Spending $1,000 a day, with a 5% acceptance rate, reveals the fresh experience of Network School

Original title: "Day1global: E20. Network School Revealed: What does Balaji's free Stanford 2.0 look like? Can it make money without charging tuition?"
Original source: Star & Ruby, Day1global & Web3brand manager
Original text compilation: Jaleel, BlockBeats

This article is transcribed from the podcast program Day1global (Born Global)'s E20, which is dedicated to exploring how to create super individuals in the era of globalization and exploring cutting-edge innovative concepts and practices. The host Star has more than 10 years of experience as a user product manager, with a skill tree spanning content communities, e-commerce platforms and artificial intelligence, and is exploring how to become a super individual in the era of globalization. The host Ruby has more than 10 years of experience in Internet operations and has worked in many technology companies such as Amazon.

This podcast episode focuses on the Network School project initiated by Balaji Srinivasan. Balaji is a Stanford PhD, former Coinbase CTO and former A16z partner. He is a top angel investor in the Web3 field. He published the book "The Network State" in July 2022, vigorously promoting the concept of "network state". Related reading: Meet Balaji Srinivasan, the father of "BUIDL", an eagle-eyed investor in the crypto field

As an attempt at the concept of "network nation", Balaji launched the first three-month innovative school called "The Network School" near Singapore, dedicated to providing development opportunities for "Dark Talent" (young talents who are on the margins and have not been noticed by the mainstream world) from all over the world. The Network School will focus on four core directions: "Learn", "Burn", "Earn" and "Fun":

Balaji said that he hopes this school will become a true "Stanford 2.0". The school's first three-month semester will be held from September 23 to December 23 this year. Enrollment requires rent. The monthly rent is US$1,000 (two people sharing a room) and US$2,000 (renting alone). Students can also apply for short-term rentals. The rent includes an air-conditioned room located on a scenic island, equipped with Internet, gym, and access to all courses and community services. At present, "The Network School" has attracted innovative individuals from all over the world and has 150 students.

In this episode, hosts Star and Ruby talk to three guests Camellia , Twone and Arvin, and discuss their experiences and insights in depth. BlockBeats organized the original podcast as follows:

Host Star:If you know anything about digital nomads, innovative education, or cryptocurrency, you may have heard of Network School recently. This school is located in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and was initiated by Balaji Srinivasan, a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur, former CTO of Coinbase, and former A16Z partner. He proposed the concept of "network country", intending to break through geographical boundaries, connect innovators around the world through the Internet, and create a new society that is not bound by the traditional national system. And Network School is the core practice of his educational philosophy. This school is called "Stanford 2.0", which provides learning opportunities for "Dark Talent" who do not belong to the traditional system but have great potential, breaking the threshold and form of traditional education.

Host Ruby: Network School received more than 3,000 applications from more than 100 countries in its first phase, and finally admitted less than 150 people, with an admission rate comparable to that of Stanford University. This project not only attracts various professional talents, but also brings together students from different fields and age groups. Surprisingly, these students ranged in age from US soldiers to university professors, ranging from 20 to over 50 years old.

Host Star:We are very lucky to have three friends enrolled, Camellia, Twone and Arvin. All three guests have amazing backgrounds: Camellia is a global nomadic bilingual content creator, Twone has made outstanding contributions in the field of design, and Arvin is active in the research and practice of DAO and cryptoeconomics.

Host Ruby: During our conversation, several guests shared their unique application process, and one of them even passed the application with just three sentences. Network School's learning format is also very unique. In addition to academic courses, free fitness training and healthy meals are provided every day. Education here is not only the imparting of knowledge, but also the comprehensive cultivation of global thinking, community cooperation and personal growth.

Host Star:What is particularly impressive is that this school is not limited to a certain country or culture, it is truly global. Our guests also shared their nomadic lives in Argentina, Portugal and other places, showing how to balance study and life in the context of globalization.

Network School Model and Guest Background

Host Ruby:The following is the official start of this exciting and very lively podcast recording. We have invited three friends. Let's ask the three friends to introduce themselves first.

Camellia:Hello, everyone, I am Camellia Yixuan. I am a bilingual creator with a Chinese media brand Ideal Tun and an English media brand Chiwi Journal. At the same time, I am also a business consultant, providing marketing and content production consulting services to startups and technology companies.

Twone:Hello everyone, I am Twone. I am the former manager of Uncommons and a member of the GCC Community Investment Committee. I have also made many contributions to DeSci. I am a member of the working group of Gitcoin DeSci group and a multi-signature holder of DeSci Asia. Before entering Crypto, I worked as a PM in a large Internet company. I like writing and small animals, and I also like game programming.

