My Act Two "World Tour", Part 1

A zip around the world talking about creativity + online communities.

I’m writing this at 4:41am. I’ve been up for a few hours.

My internal clock resembles a half-finished plate of chilaquiles. Totally scrambled.

For 25 straight days I’ve crisscrossed the globe on a “World Tour”. Days have been chock-full of conversations – talking about peoples’ current work, creative sparks, and hopes for the future. These types of conversations feel life-giving, for me, and I’ve loved the whirlwind feel of whipping around the globe, quick 2-3 day stops at each place.

After living in China for the past 18 months, I’ll now be in New York for the fall, building Act Two. But before that, I embarked on a multi-week travel schedule to meet Write of Passage alumni and Internet friends, talking about writing, creativity, and the new company concept. Here a few places it took me…

123rd floor of the Burj Khalifa

The view from our floor was higher than any building in the western hemisphere.

“Want to host the meetup at the Burj?”

I was stunned.

Before the world tour started, I had fired off an email to the Write of Passage alumni in Dubai.

Soon, one person emailed me back saying she lived in the Burj Khalifa, and was willing to host an alumni meetup on the 123rd floor. I couldn’t believe it. So to kick off my trip, I found myself sipping coffee last week with three exceptionally talented, driven, generous individuals at the top of the tallest building in the world.

Banafsheh (Burj resident) is building a new real estate company with her husband while raising her kids. Hicham sold his last company and is now working on creating LLMs for the 23 spoken-language Arabic dialects, with several lucrative business use-cases on the horizon. Connel has had tremendous success as a tech investor, and is now considering different startup opportunities of his own.

As I heard about their work, I felt lucky to be hanging with such a dynamic group of people over 7,000 miles from home. As we moved on from the Burj to a high-energy lunch down the street in the DIFC neighborhood (Dubai’s Wall Street), two emotions swirled within: gratitude for the Write of Passage alumni network, and a burning desire to build it back 10x bigger in the coming years with Act Two.

“I forgot….Hong Kong is breathtaking”

The second leg of my tour brought me to Hong Kong.

Upon arriving, I felt a bit groggy from a long red-eye. As my cab reached downtown, Hong Kong’s dramatic beauty smacked me wide awake. Aqua-blue waters, steep tree-covered slopes dotted with skyscrapers, hundreds of red and yellow shipping cranes towering above the harbor.

I felt the rush of enthusiasm of visiting a metropolis on the opposite side of the globe. What a rush. My trip was a two-day blur: hanging with a close friend from LA who happened to be in town (including a stop at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, a Kentucky-Derby-sized horse racing track in the heart of downtown), a lunch with YouTuber Ali Abdaal and his wife Izzy, and, of course, a Write of Passage student meetup on a rooftop bar in the heart of downtown.

Lunch at the Hong Kong Football Club, overlooking the horse racing track.

The Hong Kong meetup was a success. I finally met Becky, a longtime Write of Passage student and editor who is currently working in YouTube production. Asit has spent over a decade in Hong Kong working in finance – he took Write of Passage back in Cohort 4, in early 2020, and it was great to meet him in person. I also enjoyed meeting Kora, who traveled the world for two years and is about to publish a book about his adventures; and Rita, an experienced businesswoman, born-and-raised in Hong Kong who had stories of other local creative communities she’s joined in recent years.

Hong Kong is bustling, chaotic and distinct – in some ways it feels just like China, where I’ve lived for the past year. But then I would hear Cantonese walking down the street, or feel the gritty sense of history that brand-new Chinese cities often lack, and I’d realize that this special region has an identity uniquely its own. It was well worth a stop. But I had to keep it moving. I had soon boarded a flight for…

Chiang Mai, Thailand – the “Pathless Path” Mecca

Dinner with Paul Millerd, author of "The Pathless Path", and his wife Angie (a soon-to-be author herself)

My next stop took me south and west. Ever since reading about it in Dan Wang’s annual letter (2023), I had wanted to visit Chiang Mai. He painted a picture of a counter-cultural enclave of digital nomads and expat Chinese youth seeking a better life in the lush hills of northwest Thailand. That’s exactly what I found.

