#71: Immigration as a Service, Crypto Cities, How David Perell Writes Essays
A nomadic writer's guide to borderless living.
Hey folks 👋
I learned a fun piece of slang this week: Norwegians use the word “Texas” to describe something that’s crazy or out of control. For example: “It’s completely Texas over at Town Hall! I can’t believe how inconsistent their work is!”
As one commenter notes: “It’s mostly for when things have a nature of lawlessness and exploitable disarray, like the housing market.” And another observes: “It’s always completely Texas. Nothing has ever been partially Texas.”
Does your language feature slang inspired by other cultures? Strange turns of phrase that don’t really translate? Hit reply to share your favourites—I’ll include some in an upcoming edition of the newsletter.
-Lauren
🌍 Links of the Week
🛂🇵🇹 Immigration as a Service: Move to Portugal for $1,600 (Rebase)
Nomad List creator Pieter Levels just launched a new digital product to help remote workers move to Portugal. Rebase removes or simplifies the paperwork, legal complexities and fees, reducing the friction for nomads seeking a better deal.
👣🗺️ Why Mobility Across Borders Is a Human Right (NOEMA)
Bestselling author Parag Khanna explores how climate change will accelerate cross-border migration in the decades ahead, and reveals why protecting global mobility as a human right is the best solution the world has to manage that shift.
💰🏙️ How to Build Crypto Cities (Vitalik Buterin)
The creator of Ethereum weighs in on how blockchains, crypto tokens and other web 3.0 tech can transform cities and economies, delivering radical and participatory new models of governance in the process.
💻📝 The Next Phase of Remote Work Will Be Even More Disruptive (Quartz)
It’s not yet December, but the news cycle is hitting that “end of year predictions” and “looking ahead” phase. This interview with a labour economist from Upwork predicts tomorrow’s remote workers “will rely less on PowerPoint culture and more on written culture”. I tend to agree.
💡✍️ How David Perell Writes an Essay (Superorganizers)
The prolific tweeter reveals his process for writing longform pieces that go viral on social media. This post includes interesting nuggets about Perell’s personal writing habits as well as his process for creating distinctive online essays.
🛬🇫🇷 The 15 Year Layover (GQ)
While the world looks forward to 2022, lately I’ve found myself looking back to stories written at the turn of the 21st century. This longform banger from 2003 tells the real story of Merhan Nasseri, the inspiration behind the Tom Hanks movie The Terminal.