Arvin：Hi everyone, I’m Arvin. I’ve contributed to and founded various types of DAOs before, and have tried on-chain governance and token economics. I’m now a product manager and project manager. I like to bring everyone together to do things, and that’s because I like the idea of The Network School, because I also have a vague dream, which is to connect everyone, a bit like Sam Porter Bridges, the protagonist in the game “Death Stranding”, connect everyone.

Host Star：Welcome. All three of you have attended Network School. Although Balaji wrote a long article to introduce it, I would like to hear your personal experience. For example, if you were to introduce it to your friends, whether they are Crypro or non-Crypro friends, how would you describe this school in one sentence?

Camellia:In the past, when I introduced it to my friends who were not in technology companies, I would say that I was going to a place for future education, focusing on studying what our future education model would be, and focusing on your physical health, with a sense of the future, so that they could experience it. If I were to tell people in technology companies, that is, people who are more familiar with the Crypto field, they would generally know Balaji when they were mentioned. So I would say that I was going to study at a prototype of his network country.

Twone:I think this is more like a network country, a small social experiment in physics. Because there were actually quite a lot of applicants this time, but only 150 people were recruited according to the Dunbar number. The Dunbar number is also called the 150 law, which refers to the upper limit of the number of people a person can maintain close interpersonal relationships. In the end, these 150 people have backgrounds in Starup startups, technology companies, etc. Everyone comes together with a very diverse background, and they learn more from each other and then explore a social form for our future together. So I would say that Network School is more of a learning social experiment of exploration, co-creation, and constant self-challenge.

Arvin:I think if I have to summarize it in one sentence, for people in the Crypto circle, this project is to let us see how these different fields will blend when decentralized technology encounters real-life politics, human life, and culture. For people outside the Crypto circle, this can be an experience to feel how a different school or society operates and what this self-organization process is like. For me personally, the most interesting thing about this event is that everyone came here because of Balaji. This is a very critical point. It's like a social network graph, and Balaji, as a node in it, radiates and influences people from all kinds of backgrounds. Therefore, the people who come here are very diverse. I think this is actually an interesting experiment of the integration of decentralized technology and different fields, and see what kind of chemical reaction Network School can stimulate.

Host Ruby:Did Balaji mention the goal of this Network School experiment during the opening ceremony or the start of the school? The first phase lasts for 90 days. What is the goal? What was the situation like on the first day?

Twone:We enrolled on Monday, and that day was mainly to deal with some tedious check-in procedures, so the formal introduction and sharing was on the second day, which was Tuesday. That day we had a relatively long sharing, introducing the concept of Network State, which he mentioned in his previous book, and how this concept was implemented in the network school.

Balaji's sharing at the opening ceremony, source Twone

Camellia:He also mentioned in the enrollment brochure that the core concept of the school is learning, exercise, making money and entertainment, mainly to encourage everyone to develop themselves. In this atmosphere, everyone has to connect and interact on their own. It has only been about a week since the start of school, and there have been seven or eight spontaneously organized activities, such as introducing what cryptocurrency is, how to make AI movies, NFT-related knowledge, and some sports activities. Those who can enter this school have strong subjective initiative, and the school encourages everyone to explore and develop themselves.

Arvin:Continuing with what Camellia said, I feel that the school particularly emphasizes self-policy, that is, everyone is responsible for their own growth, which is a very important ability. In other words, Network School is actually trying to rebuild a brand new school system. They believe that the university system in the United States has collapsed, so the goal of Network School is to reshape a university model suitable for contemporary young people and provide a brand new educational opportunity for people in their 20s.

Twone:Just like when Bitcoin was first created, no one thought that sovereign states would recognize it. Just like Balaji said in the very first introduction to Network School, Bitcoin gave us this opportunity to own this island to practice this network school. In fact, most countries except China and the United States are small countries now, so he said that we can first build a Vatican with a scale of 800 people, and then develop it to 11,000 people. Finally, after 10 years of development, it will reach a large scale of 100,000 or 1 million people. In this way, we can cultivate generations of the most outstanding entrepreneurs to promote the form of the network state to the next chapter.

Host Ruby:Yes, I think what impressed me most is that their philosophy is not a zero-sum game. They are not thinking about reforming the existing system, but they think that if the existing system is not good, then just create a new one. This is like Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin. He was dissatisfied with the system of sovereign countries such as the Federal Reserve, but he did not directly confront it, but created something completely new. If the existing education system is not fair enough and cannot inspire creativity, then it is better to create a new school.

Arvin:When I talked to one of the students this morning, he mentioned a metaphor that Balaji often used, which I found very interesting. He said that the current political situation in America is like a clapping game, with one hand on top and one hand on the bottom. Today the Democratic Party is on the bottom, and tomorrow the Republican Party is on top, and it goes back and forth. But the philosophy of Network School is, "OK, I don't play your game." They opened a new track, as you just said, it is a completely different way of playing.

Application process and life rhythm

Host Star:How did you first know about this school, and how did you apply?