My main reason for dropping by Chiang Mai (one hour from where I live in Kunming, China) was to visit Paul Millerd and his wife Angie. My first day, Paul and I grabbed lunch and immediately got into it – the “Pathless Path” future of work, his latest book idea, Act Two, and how all these threads just might intersect. That night we went to the epitome of a Chiang Mai meetup – a dinner and discussion on cosmo-localism, applied spirituality, and “bridging the sacred with science”. A somewhat-interesting talk was followed by a fascinating dinner, where I met a handful of digital nomad + entrepreneur types. People hailed from China, Myanmar, South Africa, and Slovakia, to name a few. It was an eclectic mix of backgrounds which led to a fun evening.

The next day, after a morning of coffee-shop-laptopping (as digital nomads do), I swung by Paul and Angie’s place. After chatting in Mandarin with Angie’s Dad, who’s living there temporarily, and seeing their all-grown-up toddler Michelle, we headed downtown to a rooftop restaurant. Beneath a radiant sunset, we chatted about Angie’s latest book, life in Chiang Mai, and where they plan to move next.

This night was a highlight of the trip – a perfectly pleasant evening, great company, excited conversations about the future. As the night wore on, the conversation turned back toward Act Two. Paul generously offered to share about the program with his list, and also lead a book writing track throughout the full duration of the program.

Toward the end of the night, one of the couples from the previous day’s meetup swung by. She’s a Chinese entrepreneur with a hilarious wit, he’s a Slovakian astronomer and philosopher who’s very much on Twitter and has worked with the LA-based Berggruen Institute, where I used to attend events back in the day. Small world! We talked about dark matter, Heidegger, and parenthood over Chiang Mai beers, under a sky full of stars. Time felt slowed down. I won’t soon forget it.

China — A quick comedy pit stop

After Chiang Mai, I took a quick one-hour flight up to Kunming. It’s a “small town” in western China with a casual 9 million people, roughly Chicago. I’ve studied Mandarin in Kunming full-time for over a year. Starting in February, I also became a professional standup comedian. Kunming has a big appetite for comedy and few comedians, and I was able to perform over 100 shows in three months this spring.

I spent late May and early June in the States, and if felt good to get back to my home-away-from-home. Originally I planned to spend most of the year in Kunming – I’d found a nice rhythm speaking Chinese by day and working on Act Two by night. But as momentum built, I decided to move to New York for the summer and fall to focus on work.

That said, I’d already paid for Chinese class through July 5th (plus I needed to grab my stuff). So back to Kunming I went for a short stay. I had four hours of 1:1 Chinese class per day, plus I performed nine standup shows. With colleges on summer break, crowds had doubled in size. They were also livelier and rowdier. My second night I hit indescribable Flow states in back-to-back performances. Jokes landing, impromptu crowd work, an applause break. After hopping off-stage I fist pumped in the dark like a madman. What a rush. Pure bliss.

Back on stage.

That weekend I traveled to my favorite resort an hour outside the city. Bolian Hot Springs is a lakeside paradise of saunas and thermal pools, tucked amongst lush trees and soothing ambient music. It’s the perfect antidote to the concrete slab high-rises of downtown Kunming. I rested, read, and thought about the company.

After a 48-hour recharge at the hot springs, it was time for another mega-city.

Singapore – “That building with three buildings underneath”

“This road is beautiful.” My first glimpse of Singapore matched expectations. A recent post had explained how Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founder, insisted on a stunning entrance to make a strong first impression. Sure enough, a tunnel of trees and impeccable landscaping line the route into the city.

Soon the green gave way to that famous skyline – a massive cluster of shimmering towers, all highlighted by the Marina Bay Sands hotel. You know it – the one from Crazy Rich Asians. Those three building side-by-side, with a huge boat-shaped building linking their roofs together, 50+ stories up. Seeing the iconic shape firsthand felt surreal.

Singapore would be a whirlwind trip with two agenda items: meeting Write of Passage alums, and meeting Visa.

Visa first. If you’ve spent time on Twitter in recent years, you’ve seen Visakan – a hurricane of creativity, including over 270k Tweets, threads upon threads upon threads, and close to 1 million words of essays published.

I re-read some of my favorite Visa pieces before we met: Substack essays “Are You Serious” and “We Were Voyagers”, plus my notes from Introspect, his sprawling, dazzling e-book. A quick summary: Serious creativity requires years-long stamina. A high-voltage life will uncork enough energy to maintain longevity. Managing your psychological barriers will unlock this level of personal force.

We met for lunch. As expected, we had a lively conversation about creativity and online communities. I learned about his life in Singapore, his latest creative kicks, and his goals for the future. I shared the story of Write of Passage, my Chinese journey, and my hopes for Act Two’s future.

