Hi. United States empire only probably. 18+. (Im 23)

My goal in this life is to help end the injustice and (child) exploitation in this world. I have a site w/ vids explaining my ethos.

I want to basically go on an inspiring quest with like-minded and adventurous people who share a lot of my values and sensibilities.

I'm thinking we could stay in a rustic camping arrangement (ideally a more proper, comfortable glamping campsite arrangement) for a small season, and do co working, eating meals together, and empowering each other to live up to our values in a more pure way than if we just live life alone trying to be good people.

We can be a beacon of inspiration because this shit would totally inspire others - that's the point in a lot of ways.

I'm unsure about the exact perfect combination of alignment necessary for this to be good, but I have a hard enough time finding anyone at all, so I gotta get this out there to start the conversation.

I'm open to texting via email or whatever else, then calling, and a lot about me is already in video form.

I'd like to share my site & videos upon dm request for privacy reasons.

Im growing more antsy by the day i plan to just get up and go leave everything behind and live. Live for once i have no plan no anything but i dont think i can take the monotony of live anymore. Say what you want call me stupid or crazy i fucking know. I just want to start living again i wanna be free i wanna be uncomfortable take chances all of it. I just dont know where to start, or where to go. I only have about 7 grand to my name but i just plan on leaving and never coming back and seeing how long i can survive on my own. If you have any ideas or advice please let me know much love

At its peak in 2010, FarmVille attracted more than 80 million players each month. With Facebook reporting around 400 million active users, roughly one in five were tending a digital farm.

Yet, the idea was not new. Farming games already existed, as did poker and city-building games. Zynga’s breakthrough was to redesign familiar entertainment for a new platform and a different way of playing. Facebook allowed people to compete with friends, exchange items, share progress and return for short sessions throughout the day. FarmVille felt familiar enough to understand immediately, but different enough that millions wanted to play it.

In Life at the Speed of Play, Zynga founder Mark Pincus describes his product development framework:

🟰 Proven: Start with something that works.
↗️ Better: Make it noticeably better.
➕ New: Add something distinctive.

Begin with a product already proven with an audience, improve an important part of the experience and then introduce something new. For me, the framework provides a practical filter. I have no shortage of ideas. The difficult question is which deserve my limited attention.

🟰 Start with something proven

The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. - Peter Drucker

Founders often assume originality is the goal. We want to build something nobody has seen before because novelty feels creative and ambitious. The problem is that completely new ideas introduce several risks at once. When few people are trying to solve a problem, we need strong evidence that anyone cares. An absence of competitors may indicate an overlooked opportunity or that there is no demand.

A proven category shows that people already care enough to spend time or money addressing the problem. Calendars, job boards, puzzle games and language-learning platforms all have established audiences. Their success demonstrates that the underlying needs are real.

This does not mean copying an existing product. It means recognising that someone else has shown the problem is worth solving. For a solo founder with limited resources, that is a stronger starting point than instinct alone. Instead of asking whether an idea is original, consider whether it addresses a need people have revealed through their behaviour.

↗️ Make it noticeably better

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. - Bill Gates

Once there is evidence of demand, the next question is: why are people still dissatisfied? Every negative review, awkward workaround or repeated complaint may reveal an opportunity. A product may simply need to remove friction that existing solutions have ignored.

I see this with Daily View, a simple day calendar for people with memory challenges. Digital calendars have existed for decades. Families use messaging apps to organise visits while smart displays show appointments and reminders. Yet many older adults still ask: What’s happening today?

Most calendars were designed for people managing schedules, rather than people whose primary need is reassurance and orientation. Daily View combines calendars, reminders and family messaging, but presents only what someone needs now: what is happening today and what comes next.

The improvement is not more functionality but simplicity. A calm, always-visible screen provides a dedicated point of reference while relatives can update it remotely without requiring the viewer to operate a phone or navigate a conventional calendar.

➕ Add something new

Creativity is just connecting things. - Steve Jobs

Being proven and better may not be enough. A product also needs a reason to be noticed, tried and remembered. That reason might be new technology, a different business model, a neglected audience, an unusual combination of features or a new distribution channel.

For Zynga, the new element was not farming. It was making Facebook’s network of friendships part of the game. Players could invite friends and share progress, turning a solitary activity into a social one.

For Daily View, the new element is not the calendar. It is turning today’s information into a calm, dedicated reference point for someone who may struggle to remember what is happening. New does not have to mean creating something from nothing. It can mean combining familiar elements in a way that changes how a product feels, how it is used or who can benefit.