Camellia:I have been following Balaji for a long time. I first heard him on Tim Ferriss's podcast. At that time, he did a very long show, more than four hours, and then I started following him. He later established a community called 1729 and posted a lot of tasks. If you completed the task, he would reward you with Bitcoin. So I participated in many activities at that time, and then he established a Discord community, which was the early version of Network School. At first, he only recruited 150 people, but now the Discord community has more than 800 people.

When he released the enrollment brochure of Network School, he first released it in the Discord community, and then released some information on public channels. I clicked on the application page and found it very interesting, so I wrote an application. The application was probably only three sentences. I said, "I have been following you for a long time, and I believe you know my name." Because I have participated in some of his activities in Discord before. For example, Balaji did a lot of online classes before writing books, and then people like us could ask him questions, so we would have one-on-one conversations with him. When he published the book Network Nation, I also proposed to translate it for him, but it was translated by others first.

So I think he should remember me. I don't know who is reviewing these applications, but after writing them, I felt a little regretful, thinking, oh no, so many people applied, I only wrote three sentences, will I be accepted?

Twone:I first saw Balaji's tweet. At that time, I was still in Argentina and there was a time difference. I told Arvin about this first and asked him to apply first. The next day, I clicked on the link and found that in addition to filling in some basic information on the application form, there was only one question: "Why do you want to apply for Network School?" I spent about an hour writing the reason for the application. Three days later, I received an email that my application was accepted and told me that I was one of the first batch of students. Because I have studied in China, the United States, and Hong Kong, my background is relatively diverse, which may be one of the reasons why they accepted me. Another point is that this batch of applicants is said to prefer creators. I myself continue to write, which may be similar to Camellia, so they may pay special attention to the content output of applicants when screening.

Arvin：I started following Balaji after reading his book Network State. Later, I saw the job posting he posted, looking for writers, founders, and coaches. I am also a founder, so I mainly talked about my experience and background in the application form.

Host Ruby：Will there be people like career coaches in Network School? For example, life coaches?

Twone：Yes, in fact, Balaji will communicate with everyone very seriously. Yesterday, he had a long one-on-one communication with one of our friends, which lasted about four hours. Before, when we introduced ourselves on Discord, he would read each person's introduction, and then find each person for face-to-face communication, saying "I have read your introduction and know what your interests and background are." He has a very rich knowledge reserve.

Arvin:Life Coach is more like a spiritual mentor, and also a physical coach. For example, we have Burn exercise every morning, which is mainly for fat burning and fitness. So the school does need a lot of fitness coaches, and there is a shortage of them now.

Host Ruby:Bryan Johnson also came to share, will he stay here for a long time, or just stay for a few days to share some courses?

BlockBeats Note: Bryan is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, writer and author. In 2021, he proposed a new anti-aging experimental project called "Project Blueprint" and received a series of plasma transfusions, one of which was donated by his son.

Twone: His son will live here for a long time, and Bryan himself is busy, so he only comes occasionally. His team provides us with Blueprint, such as health plans and physical tests. We just did the Longevity Test this afternoon and are still testing the App they developed. In the TestFlight stage, it is estimated that there will be more attempts or tests and experiments in the next 90 days.

Host Ruby: Can you talk about the Longevity Test in detail?

Twone：We just finished the Longevity Test today, which mainly records everyone's physical test data. Because the App has not been officially launched yet, there is no score yet, but everyone's results will be counted. They also mentioned the Blueprint Test, learning test, sleep test, etc. There is also a special sub-area in Discord called "Qualify Yourself", which is to measure your own indicators. Some people sleep with a lot of instruments to measure heart rate, pulse, breathing, etc., which is very interesting.

Camellia：I am quite looking forward to this part, because I pay great attention to physical health and usually have the habit of recording various health indicators. I want to see how their test is different from my record. The content of the test now is mainly some basic physical skills, such as push-ups and other simple projects, but more sophisticated instrument tests may be carried out in the next few weeks.

Host Star: We are very curious. We admitted 150 people this time. Can you share the backgrounds of other students, such as their nationality, occupation, or gender ratio?

Image source: Twone

Twone：Yes, I found a very interesting phenomenon, there are many more boys than girls. So once when we were queuing for the toilet, the boys lined up for a long time, but there were very few people in the women's toilet. I took a photo to record this scene. When we first arrived, the girls also held a small party. Because there was a Network State, we joked that it was a females State, which means a female state. Then we first held a simple small women's party to help women build some connections with each other, and then there will be a series of other activities.

Host Star：What about the distribution of countries and occupations? What is the overall situation?

Twone：From the people I talked to, the most people are from the United States and China. There are also people from other countries, but they are not the mainstream. You can always find some classmates from different countries.

Camellia：There are also many Indians, because Balaji is very influential in India.

Twone：Yes, we attended a small event of theirs in Singapore. It felt like everyone admired him so much that I couldn’t squeeze in to talk to him.

