That story is wrapping up soon, and I’m thankful for the things that have led up to this point.

Somebody asked me how has Taiwan changed me overall? I didn’t really have an answer until recently.

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Things That Were Different in the 3rd Quarter

In the beginning of the year, I got stuck in what I like to call my own ABC syndrome, where I would hang out with foreigners in the largest city and prevent myself from getting immersed in the culture. I wanted to change that.

I went to Lanyu (Orchid Island), which is governed by Taiwan, by myself and became friends with a lot of locals, particularly from Taoyuan. I ended up taking a trip to see them, and the local hospitality 人情味 was something that I started noticing and valuing more.

There are many places in the world I wouldn’t visit a second time, but Lanyu is one where I would. It’s a place that isn’t visited that frequently by local Taiwanese, and it felt like I wasn’t in Taiwan while I was in Lanyu.

Another significant trip I wanted to highlight was a trip to Alishan. I witnessed the most gorgeous Sunset I’ve ever experienced.

I also started signing KTV more, and among others helped improve my Chinese. I also spent more time with my cousins from the south.

How Has Taiwan Changed me?

The classics “grateful to be American” and “I enjoy interacting with locals” are familiar things I’ve said before while I’ve been in different places around the world, so there wasn’t anything unusual in that department.

But it’s different this time. I’ve built a network of people who are just like me: Born and raised to Taiwanese parents in the US. People who struggle with their Mandarin. The year has made me more proud to be Taiwanese-American and appreciative of the path I’ve walked.

I’ve noticed physical looks is emphasized a little more in Asia. It makes me motivated for the better, so I hired a personal trainer and started taking care of my well-being. I was watching my diet as well for a while.

The Other Trips

I took two major trips outside of Taiwan in the 3rd Quarter. The first one was India and Sri Lanka, and I have a dedicated blog post about that trip.

The second one was a trip back home to the US for a wedding and visiting my parents before navigating to the Dolomites in Italy.

Things That Should be Different in the 4th Quarter

I anticipate that Q4 will be different because I want to wrap up the year in Asia. I plan on traveling a lot less, focusing more on building on existing connections, and welcoming my parents for an extended trip to Taipei.

In the next three months, I plan on focusing more on making a smooth transition to New York City, Year 2, a story that was delayed an entire year in favor of Taiwan 2024.

A Finite Time Remaining

If I were to ask myself to stay in Taiwan for longer than a year, I would be asking myself to be somebody I’m not. I originally came to Taiwan to help my parents remodel a house in Taipei and to spend quality time with family. While I am close to achieving those goals, the year has turned into a complete, standalone story with more meaning beyond what I anticipated.

Taiwan 2024 has been a wonderful experience. What was supposed to be 2 month time period will end up turning into 12 months.

The chapter that is coming to an end is Taiwan 2024, not Taiwan in general. Because I have family in Taiwan and certainly a house to help my family look after. Now I have relationships that will stick through the decades to come, and I’m looking forward to the next time I have an opportunity to spend meaningful time here again.

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What I Did

I gave myself 14 total days where the itinerary was centered around visiting India for the first time and seeing the Taj Mahal. I considered stopping by Nepal (hiking) and Pakistan (it would have been with a Pakistani-American friend), but I chose Sri Lanka as a second stop.

9 Days in India: Delhi 2 nights, Jaipur 2 nights, Agra 1 night, overnight train to Varanasi, Varanasi 1 night, Bangalore for 1 night

5 Days in Sri Lanka: Kandy 1 night, Kandy-Ella train and straight to Arugam Bay for 3 nights, overnight flight back to Taipei

I mentioned in one of our podcast episodes Staying Put vs. Hopping Around that my current preference is to have an established home base when I’m traveling. For 2024, I have chosen my home base as Taipei.

Summary of the Trip

9 days in India and 5 days in Sri Lanka were simply not enough time. I acknowledge it.

Aside from the Taj Mahal, my favorite thing I did was the Kandy to Ella train ride in Sri Lanka because I was blown away by the nature while taking the train across the country.

Opinions about the Trip

India

India is not unsafe. Even as a female there shouldn’t be safety issues with a private tour (that I did).

I thought the places I went to in India were quite dirty and crowded. But when I went to Bangalore, it was quite different. I was expecting it to be similar but it is the silicon valley for India.

Varanasi was a highlight. I took an overnight train from Agra to Varanasi and arrived early morning. I attended the ceremonies at dusk to honor the holy river. This was the “cultural” experience that I was looking for on this trip.

Sri Lanka

My hot take is that Sri Lanka would be a great honeymoon destination. There is a great balance between beaches and mountains and the cost isn’t expensive.

The surfing in Arugam Bay was another highlight of the entire trip. I decided to stay for three of the five nights I was in Sri Lanka so that I could surf. I went to Elephant Rock and surfed for 3-4 hours straight everyday. The waves were not only fantastic, they had multiple breaks so each area within the surfing spot wouldn’t be too crowded.

What I Would Visit Next Time

For India: Visit the north north (like Kashmir), Goa, and the South like Pondicherry.

For Sri Lanka, I would Udawalawe and Yala National Park, and the south to surf more in Weligama

I will be returning to India at the end of January 2025 to attend my friend’s wedding, and I’m already looking forward to India Part 2.

And while the 2nd Quarter of any event typically has less significance than the 4th Quarter, this one had more turning points than expected.

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This year includes three distinct themes:

1. Take advantage of exploring the region of Asia Pacific where I never had the opportunity to do previously

2. Help my parents remodel an old house in Taipei

3. Be more immersed in Taiwanese culture

The Last Three Months - the Highlights sans Taiwan

In these last three months, I revisited places like South Korea and Japan and collected 3 more unique passport stamps. Here were the highlights.

Trip 1: itstheship Cruise: Busan - Nagasaki - Busan

I went with Sim, Hans, and Friends, and the cruise festival had been the best experience this year to date. We started in Busan, docked in Nagasaki and visited the Japanese coastal city for an entire day before heading back to the second largest city in South Korea.

Trip 2: Orangutan Trekking in North Sumatra Bukit Lawang, Kuala Lumpur

Trip 2 was a 16-day trip to three new countries. I wrote more about my trip to Indonesia and Malaysia in this section of the previous blog post.

Trip 2: Fiji - The Exclamation Point

Fiji was another top highlight of the last three months. I wrote about it in the previous blog post One Week in Fiji.

The Last Three Months - the Highlights in Taiwan

One big reason why I am enjoying my time in Taiwan is because of the people. This can be categorized in a venn diagram, because I spent the majority of June with family. I can be quite private about my family affairs, but it was special to me beyond words that we had everybody together, from different cities, in the same room.

Having an established base halfway across the world and calling it “home” away from home is certainly something I will not take for granted.

I have met a lot of great people in the last six months, which was something I certainly did not expect coming to Taipei in 2024. Another observation is that the people I interact with are very fit and active. The majority of activities I have done has included social aspects: canyoning, river tracing, hiking, HIIT training, surfing, salsa dancing, rock climbing, tennis and pickleball.

Next Few Trips

While I am taking this year to be immersed in my culture, I remain focused on future aspirations.

After New York City, Year 1 happened, I expected to start New York City Year 2 right after a short stint in The Experience in Brazil, Part 3.

These past few weeks have been the first time I’ve missed the hustle and bustle of New York. I continue to have aspirations of going back after completing the full year in Taiwan / Asia.

However, the year continues in Asia and I couldn’t be more excited to call Taipei my home base. Besides Taipei, I expect to travel to these places in the next quarter: Seoul for SMILE vision correction surgery, India, back to the USA for 2 weeks, and Dolomites 🇮🇹 for a week.

Now What?

Halftime is over and we are officially kicking off the second half. I know I’m not in Asia for long, so I’m doing everything I can to enjoy it as much as possible because the opportunity to spend time in Asia is rare.

A wise man told me that spending the entire year in Asia would change my life.

But he was wrong.

Because it already has in six months. 

Future Expectations

On July 13th, I was on my way from Fiji, eager to get what felt like my tenth passport stamp for Taiwan in 2024. The plane touched down at Taipei Taoyuan Airport TPE, and for the first time in my life, the feeling was not only just that I arrived in Taiwan, it was specifically a unique feeling that I made it back “home”.

