› (oh dare I make a joke)

It's hard to get across why Taiwanese cafes are so amazing, but I'll try: they look like this and play this music https://t.co/hBhkn2ybnW pic.twitter.com/5JKHYtGgM3

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) April 21, 2017

There’s a whole area dedicated to this. Well, kinda. It’s Wenzhou Street near the university:

I’ve seen these kinds of cafes in only one place before. Amsterdam’s UVA university has literally the same old run-down cafes where people hang out and study. But they drink mostly beer, not coffee šŸ™‚

There’s also a web app called Cafe Nomad, dedicated to cafes to work from in Taiwan. I met the maker at the nomad meetup and it was inspired by Nomad List (yay!!!). It’s a great app.

Nightlife

So someone asked about nightlife. Now we’re in Asia. And if you’re from Holland like me, discussing nightlife in the rest of the world, is like, well, well, it gets dark fast. Because for us nightlife is electronic music. And we like refined stuff. Like British, Germans and French do. Electronic music in America has been behind for a decade (but is now starting to catch up) and electronic music in Asia has mostly been a mutated form of American trash EDM made even worse. Clubbing in Asia is predominantly sitting in a group around a table ordering expensive whisky and cola mixers and posing how rich you are. It’s a terrible fucking joke.

Not in Taiwan though. There’s actually some good clubs here:

There’s Korner, where I went a few times, where they’ve hosted artists like Nicolas Jaar and Ben Klock. It’s pitch black without decoration, like a club should be:

Nomad scene

A few years back there wasn’t even a nomad scene here. This year though, we’re seeing it change slowly. A more diverse set of people is becoming nomad and for many Thailand and Bali are simply too easy and superficial. I get it. I feel it. People are considering Taiwan as a place to live and work. It’s probably suited for the more mature, intellectual, nerdy and introvert nomad. Life isn’t in your face here like South East Asia.

Yesterday's @nomadlist #taipei meetup was super fun thx every1 that came by! Pics by @reustle here https://t.co/wsnuXClEJB pic.twitter.com/fyuuLgsoah

— Nomad List (@NomadList) March 11, 2017

I organized 2 nomad meetups here, which actually got out about 20 to 40 people.

I'm at the @nomadlist meetup in Taipei with 35 people and I think we took over the cocktail bar pic.twitter.com/Z53dy1QoVS

— Pieter Levels @ (@levelsio) March 10, 2017

So the nomads are here, but they’re not very densely socializing. Again this just means it’s a different type of nomad. More introvert. That’s okay.

Socializing

What about locals? They’re mostly very friendly, happy to talk to you and tell you where to go. The only problem is that the English here is probably the worst in Asia (except for maybe Japan, even Koreans speak better English). They literally can’t or won’t speak it. Usually you can get basic things across. Hand gestures will work. But a deeper conversation in English. Hell no. You’ll need to learn some Mandarin for that.

If you want to meet locals who do speak English, you’ll find yourself around Taiwanese who have studied abroad or mixed Taiwanese. That’s cool but it does limit who can be your friends.

With a nomad scene that is quite introvert and a limited pool of locals to make friends with if you don’t speak Mandarin, Taiwan can definitely become very isolating. It’s a thing in East Asia in general, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, they can make you feel more alone than you’ve ever felt. Remember this before you visit. I’m not saying it’s terrible. But it’s a thing.

Leisure

If you like hiking (I’m not a super big fan), you’re in the right country. Taiwan’s mountains and hills are perfect for it. There’s even hills inside Taipei where you can go hiking.

What else is there to do? I will be honest. Not a lot. Taiwan is relatively small.

Near Taipei, there’s Beitou, a famous hot spring village built by Japanese.

You can also do city trips to Taichung and from there visit Sun Moon Lake, this is the biggest lake in Taiwan and home to aboriginal tribes. I went there. I bicycled around the lake. I can’t say it was terribly interesting.

I also went to Jiufen, a town that Spirited Away’s anime was modeled after. It’s cool to drive there, you’ll go way up in the mountains and then there’s a cute small town. It’s absolutely filled with Chinese, Korean and Japanese tourists though. Cute, but also not very interesting to me.

So yeah, leisure, eh? I know Alexander, a somewhat famous nomad living in Taipei does lots of urban exploring. His blog is also full of stuff to do. I’m sure you can do more stuff, but it’ll take some effort.

