Expressing curiosity regarding your third point: the time zones of Latin America are very friendly to USA work. How does the violence fare in more expat (pricier) locations?
I’m sorry for you that you and your friends(/family) have to deal with an unsafe environment. I’m curious what you mean by violence. I got into a database of potential consultants for a Latin American software company, and I’m open to input regarding the viability of this work life balance as a single male.
If you earn an american salary, by that I mean from an american company and in USD, you'll have no problem living comfortably in an upscale neighborhood i.e. the safest and with lots of amenities. The reason is, not only you are paid in a strong currency (compared to the local ones) but also the quantity is higher.
Now, by violence I mean mostly all things stemming from drug-trafficking (hitmen, kidnappings, racketeering, extortion, carjacking) most commonly found in central america but expanding to southern countries more and more. The safest cities were historically Montevideo in Uruguay and Santiago in Chile, I may be biased but I think Montevideo is still safe and I'm not sure about Santiago, unless you choose to live in the eastern side of the city [0]. EDIT: you may want to factor political instability in your decision. I encourage you to ask other expats about their experience and what they see in the future, they're well-off so they they're lucky to avoid unpleasant experiences the local population has to deal with (plus they can always return to the US). I personally would only live in Chile and Uruguay, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
Making it through the year without big health and financial setbacks. Enjoying the presence of the people close and dear to me. Play with our dog and cat. Trying to put the finishing touches on some of my personal projects.
settle in the netherlands (my family and i are moving to amsterdam in january).
it's going to be a huge change for us too -- going from a tropical country to an european city, not only not knowing the city itself (we've never been to AMS, only to London), but also, we don't speak any dutch (although my coworkers said i don't really need dutch, my wife and i are trying to learn it).
I think there is plenty who experience this, but I felt like a small breakthrough happen when I took command and only used Norwegian instead of falling back to English. It helped a lot and even if it is not the best, it's opening doors in my career here, in that I am able to get interviews with mostly Norwegian speaking companies. :)
I think you do well to learn Dutch. People here speak English well, the universities are a magnet for international students and especially Amsterdam is quite international, so changes are that you will order something in a cafe in your best dutch and they would not understand you, because you speak Dutch.
Your coworkers left out an important detail though: on the workfloor, in the shops, anywhere, speaking English is fine. When socializing, there you will face obstacles.
After work hours are for relaxing. So, having to speak in English makes it less optimal, even if the Dutch are really willing to accommodate you there. Quite naturally, people will drop to Dutch again during conversations. If one have to make jokes, common references and all the stuff for which you need a finer touch which your mother tongue provides for, falling back to a foreign langue is a degradation. 1) vocabulary, 2) emulation vs native speed.
If you are with six dutchies and you are the only one that forces everyone to have a "degraded experience" of a fun night, you do well to try to learn Dutch. Tell them to fuck off if they switch to English when you want them to speak Dutch, so you can learn.
You can be direct and honest with the dutch, that is appreciated. When people start to insult you, congratulations! They are joking and signaling they accept you as one of them. You should respond with another insult.
When we do something social, we plan. Don't just drop by and assume you will be invited over for dinner. Dutch people are anti-social or well organized, pick your perspective. This is definitely a difference with more tropical social climates.
If you move in January, brace for cold, dim days. When spring comes, everything will look nicer.
Good luck! In Amsterdam you won't need any Dutch, except occasionally when you have to sign some government papers.
But a little Dutch will certainly let you enjoy your stay a lot better!
> - Make some more meaningful open source contributions
What kind of project are you planning on contributing to? I keep telling myself that I should contribute to some Linux desktop project, but the problem I have is that everything seems to just work and I don't run into many issues to fix... :)
I'll be finishing a very boring, but well paying contract at the end of this year. After that, I'll be taking time off (potentially forever, since I'm already FI) to focus on things I care about:
1. Try out Zig and go back into hobby graphics programming/gamedev.
2. Decrease dopamine chasing, increase focus. I hope to achieve it via treating my work as my fun - i.e. if I'm bored, I should just get back to the IDE or do some research, instead of mindlessly jumping on HN or other news sites. If I'm too tired to focus, I should either go outside or just lay down and rest - instead of my usual routine of using Internet content as a source of pleasure.
3. Lose weight that has crept on me in the past couple years of working full-time.
* Improve at digital art, and make more handmade illustrations for my website. Transition from drawing representative objects to drawing people doing things.
* Further move my focus away from income generation, and closer to building a public good.
Neat project. For what it's worth I want to poke around at it to discover "what kind of places might you recommend near me" to find out if I'm interested but I don't want to sign up without any sense of its value so I just closed the page.
Thanks! And I completely agree, I generally do the same. I don't sign up without a sense of the value.
I put the sign up wall - reluctantly - recently because people are not inclined to suggest their favorite quiet spots. And I need to grow the quiet map to make it liveable for me. Currently its all on my dime & time.
It needs to stay a free platform for users. It's not the affluent that live next to railways, share rooms, can escape to the countryside.
So I put the sign up wall so I at least have the possibility to send an email every once in awhile, to reach out to the interested users. To encourage them to add a quiet spot. I have not send such email since I created it 7 months ago.
I'm not happy with this "solution" but have not found a better way. Would welcome any advice or input.