The exclusive list of other airports around the world that sentimentally makes me feel that way isn’t large. Taiwan is “our” land. Whatever happens that may or may not take place in the future will never change that. I came nearly every summers as a child and now I am enjoying it as an adult. Taiwan is a part of me for eternity and I am very grateful for it.

Thank you Taiwan and the rest of APAC, and I look forward to more adventures in the next three months.

It was also a reunion of three good friends. The besties trip with Jasper and Natalie in Fiji not only took months of planning, it also required execution from all three of us.

Because we came from different parts of the world to make this happen: Madagascar, California, and Taiwan.

This was certainly a trip for the ages.

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Jasper + Natalie + Wilson - The Journey

Our trio friendship was born four years ago in Florianópolis through a Facebook group of expats during the The Experience in Brazil, Part 1.

The SaaS (ha), traveling the world, being multicultural, all things Brazil, relationships, and shouldering the responsibilities of thinking about the future have gradually become the shared themes we talk about on a weekly basis for the past four years.

After weeks of discussing (and negotiating ;)) in early February 2024, we decided to meet in Fiji in July 2024.

Fiji - The Thing Adjacent to Paradise

I would not have come to Fiji without Jasper and Natalie. But there were some things I noticed about Fiji —

The People, the Other Tourists

An overwhelming majority of people we met were from New Zealand. We also met people from Australia. Everybody else was from somewhere else and living in those two countries. I didn’t meet many people from the Americas.

It’s a 3 hour flight from New Zealand and roughly a 4 hour flight from the east side of Australia and 10 hours from San Francisco so that makes sense.

The locals were Indians / Native Americans. They have their own local language: Fijian. The second language in Fiji is obviously English.

The Nature

We visited three islands: Waya (Octopus Resort), Nanuya Balavu Island (Mantaray Island Resort), and Nacula Island (Oarsman’s/Blue Lagoon).

Fiji is known for bull shark diving. I didn’t do it due to… yes, lack of bravery 😂

However, Manta Rays - which was the highlight of the trip

Scuba diving was another great highlight. The visibility of the water was incredible and I had the privilege of seeing fish I had previously never seen in the world.

Other things we did: cave tour, stand-up paddleboard, kayaking, snorkeling.

The Bonus Trip - Orangutan Trekking and Kuala Lumpur

Before I took the flight from Singapore to Fiji, I spent 5 nights doing Orangutan Trekking in Sumatra in Indonesia and visiting Malaysia for the first time. A huge shoutout to Jasper for convincing me to do the “bonus” excursion to the main event of Fiji.

Venaka and Thank You, Fiji

This was an incredible 16 day trip, which featured three new passport stamps (Indonesia, Malaysia, Fiji) and a 2 in 1 situation - a reunion with Jasper/Natalie and traveling to three new countries - that simply worked out.

But I especially thank Jasper and Natalie for reaffirming that friendship and adventure are two of my most important values.

This trip has inspired me to continue on this journey that we call 2024 with the highest spirits possible, and I’m certainly taking that mindset back to Taipei with nothing but excitement.

My impression of Taiwan had previously been that it was more of an “old school” place because my childhood included going back every summers to visit family. After three months in 2024, my impression has changed and I have been pleasantly surprised.

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Taiwan Decades Back versus Now

I sat down with our neighbors (that we’ve known for multiple decades) in New Taipei City last week because they invited me over for tea. I was reminiscing going from my grandmother’s house taking the 644 public bus as a 7-year-old to school in Taipei during the US summer break with my sister.

We had to insert coins instead of a universal public transportation card (Easy Card) in the present day. I also remember when the green and red MRT subway lines were the same before they finally split them into separate routes in the 2000’s.

In short, Taiwan has changed drastically in the last few decades. Things are much more modern. The international community has exponentially risen.

How Did I Make Friends?

One mindset difference about this trip was to “experience Taiwan as an adult”. I have always believed establishing a network of friends is the single most important factor when visiting a place for a significant amount of time.

Andrew from New York introduced me to Ethan Jan 2023 when I was on a quick visit to Taiwan. I met my Taiwanese friend, Cheli, in Mexico in 2018. Before I arrived in 2024, I reached out to Ethan and Cheli. Ethan and Cheli connected me to their friends, and the network started spreading like wildfire.

Props to Andrew, Ethan, and Cheli for being great at connecting people and I’m thankful for their warm welcome.

The (Augmented) Foreigner’s Edge

Unlike any other place I’ve visited in the world, I’m simply either a foreigner or a local.

In Taiwan, it’s like I’m neither of those things. Both parents are Taiwanese, but I don’t have identification to show for it. I go through the same struggles as a foreigner when people at the hospital asks for my health insurance card and blankly stares at me with confusion when I tell them I don’t have one because I’m a foreigner.

Lastly, this is the first time in my adulthood where I’ve spent significant time in a place where I am a part of the majority race.

The Language Barrier

I’ve learned it’s challenging to be a foreigner in Taiwan. Along with the health insurance card example, some other basic examples include the language barrier. Chinese is difficult because there is not only speaking/listening components, there’s also reading - which imo is even harder. I can read about 50% of the characters.

When I speak Mandarin Chinese, I’ve been told my accent is 70% Taiwanese and 30% “gringo”.

When I was a kid, I would actively try to improve the accent.

As an adult, I’m now like… why tf would I ever work on my accent? I want people to know I’m a foreigner ;)

A big reason is because Taiwanese people are very hospitable and friendly to foreigners, so there’s no reason to be anybody but myself.

Thank You to People Who Came and Planned a Visit

Speaking of being hospitable, I enjoy doing the same to others as much as I can. Thank you to friends from New York and California for coming to visit the motherland: Colleen, Sara, (Taiwan) Tim, and Ed.

A Taste of the Experiences

One thing I had not done previously was enjoying the gorgeous nature of Taiwan. It’s very mountainous and the coastline is insanely beautiful.

I have been to new places in these last three months: Taitung, Dulan, Hualien, Donggang, Yilan.

I’m genuinely confused as to why expats choose Taiwan. But now I get it.

The first three months was a blast, and I am already looking forward to the next three months.

What’s Next?

I Planned On Staying 2.5 Months. Now…?

In the second half of 2023, I made plans to come to Taiwan end of January 2024 to mid-March. But then mid-March changed to early April, which changed to mid-April, which changed to August. Now, I’ve pivoted to having an NYC "return date” as opposed to a Taiwan “departure date”.

I no longer have a Taiwan departure date because I plan on doing more leisure traveling in Asia during the second half of the year, but my NYC Year 2 return date has been tentatively reset to January 2025. I’ve made a full commitment to doing the complete year in Asia.

There is absolutely no way I would be here if I didn’t have family or if there wasn’t a house to help remodel. But there is one thing I can conclusively say about Taiwan that I did not know I could have said in previous decades.

Because it doesn’t matter whether I’m eating the best 碗糕 Wah Guay in Tainan, heading to Kor Taipei on a night out with friends, or surfing the waves in Kenting.

This place f*cking rocks.

My sister, Maria, and I had been planning a siblings trip to Vietnam for a while. We were planning around our father’s arrival to Taiwan, and we didn’t know when that would be until a few days before what ended up being our departure date from Taipei to Hanoi.

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TLDR: I landed in Vietnam with a pre-approval letter, but by close of business in Vietnam and after I got on the plane in Taipei, my visa was left in the “pending” state, which meant that I was likely to be required to leave Vietnam immediately.

I will tell you exactly how it all went down.

Starters

We were in contact with the hotel lady, Becca, in Hanoi. We already missed our 7pm flight the day before (3/19) because we tried to board the flight without an approved visa. So the next opportunity was 3/20 at 7pm.

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At 2pm on 3/20, Becca informed us that she could help us get an expedited visa while we were in Taipei. Maria and I quickly repacked our bags and headed to the airport for the 7pm flight.

Rising Action - Finally Leaving Taipei

We arrived at the airport, and Maria got her approved visa letter, but I had not yet received mime. Becca told me that she could send a “pre-approval” letter and I could show the gate agents while the Vietnam immigration agency fixes my visa as I board the flight (I had an improperly sized photo and one typo on my submission.)

We boarded the flight. The doors closed. The moment the plane started taxiing to the runway was when I got a call from Becca, and my jaw drops.

