Minimalism, China, and Busan

As I just arrived in Busan, I started working again. It's great finding back his habits and just living as if it's your home place.

Also, my week in China was amazing and interesting; everything is so different around there that I wanted to speak a bit about it.

So this issue will probably be more related to travel than hacking in general, but I know some people like that.

Minimalism

It was always part of myself, but I love minimalism. Being able to live with almost nothing is so great. I like the following quote :

Less is More

And you can put it in almost every part of your life. I started it by carrying with me only a bag when traveling. When I started 3 years ago to travel alone, I left my country with a 30L backpack, which became my home. You feel the freedom of doing anything. You don't have to wait for your luggage; you can go anywhere, at any time, without feeling heavy or tired.

It's still the case nowadays. I'm always looking for the tiniest stuff and having not a lot of stuff, and always the best possible quality to keep them for a long time ( even if I love changing stuff ).

It can also be the case for the business part. And a great example is the CEO of Telegram. He is running this massive app with like 30 people behind. That's amazing, and it's working pretty well. Also, he said that he doesn't own anything like a house or so. This is his way to be free. And I agree with him.

And that's the same in our field, you can work with a lot of different tools, a heavy setup with multiple servers, computers, and screens. But I always end up with one screen, a few apps, and only my mind. That's how I love working and doing stuff. Simplify everything and have the tiniest setup ever.

It forces you to be creative and find new ways to achieve something. That's probably why I don't use Burp anymore, too heavy for me, even if I know that it's more powerful for some use cases.

I'm still traveling with a bag ( and another tiny one for my running stuff ), and I feel so great about doing it. I can travel almost everywhere and be free this way.

China

I discovered a new country last week, and it was amazing and so different from what I'm used to. I started with Beijing and then Shanghai.

To be honest, I didn't like Beijing that much, except for the Great Wall, which was amazing to view. But Shanghai was insane. I love big cities with skyscrapers and lights and people.

They live very differently from us, especially in the tech. They always use one app to rule them all. You can pay, order, view stuff, and do almost everything with WeChat.

And even if it's very useful, it's hard for foreigners and sometimes impossible to use. But I think that if you're Chinese, it's way more convenient. Also, the food there is pretty nice.

They have almost all the same brands we are used to, and you can find a Starbucks every 200m, which is crazy.

Even if I loved it, I would not live there, especially because it's hard to get proper wifi with the Great Firewall, and you're always looking for the proper VPN to use. Also, as a foreigner, a lot of people are looking at you, every time, and it's a weird feeling, especially when running. But for vacation, why not come back here?

Busan

I'm now in Busan, in my favourite coffee in the world ( Momos Coffee ). To be honest, I came back here almost only for it.

It's now been 4 years since I'm coming here in South Korea. It's another home for me as I have all my habits here. And it's always nice to come back here.

And I can now see how much I have grown up since then. I started as a student, going to the cheapest possible guesthouse and eating every day some Onigiris and some sandwiches. And now, I can afford to go to a nice hotel and eat in a good restaurant, working in the best coffee in town, and that's so great to see.

I will be working here for the week before going to Tokyo for the last part of the trip. I'm also really looking for it as I miss some restaurant there in Japan ( yes, I'm mostly traveling to eat )

Also, I'm really happy that more and more people are reading this newsletter. I started it like two years ago when I became full-time, and now here we are.