Butters

Alright, my first journal on here, let's make it count. Goal: €10.000 per month net income (after tax) Timeframe: 5 years (June 2029) Reason: So I can travel while doing stand-up comedy and not having to worry about jobs or money in the future Currently: €28K in debt with almost no income First, I've realized that I don't care about money. The thought of buying cool stuff or experiences doesn't have the same kind of trigger that it used to. Doing my artistic pursuits, doing stand-up, having meaningful interactions with other people, that is the real thing for me. The fantasy of having lots of money is BYPASSING, just to escape the hard things and building mastery in my domain. I don't care if I'm broke, as long as I can do my comedy and have my own thoughts and feelings. I only care about the person I am becoming in this process, because I like that person. So now money just becomes practical, and for practical reasons I would like to have an income. I believe that having a 10K pm income would increase the quality of my life since it'll allow me to travel the world while doing stand-up, creating content, learning new things and further developing my character. History: I've dabbled in my online business things but mastered none. I've built and sold websites, I've done affiliate marketing (Clickbank), YouTube channel and many other things. Most notable is I started a Print-on-Demand Etsy shop in 2020 that has done over $500.000 in sales (not profit, not even close). This was my only income between 2020 and 2024. This business failed for several reasons, mainly; not enough commitment, poor financial management, increased competition (especially in 2023 and 2024). Leo said in his recent Being Wrong episode that he had lost his life purpose for over a year and I was in the same position. I denied who I really was and tried to become someone else. That was a big mistake. Now I understand the value of my LP even more. And the goal of my business should always be to support my LP and not be about the money or anything, that's an escape. Current situation: Right now I have 1 YouTube channel that I make videos with AI. It's not yet monetized but has 1050 subs and was only started 4 months ago. I also have an Etsy shop selling digital items that's making some sales now but not yet profitable. I'm entering into a government debt relief program which will restrict my access to money and whatnot for the coming 18 months. This is probably gonna suck, but should give me time to focus on my stand-up while learning new business skills. So 18 months from now I can start making money and be debt-free. The debt was created from borrowing money into my business (sole proprietorship) but not really growing. The debt snowball just increased which made me stressed and less capable of making sane business decisions. How to make money: First understand WHY I want to make money; so I can focus on stand-up. This WHY is so damn important, it influences every other decision. If I forget the WHY, I've pretty much failed. Like I said if I am a full-time comedian and always broke for the rest of my life, I'll take it! This making money stuff is just for practical purposes. So here are my making-money criteria: Not employment Not sales of physical products Must not consume too much of my time Must not be location bound Must not be bound to specific times Must not be a public persona; my public persona is as a comedian. So if I can't post a bit about me jerking off while high on Molly on my IG then forget about it. Must be ethical (my personal definition counts here) Makes me feel good about my work and myself Be future-proof (AI and stuff) No employees (virtual staff is okay) Scalable Most important factor. once again, is this is a tool to help me maximize my artistic potential, which is why there's so many negatives (not's) on this list. Right now on the top of my mind is learning to create funnels so I can help high-ticket coaches and public speakers get more clients. This seems to be a sensible thing to do. I could charge a retainer of perhaps $2K pm per client, or way higher retainers, as long as I get them clients. I also love the personal development niche so helping these people seems to fit my criteria. Also, having the ability to get people clients is always good and always worth money. And by mastering funnels I can also create my own funnels and do some affiliate marketing for existing online programs. I don't see this dying out anytime soon. In fact, when it comes to live personal development seminars, those will probably be way more popular in the AI age. I'd enjoy networking in this field too, so that's a plus. I downloaded Iman Gadzhi's Agency Navigator course a while ago and he talks about outsourcing. So once I master funnels, I could (as an agency) outsource the actual PPC ad management for low prices to quality third-world freelancers. My focus would then be on overseeing the projects, getting clients and of course managing the customer relationships. Part 1: Mastering Funnels So here we go. The first part of this journey is to master funnels. Spend 1 hour or more to learn everything there is about funnels in 2024 and in the future. This could also be a valuable skill if I host my own comedy shows later on to selling tickets and running these events. There's also a part of getting better at managing my money, but I'll get into that later. Step 1: spend 30 minutes every day learning about funnels.

For what purpose? I heard they're good for recovery and muscle growth.

I haven't studied it. I don't have access to the book where I am right now (traveling). My main source has been this guided meditation At first I found the effects quite strong. I would stop early for that reason. But now when I do it in bed it's not that strong anymore. What are the desired effects of doing this? Should it feel mild or strong? Do you do it at set times or throughout the day?

Can't argue with it. I mean doesn't this perfectly describe our time now? Remember: Trump, Netanjahoo, Putin, Erdogan, all democratically elected.

You should just look up the history of Singapore yourself. The guy took it from nothing to one of the most thriving economies in the region in just a few decades.