Host Star：So what is the distribution of crypto and non-crypto circles?

Twone：There are quite a lot of people in non-crypto circles. For example, a classmate used to work in natural sports in Shanghai. He even used Discord for the first time and needed me to teach him. There were also people who registered crypto wallets for the first time. The school’s learning model is also a good way to break the circle. After each exercise, we mint an NFT and connect it to the wallet. Many people got their first crypto wallets in this way. This NFT is on the Solana chain.

Host Ruby：Balaji really supports Solana. His conferences are all held with Breakpoint.

Twone：Yes, but the team said that the chain selection was actually random, and the staff made a TP link that supports Solana. We were still discussing at noon today whether to recommend Balaji to introduce cryptocurrency payments, because now only traditional methods such as Visa can be used to buy food. However, the staff brother said that Balaji may think that it is too troublesome to connect to cryptocurrency, and is worried that after connecting to Ethereum and Solana, other chains or communities will also ask why they are not connected to their chains. So these may still be discussed internally.

Host Star:The $1,000 you paid there is just for accommodation, not including food, right?

Twone:Yes, $1,000 a month is for a roommate with a double bed, and $2,000 for a double bed room. And we are actually in a hotel, so the luxurious KTV you see is all hotel facilities.

Arvin: (Talking about the background of classmates), speaking of the background of classmates, I think it is very diverse. I met a developer whose Twitter profile says "U.S. Army Paratrooper". After we chatted for a while, I found out that he was a military doctor in the special forces. I am personally very interested in the military, and I didn't expect to meet a military doctor in the special forces in such an occasion. He also told me that his teacher was the military doctor in the prototype of the incident in the movie "Black Hawk Down". I think the connection of this world is really amazing.

There were also people from various backgrounds, such as those working in Chinese real estate and school education. He said he was working in school education at Country Garden. There were also many young students who had just graduated, mainly working in startups. Some people came from very far away places, such as Iceland, or those who did nature sports in the jungle as mentioned earlier. The backgrounds were very diverse, but the story of the paratrooper and the military doctor impressed me the most. This connection was really magical.

Host Ruby: (Then back to the previous question), among these students, what proportion are in the crypto circle?

Camellia: I think about 90%. Even if their main business is not in the crypto circle, most of them hold some cryptocurrencies themselves.

Twone: Basically, everyone knows something about cryptocurrencies. After all, in Balaji's post, he has always emphasized the importance of Bitcoin holders. However, we also met some people from traditional fields. A German couple, the husband worked in a traditional bank, and they also saw this school by chance on the Internet. They have stable jobs, and the company in the Netherlands allows them to work remotely for three months every month, so they work and see the situation here.

Moderator Ruby: Are there any children here? Or what is the age range? How old are the youngest and oldest students?

Twone: The youngest may be in his 20s, and the oldest may be in his 50s or 60s. Some are successful entrepreneurs. We also met a professor who taught entrepreneurship at Tsinghua University and Peking University. He brought his family and children here. This professor is American and speaks very good Chinese.

Camellia：I met a mother and son who came together. The mother was in her 50s and the son was in his 20s. The mother applied first. She works in medicine or sports and is particularly interested in Bryan Johnson.

Host Star：So from what I heard, most of the students are not necessarily working on crypto projects, but they actually understand or hold cryptocurrencies. I remember that day Balaji interviewed Pieter Levels and asked him if he believed in cryptocurrencies. Pieter Levels said that he also holds cryptocurrencies. So it can be seen that among some highly educated people, the penetration rate of Crypto is still quite high. Then let's move on to the next question. This school is divided into four parts: learning, exercise, making money and entertainment. Among these four parts, are there any places that are particularly impressive to you?

Camellia：Can you talk about our daily routine? Take me for example, I get up at 7:30 in the morning, go to fat burning training at 8, and have breakfast and chat with my classmates at 9. I start working for a while around 10 to 11, and have lunch with my classmates at 12 noon. We eat the blueprint healthy meal they provide. There are small classes every Monday and Thursday afternoon. On Monday, Balaji may give a lecture, and on Thursday, Bryan Johnson Vitalik is invited to share with us.

Twone: We may go to bed a little later, because at night, after the event, I will go back to the hotel room to write Twitter. That is, the Twitter content you can see is all posted at this time in the evening, because your experience during the day may be scattered in many other places, and then I will organize it at night, or have some self-time like this.

As for the learning part, as Camellia said, the Guest Talk on Monday and Thursday is very exciting, and it is more of a peer-to-peer learning. Everyone learns through self-creation and initiating various activities, such as learning how to build the front end, back end, design web pages, and even beginner courses for writing code. They are very simple and easy to understand, and they can really let everyone start from scratch and learn some technologies quickly. For example, from downloading Visual Studio software to writing a simple "Hello World" website, they can teach students all kinds of basics in more than an hour, which I think is great.

