you guys didn't already know this stuff?

The EU's love of banning things is lazy policy-making. It's better to disincentivize and let markets take care of it. That way you preserve freedom while also encouraging desirable outcomes. Further reading: "Nudge" by Richard Thaler.

Come to Vietnam! There are so many kinds of avocado out here.

There was a really good Radiolab episode about cicadas and their bizarre 17 year cycles. https://radiolab.org/podcast/279210-cicadas-are-coming

This shows that going out on your own is not always strictly better or more rewarding. As a software engineer you can simply rent your skills and be part of a bigger team and company that's arguably doing something more impactful than building widgets.

The finances work out better too. Market salary as a software engineer is easily in the 200-300k range and increases over time with experience and skill. You can also more easily cap your work hours at 30-40 hours a week especially if you're remote. Then if you can figure out a way to do that while living in Southeast Asia, it's hard to imagine quality of life getting better than that as you're now living like a king and should be able to save as much as 50% of your income and retire young.

I've experimented with dumb phones before but in the end I found much more success in ditching my data plan as the ideal forcing function for shaping behavior. There are too many situations where smartphones are extremely useful if not necessary. What's not necessary is being constantly connected. Ideally you have a SIM card that can always do text and calling, and you can opt-in to data on demand e.g. 24-hour prepaid plan if you ever truly need it.

I'd love to know if anyone owns a camel that's a decedent of one of the original camel crew!

As another Asia-based software dev (Vietnam), this was an interesting read. I am currently going the spousal visa route but this carries its own advantages and disadvantages. I've always loved Japan but generally unsure of living there due to high cost of living, aging population, and strict immigration laws. As least in the case of the latter, it's good to know a path exists!

As an American living in Vietnam I use a number of these apps, particularly Shopee, Grab, Zalo. Also used Naver a lot when I lived in Seoul. Except for Grab, which is a legit super app, I'd rather use American tech because it's just better. Tech talent in these markets is lacking and they're all chasing the examples already set by big US tech rather than innovating their own stuff.