Travelogue Part Deux
Three Things #65: April 23, 2023
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about several recent trips. I’ve continued to travel the past few weeks, and now that I’m home for a while it’s a good opportunity to pause and reflect once again on these recent trips—on the places visited, the people met, the experiences experienced, and the ideas considered—and to share it all here. The past month took me to three very different places on three different continents for three very different reasons.
Thing #1: New Zealand
The first and only time I previously visited New Zealand was six years ago, for fun and not primarily for business or professional reasons. With a friend I drove across much of the south island, from Milford Sound in the south to Queenstown up through the mountains of Mount Cook National Park and the Franz Josef glacier, then across the island to Christchurch. We also spent some time on the north island, from Rotorua to Auckland. We went ziplining, bungee jumping, and skydiving (all firsts). Among all the beauty and happy memories I especially remember the incredible fjords at Milford Sound.
New Zealand left an extraordinarily positive impression on me not only because of the fun activities but also because of the breathtaking scenery, the overall quietude and peaceful feeling of the place, and the people I met, who struck me as particularly sensible and sensitive to nature and to the world around them. I got the impression that New Zealand is a really unique, exceptional place, by far the most exceptional among all the English-speaking countries I’ve visited. I decided that if I ever had the opportunity to spend more time there and get to know the place better, I’d jump on it without hesitation.
That opportunity presented itself a couple of years later in the form of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, or EHF for short. The program was launched in 2016 by the Hillary Institute and the New Zealand government as a way of bringing talented investors and entrepreneurs and their diverse perspectives to New Zealand from around the world to promote innovation both locally and globally. I was selected as a fellow in 2019 but, due to a scheduling conflict and the ensuing pandemic, my welcome experience was postponed until this year. The March orientation that I participated in was the second to last and the largest to date, welcoming in nearly 100 new fellows. It took place over several days at a venue a short drive from Wellington at the southern end of the north island.
Let me say upfront that EHF is a very unique program. I’m not aware of anything else like it. I’ve participated in study abroad, cultural exchange, business travel, and startup incubators and accelerators. EHF is a little bit like these but also in a category of its own. The fellowship differs in how the fellows are selected, the mission and purpose of the fellowship, the welcome experience, and of course the fact that the program is in New Zealand rather than, say, New York, London, or San Francisco.
I didn’t really know what to expect of the orientation and I tried to keep my expectations to a minimum. When the in-person welcome experience was canceled due to the pandemic we had instead done a remote orientation program back in 2020 over video conference. Unfortunately due to the medium I had found it very difficult to engage meaningfully with the EHF staff, the content, and the other fellows at the time. This time I suppose I expected to meet some interesting people, learn something about the culture and history of New Zealand, be inspired and have fun. In the end I was not let down.
Given the vast distance and huge time difference, I decided to arrive in Auckland a few days early to get over jetlag, explore and acclimate a bit, and be in good shape for the orientation. EHF and its partners organized a one-day tour of an innovation district in Auckland, including a visit to a local art museum. I stayed in the university district just outside downtown and enjoyed exploring the city on foot and while running. I found Auckland surprisingly comfortable and pleasant, with good food and coffee. It may be the biggest city in New Zealand but by my standards Auckland feels small and manageable!
After a few quiet days, and after mostly recovering from jetlag, I flew down to Wellington where the real fun began. I met and had lunch with a few other fellows that had recently arrived, and we explored the city together on foot. I also managed a couple of pretty, windy runs along the harbor and around the hills heading out of town. If Auckland is small and manageable, Wellington feels downright quaint.
Before I knew it orientation proper had begun. It’s difficult to describe what it felt like but it was somewhere at the intersection of summer camp, study abroad, and business school, with participants who are older and more mid-career than any of those. I’ve participated in lots of programs that bring a bunch of strangers together in an unfamiliar city for some number of days or weeks, but this was different primarily in terms of the brevity and intensity of the program.
It’s also hard to describe in detail what the ensuing three days were like, and I’m hesitant to do so in order not to spoil the experience for anyone who participates in the future. Suffice it to say that we spent roughly equal parts of the time meeting and getting to know the other fellows, learning about and discussing the EHF itself and its role in New Zealand and in the world, learning about Māori culture, and in unstructured time with other fellows.