One interesting note – Visa talked about how having a two-year-old son has brought his attention more local – back to his family, and back to Singapore. When we spoke, he was preparing for an interview on a Singapore-focused podcast. I’m in a globally-focused phase of life for now. Building a thriving hub of creative people around the world is my current obsession. Visa was supportive, but less enthusiastic about my grandiose visions than I expected.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. After lunch we met up with his wife and rambunctious toddler. We walked through downtown Singapore, passing glistening buildings, but also the quirky bars and restaurants where Visa’s band played during his teenage years. Eventually we reached the iconic Marina Bay Sands, ending up on that famous roof – sweeping views of the ocean port on one side, countless skyscrapers on the other side. We aptly sipped a few Singapore Slings as we drank in the Singapore skyline

Chatting with Visa (a modern-day Montaigne)atop the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel.

After this sublime afternoon, I hopped a cab across town to the Foxtail bar. Time for another Write of Passage meetup.

This one featured seven of us in a lively and wide-ranging convo. What a fascinating mix of people! Every single person in attendance had something exciting they were working on or writing about. New job transitions. New creative challenges. New companies they’re building. Online communities they’re participating in and leading. They also shared helpful feedback on how we’re framing Act Two. A big shoutout to Amit, Mich, Deepti, Abby, Nat, Lionel, plus Abby’s two delightful friends who joined halfway through. We moved on from drinks to a delicious barbecue spread for dinner. The night went on for hours. The group has since stayed in touch with a new Singapore alumni WhatsApp thread.

Singapore alumni meetup.

London – “So good we forgot to eat dinner”

Mercifully I had a direct flight from Singapore to London. No one else in my row meant I could stretch out and sleep for a good bit of the trip.

London would be the centerpiece of this Act Two World Tour. It has a big concentration of Write of Passage alums, plus a bunch of Internet friends I wanted to hang with or meet for the first time. As I rode the Elizabeth Line in from Heathrow (cheerio) I was brimming with excitement.

My first night was spent working: a long call with Dan to sort out some details of our marketing strategy, followed by a timezone-induced early crash. The next morning I walked through central London, across the Thames, posing with Big Ben at sunrise. Then I visited a podcast studio to shoot some off-the-cuff videos about our company vision. I love the feeling of being on camera and want to do more of these shoots soon.

Next, lunch with a friend. I was lucky that one of my best friends going back to high school, Haroun, happened to be in London the same week as me. We broke bread (see: chips, fish) at a classic British pub near Waterloo station. Wimbledon and cricket on dueling TVs cemented the aesthetic. We chopped it up as only the two of us can (Haroun is one of the few people in life whose default talking speed eclipses mine. IYKYK). We relished the fact that our separate decisions to build our own companies has allowed us to meet up countless times in recent years, despite living on different coasts (and it continues...I’ll crash at Haroun’s place on my upcoming visit to SF next week).

From there, I continued on to an inspired walk-and-talk catch-up with my friend Charlotte Crowther. Charlotte and I go way back – she helped us with early ops for early Write of Passage and Second Brain cohorts. She was one of my first Internet friends. Countless hours on Zoom finally culminated in a London meetup two summers ago, followed by this hang-out. She shared all about her business (distilling clear conceptual frameworks for authors and creators), her latest work with a mutual friend, and her recent trip to the Craft and Commerce conference in Boise, Idaho.

As we powerwalked along River Thames, swapping updates and ideas, she challenged my (as a good friend should) on our plan to market Act Two. “Why are you only targeting five affiliate partners? You’ve got a wide network. You’re a new company and need attention however you can get it. You should target dozens of people and secure twenty partnerships!” It was the nudge I’d needed. Soon after this convo, Dan and I created a much wider list of potential affiliates and started reaching out.

After our walk, we landed at the roof of the Southbank Centre in Waterloo, site of the biggest Write of Passage alumni meetup of the trip. Sure enough, 18 people strong turned out for yet another scintillating evening of “chopping it up”, conversations and creative envisioning. It was a whirlwind evening that seemed to fly by, and I got a chance to chat with just about everyone there, although I wish I’d had even more time to dive deep with everyone. It was such a rush that I forgot to eat dinner, finally grabbing a bite around 11pm.

I love these events, and this one glowed with a particular energy. I met newer alums from last year’s cohorts, reconnected with some of our most loyal participants, and I even saw alums from the pre-Covid days. I felt proud that, a year after Write of Passage ended, this many people still turned up for a meetup. It’s a testament to the power of the community we all shared. A big shoutout to everyone who joined: Charlotte, Marc, Lin, Antoni, Ashwin, Nils, Eric, Sonya, Francesca, Ocean, Claire, Sandy, Marc, Nick, Miriam, Haroun, plus a special shoutout to Jen Vermet, a first ballot Write of Passage Hall-of-Famer who flew in from the Netherlands.

