Living The Dream

• No one checks tickets on trains and people leave laptops and phones on the tables in the cafes if they want to take a stroll. At the same time, there are a lot of prohibition signs and rules on the streets and in the buildings.

• Airport is very efficient and even has a storage for food items that are prohibited to bring into the country so that people can pick them up on their return. Lockers are also available for at subway station and in the offices which is extremely convenient.

• Koreans love sugar and carbs in any form: fruits, drinks and desserts. Things like watermelon juice, strawberry juice, all kinds of smoothies and tapioca teas. At the same time, there are fewer obese people than in North America.

• Dental clinics are modern and even water dispensers are automatic (for rinsing). The prices for X-Rays, CT scans or diagnostics are a fraction of the cost in the USA.

• Meat is mostly imported from Australia. There’s even Australian Wagyu. Aussie lamb is very good and affordable. Korean beef is Hanwoo and it’s their attempt at fatty marbled beef like Kobe.

• At BBQ restaurants they sell meat by 100-150 grams unlike all you can eat in the USA. Also, they don’t use any marinades but mostly marbled and fatty cuts. In the USA k-bbqs use a lot of marinades (probably to mask poor quality of the meat).

• Climate in summer is great. Not too hot and not too cold. In Seoul it’s not humid despite being close to the sea.

• Some restaurants have tables with menus with photos which is great. Other cafes have self ordered touch screen computers which is also great. No need to speak with anyone, especially since they would probably not speak English well. Two restaurants had robots carrying orders to customers or carrying dirty plates to the back.

• It’s hard to tell if kimchi soup is hot because of the spice or because of the temperature.

• Taxi drivers are mostly old men and often like to drive like crazy. They accelerate and break with another foot (should be the same foot). Or they pulsate with acceleration to the point that passengers want to vomit.

• Koreans pick English/Western names and relatively many speak English compared to Japan.

• Koreans like ice in everything, even in their soups or just straight in the form of shaven ice dessert. The love for ice is probably influenced by the USA. Also, baseball is very popular here.

• The cities are very efficient with good public transport and walking-distance convenience. The buildings are not boring at all, many of them are interesting. There’s a good balance with large screens and signs.

• In some areas there are still old apartment buildings (that still probably cost over $1M USD). During the construction they cover the unfinished buildings and make them pretty.

• Buildings often have underground shops or restaurants which are very convenient. There are canopies on the intersections for people to wait in the shadows instead of under rain or sun.

• The parks, bike and walking trails along the Han river are amazing. There’s little to no trash on the streets and not even along the highways (which is the norm in the Americas).

• Seoul has the sixth tallest building in the world.

Seoul is a great city to live in. It’s very modern and efficient. It offers nice conveniences for regular people and luxury for those who want it. The food is great and especially the meats. The downsides is the traffic. Language barrier is almost non-existent with a big population understanding basic English and the prevalence of translation apps. Busan is also a great city to visit. It’s a little more laid back than Seoul, but still has a lot to offer especially the beaches that are beautiful. If you’re looking for a fun and relaxing vacation, Busan is the place to go.

Here are my key impression from 2024 trip to Dubai where we got flooded by unexpected and unprecedented precipitation:

• The Dubai city is roughly two cities: downtown to the north and Jumeirah to the south, with a highway connecting them.
• The food options consist of a lot of American chains and brands. Also, Turkish restaurants and ice cream stands are popular. There are some Russian and Georgian restaurants but they are not good.
• Overall, restaurants are more pricey than in LatAm but less than in the USA. The quality of service and food is way way below Mexican and Colombian restaurants.
• The meat is mostly imported from South Africa, Australia and even Pakistan but unfortunately not Argentina. There are good butcher shops that sometimes also have restaurants (or restaurants with butcher shops?).
• There are a lot of Indian and Bangladeshi workers almost everywhere.
• In Jumeirah Beach Residence, the beach is full of people and cigaret butts and lacks showers or places to dust off sand off the feet.
• Traffic is bad. Places (like malls) are crowded to the extreme especially if you have to wait for an elevator.
• Buildings in Jumeirah Beach Residence are old and reminiscent of Las Vegas - yellow color and bridges between them. They even have a Heart Attack restaurant just like in Vegas.
• At Burj Khalifa, it was nice to have a fast pass with lounge access (and unlimited dates!).
• The airport is terrible: very large and you have to walk 30+ minutes to get to the gate where there are no seats to wait. Of course the flip side is that you can fly almost anywhere in the world directly.
• Taxi, airport porter, hotel staff service is great. There are shops and pharmacies in almost every building which is super convenient. They even offer to bring groceries to your hotel room.
• Uber taxis are new and the drivers are not intrusive with the talks (which I always hate in the USA). And the waiters in the restaurants are not obnoxious about demanding the tips (unlike in the USA).
• Etihad Museum which is about the founding of the country, was less interesting to me than the Masmak Fortress in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And The Museum of the Future is more interesting on the outside due to its architecture than inside.
• No drainage on the streets so during the unprecedented rains, all the water had to stay on the streets.

