The State of Digital Nomads, Time Millionaires, You Are More Than Your Profession
This week’s best links about borderless living.
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Hej! I’m Lauren Razavi. This weekly(ish) post is where I share the best links about borderless living, plus updates about my writing, speaking, and activism work to enhance people’s understanding of digital nomads and the future of work. To keep in touch, follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my newsletter. Thanks for reading ✍️🌍✌️
Hey folks 👋
It’s been a big week for my friend (and my hacktivist idol, tbh) Santiago Siri.
Santi is the creator of Proof of Humanity, a cryptocurrency and identity verification system that drips universal basic income to people all over the world. If that sounds confusing, stick with me — you’ll get the gist of this next part regardless of whether you’re a decentralised tech geek or not.
First up, Grimes — known for her sick tunes, Marxist reading habits, and being Elon Musk’s baby mama — expressed interest in Proof of Humanity:
Grimes has millions of followers and already digs the concept of a decentralised UBI, so her attention is a great development for the project.
But then something even bigger happened:
Vitalik Buterin — the 27-year-old coding genius who created Ethereum — made an unexpected and pretty fucking radical move…
He bought $200k’s worth of the UBI coin powering Proof of Humanity and burned it, taking it out of circulation for good. The result? The UBI coin’s value skyrocketed — from an all-time low of USD $0.02 on Sep 26th to an all-time high of USD $1.39 on Oct 20th.
To understand why Vitalik did this, and why Santi’s so happy about it, we have to consider what an investment is at its core. It’s a belief in an idea — the global banking system, the nation-state, cryptocurrency, universal basic income, whatever.
Santi has built something that people believe in and rally around — from Grimes to Vitalik to this humble newsletter writer — with or without a financial return. I hope I can create something as impactful as that one day.
— Lauren
🌍 Links of the Week
🧠📈 The 2021 State of Digital Nomads Study (Nomad List)
Who is the average nomad? What are their politics? How much money do they make? What do they look for in a romantic partner? Indie hacker Pieter Levels pulls in Nomad List data to create the largest-ever study on digital nomads.
🏝️🛂 The World Needs a New Protocol for Global Travel (a16z)
Social media is brimming with chatter about the idea of a global passport these days, prompted in large part by the rise of digital nomads. In this book excerpt, futurist and bestselling author Parag Khanna sets out a vision for managing global mobility in the internet era.
📖💡 Move: The Forces Uprooting Us (Parag Khanna)
If you enjoyed that excerpt, the book itself is worth a read too. Parag highlights the impact of mass migrations alongside technology and climate change in the years ahead, with plenty of insights about digital nomads and free movement.
🕰️💃 Time Millionaires: The People in Pursuit of Leisure (Guardian)
Should we all be pursuing less lucrative but more fulfilling lives? This reported feature tackles that question, meeting a handful of “time millionaires” who are deemphasising work (and money) in favour of pleasure and leisure activities.
💼💅 A Profession Is Not a Personality (Atlantic)
Harvard Business School Professor Arthur C. Brooks explores the human tendency to self-objectify as “work machines and tools of performance”. Complete with actionable tips to improve your own relationship with professional identity and achievement.
✍️🤔 Who Are You Writing For? (The Long Conversation)
By understanding who you’re writing for, you can sharpen your skills and better focus your stories. In this post, Every’s Executive Editor Rachel Jepsen offers step-by-step guidance for writers to conceptualise and understand their audience more deeply.
🏛️ Nomad Politics
I interviewed Will Duffield, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute (US), as part of the Plumia Speaker Series on how to build a nomad internet country.
Our chat spans internet governance, decentralization and the future of nation-states. Watch or listen below 👇