So yes, Taipei is boring. In a way this is good, if you’re looking for a place to write a book, finish a project, come to Taipei. @oskarth was in Taipei at the same time as me and it worked for him:

Three months of TODOs done in Taipei @levelsio pic.twitter.com/h1UjjthIWy

— OSKAR (@oskarth) April 27, 2017

In Taipei, you won’t be distracted by the chaos of most cities.

Was Nomad List right?

Mostly, yes. One thing it got very wrong was the weather. It told me it was ā€œmildā€. As in not too cold, not too hot. That was based on temperature averages though. What it didn’t consider is that Taiwan has some of the most wide-range climates. It literally went from 30’C in the day to 10’C at night. The temperatures changed so hard, it actually gave me a cold sometimes as my nose couldn’t keep up with it (kinda like walking into A/C areas does).

Conclusion

Here’s my TL;DR on Taipei: great food, friendly people, mellow vibes, great for working, great infrastructure (like 4G, roads, etc.), slightly boring but in a good way.

The most important word though is, Taipei is mellow. Maybe boring. But in a good way.

Update

How cool is this, Taiwan’s government read this post and replied:

Taiwan government just announced to me over Twitter they're working on a visa for remote workers! They'll be the first country to do so! https://t.co/YmxVtNBS4F

— Pieter Levels @ šŸ‡ÆšŸ‡µ (@levelsio) May 3, 2017

(Timelapse by CƩdric Charlesia, thanks @x3nome and @olimuchacha for fact-checking this post)

P.S. I'm on Twitter too if you'd like to follow more of my stories. And I wrote a book called MAKE about building startups without funding. See a list of my stories or contact me. To get an alert when I write a new blog post, you can subscribe below:

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2016
06 Feb
Day 4 of Learning 3d: @shoinwolfe visits the actual street I'm modeling šŸ®šŸ˜ŽšŸ®
2016
03 Feb
Day 1 of Learning 3d šŸŽ® I learnt how to make shapes, move, rotate and scale them + how to texturize, and add colored lights šŸ’†
2016
02 Feb
I'm Learning 3d šŸŽ®
2016
27 Jan
The things I have to do to read an email sent to me by my government
2016
12 Jan
How to use your iPhone as a better Apple TV alternative (with VPN)
2015
23 Dec
Here's a crazy idea: automatically pause recurring subscription of users when you detect they aren't actually using your app
2015
17 Dec
Stop calling night owls lazy, we're not
2015
16 Dec
We are the heroes of our own stories
2015
25 Oct
There will be 1 billion digital nomads by 2035
2015
21 Oct
Tobias van Schneider interviewed me about everything
2015
18 Oct
Why doesn't Twitter just asks its users to pay?
2015
17 Oct
Punk died the moment we learnt that the world WAS in fact getting better, not worse
2015
15 Oct
Stop being everyone's friend
2015
14 Oct
Vaporwave is the only music that fits the feeling futuristic Asian mega cities give me
2015
09 Sep
We live in a world built by dead people
2015
01 Sep
Why global roaming data solutions don't make any sense
2015
26 Aug
How to export your Slack's entire archive as HTML message logs
2015
24 Aug
How to play GTA V on your MacBook (and any other PC game)
2015
14 May
I uploaded 4 terabyte over Korea's 4G, and paid $48
2015
08 May
How I sped up Nomad List by 31% with SPDY, CloudFront and PageSpeed
2015
04 May
My weird code commenting style based on HTML tags
2015
01 May
Now is probably the time to make HTTPS the default on all your sites and apps
2015
17 Apr
Do the economics of remote work retreats make any sense?
2015
17 Apr
Don't grow up
2015
06 Apr
Calling people "expat" or "nomad" is just as irrelevant as calling internet users "netizens"
2015
02 Apr
How I built Remote | OK and launched it to #1 on Product Hunt
2015
29 Mar
Our society is not in line with our natural reward systems, and alcohol and drug abuse proves it
2015
28 Mar
Makers have become the invisible hand
2015
07 Mar
How technology is shaping our future: billions of self-employed makers and a few mega corporations
2015
22 Jan
We are the orcas at Sea World
2014
31 Dec
Love, Anxiety and Startups: My Year in 50 Tweets
2014
15 Dec
How to backup your Linode or Digital Ocean VPS to Amazon S3
2014
01 Dec
The total chaos that the dawn of the 21st century has become
2014
23 Nov
How I hacked Slack into a community platform with Typeform
2014
05 Nov
How to successfully build a community around your startup
2014
27 Oct
The ideal place to start a startup is not necessarily in Silicon Valley
2014
23 Oct
"If I had this, I would be happy"
2014
14 Oct
This is what happens when FlightFox copies your entire site without attribution
2014
02 Oct
GIFbook, the first animated GIF flipbook
2014
01 Oct
On Thailand's immigration police targeting digital nomads
2014
13 Sep
Why traveling makes you feel lost
2014
02 Sep
How I build my minimum viable products
2014
31 Aug
How I built Nomad Jobs, a remote job board for 100% distributed startups
2014
27 Aug
Danism & Rae - Sirens
2014
16 Aug
How I got my startup to #1 on both Product Hunt and Hacker News by accident
2014
15 Aug
Why does Generation Y feel so lost? And what's the cure?
2014
23 Jul
Bali is the magical voodoo spirit island of Asia
2014
05 Jul
Ideals, fears and the script of life
2014
22 Jun
How to access anyone's Telegram messages without unlocking their phone
2014
14 Jun
The achiever in crisis
2014
12 Jun
How I did not sell my startup today
2014
07 Jun
The free fall that is coming home after traveling the world
2014
02 Jun
Never dismiss your ideals as post-adolescent fantasy
2014
31 May
My 3rd startup: Tubelytics, the real-time dashboard for YouTube publishers
2014
29 May
How Go Fucking Do It raised $30,000+ in pledges in less than a month
2014
24 May
We have an ideologically broken and personally unfulfilling society
2014
24 May
On self-funding startups
2014
22 May
Run through ideas quickly
2014
11 May
If you can't express yourself by email, you're not worthy of anyone's time
2014
19 Apr
My 2nd startup: Go Fucking Do It, set a goal + deadline and if you fail, you pay
2014
18 Apr
Over 2,000 people played their inbox with Play My Inbox
2014
13 Apr
Celebrating my birthday North Korean style
2014
02 Apr
How Automation Left Us Feeling Empty
2014
09 Mar
Play My Inbox, collect music from your inbox and playlist them
2014
01 Mar
I'm Launching 12 Startups in 12 Months
2014
14 Feb
How to protect your backups from solar flares with a faraday cage
2014
06 Feb
Linkoban - Oh Oh
2014
05 Feb
Nationality is an accident of birth
2014
18 Jan
How I Went From 100 To 0 Things (Or How I Was Robbed of All My Stuff)
2014
04 Jan
All Watched Over by Machines of Living Grace
2013
31 Dec
Celebrating NYE 2014 in Hong Kong
2013
30 Dec
How I ended up in Hong Kong (or my adventures in the New York of the East)
2013
28 Nov
It's practically impossible for regular people to buy Bitcoin
2013
27 Nov