Chapter 3: Faro, Portugal Somebody at the hostel told me there's a lot of Dutch people in the south of Portugal, and he mentioned Faro, so I bought a bus ticket and went. On a whim, just like I ended up in all other places so far. Bus took about 3.5 hours and the landscape was relatively boring, just hills and pine forest. The lady sitting next to me was really nice. She offered me an old biscuit and I accepted it to be polite. It tasted like cardboard. I offered her a croissant in return but she didn't want it. Arriving in Faro felt weird. I was used to the city, and now I was in this beach town in early March, well outside the season. The upside was there were plenty of private rooms available for ridiculously low prices. I would stay at proper hotel rooms for €20 /night. And by proper hotel room I meant noisy with a shared bathroom, but still a massive improvement over hostels for less money. Library was decent, much better than the Lisbon or Porto ones that were overcrowded. Actually was feeling a bit sick in the beginning so couldn't even work that much.

I started living as a digital nomad in January of this year. That means I canceled my rent (or got kicked out, whatever) and started traveling around while working on my laptop. Here I will talk about the places I visit and some of the lifestyle and challenges I guess. Feel free to post here and participate! I'll try to summarize one place or topic in one post in here to keep it somewhat organized.

They're not democracies.

The Vision: I'm in Bali, wake up in my beautiful Villa. Dip in the pool, then grab a double espresso, hit the gym and go to my coworking after that. Work until 1PM, then after that I focus on content creation for Youtube to inspire others. At night I do stand-up comedy and socialize, or hit the gym a second time or do more intense kickboxing classes. That's it! Never having to worry about money, doing something amazing, being creative and entrepreneurial at the same time. And being financially independent allows me to grow myself, going deeper into stage Green. There are plenty of hippies and yoga people on Bali doing the same. No Money: But the reality at this time still was: no money, little income and nothing was stable. I couldn't even afford a hostel bed some nights so I had to sleep at the library (the only library that's open 24 hours for some reason is in Lisbon). Had to borrow from family and friends which I find embarrassing. I had some sporadic income from e-commerce and selling those websites on Flippa but it was very little and not stable. So after studying the homeless I am now myself homeless. The only difference of course is mindset: I see myself as a digital nomad, a starting entrepreneur, not as an actual homeless person with no perspective. Mindset is what makes all the difference here. Plus Portugal being such a safe country really helps here too. But by the grace of God I made it. At some point I did get a few customers to pay me money. One guy paid for help with his Google Ads and in the same week another guy paid for a website I made. It's crazy cause that last guy withheld the money for like a month until I got it. Grace of God man, grace of God. Volunteering in Bali: What can I do for money? I've been vibe-coding, I know my way around web design and I'm tech savvy. I don't want to work in certain industries that are boring or evil; I wanna do something good for the world. Wait a minute, what if I can help yoga and spiritual retreats with their tech? Set up automations for them, help them sort their admin through AI usage. PERFECT! That's what I'm doing. But where do I start? First I did a few exploratory calls with yoga instructors, just to find out what their tech needs are and how I could help them. Unfortunately, they were all broke and I didn't see market there. So I shifted to retreat centers; those guys have money and some even have multi million dollar turnovers. Fantastic. I went online and found this volunteering opportunity in Bali: one month at a luxury yoga retreat helping with their tech and marking, which was exactly the kind of opportunity I wanted. I sent them my vibe-coded portfolio that showed some of my 'work' (retreat web design) and they loved it. The deal was: You have to 'volunteer' 5 hours per day, 5 days a week. The rest of the time you are free to do what you want. You get to drop into any yoga class on-site for free Free use of their co-working spaces Free breakfast Free accommodation (I think it was just bunkbeds with mosquito nets but still, free) My thinking was this: I work at the co-working spaces in my sparetime to get clients. Then when the month is over, I have an actual paid client PLUS this amazing month-long volunteering experience to put in my portfolio. After that I will understand how retreats operate and can start doing paid work for other retreats. I was still in Lisbon, but now I had some cash. Fuck yeah, let's go to Bali! I got out of the hostels (I fucking HATE the smell of other people at night, can't stand that shit any longer) and into a basic private room and I started booking my trip: Lisbon > Abu Dhabi > Jakarta > 1 night in Jakarta > Bali Bought the visa online Paid the Bali fee online as well Paid the hotel in Jakarta Ready to go But then... Iran War: Yep. The one time in my life where I'm flying all the way to Asia via the middle east and this shit happens. I was already stressed about this whole ordeal and I had spend my last dime on this trip, and now it's canceled? Do I even get my money back? Am I stuck here? Things were uncertain. One moment the app said the flight was going, then the next moment it would all say canceled. One morning I got a text saying the flight was reinstated. Went to the airport; no flight. No money to re-book, no flight, no nothing. Now what? (some pictures of my private office in Lisbon; the public library Galveias Palace)

How it feels Although tbh I find Codex slow.

That's really gay.

Lol tell that to the girls dating coked up junkie club promoters. In fact, many girls date total lowlifes.