Nearly twenty strong in London.

On Friday the meetups continued – a morning coffee with Anne-Laure Le Cunff, founder of Ness Labs and author of Tiny Experiments, to jam on creative-focused communities. We realized how much overlap we have in our missions, and Anne generously agreed to host a guest workshop for Act Two, and also support us as an affiliate partner. I then squeezed in a quick trip to the London Portrait Gallery (less impressive than the National Gallery), followed by a lunch with the aforementioned Write of Passage legend Jen Vermet. We talked about her travels, creative plans, and my recent obsession with a certain Emily Dickinson. I worked the afternoon, including a call with Dan to discuss our latest marketing progress. Then it was off to Covent Garden for a dinner with friends.

It was, yet again, a highlight of the trip. I was excited to sit down for a meal with two Internet-first friends, Ashwin Sharma and Harry Dry. Ash took Write of Passage back in the day, but we really connected over shared interests on Twitter. After a couple of Zoom calls we became fast friends. Harry and I met on a Bahamas trip with some fellow Internet friends two summers ago, hit it off, and have stayed in touch since.

This was one of those talks that crackles with energy from the start. We talked about our writing, what we’re working on, what we’re reading…but it went well beyond that too. As three guys of similar age and relatively similar places in life, we covered it all – personal, creative, work, hopes for the future, places we’re stuck, favorite quotes, where the world is going, what we’re doing about it. A memorable chapter of this unforgettable trip.

And it still continued the next day (if you can’t tell by now, I have no limit for good conversation. They’re energizing, and this trip was chock-full of it). First, a delightful breakfast with Parul Bavishi, founder of the London Writer’s Salon, a (now) worldwide online and in-person community of writers that launched in 2019, just like Write of Passage. We traded notes on company building and how we could support each other going forward. It was interesting to think about the different-but-intersecting places we occupy in the creative community landscape.

Next, I did a bit of London sightseeing, followed by one final lunch at another classic British pub. This one was with Angus Parker, my longtime compadre in the online course-building world. Angus has been YouTuber Ali Abdaal’s right-hand man for years, helping him build his video empire, formidable audience (6m and counting), plus his acclaimed Part-Time YouTuber Academy, which was the closest peer to Write of Passage when both live programs were active. Angus talked about our latest persanonal kicks (his, running all the London underground lines; mine, Chinese) before we dove into talking shop. I heard about Ali’s latest offerings, and their strategy around the new programs, and I shared our approach to building Act Two. After countless Zoom sessions, it was nice to finally share a meal in the real world.

So, that was the London leg of my journey. But as fate would have it, one final unexpected stop (and continent) remained….

Casablanca – “I accidentally went to Africa”

On my final morning in London, I went to check in for my flight home. Opening my email, I did a double-take. My flight to the States wouldn’t land until…the next day at 4pm? Turns out I had an 18 hour layover that night in….Morocco?! Gotta roll with it. Standing there on the sidewalk, I whipped out HotelTonight and booked a place downtown Casablanca. “Well, I guess I’m going to Africa. What’s one extra continent?”

This was my first time setting foot on African soil. I’ve nearly gone three times (Ghana, Benin, Zambia) but all three trips fell through for different reasons. Instead, my first time on the continent would be on the northwest coast.

I got in late. The next morning I walked the streets of Casablanca. They were fairly empty on a Sunday morning, except for roadside coffee and khobz (bread) shops. I pressed on to the Hassan II Mosque (14th largest in the world), followed by the elegant Rick’s Cafe (inspiration for the movie “Casablanca”). In-between, I found myself navigating a lively open-air market. Fruits, fish, and pieces of meat were hawked between sand-colored buildings. It felt chaotic and vital. I was glad to see it. 24 hours later, sitting in an air-conditioned WeWork in suburban Virginia, I almost couldn’t believe it had been real.

____ ____

This completes the summary of the first two legs of my Act Two World Tour. Part Three will be a swing through the west coast: San Francisco, Vancouver, Victoria, and Los Angeles, with a stop in Toronto to cap things off. I’ll continue to meet up with Internet friends, talk about creative projects, and gather feedback for Act Two. Can’t wait.

First time in Africa.