While I found almost all of the content engaging and useful, this last part was my favorite, especially mealtime and morning runs with the handful of other dedicated runners in the group. There were a lot of “Silicon Valley/Bay Area tech bro/VC types”, and it was easy to hang out with that crowd since it’s the group I identify with most strongly and communicate with most easily, but the most interesting conversations I had were with people from very different places and very different backgrounds, such as fellows focused on energy, climate, or social causes.
The other part of the experience that was very special was learning about Māori language, culture, history, and the Māori worldview from the Māori fellows and instructors. I’ve had extremely limited exposure to indigenous culture in general and basically no prior exposure to Māori culture. The experience made me realize what a great shame and loss this is. I’m embarrassed to admit that today, little as my knowledge is, I know a lot more about Māori culture and worldview than I do about the Native American tribes where I grew up or spend most of my time. In addition to appreciating the incredible trauma that was visited upon the Māori people in the wake of European settlement and the incredibly unique, vibrant revitalization of Māori culture more recently, it also made me reflect deeply on the enormous loss of indigenous language, culture, and values in many other parts of the world, including those closer to home.
The ideas that stood out to me the most clearly in the Māori culture and worldview are the importance of family and kinship and of a clear, hierarchical social structure around each individual: from self to whānau to hapū to iwi to country and world. Also, the importance of putting oneself into the social order when introducing oneself by describing one’s ancestors and where one comes from geographically. Traditional Māori introductions (pepeha) usually refer to one’s mountain and one’s river. Having grown up in a land without many mountains, I’ve always struggled with the former!
This is in strong contrast to liberal Western culture which places emphasis not upon where one comes from or who one’s ancestors are, but rather on what one does (or has done) and on how one chooses to identify. Initially I found it a bit uncomfortable to introduce oneself on the basis of things one has no control over, but I understand why this, too, is relevant and important.
In addition to these lessons, we also found plenty of time for fellow-led sessions in unconference format on topics ranging from settling in New Zealand to the threats and opportunities of AI to psychedelics. These were fascinating since they were small, closed sessions with other trusted fellows where we could share ideas freely, and the sessions formed a great counterpoint to the larger Māori- and EHF-led workshops and sessions.
The orientation began with a traditional Māori welcome ceremony (pōwhiri) and ended with a closing ceremony where our cohort was given its honorary name (manu tukutuku, which refers to the weaving together of people) and we received pounamu stones. I was quite sad when the experience ended: it had been brief, less than a week, but it had been intense and I had formed a strong bond with several of my compatriots. Unlike many of the other types of programs I’ve done in the past, as I mentioned above—study abroad, summer programs, etc.—this one was over all too quickly, and before I knew it we were all thrown back into our busy daily lives. I still have many people, conversations, and ideas to follow up on, but despite my best intentions, a month later I already feel too busy to make time for all of them. It’s amazing how quickly “real life” takes over once time and distance intervene. The experience was truly magical and one that I’ll treasure for many years to come.
But it was time to move on and I was also excited about the next leg of my trip.
Thing #2: Taiwan
I’ve been intrigued by Taiwan since the first time I visited about 14 years ago. And I’ve always been surprised by how few non-Taiwanese have spent time there or appreciate what it has to offer. It’s a fascinating intersection of a number of different cultures: native Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, and Western. Given that Japan was the first foreign country I lived in and that I became deeply fascinated with both Japanese and Chinese culture from a young age, and given how much Taiwan feels like both Japan and Hong Kong (where I spent four years), it has always felt extremely comfortable and familiar.
Taiwan has exceptionally beautiful natural scenery including mountains, rugged coastlines, beautiful beaches, forests, and hot springs. It’s one of the safest places on earth and it’s surprisingly cheap. It has incredible food, and geographically is extremely close to lots of other interesting places including Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, with a good airport and easy connections to most places. Its population is well educated and it has a thriving tech sector. It feels like just the right size: not as tiny and claustrophobic as Singapore or Hong Kong, but not too big like the USA or mainland China.