2014 is the year techstep drum and bass makes its comeback
2013
25 Nov
Rinse FM, here's your podcast feed we've always wanted
2013
23 Nov
How I travel the world with just a carry-on bag
2013
23 Nov
How I spent the night with Singapore's migrant workers
2013
22 Nov
Why I want to live in Singapore
2013
21 Nov
How I predict Bitcoin's price by tracking Twitter mentions
2013
04 Nov
James Blake & Chance The Rapper - Life Round Here
2013
03 Nov
Sasha Keable - Careless Over You
2013
30 Oct
My not so great time in Vietnam
2013
27 Oct
Wiley - And Again
2013
27 Oct
The myth of a globalized world
2013
19 Oct
Remote working is the future
2013
19 Oct
What happens when you're #1 on Hacker News for a day
2013
14 Oct
Steve Summers - New Surroundings
2013
12 Oct
What I learnt from bootstrapping my startup from Thailand in six months
2013
11 Oct
Palms Trax - Equation
2013
11 Oct
Cash means controlling your own destiny
2013
24 Sep
You're just a piece of a heartless shitty machine that makes money
2013
16 Sep
Automation Will Free Us From the Endless Consumption/Production Cycle We're In
2013
16 Sep
National Borders Have Become Irrelevant
2013
04 Sep
A Culture of Distraction is Not The Problem
2013
20 Aug
Governments are always ready to grab the greatest degree of power that the people will give them
2013
17 Aug
You constantly need to be painting or it looks like total crap
2013
09 Aug
Oversight: Thank You For Volunteering, Citizen
2013
07 Aug
Stripe launches beta in the Netherlands
2013
22 Jul
Google+ spamming people every 2 weeks to put up a profile photo
2013
20 Jul
The 100 Thing Challenge – From 200 to 20 things in 3 months
2013
17 Jul
Living in a Hotel
2013
16 Jul
The Story of my Visa Run to Tachileik in Myanmar
2013
16 Jul
This is what "acting professionally" results in
2013
08 Jul
Lockah - Sly Winking Usury
2013
30 Jun
Stand-up comedians on creativity
2013
24 Jun
With jobs gone, will robot owners pay people's income?
2013
24 Jun
Money as an enslavement method
2013
19 Jun
Make money where prices are high, spend it where prices are low. Does income arbitrage work?
2013
16 Jun
Finding an apartment in Chiang Mai
2013
13 Jun
Add HTTPS to NGINX for free and help make the world more secure
2013
11 Jun
Co-Working Spaces in Chiang Mai: PunSpace
2013
10 Jun
Moving to Chiang Mai
2013
04 Jun
My Bad Day At The Co-Working Space
2013
03 Jun
If it's in the news, don't worry about it
2013
29 May
The 24-Hour Coffee Place in Bangkok: Too Fast To Sleep
2013
28 May
Nosaj Thing x Chance the Rapper - Paranoia
2013
23 May
"There simply are no other fields in which I can spend $100 tomorrow and set up a new business..."
2013
21 May
"Speaking as a graduate of one, top schools teach you credentialing and ladder climbing..."
2013
17 May
Visiting Koh Samui, the island of paradise
2013
05 May
From dive bar to roof-top bar to roof-top pool in Bangkok
2013
02 May
"To awaken quite alone in a strange town..."
2013
01 May
Co-working spaces in Bangkok: Launchpad
2013
24 Apr
The 100 Thing Challenge
2013
24 Apr
"Do whatever you're drawn to"
2013
23 Apr
Co-working spaces in Bangkok: Hubba
2013
22 Apr
Reset your life
2013
09 Mar
OSX Terminal Tricks
2013
09 Mar
OSX for Windows users
2013
09 Mar
How I switched from PC to Mac in less than 7 days
2013
21 Feb
Black Mirror is the best TV series I have seen in years
2013
20 Feb
Why overnight success is a myth
2013
20 Feb
Constraints make people more creative
2013
13 Feb
Kitty Pryde & Riff Raff - Orion's Belt
2013
13 Feb
Dedicating our lives to what is essentially an organization to make money
2013
11 Feb
Watch The Pirate Bay: Away From the Keyboard
2013
16 Jan
My new music video for rap duo RASA
2013
14 Jan
What if money was no object in your life?
2013
03 Jan
Why attention to detail matters, even if no one notices the details
2013
03 Jan
In the 21st century, Maria Montessori shows to be more relevant than ever
2012
30 Dec
Unless the job itself is your dream, stay the fuck away from salaried jobs
2012
30 Nov
Success is One Big Hoax
2012
18 Oct
The death of the corporate drone
2012
13 Oct
The West's unemployment problem is permanent
2012
04 Oct
New Panda Mix Show branding and website
2012
29 Aug
Headhunterz - Power of Music
2012
21 Aug
Essendle interview on my music and my YouTube show
2012
07 Aug
The XX - Angels
2012
02 Aug
Spenzo - Ova
2012
02 Aug
Anna Lunoe & Diamond Lights - Stronger (Willy Joy Remix)
2012
10 Jul
Herve feat. Ronika - How Can I Live Without You (Make it Right) (Death Rose Cult Remix)
2012
09 Jul
Pheo - Nyquil
2012
05 Jul
I love minimalist living
2012
05 Jul
Why buying YouTube views is bad
2012
05 Jul
Citizen - Deep End
2012
03 Jul
D!RTY AUD!O intro
2012
01 Jul
Anybody can monetize their passion (now)
2012
28 Jun
Diplo - No Problem
2012
27 Jun
Skream - Thoughts of You
2012
21 Jun
TEED - Blood Pressure
2012
19 Jun
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
2012
17 Jun
Happiness maximization vs. profit maximization
2012
16 Jun
Music genres are dead
2012
15 Jun
Make a great product
2012
15 Jan
Rasa - Noem 't Wat Je Wilt
2011
23 Dec
Rasa - Hard & Soul
2011
15 Nov
Earth