Becca tells me the Vietnam immigration office was unable to process my visa before close of business, and I was going to land in Hanoi without an approved visa.

Rising Action - Landing at Hanoi Airport Knowing I was F*ked

Ok… Shit.

So either way I was going to have an interesting night, and I was expecting the worst. Maria was (half) jokingly saying “hey, maybe you could stall and just hide in a corner until your visa gets approved in the morning.”
Psh, yeah, right, you don’t f*k with immigration.

Becca was begging me not to throw her under the bus because she could get in trouble with authorities. So I did not. We immediately went to the visa processing counter. I told them my situation and said that Maria and I submitted visas at the same time, so that’s why the airline let us board.

Initially, two Vietnam officials said I needed to leave Vietnam immediately with no exceptions. But moments later, one flight agent, Charlie, from the same airline company comes and tells me I have two options:

1) Stay at “Detention” at the Hanoi airport for a $249 USD penalty with an “opportunity” for my visa to be approved in the morning. Yes, this meant that I could pay the fine with zero guarantee I would be able to enter Vietnam
2) Leave Vietnam immediately and be escorted to my gate at Hanoi Airport

At this point, Maria was already asked to go through immigration, so we were separated at this point. I called her and told her which option I should choose. She said “f**k it, don’t you want to see Ha Long Bay?”

So I chose to stay in “Detention”.

Detention at Hanoi Airport

I was absolutely expecting the worst. Handcuffs? Mandatory curfew? Will I be able to pee? I’ll just plan on brushing my teeth in the morning. My phone’s at 20% and that’s already giving me anxiety. Will I ever get my passport back? I skipped dinner because we were rushing through nasty traffic on the way to Taipei airport, so do they have food at Detention? Water?

It ended up being a really chill experience. It was simply a private area at the airport with individual rooms inside. They had wifi and a water machine. Ofc I could charge my phone lol.

The outside doors were never locked (like I was expecting) so I could go in and out whenever I wanted to and eat at restaurants at the terminal. So I had an insanely delicious pho meal at 11pm for dinner.

The Next Day - Entering Vietnam, Chasing the Ha Long Bay Tour

I woke up, grabbed a Bahn Mi for breakfast, brushed my teeth, and received a notification that my visa was approved at 8:30am. “Enjoy Vietnam”, said Charlie.

A wise man once said “we ain’t finished yet, folks" after a major accomplishment. And this certainly applied here - the next all-out effort was chasing after the Ha Long Bay tour, because I was already late.

They already picked up Maria, and the pickup point was 45 minutes from the airport. I had been in contact with the tour guide, and he told me the last opportunity to meet at was the last stop around 9:15am. I would barely miss it, so the tour guide asked me to hand the phone to the taxi driver, and we all agreed we would “chase” the bus and I would be dropped off at the first break point. The taxi ride ended up being over an hour.

I was reunited with Maria, and the incredible tour of Ha Long Bay ensued.

Lessons Learned

The way we handled applying for our e-visas could appear to be really silly where someone could say “um, duh. That’s called common sense” but I don’t consider myself a rookie traveler (see: my travel blog wfhnomad.com). I casually applied for the e-visa on my phone because I am a last-minute / spontaneous traveler. Little did I know, it takes 72 hours to process Vietnam e-visas. And these visas turned out to be very strict (portrait photos had to be done in a particular way, full name ICAO line, etc).

The lessons learned is that I need to treat all visas as seriously and deliberate as I treated my previous visas for China.

India is on my list, and I have heard that e-visa is arguably harder to obtain than the Vietnam visa, so I will plan accordingly.

Anyway…

Fwiw - the hotel staff was telling me that I was not just famous, I was “really famous” because of the situation. Any publicity is good publicity, I suppose.

But it didn’t matter what roadblocks got in the way. It didn’t matter whether it was unclear timelines, missed flights, poor visa planning, or detention at the Hanoi airport, the siblings international trip to Vietnam was a success ✌️

And we saw our father in Taipei a few days afterwards.

And on to the next thrilling adventure in Asia.

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It was my first week at a temporary job in Shenzhen, China, in the summer of 2014. As a Taiwanese-American, I found myself surrounded by Chinese colleagues in a world-class, albeit brutal, manufacturing environment. While they were nice people, they not only had different accents in Mandarin but also different colloquial styles that were intimidating.

The person who made the biggest impact on me that summer was Steven, my Taiwanese friend, who was also working in the same temporary job.

He recommended visiting Hong Kong, the bordering city-state to Shenzhen, because it was a subway ride away. He had really close friends from his university.

Hong Kong - A Place Unlike Any Other

I got off the subway at Futian Checkpoint station in Shenzhen, walked a few hundred meters, went through immigration and crossed the border to Hong Kong for the first time. I immediately felt the aura as I stepped into the subway station at Lok Ma Chau. The words on the signs and walls were switched from simplified Chinese to traditional characters. The feeling of the communist influence was immediately suppressed by the feeling of a century long British culture implementation.

Steven and I ended up visiting Hong Kong almost every weekend that summer and typically stayed around Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po areas on the Kowloon side. I was impressed by the breathtaking views of the skyline at night.

Fast Forward - 2024

I wanted to go back to Hong Kong just to see it again.

I only had four days over a Chinese New Years holiday to experience it, so I’m not sure the accuracy of my impressions. But I noticed much more tourists from mainland. I have been told that lots of locals have moved to the UK and other places for political reasons with mainland China.

The food was just as incredible. I had roasted goose for the first time since the mid-2010’s.

A Note About History

I grew up watching Jackie Chan movies when it was still the Golden Age of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of the top 3 financial and banking hubs in the world, with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong being the fastest growing in Asia. The Hong Kong Dollar has been consistently the ninth most traded currency in the world (remember that Hong Kong is a CITY - incredibly impressive economic growth in the last few decades). In my opinion, people from Hong Kong are known to be smart, hard working, open-minded, and wealthy.

Hong Kong has had a recent history of fierce protests (most notably the one in 2019 with the proposed extradition bill). The “one country, two systems” is set to expire in 2047, so who knows what the future holds. But while I was in Asia, I had to see Hong Kong like it was a familiar ex.

Hong Kong was the One…

That changed my perception about almost everything. After the summer of 2014, I discovered my love for international cities and the alluring mix of cultural influences.

I started solo traveling shortly after - going to places like Singapore, Israel, Germany, South Africa, and Uganda. To me, the experience in Hong Kong was the gateway to traveling the world that propelled me to collect a plethora of passports stamps in the years to come.

I had no idea that the moment that day when I exited the subway at Fujian Checkpoint in Shenzhen and crossed the border to Hong Kong would end up becoming the start of this thing we call traveling the world. But I love it.

Thank you, Hong Kong.

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What to Expect in this Blog Post

1. Highlights of Brazil Part 3. The trip was short, efficient, and exciting

2. “Looking Back” - The holistic experience of Brazil:

   1. Part 1 (Oct 2020 - Apr 2021)

   2. Part 2 (Dec 2021 - Apr 2022)

   3. Part 3 (Nov 2023 - Jan 2024)

3. Why there will likely be no Part 4

4. Why I enjoyed Brazil - Explained

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Top Memories of Brazil Part 3

On November 26, 2023, I landed in Rio de Janeiro and the switch was flipped. The mentality of “I’m not here for a long time, I’m here for a good time” begun 😉

Best Birthday I’ve Ever Celebrated

We were off to a strong start with Brazil Part 3 in Floripa. Without a doubt my favorite memory of this trip was the birthday party I celebrated with Vitor and Ciro. It took months of coordination and planning.

I’m not sure if I will have another birthday as incredible as this one, but I will always remember this birthday as an incredibly special one. I dedicated an entire post to this event.

New Years

Another top memory was New Years Eve in Preá in the northeast. Aleksander is the reason why I made the spontaneous decision to join him in Preá, and he is also the reason why I became friends with everybody here.

It was a week long struggle of attending parties and figuring out how I can still remain as productive as possible at work.

Jalapão

I promised myself I would do “one cool, adventurous thing”. I had a list of potential places, and that list included places like Alter do Chão and Bonito, but in the end I chose Jalapão. This trip felt like vintage Wilson, where I went by myself, had to maneuver around with my broken Portuguese (nobody spoke English…), and enjoyed the nature.

