#67: Next Nomad Hotspot, How Couchsurfing Lost Its Way, James Clear on Book Writing
A nomadic writer's guide to borderless living.
Hey folks 👋
I’m writing to you from The Next Web conference in Amsterdam this week.
Ahead of my panel on hustle culture and the future of work here tomorrow, I wanted to share a quick story I published on Medium last week:
🍹💻 Is the Digital Nomad Dream Dead?
If you’re after a ticket, use the code TNWLOVING for 55% off (just keep in mind the event has already started at this point).
—Lauren
🧭🇪🇨 Latin America, The Next Mecca For Digital Nomads (Worldcrunch)
From Ecuador to Colombia to Mexico, Latin American countries are joining the list of places offering nomad visas and tax incentives. Policymakers hope to attract the global salaries of remote workers, who governments estimate will spend 36% of their monthly income in the local economy.
🏝️🛋️ Paradise Lost: The Rise and Ruin of Couchsurfing (Input)
Andrew Fedorov delves into the 18-year history of the Couchsurfing subculture in this wild ride of a longform story. What began as a utopian dream of a cross-border, party-hard travel community has today morphed into a controversial for-profit company known mostly for its toxic work culture.
🎬💼 Would You Let Colleagues Decide Your Salary? (Bloomberg)
This mini-doc (~10 mins) introduces the idea of radical transparency in the workplace, examining its impact on organisational culture, accountability, trust, and performance. The video’s main case study is Netflix, which has 9,400 employees and uses a governance model of sociocracy.
💪🏢 Hard Work Isn’t the Point of the Office (The Atlantic)
An examination of “hard work” and “soft work”, prompted by a Microsoft study claiming remote work has caused “static and siloed collaboration” and employees have struggled to “acquire and share new information”. TLDR: It sounds like Microsoft is really struggling to build a remote work culture.
🎙️⛵ The Creator Economy Boom and Life on a Nomad Sailboat (Indie Hackers)
Indie Hackers founder Courtland Allen interviews John O’Nolan of Ghost in this podcast episode. Their conversation spans open source, digital nomads, the creator economy, and why John decided to live full-time on a sailboat after years of flying around the world.
✍️📚 How James Clear is Writing His Next Book (Every)
Atomic Habits author James Clear shares his creative process, outlining the steps he’s taking to move from 600 pages of research to next bestselling title. From his favourite productivity tools to “creating the most potent form of an idea in the fewest words possible”, this post is full of wisdom and insights.
🏛️ Nomad Politics
I interviewed CityLab journalist and NYU professor John Surico about the impact of remote work on US cities, why urban policymakers are turning their attention to digital nomads, and the future of community-focused ownership models. Watch or listen below 👇
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