Perhaps most intriguingly, Taiwan is free and democratic. It was spared the turmoil of the Mao era and events like the Cultural Revolution so in many ways it’s preserved aspects of Chinese culture, religion, and language (such as the traditional writing system) better than the mainland. It did have an authoritarian, one party system of martial law for a couple of generations after the civil war that saw civilians massacred in the streets (sound familiar?). As recently as 1979 pro-democracy protestors were being arrested and extrajudicial murders were occurring, but since then the country has liberalized and digitized significantly, leading to recent phenomena such as the Sunflower Movement, the g0v movement, and the appointment of the remarkable Audrey Tang as the country’s first digital minister.
Taiwan is tiny and is an economic minnow next to mainland China, but it’s a thorn in China’s side because it shows a clear alternative path for China and for Chinese society more generally: it’s living proof that a free and open Chinese society can rule itself peacefully, democratically, independently, and with a high degree of economic success. Taiwan’s per capita GDP was on par with the mainland’s two generations ago but is now three times as big.
I think there are three reasons more people don’t know what they’re missing in Taiwan. One, there’s a language barrier. While many educated Taiwanese do speak great English and many have spent time abroad, day to day life on the island all happens in one or another Chinese dialect and Taiwan doesn’t market itself well in English. Two, well, Taiwan doesn’t market itself well in general relative to places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, etc., not to mention Japan and mainland China, which is where tourists to the region tend to head. Taiwan’s strength is in engineering, not in branding, marketing, and communications. Three, its geopolitical isolation makes this difficult, as Taiwan doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with many countries and its participation in international forums like the UN is severely limited.
Back to my trip. After New Zealand I spent a week in Taiwan reconnecting with the place and with old friends. It was my first time in the region since late 2019 when I visited Osaka and Beijing for DevCon V and some meetings. Obviously a lot has changed since then and I was worried that Taiwan wouldn’t be totally open for business given the harsh rules around lockdowns, quarantines, etc. Fortunately quarantine rules had been dropped earlier this year, the last rules for masks were dropped days before I arrived, and I was happy to see that life there is totally back to normal and fully open.
Taiwan remains as I remember it: delightful, friendly, cheap, safe, and comfortable. I’m seriously considering moving my family there for some time (the Gold Card scheme makes getting a visa quite easy and straightforward). I am of course very aware of the geopolitical situation but my gut feeling is that, whatever comes next for Taiwan and cross-strait relations with mainland China, an outright hot war is extremely unlikely in the immediate future.
There’s not much more to say about the time I spent in Taiwan since I was primarily connecting with friends, eating good food, considering possible places to live, and working in a hotel room. It was a relatively quiet, easy week and a chance to reflect on everything I’d seen and experienced in New Zealand as part of my EHF orientation. The things that surprised me on this trip include how cheap Taiwan still is, especially food and drink (it’s almost impossible to spend more than about $50 on an excellent meal for two); how easy Taipei is to navigate, including on an excellent bike share program that costs less than 1/10 of similar programs in the USA; and how polite and respectful people are.
I had a few days at home before the next trip.
Thing #3: England
As an American, England is an easy place to fall in love with—and certainly a lot more familiar than Taiwan! Everything about it feels quaint, like a smaller, friendlier, safer, less troubled version of home. Naturally it was one of the first places I visited abroad, ages and ages ago, back when the six and a half hour flight from New York to London felt long and it felt unimaginably far from home. (Having traveled to and from Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand since then, it now feels a stone’s throw away.)
It’s hard to believe given how much I travel but I hadn’t been to England in about 12 years. This time I was in town to record an episode of What Bitcoin Did, to join a number of Bitcoin-related events in Bedford hosted by the podcast crew and for an Urbit meetup in London. Bedford, a small town not far from London, isn’t the most obvious place for a Bitcoin meetup but it’s the hometown of Peter McCormack, host of the podcast, and in addition to recording there and hosting a meetup there, the football club he bought last season, Real Bedford, had just clinched the league title and would be celebrating after their last home game of the season. Bitcoin, beer, and football was too much to pass up on.
I found Bedford very interesting. It’s an easy, cheap, comfortable 40-minute train ride from London. There’s a small High Street that has clearly seen better times, with a Wagamama, Tesco, Nando’s, an Indian restaurant, several banks and chemists. The only Starbucks is a small shop inside the train station and I didn’t even see a Costa Coffee. The town feels quintessentially English: just outside of downtown there are farm fields dotted with tiny homes, a shire with rolling hills, and cottages with thatched rooves and quaint names.