Jalapão also blew me away because of the geographic uniqueness. When I was researching on Jalapão, I was primarily drawn to pictures of Pedra Furada, but the Fervedouro unexpectedly became my favorite part. They are unique to that region in central Brazil.

American Friends in Brazil

Over time, I have gotten the reputation among my friends in the US that I like Brazil. Some of them had aligned their dates in Brazil with mine, and it was a goal of mine to meet up with them. (Jay/Wilson #2, Ian/Yas/Rachel)

And that’s it for Part 3 summary. I told you it was short and efficient :)

When I look back on the experiences in Brazil…

I will always remember that Brazil allowed me to make it my own, and specifically the…

The Language

During Brazil Part 1, I picked up Portuguese (after learning Spanish) to where it was more than enough to get around. Learning this language had a profound impact.

The producers of Friends initially had Phoebe play advanced guitar songs but then started having her “make it her own” by deliberately playing songs poorly because that became a huge part of her humor, charm, and uniqueness.

The part where “I made it my own” with Portuguese was my thick accent and a conscious decision to keep it endearing.

The Fact I Became Friends with Brazilians

Part of what made Brazil Parts 1, 2, and 3 great were the friends that I made. People like Ciro and Vitor were recurring characters for all three parts.

I made a huge effort to immerse myself into the culture, required myself to manipulate the Spotify machine learning algorithms into believing that my favorite genres were pagode, sertanejo, and piseiro. I also entered many WhatsApp group chats with Brazilians where I picked up slang.

Turning Point of it all - Pipa.

The one experience and place that single-handedly “won me over” Brazil was Pipa during Part 1 when I went with Ciro in March 2021. This was my fifth month in Brazil and it blew me away with the fun atmosphere, safety, beaches, and hiking trails.

The feeling of dancing unapologetically under the stars on the Rio Grande de Norte beaches at night was incomparable to anything else.

Part 2 - The High Point

December 2021 was one of the best times of my life and Brazil Part 2 had a role in contributing to that feeling. I had a new job, my portfolio was still on it’s COVID high (heh), USD-BRL exchange rate was at it’s peak, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go to start Part 2 - Fernando de Noronha.

Safety - Never an Issue

The number of times I was robbed during Brazil Parts 1, 2, and 3 combined: Zero

I think there is one explanation for this.

I’m not the one in danger. I am the danger 😉 

But really, I think Rio is very dangerous so I was very careful.

Reranking Top 10 Favorite Places in Brazil

1. Fernando de Noronha

2. Pipa

3. Jericoacoara / Preá

4. Florianópolis

5. Jalapão

6. Chapada Dos Veadeiros

7. Rio de Janeiro

8. Itacaré

9. Foz de Iguaçu

10. Balneário Camboriú

Why / What Do I Like About Brazil?

Reason #1

The number one thing I like most about Brazil is the people.

I was discussing with Vitor and Ciro about possible destinations for a potential December 2024 birthday celebration. We were flirting with the idea of Costa Rica and Mexico, but Vitor vouched to keep the setting in Brazil, because “what makes the party fun are the Brazilians”.

I sat there and thought about it and I understood his point. There is an aura that Brazilians have where the spirit of having fun is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

Friends in NYC always asked me if I ever feel lonely while traveling solo, and I do at times around different parts of the world. But I never felt that way in Brazil because it was easy for me to connect with the people.

Reason #2

The second thing I like most about Brazil is the excitement + ease of domestic traveling. It feels like countries within the country with different cultures and incredible nature. It’s very affordable to travel on a USD salary.

a) Beach Culture - Brazil almost has a triangular-type shape where the coastline is really long. The water is warm and blue in many parts of the Northeast and it gives me a major sense of comfort

b) Notable nature landmarks - This was also explained above in Jalapão section. There are a lot of places to do hikes and a lot of places with mesmerizing waterfalls. I didn’t even get to experience Lençóis Maranhenses nor the Amazons, which are gorgeous regions of Brazil.

Brazil Gets Credit for…

I give a lot of credit to Brazil Parts 1-3 for bringing out the ambitious, spontaneous, and adventurous side in me. Brazil pushed me over the fence to ensure that I 10x everything that I do.

I look forward to the day when I can cement those things into all aspects of my life, including my professional one — one where I truly “make it my own”. I’ve been inspired to turn something small and unexpected into something impactful; the desire to persist when something is going well; itching to be on the field rather than being on the sidelines; being open-minded to not knowing what’s next and loving the thrill of that feeling.

Will There be a Brazil Part 4?

I do not intend to come back to Brazil. The Lord of the Rings only had 3 volumes. Friends would’ve been overkill with an 11th season. Jordan would've loved to have a 7th ring, but the story we will pass on for generations remains that he had 6 with the Bulls. Leaving on a high note is important.

It’s time to explore other regions in this world. Thank you Brazil for everything you’ve taught me and for allowing me to have an undisputed favorite country in the world. I hope I can discover more beautiful and unique cultures like this in this whirlwind of an adventure that we call life.

As for What’s Next…

I am uncertain about many things ahead, but there is one exciting thing that is certain as we kick off the rest of this year.

The tapes for New York City, Year 2 will start rolling soon.

In the meantime, I’d like to announce a partnership with Sunsama. I previously had a no-partnership rule, but one of my goals for WFH Nomad this year was to change that and to start collaborating with other partners. I’m excited to get started.

Today’s Blog Post is brought to you by Sunsama

I travel and work a lot. I organize my days using this “centralized” Sunsama tool because it has easy integrations with google calendar, trello, Asana, Github, Jira, Notion, etc. The list goes on.

Some other productivity tools are good for businesses. But this is personal use. If you are looking for a new tool to manage your productivity better, click here to begin.

Reset - Purpose of this Blog Post

1. Documenting the memory of the weekend

2. An ode to my friendship with Ciro and Vitor

3. Lessons learned on multi-day event planning for 70+ people in a foreign country

The Actual Events

Day 1 - Saturday, December 9th: The boat party with approximately 70 people that included an open bar. There was an after party with a DJ and keg at the Jurere Mansion that we rented out for the weekend.

Day 2 - Sunday, December 10th: Churrasco (Brazilian BBQ), Live Pagode (which is like samba) band, pool party, and Open Bar. I didn’t think it was possible for Day 2 to be better than Day 1, but it was.

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Rewind: Introduction of the Three Friends

Ciro is from Rio de Janeiro. He is a software engineer, grew up loving to surf, and loves to travel. He recently nomaded in the US, Asia, and Oceana.

Vitor is from the state of Goias and lives in Sao Paulo and works as a Product Manager in fintech. His favorite trips have been in SE Asia and other parts of South America.

I met Ciro and Vitor in January 2021 in Florianópolis during the Experience in Brazil, Part 1. While they are both Brazilian, we all have a lot in common and became good friends.

Our Camaraderie

Both are stereotypical Sagittarius just like me. We all work really hard in our software jobs and go hard when we’re out. While Ciro and I are the mischievous wildcards, Vitor is the rationale one and keeps us in check (lol).

I’ve traveled with Ciro to various places in Brazil and around the world: Paraty, Pipa, Rio de Janeiro, Itacare, Recife, California, New York. I’ve spent time with Vitor in Rio, Floripa, and São Paulo.

All three of us are adventurous. While we were planning this party, when one threw out an idea, another 10x-ed it. I genuinely enjoyed planning this event with Vitor and Ciro.

Weeks Leading up to the Event

5 days before Day 1, the three of us went to dinner (and Wanessa joined). We sat down for sushi at Arquipélago on Vitor’s actual birthday and asked each other the question, “What are you most concerned about?”

Both Vitor’s and Ciro’s answers were that nobody would show up and the event would be underwhelming. My answer was an unbalanced ratio.

How We Felt about the Celebration

The boat party highlighted Day 1. When the live pagode band started playing on Day 2 after we had the churrasco bbq, Vitor and I looked at each other and both said “holy shit. This is amazing”. I can’t remember the last time I had zero interest in checking my phone for hours.

Thank You to the Guests

Thank you to everybody who attended this event, and especially the ones who traveled from out of town. We had representatives from many countries, including but not limited to: Canada, USA, Costa Rica, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, France, Italy, UK.

