The Most Important Global Competition

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Most modern & self-proclaimed "sovereign individuals" get their freedom of choice by leveraging digital technologies. And then they lose it all during a power outage.

Just think about that.

This is an essay about how becoming over-reliant on digital technologies makes your life vulnerable to single points of failure.

#1 Remote Work Will Break the US Monopoly on Global Talent

When work must be done in person, it incentivizes talent and resources to cluster in a few, dominant locations. This means that workers try to live where the best opportunities are available or they get left out. For example, technologists have traditionally wanted to live in San Francisco, investment bankers in New York, policymakers and lobbyists in Washington, etc.

Think about it like this, top locations and companies act like gravity wells, pulling talented people from all over the world to specific locations. This in-person style of work created winners and losers in the global competition for human capital and the US has been an overwhelming beneficiary of this competition for the past 50 years.

But as remote work has become popular in the post-covid world, that reality is changing. Human capital no longer needs to congregate in the same place. And that's breaking the US monopoly on global talent and changing the competition for human resources.

Check out the essay linked below which provides an excellent breakdown of why the US is now losing its monopoly on global talent.

Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent | devonzuegel.com

"Remote work is creating a new economic niche, and countries that put in the work to 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 economy."

This is especially true for places with "ideal" time zones.

"For example, Vancouver has been an early mover on this opportunity. Tech companies based in San Francisco and Seattle have "innovation hubs" (like Vancouver) whose primary role is to create a place for talent that hasn't been able to get a visa to the US. We've also started to see this in places like Lagos and Buenos Aires. Nigerian developers can work alongside startups in Berlin and London, while Argentinian developers work as consultants for companies based in the US. We're going to be seeing a lot more of this now that remote work is more widely accepted by companies worldwide."

"Small, stable countries in favorable timezones have a once-in-a-generation opportunity at their fingertips. Welcome these talented, energetic go-getters into your country, and you will rapidly stimulate your economy, up-skill the local population, and prepare your country for the future."

"Time zone" accommodating locations offer an interesting compromise for companies that want to tap global talent markets but are unwilling or unable to embrace asynchronous workstyles.

The point - remote work has opened up other areas of the world to aggressively attract human capital. This is especially true for countries with time zones that align with traditional "magnet" countries. Once these "other countries" create favorable policies to attract remote workers, they'll create self-reinforcing feedback loops of local prosperity.

The bottom line: Location arbitrage isn't something that only the "wealthy" remote workers can take advantage of. It's also available for people looking to take advantage of how remote work makes international talent more accessible to digital-age companies.

People around the world now have an alternative option when they don't have citizenship in a company's home nation.

These workers are identifying the locations that are affordable, with favorable time zones, and have adaptive digital age policies. Then they're competing for jobs they otherwise didn't have access to. That has huge implications for displacing the "developed world's" workforce.

#2 Introducing Afropolitan: A Digital Nation

Introducing Afropolitan: A Digital Nation — Afropolitan Network State (mirror.xyz)

There's a lot of really good food for thought in this essay on the formation of an African digital nation.

"The internet enables people to organize around shared values at scales that were previously unthinkable before the current century."

"If it were a country, Facebook would be the largest one globally. With the advent of cryptocurrency, the next Facebook will not be a social network with a passive online community but rather a full-blown digital republic coordinated by its native currency and a unifying mission."

"What, then, could Afropolitan be? If it were a country, the African diaspora would be the 10th largest globally (~ 150 Million). The diaspora is our North Star."

"Afropolitan’s objective is to solve the Crisis of Legitimacy experienced by Africans worldwide by building a new source of Legitimacy embodied in our Digital Nation."

The 4 proposed phases of Afropolitan:

• Network - connecting people around the world

• Come for the network, stay for the tool - launching an app to bring people together & specifically facilitate social & monetary exchanges

• Minimum viable state - create governance institutions, raise funds, & develop an internal economy

• Foundation - leverage growth to negotiate with partner governments for land via charter cities

It's hard to say whether an initiative like Afropolitan will be successful but it's certainly important to follow.

Bringing the African diaspora together for a common purpose and working to establish common prosperity is the very backbone of the ideas behind The Network State.

We can expect more of these types of initiatives to emerge in the coming years and as they do, they'll present interesting opportunities for individuals to benefit from.

The bottom line: the idea of coordinating the diaspora of a nation with digital tools is becoming common. And there is immense value in joining these early "minimum viable nations" to understand a trend that isn't going away. Network States will continue to form and grow. And they will influence our lives in profound and unexpected ways, so it's better to be early than late to this trend.

#3 The Graphic Truth: Who Uses Facebook Products The Most?

The Graphic Truth: Who uses Facebook products the most? - GZERO Media

Here's a simple truth. If you want to tap into the largest possible surface area of the global internet, you need to be using Facebook.

Yes, Facebook.

It's ideal for those that want to find community, for those that want to find customers, and for those that want diversity of thought from a variety of global perspectives.

Just look at the facts: Facebook has 2.8 billion users worldwide. That represents 35% of the global population in one "location".

I'm not aware of any other way to easily replicate that level of access anywhere else.

The bottom line: you need to be on Facebook regardless of how cool or fun you think it is. Regardless of what you think of the platform's "censorship" policies. It's where you get unprecedented access to the largest human network on the planet. For that reason, it's still relevant and worthy of your attention.

Politicians know this and that's why they get so upset about the Facebook algorithm, fake news, and influence campaigns of "foreign agents".  It's one of the most influential "places" on earth because of its reach and the surface area of serendipity that it creates.

Rapid Fire

• UK firm takes on Apple iPhone 14 and Elon Musk with satellite phone - BBC News - A core philosophy of TSI Weekly - follow any trend that is likely to expand global access to the internet. Satellite internet paired with mobile phones is the white whale. It will be the technological change that brings the remaining 40% of the world online. Watch these developments closely.

• Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio - YouTube -I shared this several months ago but It's even more relevant today given the nature of current inflation rates and the growing likelihood of government-subsidized energy price controls. ie: how are current events playing into Ray Dalio's changing world order predictions?

• EU to Consider Power-Use Cuts, Energy Price Caps, Profit Grab - Bloomberg - As the Eurozone goes through winter, how will the mix of authoritarian measures they implement impact the willingness of remote workers to stay in one location?

• The Ethereum Merge - FAQ (lido.fi) - This is a good FAQ on the Ethereum Merge set to take place this week (September 14). The bottom line: it's a shift from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake consensus mechanisms. The point to focus on from TSI Weekly's perspective - this changeover will not have a meaningful impact on gas fees. So when the Ethereum network gets congested, fees will continue to be very high. That will last until the next phase of the merge takes place at a much later date. The point is - L2 assets will still be necessary to keep transaction costs low which is likely why they've performed well these past few weeks.

• Home | Colossus (joincolossus.com) - This is an absolute powerhouse media company that's been quietly forming. This is the type of operation that could ultimately rival and replace traditional education systems. Business breakdowns and insights from successful operators. An MBA education for those willing to listen and learn.

Extras

Euro-dollar exchange rate yields steep discount for Americans (cnbc.com)

How much more will the Euro need to dip before remote workers earning dollars start prioritizing a visit to Europe?