1/ Digital nomads show us what a world of universal basic income (UBI) would look like



2/ In the aughts most nomads started on the Tim Ferriss global arbitrage bandwagon after reading The Four Hour Work-Week (4HWW)



3/ This led to a cluster focused on colonization of the SEO frontier online and the SE Asia scene offline



4/ But most of them failed to read the last chapter of 4HWW, "filling the void."



5/ It turns out winning the game of paying rent is easy when you lower your costs 90%



6/ Then you're left with this question of the void.



7/ Some fill the void by becoming a flat type, such as "the guy who always drinks tequila"



8/ Others expand their horizons and strive to prove they are unique snowflakes



9/ But the early digital colonizers were rarely snowflakes



10/ They were either arbitragers or pre-digital nomads dragged reluctantly online.



11/ Then Instagram happened, bringing the "void first" people online.



12/ Instagram enabled snowflakes to gain attention by being the most unique snowflake.



13/ The top businesses on Instagram still are health, fitness, beauty: snowflake empires.



14/ And with travel the nomad part became legible to the snowflake tribe.



15/ Vietnam changed from the jungle of 1970s Rambo to a hipster cafe scene



16/ Colombia buried the Escobar era and Cuba (on Instagram) will soon forget Castro



17/ With the legible scene came a new kind of nomad: the digital snowflake.



18/ The cost of starting a hipster cafe runs 5-6 figures but the cost of starting a hipster Instagram is nothing



19/ So the digital snowflakes started a variety of digital snowflake businesses in different parts of the world



20/ These businesses usually don't make the F U money of a soulless 4HWW type arbitrager



21/ But they keep the owner engaged in the finite game of lifestyle business, and the infinite game of paying rent



22/ The last crowd to arrive on the digital nomad scene were eternal students



23/ When education is mostly free (Germany) there is a startling number of 30-somethings finishing advanced degrees to nowhere (debt free)



24/ But the student lifestyle prepared them for the nomad lifestyle, so they find they can keep it going by traveling abroad



25/ Their game is not yet determined: many embrace one of the previous tribes but some may create a not yet known new tribe



26/ But the travel lifestyle is a red herring obscuring the real motivations of digital nomads



27/ Travel was a means to self-actualize and the desire to colonize or to explore for some, or to belong or even just pay the bills for others.



28/ UBI would create a world much like that of the digital nomads but with less actual nomadism



29/ Armed with enough money to cover rent, we would see more of the same clusters:



30/ The arbitrager will always arbitrage; the colonizer will always colonize



31/ The instagram snowflake is always gonna snowflake



32/ Innovation will continue to come from what looks like toys made by tinkerers, tinkerers who fill the void by tinkering



33/ And this is the best argument for UBI: like making FU money, receiving UBI doesn't make you an asshole, it makes you a truer reflection of your real self.



34/ UBI would create a void for more people, and with it more psychosis, but also more eureka moments.



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