Next is the exercise part, which Camellia also mentioned. Exercise is currently the most clearly structured part. You can make an appointment for a specific exercise time, and there are professional coaches to develop exercise plans for different parts of the body. The parts exercised every day are different, and you will find that Balaji himself has benefited a lot from it. His figure has changed a lot compared to a year ago.

Host Ruby:Yes, I especially remember that at the Network State Conference, Bryan Johnson kept asking Balaji, "Why can't you get enough sleep for 8 hours? Balaji, how many hours did you sleep last night? I saw you were still editing the PPT in the middle of the night."

Twone:Yes, for the Earn part, Balaji will release a Bounty every day, and everyone can participate in it. Usually, some open source projects are done, and then the winners are announced on Discord and Farcaster. In the end, the winner is decided by Balaji, and the bonus cannot be shared by multiple people. Whoever completes the task first will take the bonus.

Host Ruby:What are the tasks these days? I remember that the bonus is not low, it is quite high.

Twone:Yes, $1,000, $1,000 every day.

Host Star:So all the tasks require writing code?

Twone:A recent task is that Balaji hopes someone will make an open source tool to unify the format of all the resumes uploaded by all students. Some resumes are in PDF format, and some are in other formats, so this is actually a relatively simple requirement. Balaji hopes that these tools can be practical.

This is actually a very important part, because in the first week, everyone is still in the stage of establishing connections and adapting to each other. We came to this Network School and definitely hope to have some results and outputs. The Earn mechanism has promoted everyone to do some substantial projects. Balaji himself is also a serial entrepreneur. He hopes to see more new projects and innovations emerge here.

Host Star:What about the fun part? Is this part mainly organized by everyone spontaneously, or are there some themes planned?

Arvin：As for fun, I think the most interesting and contrasting thing is that everyone meditates in the KTV. They also bought a lot of sports equipment, such as table tennis tables and basketballs from Decathlon, for everyone to relax and exercise. Some students will spontaneously organize entertainment activities, such as chess. One student brought chess, and everyone played chess together. Some people also organized board games, but the number of people who signed up is not large, so it has not been launched yet. They suggested playing Werewolf. I am not particularly familiar with these board games, but I joined the relevant discussions to see if there is a chance to participate in some activities.

Regarding Learn and Earn, I can also add from other perspectives. For Learn, in addition to their guest speeches, there are also some content shared by Balaji himself, which is very informative. In addition, Peer-to-Peer learning is also very good. Many people spontaneously organize various activities to share what they are good at, and everyone can learn together. For example, I just mentioned the sharing of film and video production skills using AI, as well as programming skills, etc. These Peer-to-Peer learnings are really valuable. Twone also plans to share some of his previous content to help everyone learn more about topics related to Network School or Crypto.

Camellia organized yoga class, source Camellia

For Earn, I think the most interesting one is Bounty, but the scope of Earn is not limited to this. In addition to Bounty, there are also recognition from others, partnerships, etc., which are also part of Earn. For example, Camellia helped to clean up the coffee machine. I think this is also a way to Earn. Earn is the trust of the entire community in you. Yesterday, Twone and I helped install Starlink, filmed a video, and recorded the installation process of Starlink. Later, we may release a video on how to build Starlink. This process involves technical work such as pulling wires and testing speeds. It is very interesting to work together. This is also a manifestation of Earn, because through these collaborations, everyone can quickly establish relationships, reach consensus, and form cooperation.

Twone:I would also like to add that I may do a sharing on Crypto public goods in the sharing next week mentioned by Arvin just now. I have participated in the writing of relevant reports before, and I also hope to share here how to build more public goals (Public goods) to make Network School's infrastructure better. To be honest, the team is really busy now, and some people even go to bed at 4 am. While we are doing healthy work and rest, the team is actually working non-stop to contribute to the entire environment. As the first batch of members, we are more of a part of the community, using our respective strengths to do what we can. For example, whether it is a coffee machine or Starlink, these are all part of the infrastructure. As V1V0 members, we hope that those who come later can enjoy better and better facilities.

So I think that the 150 of us who came here should actually be more of a community, where everyone can use their strengths to do what they can, including what I just said, whether it is the coffee machine or Starlink, they are actually part of the infrastructure. As V1V0 members, we hope that those who come later can enjoy better and better facilities.

Moderator Ruby: So Earn is also like saying that our community can do something together, how can I contribute to the community, win more of this kind of connection trust, etc.

Camellia: Yes, and there are many self-organized groups here, such as writing, dancing, morning running, and meditation. You can gather friends to participate in activities according to your interests.

Moderator Ruby: Just now you mentioned the Network School team, how many people are running this school?

Twone:There were very few people, about four or five.

Arvin:There were at most ten staff members on site, about six or seven.