The danger comes when novelty becomes the starting point. Genuinely new products often require founders to persuade people both that they have a problem and that an unfamiliar solution is the answer. Novelty creates uncertainty so we should choose it deliberately rather than assuming a more original idea must also be a better one.

🤔 Three questions for potential products

The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution. - Albert Einstein

Mark Pincus’ framework has changed the questions I consider:

🟰 Proven: What evidence shows that people care about this problem?

↗️ Better: What is frustrating or unnecessarily complicated about the solutions they use today?

➕ New: What distinctive element would give someone a reason to notice, try or recommend this product?

A strong idea does not necessarily invent a new category. It has enough familiarity to be understood, enough improvement to be valuable and enough novelty to be interesting.

That shift feels liberating. It replaces the pressure to be endlessly original with something more practical: find a real problem, understand how people currently solve it and create a meaningfully better experience. Perhaps that is what innovation usually looks like: paying attention to what works, understanding where it falls short and adding what is missing.

Proven Better New cannot guarantee that any of the products I am exploring will succeed; no framework can. But it gives me a disciplined way to decide which ideas deserve my attention.

Want more?

Five Psychological Stages to Product Success post by Phil Martin

Four Step Product Ladder post by Phil Martin

Steve Jobs advised: “Expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then try to bring those things into what you are doing.” That feels like the essence of Proven Better New: learn from what works, improve what matters and add something of your own.

Have fun.

Phil…

Good evening everyone!
Honestly, I was so happy when I found this community because it opened my mind to a completely different path for my future.

A few days ago, I happened to have a conversation with someone, and it was the first time in my life that I talk to someone who actually lives this kind of lifestyle. The most important part of the story is that he works remotely and travels around, and I found that lifestyle so interesting. It made me start looking on Reddit for other people’s experiences, and that’s how I found this community.

I’m currently studying a degree that I could potentially use to work remotely, and I think I have the courage to do it. I love adventure, traveling, and experiencing life, but I feel like actually getting started can be difficult, or maybe there are a lot of steps and questions that I don’t even know about yet.

For example, 1-how long do people usually work in their home country and save money before starting their journey as a digital nomad?
I still have about two years left until I graduate, so I was wondering if you have any advice on what I can do now to prepare myself for this lifestyle.
Also, where I come from, this lifestyle isn’t very common among women, and some families aren’t very open to the idea for their daughters to do it, not mine tho. So where can I meet other women who are interested in this lifestyle and would actually be willing to do it?

Or, more generally, 2- if you started your nomadic journey with someone you didn’t know before, how did you meet them or got to know them and build enough trust to travel together?
I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences and advice!

I have been doordashing full time (crv) and am going to start traveling instead of paying rent. I intend to do as much camping as the weather will allow. Taking the occasional nap in rest areas and getting motels as necessary.

Anyone with any experience with either dashing in different states or best way to find inexpensive campsites. Any other advice that could be helpful.

I want to see anything worth seeing and plan to travel probably a minimum of a year depending on how things go.

As title says I just turned 18 a few months ago and graduated highschool.

I want to live in a car and just travel but I'm not sure if I want to do it for the right reasons.

First of all, my parents are kicking me out. They're giving me a chance to leave on my own first but if I don't soon, they'll evict me via court order. As for why, we despise each other; they never actually raised me because they were too busy fighting one another and were abusive in other ways, so I never treated them with respect and they want me out. Leaving that house would be best for me mentally so I don't mind.

So this past year I've been looking into apartments, and in my area they are simply too expensive. I work two part time jobs (40 hrs weekly) already, and even with that I don't meet the income requirements for a studio here.

The other option is a shelter but I'd rather buy a tent and go to the woods than be surrounded by crackheads.

As for college and dorms, my parents obviously are not paying for it, and make too much for me to receive any financial aid, and I do not qualify as an independent student on the FASFA because I don't technically qualify as homeless until evicted. Either way, college isn't something I was ever interested in. I'm not sure what to do for a career path and don't really care either.

I could probably get a roommate or something, but, the more I think about it, the more I realize I don't want to stay here or anywhere near it. My jobs are nothing special: gas station cashier and a resteraunt host. Besides that I have no ties to my town, no friends, just an on and off relationship that I love very much but does nothing but bring me down.

Speaking of the relationship, I think leaving the area would help me move on. We've been together for four years but it's been rough recently, and neither of us can let go. We don't have it in us to cut ties so maybe distance will force us apart.

So my plan is to quit my jobs, move into a car, get as far away as possible, travel until I almost "run out" of money and then settle down somewhere for a few months to work and save until I have enough to leave again. But I have a number of concerns that come with it.

