I came to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) for the productivity gain. KL hits a sweet spot of safe, good amenities, affordable, and 'boring' (so as to avoid distractions). Good accommodation is affordable on a moderate budget inc. 3x/week housekeeping, reducing what I have to do outside of work/startup. Food, groceries, and transport are high-quality, cheapish and available via apps. Good co-working facilities are available. (internet speeds are horrendous but some places will have good speeds, just have to shop around a little).
On top of a full time remote job, I'm getting 4-6+ hours of quality time on my startup per day. I haven't quite hit this level of productivity anywhere else in the world, for a variety of reasons including distractions, transport friction, and even accommodation frictions like poor sleep due to noise or temperature or other reasons.
My days are literally: work dayjob, work on start up, exercise, sleep. Probably a 1.5-3x productivity improvement compared to my (large, Western) home city. I notice I'm improving much faster (productivity seems to have an exponential impact on mastery). It also feels pretty easy to do 12+ hour days, which, for me, underscores the value in fiercely reducing unnecessary distractions. Seemingly small distractions can add up.
Yeah, I'd say many places in Asia hit the same affordable/convince as KL, but they aren't as "boring". I lived in KL for two months and had a pretty similar experience. Lived in the sunway velocity condos which was connected to Sunway velocity mall. Pool & gym in the building, grocery store was a short air conditioned walk away along with a bunch of different restaurants.
I was living in a bubble (by choice), very efficient and very boring.
I had a pretty similar setup in Busan in South Korea, but the party scene was too fun. Much worse if you're trying to be "efficient".
Strong agree. I'd also add 'comfortable'. For example, to contrast it with bali or vietnam, there's almost no physical pollution, air pollution, and little noise pollution. It's weird how these little things add up, but I have about 10% more energy here, which matters toward the end of the day when you can get more hours of quality work done (assuming productivity matters).
> Pool & gym in the building
Also fortunate to have this. They're a bit better quality than in most parts of the world. I think it has to do with low labour costs in Malaysia, so they're well enough maintained to be inviting and you're motivated to use them more (a very good thing).
Feeling as fulfilled as ever. If you love what you do and find it exhilarating, common-place 'entertainment' is bland in comparison. And productivity's the whole point for a while (I have travel plans / weddings from the middle of the year onwards). There's nothing wrong with focussing on being productive for a while. Think of it like university which may demand 6-12 weeks of intense focus, before periods of completely other activities.
On top of a full time remote job, I'm getting 4-6+ hours of quality time on my startup per day. I haven't quite hit this level of productivity anywhere else in the world, for a variety of reasons including distractions, transport friction, and even accommodation frictions like poor sleep due to noise or temperature or other reasons.
My days are literally: work dayjob, work on start up, exercise, sleep. Probably a 1.5-3x productivity improvement compared to my (large, Western) home city. I notice I'm improving much faster (productivity seems to have an exponential impact on mastery). It also feels pretty easy to do 12+ hour days, which, for me, underscores the value in fiercely reducing unnecessary distractions. Seemingly small distractions can add up.