September 19th, 2022
Whenever I think about physical places, I find myself coming back to a few types of numbers again and again.
I've collected these into spreadsheets so that I can reference them more easily, and I figured they might be useful to others too:
Population ...
September 10th, 2022
In Argentina, your money is worth double if you skip the airport currency exchange and instead go to one of the many black market exchanges hidden throughout Buenos Aires.
These illegal exchanges are called "cuevas" (the word for "cave" in Spanish), an...
September 10th, 2022
Pirate crews developed a surprisingly similar approach to compensation in the 17th century. Just like many startups, they also balanced equity incentives with other mechanisms that would be familiar to a startup employee today, such as bonuses.
These ...
March 6th, 2022
I wrote a Buenos Aires guide with recommendations and tips for a group of friends I was traveling with in December 2021, and I figured it might be useful to other people too. I adore Buenos Aires and spend about a month each year there, so I'm always t...
January 1st, 2022
Inflation hits some parts of the economy harder and faster than others. It's obvious once you say it, and yet the way pundits and academics talk about inflation glosses over this reality. As a result, most people who haven't had direct experience with ...
December 29th, 2021
I've long wanted a notes app with an optional chat style interface for append-only notes. The idea is that I'll use the simpler append-only interface while on the go, and then use full-featured interface to review, edit, and organize those notes when I...
December 10th, 2021
People say immersion is the best way to learn a language. Well, spending time in Argentina is the equivalent for monetary theory.
There’s a lot we can learn from Argentina right now in particular. Cryptocurrencies are growing and USD inflation is acce...
December 5th, 2021
Remote work is creating a new economic niche, and countries that fill it will finally be able to compete with the US to attract talent. This is the once-in-a-generation opportunity for small, stable countries to grow, diversify, and up-skill their econ...
November 29th, 2021
These field notes are a bit different from previous cities I've explored, because unlike those, Miami is my home! So this post partially serves as a life update—I moved to Miami Beach from California a few months ago, and I'm excited to share my explor...
November 2nd, 2021
People aim to maximize access and space when deciding where to live.
All things equal, most people like living in places with easy access to their day-to-day life. It's nice to be able to walk your kids to kindergarten, and it's easier to keep a socia...
November 2nd, 2021
Historically, the United States has been the #1 target destination for immigrants. The US has a mythical reputation as the place where anyone can go from rags to riches.
However, the US has long made it difficult to enter the country, preventing prosp...
August 30th, 2021
I recently visited Próspera, a Honduran startup city. I had a ton of questions and figured others might too, so I wrote an FAQ to share what I learned:
Próspera FAQ
This FAQ is intended as a reference, covering the basic facts and current status of th...
August 25th, 2021
I haven't done a great job of tracking these, so this list is non-comprehensive. I'll try to keep it updated. If you only listen to one, I recommend the talk I gave at Config (which is highlighted).Devon Zuegel, creator of GitHub Sponsors (Aug 2021) – ...
July 10th, 2021
Alain was interviewed by our friend Anthony for a Brazilian urbanism blog called Caos Planejado, and we thought it would be fun to cross-post it here. They discussed Brazilian cities, municipal financing, what it was like to live in NYC in the time of ...
July 1st, 2021
While the startup cities industry is still small, it is already quite heterogeneous. Each project has its own distinct set of goals, motivations, and scope. However, this diversity isn’t fully captured by the vocabulary we use right now.
To help mysel...
June 8th, 2021
This is a test
Yoooooo!
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April 19th, 2021
This is a test
Yoooooo!
This is a second paragraph. This is bolded.
These field notes are a bit different from previous cities I've explored, because unlike those, Miami is my home! So this post partially serves as a life update—I moved to Miami B...
December 23rd, 2020
Mobility is central to living in every city. In this episode, we discussed how different communities tackle the question of transportation, and how culture shapes how different transport technologies get adopted.RSS · Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Overcas...
August 18th, 2020
Michael Kaminsky recently emailed me an interesting post he wrote about bounties in open source, and I took the opportunity to write up some thoughts that had been swirling in my head for a while. You can find the (lightly edited) response I sent to hi...
August 16th, 2020
Natan Gesher sent me the following email after reading my post about why flaking is so widespread in San Francisco, and I thought you all might find it interesting too:
I saw your blog posts about flaking and wanted to share something I've observed fr...