Vitor’s hometown friends came for this event. Ciro had family members and coworkers come in. I had a few friends fly from the US for it.

Special thanks to the people who came to both my birthday party Part 1 (last year) and Part 2 (this year) - Genevieve, Lucas, Wilson L, Jay, Mafer, Aleksander, Jose.

I enjoyed celebrating my birthday with two other friends more than celebrating it solo. It was a great feeling when people messaged me “thank you” and “I met so many great people at the party and I’m now friends with a lot of them”.

Lessons Learned on Event Planning

If we were to turn this into an actual business…

In general, I enjoy hosting events because it brings people together. It was a lot of work to plan this event. I surprisingly learned a lot through this process and picked up a skill or two.

A fourth character in this episode was Ana. If we could do it again, we would have involved her earlier because she is a local. I met her a month before I met Ciro and Vitor.

Lessons learned #1 - You can’t do everything. Delegate the work.

The success of the celebration hinged a lot on bringing not just friends but random people, plus friends of friends. Most people will not have strong interests in “recruiting” or “selling” the party.

All it takes is another person who’s really good at that, and Ana was a game-changer. She also helped us connect with local pagode band and made lots of important recommendations, such as hosting a meet and greet to get people to meet each other prior to Day 1.

Lastly, Vitor organized nearly every event. Called different bands, messaged different houses, talked to different DJ’s and companies that provided open bars and BBQ as a service. It would have been extremely difficult for me to do it because of the language barrier.

I found myself doing a lot of the “hype” and “marketing”. Vitor would ask me to “announce” certain things to the general whatsapp group. It felt like we were a startup and everybody knew their roles.

Lessons Learned #2 - Digital Marketing

Speaking of Marketing, six days before Day 1 of the event, I decided to create an Instagram page of the event while we were at Campeche beach. I did it for fun and we couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous the idea was.

It ended up being a very strategic and important angle of planning, and we recruited nearly ten more people to join from Instagram ads in the six days leading up to the event. All of us logged in and talked to people in Portuguese (thanks for the help, friends!)

Lessons Learned #3 - Payments

The nature of this problem was a challenge before it even began because this was an international celebration. However, we could have executed the costs and revenue much more efficiently. We charged people at a reasonable price, but it wasn’t as organized as it could have been. We could have created a QR code or a payments page, but we didn’t make time for it, so we manually asked people to Venmo (USA) / Pix (Brazil) / PayPal (rest of world) us and tracked it on an excel spreadsheet.

Lastly, people are much less likely to “flake” if they have already paid. (This was something I learned early on in New York while hosting events)

A Reflection on it all

Another Ode to Brazil. The Bigger Picture and Impact.

I always remind myself that I grew up in a conservative and traditional household, and those values will never be neglected. Brazil Part 1 and Brazil Part 2 brought the fun and adventurous side out of me, and that side magically made room for itself next to the juxtaposing “traditional” side.

The tapes that are currently rolling for Brazil Part 3 is coming to an end soon, so I’m pushing myself to enjoy the journey as much as I can because this won’t last. I have nothing but gratitude and beautiful memories of this overall experience.

Working remotely has made this possible. The strength of my international and growing friendship with Ciro and Vitor goes beyond anything I would have imagined before COVID.

A direct flight from New York to São Paulo is 10 hours, so a trip like this isn’t easy. While maintaining close friendships presents challenges overseas, I look forward to the day when I can spend more time again with Ciro and Vitor.

Abraços amigos, obrigado por tudo. Até a próxima e mais bons momentos juntos 🔥

I hopped off the plane at JFK with my rugged mullet, a juiced-up social battery, and seven polos of assorted colors in my carry-on.

I wrote down my NYC goals in the spring and I will share some of them in this post.

• Try something different. The nomad experience is unique, and while I’ve been on and off for it for years, I wanted to literally and figuratively park my belongings in one place

• Learn from and network with the best in software

• Experience New York City. Slow down to enjoy the process and enjoy the journey. People all over the world can only dream of living there

• Rekindle old friendships, plus build a network

New York Was Never on the Radar

I am reflecting on the overall journey. If you had told me I’d be living in New York 10 years ago, I would have thought that was a little random just because I never thought of it as a city for me.

Maybe it’s the Sagittarius in me, but I’ve always believed some of the best situations end up happening unplanned and when we least expect it. The best example I always like to give is my experience in Brazil. I was supposed to move to Shanghai for work in Spring of 2020 before Covid hit. I had to pivot, so I decided on a whim to buy a one-way ticket to Brazil later in the fall. I stayed there for 6 months while working remotely. I learned Portuguese and looking back it was really random, but the overall experience turned out to be one of my favorite memories of my lifetime to this date.

I am drawing a comparison from that to how I see my experience in New York panning out similarly for 2023 and 2024. I say that because New York City was admittedly never on the radar while I was growing up in the midwest. It was always California.

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The California dream was cemented in my mind and I always made it a goal of mine to live in San Francisco. I always had this vision of working in tech and surfing after work. That dream was fulfilled yet will never die at the same time. I had the privilege of living there 2017-2019 before I sacrificed that for my full time nomad stint.

But a series of events have lead me to be open-minded to experience the charm of New York and I was there to take full advantage of that opportunity.

Easy Decisions, Big Decisions

Two of the most important decisions you can make in your lifetime will ultimately shape who you are and who you become.

The first is choosing who is your lifelong partner.

The second is less obvious.

It’s where you decide to live.

I did the exercise of “design the person you’d like to be in 3-5 years” and determined the only place in the world that could mold me into that future-state Wilson was New York City.

And I already made a commitment to myself to dedicate 2024 to New York City - Year 2.

I can’t take credit for that quote, but I think that makes complete sense. A career. An impact. Friends. A Community. All of those things also shape who you ultimately become, but they are dependent on top of the place you live in.

Friends. They’re the Best.

Speaking of choosing “who is your lifelong parter”, I think my favorite overall memory of this year was Michelle’s surprise engagement party that David K (her now fiancé) organized, threw, and flawlessly executed. It was a big deal because Michelle is my childhood friend, and our friendship has thrived for multiple decades and counting.

Moments like these make me slightly regret not attending some of my friends’ weddings from previous years.

When I reflect on the closer friendships I’ve made in New York, many of them originated from friends of friends - Michelle introduced me to Hans and Jeff who introduced me to David L. Bianca introduced me to Colleen. Anish introduced me to Zia and Aaquil who introduced me to Ashwin. The list goes on.

I really appreciate the “my friends are your friends” mentality and I hope to provide the same “platform” to others.

I specifically wanted to call out this section because over the years I have identified Friendship as one of my top four core values.

“The Flatiron Penthouse”

After a one and half month sublease ended in Williamsburg (thanks Andres for the space!), I still remember deciding among four options:

1. living alone in a studio in East Village
2. a shared, not-too-alluring-but-gets-the-job-done place in Kips Bay
3. a shared place in Williamsburg

Or 4. the Flatiron Penthouse.

I had an entire pros and cons list that I still review and find funny after-the-fact. I met my three prospective roommates, and after I “accepted”, I felt like Chad Smith joining the Red Hot Chili Peppers when they needed a new drummer. We ended up blending in very well and I couldn’t be more appreciative of their warm welcome.

Thank you for the memories Tyler, Connor, and Lawrence. (PS - Connor’s father is the G-est father of them all.)

And from there, the Manhattan Boys were born. Connor invited me to his lake house in Tennessee, which was an incredible experience. They started becoming my really good friends and we had countless heart to hearts under the disco ball, nights out, and hosted events where we busted out the typewriter to remember our guests.

Let’s Replay the Highlight Reel.