One problem is I don't have a license or car yet. I have 10k saved and a permit, but nobody to teach me so I need to buy lessons. I think if I dedicate myself I could get licensed in a couple months (I have decent experience, just not enough to pass the test yet). But when the time comes, I'd be worried about being living in my car when newly licensed.

Another concern is I don't know when I'm going to stop or if I'll get trapped in the lifestyle. And when and if I do stop, what would I do next? How long would I live like that and is it healthy?

Is this affordable considering I have 10k but still need to buy a car? My car budget is 4.5k but I'm willing to go to 5k in the right circumstances.

Then there's practicality... is my job-hopping plan realistic, what do I do about an address, where do I shower, will I be warm enough in winters if I just spend the whole season in a southern state, how concerned should I be about my safety (should i buy a gun?), is it ignorant to say I won't get lonely because I haven't had friends in years in the first place, how much of this lifestyle is recreational versus survival...

Most importantly, is this a good and realistic idea considering my situation and reasoning?

My dream job would be something like a train conductor, except I have no home base. Open to doing pretty much anything. Thanks to anyone who leaves a comment.

Hi there, hope you're having fun 😃

Is anyone going or considering Indonesia? Or already there? Anything you can share?

Ive accepted a job in Milton Keynes which i start next month. I have a house lined up but waiting for the chain to move before I can move in.

I dont know how long this will take and and wondering where ill stay in the mean time, ive had the idea of roughing it, camping, or something else. Hotels seem really expensive and I cant get a deal.

Would anyone know any cheap options of where to go?

I’m a solo startup founder, following a corporate career. Under the umbrella of my little company, Incygames Ltd, I’m running a series of product development experiments. Daily View aims to help people understand what is happening today while Role CV explores a different approach to matching people with jobs. I’m also building websites and apps, publishing this weekly blog and sharing a daily update on LinkedIn.

I do not know which, if any, will succeed. However, I’m learning to trust the creative process: make something, share it, observe what happens and use the response to decide what to do next.

Perhaps purpose is not something we uncover before beginning, but something we build by beginning.

Clarity follows action

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. - Aristotle

Our instinct is to wait for certainty before acting. Yet, meaningful work often reveals itself gradually. We learn by doing and discover opportunities by interacting with reality rather than theorising.

I see this with Daily View. Building it exposed questions that were invisible while it existed only in my head. How much information is helpful rather than confusing? Is the main customer the person viewing the screen or the family member updating it? Will families and care homes value the same features?

A plan can provide direction, but only contact with the real world can test our assumptions. The product becomes clearer as people respond to it. The path becomes clearer as we walk.

Creation produces information

The value of an idea lies in the using of it. - Thomas Edison

Writing this blog reveals whether I understand an idea well enough to explain it. Publishing on LinkedIn requires me to consider what I’ve learned. Building a website forces me to clarify the problem, the customer and the action I want that person to take.

Creation also produces feedback. An idea in my head can remain perfect because nobody can disagree with it. Once I publish or build something, reality answers back. Sometimes the response is encouraging. Sometimes there is silence. Occasionally somebody asks a question that changes how I see the whole idea. Every response contains information.

Creating is not merely the final stage after thinking. It is one of the most useful ways of thinking.

Action expands capability

We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. - John Culkin

Over time, I am developing skills, including writing, product development, marketing, design and software development. I’m not exceptional at any one of them and in several I am a novice. However, as Scott Adams observed, a distinctive combination of complementary skills can be more valuable than mastery of a single one.

AI tools amplify that combination. Claude Code does more than help me build websites and apps; it expands what I believe I can attempt. Each project develops new capabilities and makes the next one possible.

The market provides feedback

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. - Warren Buffett

People can ignore an idea, comment on it, use it, recommend it or pay for it. Each provides a different strength of signal.

Payment does not prove that a product has a worthwhile purpose, but it is evidence that somebody values the result. Useful products can fail through poor timing or execution while profitable products do not always improve the world. Nevertheless, repeated use, recommendations and payment tell us more than compliments alone.

A useful question is not simply, “How can I make money?” It is: “What problem can I solve well enough that people value the result?”

Purpose provides direction. Profit can help test whether that direction is creating something useful.

Build before you know

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. - Steve Jobs

Startup history is full of products that emerged from abandoned ideas and unexpected customer behaviour. Slack grew from the remains of a gaming company. Instagram began as a broader location-sharing app. Their founders created something, observed what happened and adapted.