Host Star:It was very concise. I felt that the whole format was like mobilizing the power of the community, rather than designing and arranging everything from top to bottom.

Host Ruby:Including the courses and the content you publish, Balaji only has sharing sessions scheduled on Monday and Thursday afternoons, and the rest of the time is blank, which is equivalent to everyone designing their own learning content.

Arvin:Yes, we also discussed some suggestions for improvement today, such as setting up more discussion areas for specialty areas in Discord. Everyone can establish different "faculties" according to their respective skills, and each person is responsible for different courses, so that a curriculum can be formed. I think this process is very interesting.

Moderator Ruby:Very constructive. I think it should not be called a "school". It is more like a co-governance community, and learning is only a part of it. In the future, if there is no need for a four-year full-time university, this model may be more ideal. Everyone can find a balance between life, making money, and learning, and grow together with like-minded community partners.

Twone:Indeed, this is a bit like the theory of Network State. This is his first experiment. It is the first time to put these theories into practice and let everyone see how they actually work. Here, everyone's identity is also diverse. For example, the developer mentioned by Arvin is both a former US soldier and a code developer. Now he is exploring more possibilities in the network state. I think this may be the trend of the network state and the startup society in the future.

Host Ruby:In theory, this is his first physical node, and there may be more nodes in the future. According to the steps in his book, there will be one physical node first, and then gradually expand to multiple nodes around the world, like an archipelago.

Twone:Yes, people outside will also be very curious and observe this startup society to see whether it will grow or shrink, whether the experiment is successful, and whether the members' lives will be better. For early members, they will also calculate whether their investment is worthwhile to decide whether they will continue to invest, and it will also make later participants have confidence in this startup society. This belief-driven first motivation will make this society better and better.

Host Star:Yes, because I have read Balaji's "Enrollment Guide", he actually encourages everyone to develop remote work skills and be able to work anywhere in the world. In this way, when you master this skill, you can easily form a digital nomad community, break away from geographical restrictions, and live and work anywhere in the world.

Arvin:Yes, I would like to add that you mentioned that the schedule feels empty. Why? Because many people come here to work remotely, it is impossible to arrange full-day courses like traditional schools. Everyone also has to deal with work, so the schedule will not be too full. On the one hand, let the community organize activities spontaneously, and on the other hand, give everyone time to deal with work. For example, many students from the United States have to adapt to the American time zone. They may need to rest during the day and relay work with American colleagues at night. So, this is also one of the reasons why the schedule seems relatively empty.

Lifestyle and Future Outlook of Digital Nomads

Moderator Ruby:We actually collected a lot of questions from the audience. We previously shared our participation in the conference on Twitter, and some listeners sent me private messages asking if we would interview people from Network School later, so we collected some questions from them. Some listeners actually applied and received acceptance letters, but were unable to go due to work reasons. Some emails were missed and fell into spam, which was a pity. So the question that everyone is most concerned about is whether you have achieved the expected gains in this first week, or whether there are any unexpected surprises?

Camellia：I think it really exceeded my expectations. At first, I thought it would be a place where 10 people would live together in a big bunk bed, because on the first day of school, Balaji said not to have too high expectations here. So my expectations were very low, but when I got here, I found that the infrastructure was better than I thought. Although there is still a lot of room for improvement, everything is moving very fast. For example, yesterday about the coffee machine, everyone mentioned that the school did not have coffee, and the team solved it immediately, which was really fast. As for the people here, I originally thought that the dinner would be short, about an hour, but each time we had a meal and chatted for two or three hours. The materials I accumulated this week are enough for me to use for several months.

Another random thing is that one time when I was working in the lobby on the first floor, a classmate asked me if I had time to record a podcast. I was thinking about making an appointment and sending him a link to make an appointment, but he said we could go out and record while walking. I said, okay, and ended up recording it casually. Everything is moving very fast, and I like this speed.

Twone:Yes, actually I think my idea is quite similar to Camellia. Before coming here, I didn’t have too many expectations. Everyone came here mainly out of trust and curiosity about Balaji. What surprised me most was the communication with different people. Every time I met them, I would gain something new. Many people were very interested in us Chinese people, and even asked me if I could have a Chinese learning session. Everyone was learning from each other.

I think Network School is very different from other projects I have participated in before, such as Zuzalu or Crecimiento in Argentina. First of all, it is longer. Three months gives everyone more opportunities to learn and create together. Every interaction here is full of unknowns and is very interesting. It is like an experiment that shows the realization process of Balaji’s network state concept. We can see how technology drives the evolution of social forms. Blockchain technology has reached a turning point, which can realize unalterable records and unseizureable assets. This is a change in production relations guided by new productivity. I feel very lucky to be able to witness these changes at this point in time.

Moderator Ruby:Yes, I think if this kind of school can be expanded globally, and each community has such a diverse background, with people from different countries living together, within ten years, the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to Balaji. This is really a great way to promote communication.