Although that should be taken with a grain of salt given the sources. Either way, if Fable 5 does relaunch with strict geo-locking I predict a shadow economy. I will definitely hire a US based VA to run the model for me (data analysis) and send me the report. Easy. Literally just give someone Github access, ask them to run Fable with the prompts I tell them, and report back when it's done.

Google AI answered my question, but it's more concerning than I thought tbh

@Elliott awesome insight. However, a fully stage orange+ 'dictatorship' seems to be possible when you study Singapore. So far that experiment has gone well but who knows how it will pan out. Same for China of course.

Drake is turning 40 too. Happy birthday Drake, you made the 2010s what they were 🎵

Today I saw what seemed like my dad. The way he walked, his clothing, his face all looked exactly like my dad. But my dad is 2400km away. That is the second time in 4 months. Last time I met a guy who looked exactly like my best friend in high school, just as I was thinking about him a lot. I consider these glitches in the matrix. The dream revealing itself to me. Shits weird man.

What's actually concerning is combining both that video I shared with the new article I shared. No Fortune 500 company, legal or medical could ever use Anthopic's Fable 5 because it retains user data for 30 days by default with no way to opt-out. Yet "They highlighted that British hospitals, researchers, and enterprises were already actively integrating Fable 5 into their workflows". Wtf 😑 I assume the UK hospitals were using it for tasks that have nothing to do with patient data but still, this is the whole point of data protection and why we need a strong EU alternative.

Just the fact that digital autonomy is such a hot botton issue around the globe now. https://www.thetimes.com/business/technology/article/lift-ban-on-newest-ai-models-uk-urges-donald-trump-vlhr3qhbv and: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/eu-commission-looking-practical-consequences-anthropic-decision-spokesperson-2026-06-14/ It's a pretty big deal. https://table.media/?p=ec56e75d-cf8a-43fc-a1f5-6b4c163e53e4 https://www.cep.eu/eu-topics/details/us-access-ban-on-anthropics-fablemythos-5-more-of-a-geopolitical-signal-than-a-necessary-security-measure.html

Yeah Anthropic is pretty evil.

I just don't agree with that. I think it will make their non-US enterprise customers seriously consider local LLMs and non-US alternatives. This move really broke something in how people view flagship models from now on and that you can't rely on using them.

But that's not how it works in practice. You really think Trump represents the American people? He's just a grifter who got elected by being in the media constantly and playing on emotions, not because of his fantastic competence as a politician to represent the people.

I mean, I don't think this particular move was deliberate but hurts them instead. I don't see how constantly screaming your software is going to make everyone unemployed or destroy us all is good marketing. Cal Newport actually has an interesting take on this: Basically he's saying these Silicon Valley AI guys are so deep into this "rationalist doomer subculture", that's just how they talk. Only now are they getting pushback on that because they're trying to take these things public. It's impossible to enforce this. Besides, the open source models are only about 6 months behind the flagships so it's constantly moving.

Chapter 2: Lisbon, Portugal Guy at my hostel said I would enjoy Lisbon, so I bought a bus ticket and went there. After a 3.5 hour VERY CHEAP bus ride (paid like €4.30), I arrived in the Portuguese capital. Now mind you, it was still raining. Apparently a tropical rainstorm (or multiple) went over the south of Europe this time and it rained literally day and night, pretty much 24/7, at least that's how I remember it. This was definitely depressing. I was also stressed about money all the time so I just couldn't enjoy it much. Somebody left a pack of condoms in the hostel room, as if to say "I don't need these anymore, you guys have fun". The Lisbon hostel was always noisy because they played music in the common areas. The only trick to work quietly was to wake up at like 4am and sit there before they turned on the music. I really need quiet time and privacy, hostels just gave me stress. Having literally no money for food or hostel AND no income AT ALL made things more stressful and depressing as the intense rain continued day in day out. Locals told me that this level of rainfall was very unusual. Homelessness: I cannot write about Lisbon without addressing this. The streets are full of homeless people. Even the fancy areas! Like you need to crawl over a few sleeping homeless to get into the Gucci store. It was clear to me there were 2 types of homeless: drug-addicted and pretty much regular people. I've seen guys sleep in little tents, wake up, brush their teeth and get to work in the morning. This is because of a massive housing problem in the city. People cannot afford housing because of the high rent prices so they sleep in the streets. Even though there's a lot of homelessness, I never worried about my safety. It surprised me how kind the local people were to homeless people. Banks allowed them to sleep on their steps. they sleep in front of stores and nobody seemed to kick them out. Even right next to the police station is one of the largest homeless colonies I'd seen.

@enchanted fair point, China remains such a mystery to me. On the one hand they're evolving so fast while at the same time remaining this dictatorship where you cannot criticize the government, although I believe it's not as bad as most other authoritarian regimes. The central government also needs to keep a really high approval rating afaik so it's not truly a dictatorship. It's kinda brilliant how Beijing has been playing 4D chess for decades, but would I wanna live there? I still prefer Western democracy. It's the media that influences people to have such dumb opinions and that is bad for democracy. The loudest most viral monkey gets the most votes.