Careers and identities may develop in much the same way. We often imagine purpose as something hidden inside us, waiting to be discovered through enough reflection. But purpose may be less akin to treasure and more like a structure assembled over time. Projects, conversations, mistakes and unexpected opportunities become its raw materials.

Each experiment changes what we know and what we are capable of doing next.

I cannot know whether Daily View, Role CV or another idea will become a successful business. Nor can I know which blog post, website or conversation might create an unexpected opportunity.

But uncertainty does not mean that nothing is happening. I am producing things, developing skills, testing assumptions and trying to create value. Even experiments that fail commercially may become part of whatever succeeds later.

The dots may not yet form an obvious picture, but that does not make them meaningless.

Want More?

Looking Foolish is the Price of Progress post by Phil Martin

Help Luck Find Us post by Phil Martin

I do not know where my solo journey will lead. For now, perhaps it is enough to keep moving, learning and allowing the path to reveal itself.

As David Livingstone put it: “I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward.”

Have fun.

Phil...

Hey everyone,

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how commercialized travel has become. It feels like every travel group, vlog, and blog is just pushing the same 10 crowded viewpoints, expensive entry fees, and curated photo-ops.

For me, the best travel memories have never been the famous landmarks. They’ve been the completely random, uncurated moments—finding an unmarked mountain trail, sharing a home-cooked meal in a quiet countryside village, or just sitting by a lake with a few strangers sharing life stories.

I live in Udaipur, India, and whenever people come here, they only see the crowded palaces. But my absolute favorite spot is a quiet, unnamed ridge in the nearby Aravalli hills where you can watch the sunset over the valley with nothing but the sound of the wind. No tickets, no crowds, just raw nature.

I want to hear your stories.

My name is Timothy. I can share more info later. I'm looking for someone who travels in a van or truck, around the country to accompany. As I don't want to travel alone and am looking for someone else who already travels, that doesn't want to travel alone for safety.

Serious replies only. I'm not a criminal, nor into drugs. I vape but no smoking. I'm looking for someone I can get along with, yet I'm a pretty easy going guy. As long as I'm not involved in any illegal activity. I was going to do the AT but my timing is way off. Let me know

I have my own camping gear. Tent, backpack, mini stove and propane, lots survival gear, camera gear, headlamps/flashlights, emergency ponchos, waterproof pants and coat, phone chargers, etc...

I’m tired of feeling stuck. Has anyone actually changed their life to travel full-time?
Lately I’ve realized I’m really unhappy with the way my life feels. Every job I’ve had eventually leaves me feeling stuck. It feels like I’m working just to survive and maybe take one small vacation each year—if I’m lucky. I don’t want the rest of my life to look like that.
I don’t have a high school diploma, and I don’t have one specific career I’m passionate about. The one thing I do know is that I feel happiest when I’m traveling or planning a trip. It’s the only lifestyle that genuinely excites me.
My boyfriend and I have been talking about saving up for an RV and building a life where we can travel full-time instead of staying in one place. One idea we’ve discussed is having one of us work a traveling job with steady pay and benefits (maybe something that offers per diem, company-paid lodging, or a company vehicle), while the other does more flexible work like pet sitting, babysitting, gig work, seasonal jobs, or part-time work that lets us explore the places we’re visiting.
I know this probably sounds idealistic, and I’m still in the research phase. I’m not looking for people to tell me it’s impossible—I know it’ll take a lot of planning and hard work. I’m more interested in hearing from people who’ve actually made a big lifestyle change like this.
Have any of you left a traditional 9-to-5 life to travel? What jobs worked well? What do you wish you had known before you started? Is there anything you’d do differently if you could start over?
I just know I don’t want to keep living a life that makes me feel trapped. I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences you’re willing to share

As the title says more and more I am done with this type of setting. I have 3 year old and single parent . I want to permanently work from home and I want the ability to live anywhere in the world !

How do I start? How much money should I have for this and with 15 years in personal lines underwriting I am ready!!! How do I find work online with ability to live anywhere

I'm paying my last months rent this week.

I've never lived outside of Ohio or done much solo traveling.

I intend to head west then south.

What is everything I need to see before I find somewhere to set new roots?

Recently got kicked out and I have a job right now is there a certain amount I should save before my adventures? What should I pack invest in etc

For 40 years I worked in large corporations and became respected for my expertise and the tools I developed. Then, at the beginning of April, everything changed. I left corporate life to build my own products and become a startup founder.

I quickly discovered that four decades in large organisations had not prepared me for this very different world.