Some of the big events in chronological order from New York City - Year 1

• Reuniting with Jasper and Natalie

• Hosting my first tech event in Williamsburg

• David L’s birthday at Batsu! and Fleur Room

• Being scientists at Brooklyn Bridge Park with Bryan and Carlos

• The Dinner Table event - the first one was my favorite because a) it was friends only and b) it was hosted at the Flatiron Penthouse

• Michelle’s surprise engagement party that David K organized, threw, and flawlessly executed

• Vintage Culture sunset boat party overlooking the statue of liberty, then Brooklyn Mirage the same night

• Michelle’s bday party at Wiggle Room (rip the espresso martini’s)

• Bills at Jets Monday Night Football game at Metlife Stadium where Aaron Rodgers tore his achilles but the Jets won in OT with a walk-off punt return for TD

• Colleen’s birthday in k-town then Den Social lol

• “Oklahoma takes NYC” reunion at the Flatiron Penthouse

• Halloween Weekend: Michelle’s, McKenzie’s (and EV after), and Saturday at Flatiron Penthouse and EV part 2

• The last weekend: my send off party, Talia’s bday, Lawrence and everyone else running the NYC marathon 

Not Always Rainbows and Sunshine

People tell me I’m a really positive person, and I would say I am 80% of the time, which is usually the only part that I project in social settings.

In regards to the theme of friendship, when my friends are struggling, I’ve tried to make a bigger effort to reach out and offer to be somebody they can talk to and not expect anything back. There were tough situations I also went through throughout the year like a personal relationship and restructuring at work.

This was an important aspect that I think would be disingenuous if I left out, and I’ve started to put more emphasis on constructive negatives because it makes me real and it makes me human. There are things for me to work on for the future that I’m grateful New York City - Year 1 taught me.

I Wanted Different, and I Got it

There’s an “edge” to being a foreigner. Nomading in different places made me feel like I’ve conquered the place.

New York City - Year 1 made me feel close to the opposite of that, and it was fun to experience it. I was not successful in outgrowing New York nor will I ever be. It will never be Wilson 1, New York 0. Lastly, one full year means I am very new.

There Seems to Always be a “Part 2”

I like to think of the journey as a multi-part TV series. There are episodes that are longer than others. There are different chapters and stages. Recurring characters. Recurring themes. Times that make you laugh and times that make you cry.

My network of friends and professionals has increased significantly and I’m thankful for the people I have met this year.

The mullet is gone, the social battery is drained, and the luggage is polo-less and a wardrobe portfolio diversified with more than just Banana Republic-only stock.

Thank you New York. Thank you friends. You made me better this year than I could have imagined. On to the next adventure before the tapes start rolling for New York City - Year 2.

This was a fun one. Three nomads talking about the lifestyle, being exposed to different cultures, favorite travel memory, and relationships.

PS - I’m trying to convince Natalie and Jasper to co-host and start a group podcast while I continue to do WFH Nomad solo. Please help me convince them ;)

I’ve never loved the “country count” metric because it feels transactional and superficial.

I can tell you more stories and the culture, people, food, etc about Brazil (~10 months — 2020-2022) than the Czech Republic (3 days in Prague — 2015).

But both count as 1 each.

I’m at 50, but I can really only tell you fascinating things about 20 of them without scrolling through my photos.

I’ve slowed down the “fast traveling” since the late-2010’s and started taking more of my time in a single location. I went to Italy Part 2 and spent a month in Milan and did intermittent trips through the North.

“Slow Traveling” - But Where?

Call me crazy. But I have this vision of being in Asia while working US hours.

If I’m open minded to that, this opens doors for me to travel to places like Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia.

Is this foreshadowing?? 👀

In General - What’s on my List?

Caribbean - Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, The Bahamas, Cayman Islands

Europe - Norway, Sweden, Albania, Romania

Africa - Senegal, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania part 2, Rwanda

South America - what else is left jk definitely Uruguay and Paraguay

Asia - too many to list so I’ll start with the list I had above

Middle East - Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain

Let me know if you have any of these places on your wishlist. I’d love to hear from you!

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00:45 - Intro
13:30 - Consider living in other countries
18:20 - Business
22:35 - Future
23:35 - Favorite place to travel to
22:00 - Career lessons
30:30 - Where’s next?
37:05 - Dancing
42:15 - Taiwan: What people should know

To get into the nitty gritty, the food in Taipei, the capital city, is also very good, but the food in the elusive city of Tainan is better and unique to Taiwan and the culture.

What Is “Taiwanese Food”?

Some classic examples of what defines Taiwanese food:

1. Boba Tea!

2. Beef Noodle Soup

3. Hot Pot

4. Scallion Pancakes

5. Dumplings (steamed) and Potstickers (fried)

6. Gua Bao

7. Fried Chicken

8. Sticky Rice Dumpling

9. Xiao Long Bao

Taiwan gets full credit for Boba Tea. The other examples I provided above are “shared” across China and other East Asian countries. For example, Korea has their own version of Scallion Pancakes, Hong Kong/Guandong has their own version of Sticky Rice Dumpling, Shanghai is most famous for their Xiao Long Bao, and Japan has their version of potstickers called Gyoza.

But other than the classics and the more “obvious” dishes, Taiwan has very specific dishes that would be challenging to find outside of Taiwan.

Fun Story Time

I was in Taipei next to Taipei 101 (Xinyi) on my way home when I flagged down a taxi. The old taxi driver broke the ice and asked if I was a basketball player (aaand yes I get that a lot). He proceeded to ask how I learned Mandarin because he could tell I had a slight American accent.

I told him I was in Taiwan to visit family and that I would go to another city, Tainan, in the south of the island, to visit other extended family.

He told me he spent two months in Tainan nomading just so that he could experience the food. He remembers every restaurant and cross streets and listed them to me with great enthusiasm.

I wrote the places down and consulted with my family. I will never forget this taxi driver and the spontaneous interaction and really appreciated his genuine passion.

Tainan, Taiwan Food Tour

Here are some of the most famous restaurants and food stands in Tainan, Taiwan.

1. Six Thousand Beef Noodle Soup

They marinate the beef and boil the soup overnight. They open at 5am and there is already a line. The soup has a great balance between sweet and savory tastes.

2. Ah Tang Porridge

The fish soup is ridiculously good with the fried dough. The fish is really fresh from the ocean a few miles west.

3. Bao Chen Lamb

The lamb soup was incredibly good. They organically raise the lamb themselves and make the meat.

4. Hao Wei Xiao Long Bao

This place has more traditional Taiwanese food. The Xiao Long Bao here was incredible.

SaaS Boom: 2008-2021

This was truly a remarkable run. Companies like Netflix and Spotify revolutionized the way consumers watch movies and listen to music, respectively. We no longer relied on renting physical DVD’s from Blockbusters and illegally listen to music from Napster.

In the B2B SaaS world, companies like ServiceNow (IT workflows), Snowflake (Cloud Data Warehouse), and Okta (Access Management) blew up to help make other companies run more efficiently.

Other Notable Tech Bull Runs: 2008-2021

Facebook is a great example of a company that successfully transitioned to the mobile era in the late 2000’s. Consumer behavioral shifted from using Facebook on ugly, 15 lbs computers to iPhone 3’s.

AWS led the charge in creating a worldwide infrastructure (IaaS) so that companies didn’t need to host their own physical data centers. This allowed companies in the “SaaS Boom” section to build their platforms/UI’s serverless-ly and more efficiently.

Lastly, the “platform” concept became widespread when executed well. The App Store by Apple made it so that companies developing their products on the iOS app made it impossible for them to ever leave the App Store, which guarantees Apple 30% of the products’ revenues. This is a similar concept for companies like Salesforce (Veeva and nCino built products on Salesforce’s PaaS) and Shopify for e-commerce.

What the Hell Happened between 2020 and 2023?

The bull run of nearly 12 years abruptly reversed in March 2020 when COVID shut everything down. This led to several events in the few months proceeding the initial “shock”

1. The Fed shifted the objective to Quantitative Easing to support the economy. This meant lowered interest rates, free stimulus checks, and intensive support for unemployment. In other words, spending more money was heavily encouraged

2. The stock price of a tech-heavy S&P 500 skyrocketed with the new era of work from home (WFH). Zoom (videoconferencing) rose to +400% at it's peak in 2021 from pre-covid. WFH required companies to adapt to remote work and shifted everything to be delivered through the cloud.