1. Resume seeing the world. I haven't taken a trip abroad since the tail end of 2019.
2. Cultivate a mutual and meaningful friendship with someone. A non-existent social circle and approaching my fourth decade doesn't make this any easier.
100 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 80.0 ms ] thread2. lose 33lbs/15kg of bodyweight
3. get treatment for ADHD
- Start DevOps consultancy
2. Get a job, start a small side business, grow my online presence.
3. Get the hell out of Latin America, this continent is far too violent.
I’m sorry for you that you and your friends(/family) have to deal with an unsafe environment. I’m curious what you mean by violence. I got into a database of potential consultants for a Latin American software company, and I’m open to input regarding the viability of this work life balance as a single male.
Now, by violence I mean mostly all things stemming from drug-trafficking (hitmen, kidnappings, racketeering, extortion, carjacking) most commonly found in central america but expanding to southern countries more and more. The safest cities were historically Montevideo in Uruguay and Santiago in Chile, I may be biased but I think Montevideo is still safe and I'm not sure about Santiago, unless you choose to live in the eastern side of the city [0]. EDIT: you may want to factor political instability in your decision. I encourage you to ask other expats about their experience and what they see in the future, they're well-off so they they're lucky to avoid unpleasant experiences the local population has to deal with (plus they can always return to the US). I personally would only live in Chile and Uruguay, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_zone_of_Santiago
it's going to be a huge change for us too -- going from a tropical country to an european city, not only not knowing the city itself (we've never been to AMS, only to London), but also, we don't speak any dutch (although my coworkers said i don't really need dutch, my wife and i are trying to learn it).
Your coworkers left out an important detail though: on the workfloor, in the shops, anywhere, speaking English is fine. When socializing, there you will face obstacles.
After work hours are for relaxing. So, having to speak in English makes it less optimal, even if the Dutch are really willing to accommodate you there. Quite naturally, people will drop to Dutch again during conversations. If one have to make jokes, common references and all the stuff for which you need a finer touch which your mother tongue provides for, falling back to a foreign langue is a degradation. 1) vocabulary, 2) emulation vs native speed.
If you are with six dutchies and you are the only one that forces everyone to have a "degraded experience" of a fun night, you do well to try to learn Dutch. Tell them to fuck off if they switch to English when you want them to speak Dutch, so you can learn.
You can be direct and honest with the dutch, that is appreciated. When people start to insult you, congratulations! They are joking and signaling they accept you as one of them. You should respond with another insult.
When we do something social, we plan. Don't just drop by and assume you will be invited over for dinner. Dutch people are anti-social or well organized, pick your perspective. This is definitely a difference with more tropical social climates.
If you move in January, brace for cold, dim days. When spring comes, everything will look nicer.
Good luck!
- See if I can squeeze a publication or two out of the stuff we're doing at work.
- Make some more meaningful open source contributions
What kind of project are you planning on contributing to? I keep telling myself that I should contribute to some Linux desktop project, but the problem I have is that everything seems to just work and I don't run into many issues to fix... :)
> but the problem I have is that everything seems to just work and I don't run into many issues to fix.
May I point you at linux audio? ;-) Getting any type of DAW working in linux without having to do some crazy rewiring with jack would be a godsend.
2. Make a sale from side hustle
3. Make another sale from side hustle
2. Tell people about them.
3. Stay away from any glowing screen unless I'm doing 1 or 2.
1. Try out Zig and go back into hobby graphics programming/gamedev.
2. Decrease dopamine chasing, increase focus. I hope to achieve it via treating my work as my fun - i.e. if I'm bored, I should just get back to the IDE or do some research, instead of mindlessly jumping on HN or other news sites. If I'm too tired to focus, I should either go outside or just lay down and rest - instead of my usual routine of using Internet content as a source of pleasure.
3. Lose weight that has crept on me in the past couple years of working full-time.
* Further move my focus away from income generation, and closer to building a public good.
* Cook more, better Indian food
2 play more, more humor, more laughs
3 expand social circle, make new friends
I put the sign up wall - reluctantly - recently because people are not inclined to suggest their favorite quiet spots. And I need to grow the quiet map to make it liveable for me. Currently its all on my dime & time.
It needs to stay a free platform for users. It's not the affluent that live next to railways, share rooms, can escape to the countryside.
So I put the sign up wall so I at least have the possibility to send an email every once in awhile, to reach out to the interested users. To encourage them to add a quiet spot. I have not send such email since I created it 7 months ago.
I'm not happy with this "solution" but have not found a better way. Would welcome any advice or input.
ps: If you like, I'll send you an entry code.
- Learn more about software architecture
- Publish on my website the solution to a fantastic 20th-century literary puzzle (https://glthr.com/cj)
* Start updating all my published ebooks (will probably take more than a year)
* Create apps for interactive exercises
* Contribute to FOSS a lot more than I've been doing so far
* Start trekking regularly again, perhaps get into cycling too
2. Maybe finally, at 35, start studying for a BSc.
3. Get my programming language / desktop environment / editor project into a useful state.
- Slowly transition in to a business I have been building through 2022
- Get around £1m in revenue (not unrealistic)
- Compete in the CrossFit open and place well
2. Cultivate a mutual and meaningful friendship with someone. A non-existent social circle and approaching my fourth decade doesn't make this any easier.
Not sure what I'll do on January 2nd yet.