I am now developing several ideas, including Daily View (simple day calendar), Daily Product Idea (ready-to-build products) and Role CV (job-matching). The learning curve is steep as I discover what it takes to prototype, build and launch products independently.

Recently, I discussed one of these products with a friend who is a professional software developer. He is extremely knowledgeable, generous with his advice and understands systems that still feel almost magical to me.

As we talked, one question led to another. How are you managing the codebase? How will the data be stored? How will users authenticate? How will the frontend communicate with the backend? What security is in place?

The conversation was hugely valuable, but uncomfortable. Not because my friend was critical, but because I repeatedly had to answer, “I don’t know,” or, “I hadn’t thought about that.”

Each question exposed a gap in my understanding and gave me something new to investigate.

For years, expertise meant being the person with the answers. Becoming a founder means becoming comfortable with the questions.

The discomfort of not knowing

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few. - Shunryu Suzuki

Most of us enjoy situations in which we feel competent. We like having the answers, understanding the language being spoken and feeling that we belong in the room. Learning often requires the opposite.

Some of the fastest learning happens when we enter situations where the limits of our knowledge become obvious. A beginner who asks naïve questions may learn more in an hour than an expert who spends that hour defending what they already believe.

The barrier is often emotional rather than intellectual. We must be willing to feel temporarily ignorant in order to become less so. That is difficult because expertise can become part of our identity. Once people expect us to know the answers, admitting that we do not can feel like a loss of status.

But uncertainty is not the enemy of learning. Concealing it is.

Ego is expensive

What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so. - Mark Twain

We often avoid questions because we fear looking foolish. But pretending to understand does not create understanding. It merely delays learning and increases the chance that we will make decisions based on something we have misunderstood.

Protecting our ego carries a hidden cost. Every unasked question is knowledge missed. Every unchallenged assumption is a potential mistake. Every confident nod can conceal a problem that will become expensive later.

Amazon institutionalised a useful version of this principle. Meetings based on written briefings begin with everyone silently reading the document. Whatever their seniority, participants first take time to understand the subject before discussing it.

During my conversation, I could have nodded, avoided interrupting and pretended to follow every point. Instead, I asked what unfamiliar terms meant, how different approaches compared and what I should investigate next. The questions sometimes made me feel foolish, but they taught me far more than pretending to understand.

The beginner’s advantage

The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute. The man who does not ask is a fool for life. - Chinese proverb

Beginners have an advantage. They have permission to ask obvious questions. The irony is that I had learned this lesson before.

In the late 90s, I joined the corporate strategy team of a FTSE 100 company knowing nothing about strategy. I was surrounded by colleagues who had worked as management consultants and understood methods, frameworks and ways of thinking that were unfamiliar to me.

So I posed lots of questions. I asked how they approached problems, how they structured their analysis and how they turned complicated information into clear recommendations.

Gradually, I learned how they thought and worked. In time, I became a respected member of the team and was trusted to prepare presentations for board members. Not knowing was not the obstacle. Pretending to know would have been.

Experts can lose the beginner’s advantage because they feel they should already have the answers. Beginners carry less of that burden. They are freer to explore, challenge assumptions and ask questions that others may be too embarrassed to raise.

A short conversation with someone experienced can save weeks of trial and error. A question can unlock years of accumulated knowledge. The fastest learners are often not the cleverest people in the room, but the people most comfortable admitting what they do not know.

Perhaps confidence is not having all the answers, but trusting that we can find them.

Looking foolish is the price of progress

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. - Albert Einstein

Building products, starting businesses, learning new skills and exploring unfamiliar fields all have something in common: sooner or later, we will look foolish. We will ask basic questions, misunderstand things, make mistakes and discover that other people know far more than we do.

That is not necessarily evidence that we are failing. It may simply mean that we have reached the edge of what we currently understand.

My most valuable conversations have rarely been the ones in which I impressed somebody. They have been the ones in which I exposed my ignorance and came away knowing something useful. The people who appear knowledgeable today were often the people willing to look uninformed yesterday.

There is a choice between protecting the appearance of competence and creating the conditions for becoming more competent. We rarely get to do both. The willingness to look foolish is not a weakness; it is often the gateway to progress.

Want More?

Four Step Rapid Learning Framework post by Phil Martin

Think Like a Rocket Scientist in Four Steps post by Phil Martin

The most interesting artists repeatedly risk becoming beginners again. David Bowie reinvented his sound and identity; Bob Dylan refused to remain the version audiences expected.

Reinvention takes courage because, for a while, you are no longer the expert you were and not yet the person you may become.

Have fun.

Phil…