Bedford sits on a lovely river with lots of ducks, geese, and more swans than I’ve ever seen in one place. There are running, cycling, and walking paths along the river for several miles in both directions, which I made ample use of during my time there. This is one of my favorite things about England: walking is a national pastime, which incidentally makes running pretty easy, too (that’s more than I can say for most places I visit). In addition to paths beside the river, there are typically walking and cycling paths from town to town, and even designated right of way paths that cut across farmland and fields. As I learned on this trip, England has a national cycle path network!
Actually the thing that I found most surprising about Bedford is how few people had heard of it or been there before. A few hundred people showed up for the week’s festivities, including a What Bitcoin Did Live event, a Bitcoin meetup, and Real Bedford’s last home game of the season. The vast majority of these were English with a smattering of Irish, Scots, Welsh, and other Europeans. The vast majority of even the English had never been to Bedford before, to say nothing of the others. Despite its proximity to London, the town is often overshadowed by neighbors including Oxford, Cambridge, and Milton Keynes. It’s one of those places lots of people pass through without stopping or even realizing it.
I really appreciated meeting a local crowd, learning more about life in this part of the world, and hearing how people there think about Bitcoin and use it in their daily lives. And, having grown up in a small town myself, I have a great deal of respect for Pete McCormack’s decision to invest so much time, energy, and money in his hometown rather than moving to London or further afield. (In addition to the football club, podcast, and meetups, he recently acquired a popular local bar.) I had a long chat with a member of the city council who said that, while these moves on the part of a Bitcoin entrepreneur are somewhat controversial and while most other local politicians don’t yet understand or appreciate Bitcoin, these projects are bringing fresh thinking and young talent to a region that needs both, not to mention creating jobs.
I didn’t see a ton of Bedford as I was only there for four days, but I liked the things I saw and experienced. I really, really liked morning runs along the river and the nearby Priory Country Park and the fact that I didn’t manage to reach the end of the path heading east out of town. I also really liked the food. I ate almost exclusively English food the entire week and enjoyed every single meal: lots of soups, savory pies, fish and chips, English breakfast, a smattering of delicacies like Welsh rarebit and treacle tarts, and of course excellent beer. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that English food or British food is shite. It tends to be carby and on the heavy side (like, well, American food), but it’s delicious comfort food and it doesn’t really grow old.
And I really enjoyed the football! I had never been to a live English football match before but I’ve certainly watched enough of the sport and had no trouble whatsoever following the game and joining in the excitement and energy of the crowd. The team played well, dominated the match, and were awarded the league trophy at the end. I even got the opportunity to sneak up to the tower where commentary and filming were happening, which was exciting. I commented several times that, while the ideals of Bitcoin that we often discuss, such as self-sovereignty and censorship resistance, are quite abstract and highfalutin, what really resonates for people are things like football and beer, which is why I think a Bitcoin-backed football actually club makes a lot of sense. Especially one like Real Bedford that doesn’t force Bitcoin down your throat: you can use bitcoin if you like but they take fiat too, and you can enjoy the sport without caring one whit about the network or currency.
I was quite sad when it was time to leave, not only because I was having fun with friends and meeting a lot of new, interesting people but also because Bedford is a place I’d genuinely like to spend more time and get to know better. In many ways it reminds me of where I grew up in New Jersey. It’s an ordinary place—no New York or London—filled with ordinary, friendly, down to earth people, good conversation, good food and beer, and good football. This is my favorite sort of destination. It’s so easy to visit big cities and tourist attractions—that’s where the events are and that’s where the airplanes go—but on balance I’d always prefer to experience local life outside the big city. Bedford strikes me as a great place to raise a family, something I’m on the market for. I don’t know what role Bitcoin will play in the future of the town and the region but I’m sure it will not be insignificant, and as with El Salvador I’m curious to visit later and see how it’s going. It already is playing a role, seeing how many first-time visitors it brought to town last week.
My time in the Bitcoin, Ethereum, Spacemesh, and Urbit communities have taken me to many places over the years, most of them more glamorous than Bedford, but this was a trip I won’t soon forget.