Arvin:I was the same. I also exceeded my expectations. Because before I came here, Twone was still in Argentina and on the flight back home. Then at the opening, Balaji told everyone some expectations, but it was very general. I was thinking, is this Network School? It seems that Balaji didn't make many plans. We came here to take it one step at a time. We didn't set high expectations at the time.

But after coming here, I met a lot of interesting people and saw a variety of different lifestyles. It feels very different to learn about these stories online and talk to this person in person. Maybe unlike Camellia or Twone, all my education experience was in mainland China. Relatively speaking, the development path of these mainland students may have a stereotype and path dependence, but here, I see more possibilities in life.

On the first day, I met an Australian entrepreneur who was about the same age as me. He was simply "a different world". I was particularly shocked to see what he did. I have also read a lot of stories about entrepreneurs in San Francisco recently, how they went from 0 to 1. This time I really met a lot of entrepreneurs from San Francisco. Communicating with them face to face is much more real than listening to podcasts or watching interviews. It is very interesting.

Then I think, if I want to summarize the most important gain, it is to see a group of digital nomads gathered through Balaji's Network School. Everyone has the ability to work remotely and what can be done in this space. Because the general digital nomads only have a convenient electronic device, a computer and an Internet connection, but they basically don't have much connection with this place. But here, after we handle our own remote work, the physical work we do is also a very interesting point, just like what we talked about before, how to identify what we still need to make our lives better.

Host Ruby:Are you still accepting applications now?

Camellia:Yes, you can apply through the official website at any time, and your time is quite flexible.

Host Star:Is there any part that you think will be very useful in your future work and life, and can be used to adjust your long-term work, life or study?

Camellia：I think it’s mainly about connections. I like meeting different people. The reason I moved to Portugal before was because Lisbon is a gathering place for digital nomads. There is a big space to meet people from different backgrounds. So here, I also think there are many interesting people. In the future, we can get together and do some fun projects. I don’t have any other goals. I don’t usually make any plans for the future.

Arvin：The biggest idea of Twone and I is that we really hope to stay in network school for 3 months, or even continue to stay after that. This is the biggest change so far.

Hospital Ruby：Are there any areas that you think are slightly below expectations, or areas that can be done better or improved, such as the design of the event or the hardware?

Twone:Hardware is actually the most important point to improve so far, especially the network problem. The infrastructure of the network school should be the top priority, but we are currently using the hotel's own Wi-Fi, which is not very stable and often disconnects. Most of the time we use mobile phone hotspots.

Host Ruby:I didn't expect it. I feel that Network School can ask Starlink for sponsorship in the future. It is really needed.

Host Star:So after you raised this issue, they bought Starlink?

Twone:They should have had such expectations before, but they are just gradually building it now, because I saw that the date they purchased the equipment was September 13th.

Arvin:The team member who bought the Starlink told us that the device had been in his room for a long time, but he was too busy to actually install it, so we now have a group called "Build Squad" in Discord, where everyone can install Starlink together and test it.

Moderator Ruby:In addition to the hotel area, do you have other places on this island to go and play together?

Twone:I walked around and it's very close to the beach. I also went to a big shopping mall. There are basically Chinese restaurants and duty-free shops inside. There's nothing particularly fun.

Host Star:Where is it located exactly? Is it near the border?

Arvin:It's about 10 to 20 minutes by bus from the second border in the city center. I happened to go to Singapore that day and experienced the process of commuting from here to Singapore. It was very smooth before arriving in Singapore. But after arriving in Singapore, the bus needs to cross the horse to this border in Singapore. It may have to undergo some inspections such as customs, and the waiting time is the longest.

Twone:There is another point that needs to be improved, and it is also what they have been improving recently, which is the issue of food. Because at the beginning, all three meals a day were Blueprint, which means that many people said they were very hungry, and they would be hungry every three or four hours, and the amount of exercise was actually quite large at the beginning. So now we have made some improvements to the food, such as adding a lot of protein, chicken and other meats to dinner, so that everyone can eat a little better, such a gradual process.

Image source: Twone

Host Star:How much does his meal usually cost?

Twone:Five dollars, quite cheap.

Host Star:That's not bad, then how is the intensity of your exercise in the morning? Because I just talked about a lot of exercise, how many calories do you usually burn?

Twone:It wasn't long, about half an hour, but there was almost no rest time. I did it one set after another, and the types of exercise kept switching. It was very tiring. Normal high-intensity exercise should have a 10 to 30 second rest interval, but this one was continuous.

Image source: Twone

Host Star:Yes, it's a bit like CrossFit?

Camellia:It's a bit like Les Mills classes. Our coach Riggen is a Les Mills coach. I trained with him before in New Zealand, so I'm familiar with his style.

Host Ruby:Camellia has been to New Zealand, the UK, and Portugal, right?