3. Cryptocurrency also skyrocketed and the price of Bitcoin was projected to easily surpass $200K

4. VC’s encouraged all startups to grow at all costs, funding tech companies that had great ideas and strong growth numbers

The consequences of all of the above led to Q4 of 2021 that has domino-effected the tech industry to the present day. The following started happening:

1. The Fed pumping up inflation leading to higher interest rates

2. Geopolitical events like the war in Ukraine and COVID lockdowns in China that have major rippling effects on the global economy

3. Layoffs in a tech-heavy S&P 500 due to over-hiring or lower demand

4. Cryptocurrency and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) technologies have taken a major setback in development, becoming “dead” in the US as described by many

5. VC funding becoming dry and shifting the mindset from a) “growth at all costs” to b) “be profitable”

   1. And yes, b) is much harder than a).

This was a 180. We went from having Meta recruiters getting paid $200K to do nothing, having yacht parties, and working 20-30 hour weeks to layoffs and being quiet hired into multiple roles in one year.

How Do We Get Out of This?

We have been in a near-recession for over a year now. There are two major ways to get out of this macroeconomic mess:

1. Increase inflation, which indirectly cuts spending

2. Produce more economic output

Let’s expand on point 2 above.

The Age of Artificial Intelligence

The obvious way in 2023 to “produce more” is to automate and incorporate AI.

There hasn’t been a single product that has revolutionize not only the tech industry but humanity in recent history the way OpenAI’s ChatGPT did in November 2022.

ChatGPT has been already used by people in all industries across thousands of use-cases for consumers and businesses.

AI Serves to Continue the Theme of Tech

“Help make more things more efficiently and more accurately”

The other day, I was making homemade potstickers. I didn’t have a processor to shred the cabbage into very small pieces, which is very important for the texture of the fillings in dumplings. My workaround was to use a knife to shred the pieces of cabbage. This process not only was tedious and took longer, it also resulted in sort-of-thin cabbage pieces that would have been much more thin had I used a processor. AKA reduced quality.

This analogy is a representation of the same thing when we have a day without access to Artificial Intelligence to get something done in 2025. This analogy is also a representation of when our phones die today: we are less efficient, cannot communicate quickly, and struggle to do normal tasks.

The whole point of the tech industry is to help us become more efficient, more productive, and more accurate in what we do so that we can really focus on the things we are good at. It pushes us to find out what doesn’t exist that should exist. AI simply continues this theme into the mid-2020’s.

Case Study: SpaceX and Tesla

Up to this point in this post, I have primarily focused on software technologies. I am also closely following companies that produce hardware and hard technologies like SpaceX. Every rocket launch costs more than $67 million USD. We expect every rocket launch to be operationally reusable and be so much more cheap the way computers became more cheap, lighter, and mass-producible from the 1990’s to present day. SpaceX has a mission to make humans multi-planetary.

This also means our one-way trips from New York to Tokyo could potentially be reduced from 14 hours (aviation) to 3 hours (launch to space and back down). How will that be possible? Through iterations and years of R&D, ML/AI, and cheaper and higher quality technologies.

And one more Elon, ego-boosting comment: Tesla “recalling” all cars sold in China was not a traditional recall but a software update to a braking defect. This gives Tesla a giant advantage over other motor companies. In other words, when cars had braking defects in the past, cars would need to be recalled back into the shop so that they could fix the hardware/physical parts issue, but this Tesla example is a simple software “hotfix” for a major bug where customers could use the car immediately after the fix is deployed.

Will AI Replace Jobs or Will It Make Existing Workers More Productive?

This is a half-glass empty vs. half-glass full debate. Will AI replace 30% of jobs or will AI make existing workers 30% more productive?

I choose option C: the middle. I think it will displace jobs where a team of 3 accountants will be just as productive with AI as a team of 5 accountants without AI in 2024.

AI will replace some jobs but I believe only a minority of jobs. Those “replaced” jobs will be displaced into other roles.

Think about how much Microsoft Excel “replaced” jobs in the 2000’s. Or how much the adoption of cornfield machines replaced jobs a century ago. We focused and shifted those “displaced” jobs into different roles.

Scared of AI? I Kinda Am.

Call me crazy, but I don’t enjoy the idea of robots destroying human existence. We need to figure ways to regulate AI the way the FDA had to suddenly find a way to regulate electronic signatures in the 2000’s.

We also need to find a way to effectively regulate AI without blocking the next Mark Zuckerberg from inventing the next big thing because otherwise we will fall behind to geopolitical rivals like China.

Closing Remarks, 2023 - 2025, 2030’s: Predictions

We went from the SaaS boom in the 2010’s to a sudden buller-than-the-bullest market during COVID. This all fell apart in 2022 and we took a nosedive back to a bear market. The series of events over the past two decades have lead us to today and tomorrow’s quest to become the best at AI.

To build a startup today will no longer require an army of 25-50 people. Human’s are smarter and sharper at identifying and solving problems than ever before.

The companies that don’t incorporate AI (whether for internal processes or directly in products), specifically the ones in technology, will fall behind in 2025. Things that were measured in years and decades before the 90’s and in the 2000’s are now measured in months thanks to AI/ML.

In 2025, the majority of professionals will be very comfortable having their emails drafted through AI and have large documents summarized for them via AI.

I don’t know if I’m exactly excited for the future, but I will definitely be riding this wave of the AI revolution.

How I Got There

As usual whenever I travel, I either take a United flight or search for the cheapest flight on kayak.com. I wrote an article about how I stick to flying on United as much as possible to cash out big with my miles.

How was the Wifi?

I had zero issues at my Airbnb’s in Amman.

1. Amman Citadel

The Amman Citadel is the number thing to do in Amman. Apparently, the site dates back to the Bronze Age and is home to several important archaeological finds, including the Temple of Hercules and the Umayyad Palace. In addition to the history, I thoroughly enjoyed the panoramic views of the entire city.

2. Petra

No trip to Jordan is ever complete without a trip to the ancient city of Petra. And yes, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it features incredible tombs and temples carved into the red sandstone cliffs. I was told “at least five hours” for the city of Petra, and after experiencing Petra for five hours, I couldn’t agree more. I made it to the top of the Monastery but had to rush it. People stay overnight for a reason.

3. Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum is a desert wilderness that has been used as a backdrop for numerous films, including the one and only Lawrence of Arabia. I “bunked” the Wadi Rum trip with Petra (and almost all overnight Petra tours stop by Wadi Rum). I did a camelback and a 4x4 tour.

4. Aqaba

Aqaba is one of the largest cities in Jordan and it’s located on the Red Sea. It’s very near the borders of Saudi Arabia and Israel. I did some scuba diving while I was in Aqaba. Apparently it’s very popular for anything marine-life related.

Closing Remarks

While the country is not big on nightlife, the history and tourism sites were incredible. I really enjoyed my time in Jordan and spending two weeks in the country (while working full time) was just right.

I saw this tweet regarding outdated software in aviation and wanted to tackle this exercise for fun.

Let me know what you think and here we go

Goals:

1. A solution that manages fleet allocation and flight scheduling

2. A solution that incorporates resource allocation data

3. We are building this product for the employees of the airline and not consumers

Assumptions and Scope:

1. Product needs to cover several elements:

   1. Accept data of customers purchasing flights, changing flights, and cancelling flights through integrations

   2. Fleet management and resource (crew members and pilots) allocation

      1. Crew members/pilots will choose their preferences on schedule and destinations 1-12 months before flights

      2. They will see their schedule one month prior

   3. Managing flight cancellations and delays

2. Out of Scope:

   1. Go-to-Market strategy (the analysis of should we actually penetrate the market and how vs. not)

   2. Consumers buying flight tickets

   3. Anything pricing related: pricing strategy, pricing optimizer, loyalty programs

   4. Assigning gates

Architecture Design

1. Normal OAuth - 3 roles: System Admin, Captain, Flight Attendant

2. API gateway of all API’s

   1. We expose our API’s so that our system can accept customer bookings via an Integration and update seat info

   2. Delays and Cancellations

      1. Expose our API's so that our system can accept delays and cancellations data

      2. If Delayed, send a webhook to trigger a creation of new Flight record

   3. More details are at bottom in Details - Appendix section.

3. Load balancers to scale the global system horizontally

4. Database

   1. I chose a NoSQL Document Database like CouchDB or MongoDB to handle the large amounts of data that can be retrieved instantaneously

Platform Design - Entities

There will be four entities. Reminder that our database is like MongoDB - NoSQL Document Database.

Note: I’ve provided more a concrete examples at bottom in Details - Appendix section.