Camellia:Yes, Portugal is now a base camp. I usually stay in various places around the world and travel around a lot. Lisbon is in a good location. It's convenient to go anywhere from Portugal.

Host Star:Then we can just continue the topic and talk about the experience of digital nomads, because everyone has such an experience.

Camellia:I went to New Zealand in 2010 to study at university, and then worked in some well-known local companies. After obtaining my status, I was also given a two-year work visa to the UK. I went to the UK in 2019. At that time, I was already a freelancer. I gradually began to come into contact with the concept of digital nomads and decided to try it myself. I met Pieter Levels online. He has been advocating digital nomads to go to Portugal during the epidemic. He also launched a service called Rebase, so I moved to Portugal.

Host Star:Is the experience of digital nomads different in different places? What do you think of the experience in different places?

Camellia:Portugal is really a very suitable place for digital nomads, especially Lisbon, where people have a high level of English and almost no need to learn Portuguese. And they used to have special tax incentives for digital nomads. In addition, it is a cryptocurrency-friendly country, many cryptocurrency conferences are held there, and the cost of living is relatively low. But now the situation has changed, because there are more digital nomads and housing prices have been driven up. Portugal's digital nomad visa can be obtained for two years upon initial application, and can be renewed for three years after two years.

For me, Lisbon is a very good choice. In contrast, I can't adapt to the climate in Southeast Asia. Places like the Network School are good overall, but the weather is too humid and hot. New Zealand and the UK have distinct four seasons, and I prefer this kind of climate, but the UK does often rain and is cloudy. If you don't have a lot of income, London is actually a pretty expensive place to live, but you can also meet a lot of friends from all over the world, and they have a lot of cultural activities there.

Twone：Camellia mentioned Lisbon. A good friend of ours, K, is also a digital nomad in Lisbon. If there is a chance, I would like to go there and have a look. As for me, I studied in Beijing and went to New York for an exchange. The pace of life in New York is very fast, and everyone is desperately pursuing their dreams. Later, I returned to Hong Kong to continue studying and lived there for two or three years. The pace of life was also very fast, because the housing prices were high and the place was small, and everyone might not have much of their own life, and most of the time they spent working. Now I live in Shenzhen, where there is a strong entrepreneurial atmosphere, rich culture, and high cost-effectiveness of food and services.

As for Argentina, I live in the safest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, which was previously listed in the top ten most livable cities in the world. If you only live there, the experience will be very good. The government has invested a lot in education and public resources, and the facilities are basically free. They also have a large natural museum that protects many birds. Whether you like nature or city life, Argentina can find a balance. What's more interesting is that the local acceptance of cryptocurrency is very high. There is no problem with offline payment. You can even see cryptocurrency exchange points on Google Maps, and the exchange rate is not bad.

Then there is Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is also a great place. The locals believe in Buddhism and everyone is very friendly. The taste of the food is also similar to that of China, and it is very safe. Southeast Asia is a good choice for those who have just gone abroad or want to experience the life of a digital nomad.

Arvin:Twone and I basically acted together and went to Argentina and Turkey. Let me add something about Southeast Asia. For places like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, I personally like Thailand the most. Thailand has low prices and very good living services, especially Thai massage, which is cheap and has great services. And if you are used to the hot and humid climate in the south, you will adapt to Thailand quickly. The advantage of Malaysia is that it is close to Singapore and you can go to Singapore at any time. What impressed me most may be the durian here. Twone especially likes durian. As soon as we arrived in Malaysia, we went to try the durian shop recommended by local friends.

Host Star:Last question, Balaji mentioned in the article that he hopes to solve the visa problems of some digital nomads through the form of Network School. Does he have a specific plan?

Arvin:There doesn’t seem to be a particularly clear plan at the moment. I think the problem of encrypted payment should be solved first, and passports and visas may be solved after that. If encrypted payment can be solved, then the passport problem may be solved next.

Host Ruby:I think this is something that many people are particularly concerned about. For example, Pieter Levels has shared before that digital nomads often have to move to a new place every 60 days or so, which is indeed a pain point.

Twone:Yes, Network School is a practice of the network state, and Balaji's goal is to make the network state more influential. In the future, it may promote mutual recognition between sovereign states, or have some rights of its own. If so, he can take this opportunity to issue some documents similar to visas or identities. Then I can share that Argentina has a crypto-economic special zone, and in the future it may also promote some policies that support the crypto-economy, and even issue green cards. These problems are pain points faced by digital nomads around the world, whether in South America or Southeast Asia, and everyone is looking for solutions.

Host Ruby:Thank you very much for sharing today, and we are very much looking forward to meeting you again in the future and continuing to learn about the development of Network School. It's like a community that changes spontaneously, and it may be different every week. Finally, we will update the subsequent progress of the three guests Camellia, Twone and Arvin in the Shownotes.