1. Team Member

   {
     "id": 264,
     "name": "Connor Captain",
     "role": "Captain",
     "home_base": "San Francisco",
     "date_started": "2008-06-23"
   }

2. Fleet

   {
     "id": 359
     "Make": "Boeing",
     "Model": "737",
     "Status": "Active"
   }

   1. Fleet records needs to be consistent with Flight schedule. For example, if the fleet ID: 623599 is being used for the SFO-IAH route on April 3rd, then that fleet record cannot be reused during that exact time

3. Flight

   1. All flights will have an origin and a destination. A scheduled departure DateTime and arrival DateTime. Crew members. Status. Fleet.

   {
     "Origin": "New York",
     "Destination": "Los Angeles",
     "ScheduledDateTimeDeparture": "2023-05-01T10:00:00Z",
     "ScheduledDateTimeArrival": "2023-05-01T13:00:00Z",
     "TeamMemberCaptain": {
       "id": 578,
     },
     "TeamMemberFlightAttendants": [
       {
         "id": 6969,
       },
       {
         "id": 985,
       }
     ],
     "FlightStatus": "On time",
     "Fleet": {
       "id": 8592963
     },
     "DomesticOrInternational": "International"
   }

4. Adding the Scheduler Entity to Team Member

   1. Cabin crew will log into the system and create their schedules more than one month ahead of time. They bid for their routes according and submit time off. They have lower and upper limits on how much they work per week as determined by admins.

   2. New example of Team Member record in JSON format:

   {
     "id": 264,
     "name": "Connor Captain",
     "role": "Captain",
     "home_base": "San Francisco",
     "date_started": "2008-06-23"
      "scheduler": {
         "flight": {
            "id": ObjectId("61520a6d74f6b612bf8ce40b"),
         "flight": {
            "id": ObjectId("58204b6y07f5b367iq8eo58v"),
         "flight": {
            "id": ObjectId("40190d2p73e4r109ou5nk65c"),
         }
      },
      "time_off": [
         {
            "start_date": ("2022-02-01T00:00:00Z"),
            "end_date": ("2022-02-07T23:59:59Z"),
            "status": "approved",
         },
         {
            "start_date": ("2022-03-01T00:00:00Z"),
            "end_date": ("2022-03-07T23:59:59Z"),
            "status": "approved",
         }
      ]
   }

Platform Design - Workflows and Events Requirements

1. When the flight becomes full, there will be an event driven trigger that changes the Status of the Flight to “Full” and the API endpoint will return errors to additional POST requests

2. A fleet cannot have a flight within 2 hours (Scheduled DateTime Arrival - Scheduled DateTime Departure) of another flight

3. The Fleet of a Flight’s Origin must be the same airport as the Fleet of it’s next Flight’s Destination

4. The cabin crew members create Scheduler records. There will be lower and upper limits as set by admins. For example, if a Flight Attendant tries to submit their time for 10 hours for the week and the system requires them to submit for 20 hours a week, then the Flight Attendant will receive an error and will not be able to submit their entries.

5. There is an automatic scheduler job that iterates through all of the team members, fleets, and flights and is a linear programming problem. A human needs to approve the proposed schedule on a monthly basis

How Would I Measure Success of Beta and First Releases

1. Adoption

   1. How many users are logging in per week?

   2. Is the Flight entity being used. Is the automatic scheduler being used

2. Response times to delays and cancellations - have they been reduced?

3. Customer feedback - because of our MVP solution (all fields are required, we meet the minimum requirements for a functioning system), we’ll want to see what appeals to the end-user that solves pain points.

Competitive and Market Landscape

1. NavBlue - a software scheduling product and direct competitor

2. PagerDuty / ServiceNow for the immediate response time problem (for delays and cancellations)

Feature Requests for Post-MVP

1. Mobile app for Cabin Crew members submitting their schedules

2. Notifications to Cabin Crew members that they need to update their schedules

3. Integration with Okta or other SSO providers

4. Reports and Dashboards

   1. As a flight attendant, I’d like to know how often I’m working and how much time I’m taking off

   2. As a Regional Director, I’d like to see which flight segments are getting the most full so that I can consider adding a flight segment for that route per day/week

5. Enhancement to above: Generative AI on Reports and Dashboards

How Would I Prioritize Future Features

1. Definitely mobile app first because cabin crew would like to submit their schedule requests and updated requests

Where Do I See this Product in 3-5 Years after Beta?

1. As a consumer, when you’re booking a flight, you sometimes wait until the price goes down. Sometimes you wait too long and the prices increase. How do the algorithms work and decide when/how to increase/decrease prices?

   1. I can see our product expanding to be a scheduler and pricing strategy optimization product

2. Gate scheduling - this would expand to be a SaaS solution for airports and not just airlines. This is also a major pain point for not only airlines but also consumers

Details - Appendix

1. Bonus requirement

   1. Admins will be able to configure certain settings. For example, frequency of ability for crew members to update their schedule. Set minimum and maximum employee working hours per week

2. API gateway of all of your API’s, such as:

   1. We expose our API’s so that our system can accept customer bookings via an Integration and update seat info

      1. POST /flight/seats

         1. Parameters: flight_id, seat_id

   2. Delays and Cancellations

      1. Expose our API's so that our system can accept delays and cancellations data

         1. PUT /flight

            1. Parameters: flight_id, flight_status

      2. If Delayed, send a webhook to trigger a creation of new flight time record

         1. POST /flight/flighttime

            1. Parameters: flight_id, new_flight_time

         2. Trigger a notification and hit external API’s to notify consumers of new flight time

3. Database Decision

   1. This product will be looking to handle and utilize large amounts of data (and won’t need to do a lot of conditional queries). Therefore and per the CAP Theorem, we will prioritize partition tolerance and availability over consistency, and therefore we will choose a NoSQL database as opposed to a SQL database.

   2. I chose a Document NoSQL over a Key Value NoSQL Database because a Document Database typically supports more advanced indexing capabilities. For example, as a flight attendant, it might be very important for me to look at specific destinations and schedules within a small timeframe, and querying for that will be important for me to schedule my time off. This would not be a simple, key-based database.

4. We want Load Balancers to scale horizontally because in case one node fails, this would be catastrophic if didn’t have alternative nodes, since we expect our customers to use this product as their global system.

5. Microservices like Kubernetes and Dockers

6. Encryption with AWS KMS

7. Platform Design that includes the relationship among entities using Documents and Subdocuments for a database like MongoDB

{
  "Origin": "New York",
  "Destination": "Los Angeles",
  "ScheduledDateTimeDeparture": "2023-05-01T10:00:00Z",
  "ScheduledDateTimeArrival": "2023-05-01T13:00:00Z",
  "TeamMemberCaptain": {
    "id": 5498,
    "name": "Connor Captain",
    "role": "Captain",
    "department": "Flight Deck",
    "hire_date": "2010-01-01",
    "last_review_date": "2022-02-01"
  },
  "TeamMemberFlightAttendants": [
    {
      "id": 458943,
      "name": "Jane Smith",
      "role": "Senior Flight Attendant",
      "department": "Cabin Crew",
      "hire_date": "2018-09-01",
      "last_review_date": "2022-03-15"
    },
    {
      "id": 458940,
      "name": "Bob Johnson",
      "role": "Flight Attendant",
      "department": "Cabin Crew",
      "hire_date": "2019-03-01",
      "last_review_date": "2022-03-15"
    }
  ],
  "FlightStatus": "On time",
  "Fleet": {
    "Make": "Boeing",
    "Model": "737",
    "Status": "Active"
  },
  "DomesticOrInternational": "International"
}

Resources

1. https://www.mongodb.com/nosql-explained/data-modeling

2. https://developer.pagerduty.com/docs/db0fa8c8984fc-overview

3. https://www.navblue.aero/product/n-crew-planning/

4. ChatGPT

5. My friend, Natalie, who is a flight attendant

I tentatively plan on updating my travel roadmap periodically, starting with this post. Come join me in my next adventures!

April 2023

• New York

May 2023

• New York

• Oklahoma (one week)

June 2023

• New York

July 2023

• San Diego

• San Francisco

• Taipei

• New York

In consideration post-July: Oklahoma, Atlanta (guaranteed annual trip since 2015), Florida, Mexico