Despite some inconveniences of a large cosmopolitan city and being overpriced, Dubai is very livable. There are a lot of things to do if you don’t mind the traffic and summer heat. Most people travel to Europe during summer months. Dubai could be a good home city for someone who is doing business in the Middle East or Europe.

It’s been ten years since my paleo superpowers post. And while paleo is good, carnivore is even better. It’s like having double the amount of superpowers, including but not limited to the following:

• More mental power, clarity and better problem solving because ketones are better fuel for the brain.
• More time to play and live while less sleep is needed because the body doesn’t have to process all the plant toxins.
• Fewer sports injuries because the body just heals better.
• Faster recovery from flu/cold, sickness, if I ever get it (typically not).
• Ability to skip meals and do multi-day water-only fasting.
• Longevity because of low body fat, more muscle mass and ability to fast.
• More energy, no sluggishness after meals.
• Calmer mood and better handling of stressful situations.
• Less time for meal/meat preparation because plans and veggies require most of the time to unpoison, peel, slice and cook.
• Easier to live, because grocery shopping and restaurant menus choosing are much, much faster (less is more).
• Not being a slave to the hangry (angry and hungry) state and sugar cravings.

Carnivore diet and their variations (Lion Diet) are probably the best life hack out there. The facts are obvious:

• Carnivore is the evolutionary diet, that’s how our ancestors ate and how humans evolved to eat.
• Animal food (i.e., meat) is the most nutrient and bioavailable food.
• Carnivore is the ultimate elimination diet for autoimmune conditions.

It’s been already proven to be the original human diet but sadly most doctors and people don’t know about it. And even if they have heard about it, they dismiss it as dangerous or a fad. It’ll be funny to look back in 20-40 years when the popular opinion will change to favor carnivore-like diets.

Here are my key impressions from a recent trip to Colombia, to the cities of Bogota and Medellin.

• Nicer parts of cites like Park 93, Verrey or El Poblado are very walkable and very European and less “American” (i.e., big roads, must have cars, not walkable).

• In Colombia, the food is more European with less salsas and spices than Mexican food.

• Bogota was fresh and cool in summer, but again it reminded me of European cloudy skies in Scandinavia, London or Russia.

• There are a lot of hookah places in El Poblado and in Bogota they have small shops with tables on the streets to smoke

• There are a lot of peddlers and beggars on the street that are very persistent and annoying.

• People love bicycles, running and their dogs.

• There are a lot of greens (trees, bushes, grass).

• Meat is superb and has a very natural grass-fed flavor.

• Avianca tries to be a low-cost airline charging for everything extra (seat selection, soda, juice, small roller suitcase).

• Roads are good and tunnels are moderns but traffic in rush hours suck. Even Pico y Placa doesn’t help. It’s better to walk or take a bike, or ride motorbike if you’re local.

• Bogota restaurants are better than Medellin restaurants. It’s hard to break the $100 USD mark for two people in Bogota, but in Medellin, it’s easy while also getting burned steaks or meh food.

• Bogota hotels are cheaper than Medellin hotels.

• Uber can call a regular taxi.

• Cash is not needed for a week-long trip except to buy fruits from street vendors who are too lazy to get a card terminal.

It’s good to be a big fish in a small pond. It gives more visibility, uniqueness and influence that bring more opportunities. Also, it’s easier to migrate to a larger pond when you grow to a big fish in a small pond. So first, we all should focus on becoming a big fish in our current (probably small) pond. Stories of success of growing to a big fish in a large pond are mostly survivor bias type stories or overnight success stories that took 10 years in the making… and a lot of jumps from small pond to bigger pond and then eventually to open ocean!

If the pond is too small, if you think that it’s not thrilling, motivating nor exciting to grow into a big fish there, then please take a second look. Probably, the pond is still big enough to be a stepping stone. A lot of startups try to launch straightway in the US or at least Europe while being from developing countries. That’s a big mistake because they are far from their customers and have all sorts of disadvantages of not playing on their home-field.

1. Civilization II
2. Transport Tycoon
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
4. Fallout and Fallout 2
5. Dragon Age: Origins
6. Mass Effect 2
7. XCOM: Enemy Unknown
8. Jagged Alliance
9. Europa Universalis
10. Command&Conquer
11. Hitman: Codename 47
12. Heroes of Might and Magic III
13. Tropico: Paradise Island
14. Max Payne
15. GoldenLand 2 (Златогорье 2)

This is the summary of my 2 years doing the master’s program. I received my paper diploma last week. I was awarded Master of Science with honors (only 10% of students get this high recognition). A few weeks ago, we had a virtual graduation ceremony. I hope to visit the campus next year to reunite in person with my classmates.

While waiting for the diploma, I had a previlige to host a webinar with one of our professors, Prof. Etienne KRIEGER — MSIE Webinar : How to Overcome Conflicts Between Associates. I shared my tips on forming a team and working out conflicts between startup founders.

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The team project for my master’s degree in Innovation and Entreprenurship from HEC Paris took about a year. First, we were a team of four people. Then one person dropped out of the program and we were left just three of us: two guys from Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area and one guy from France.

Anyone could have pitched their own idea to the whole cohort so that the most popular ideas attract teammates to collaborate. Some team had as many as six people!

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Today, I just finished the last (20th) course for the MSIE program. The course was on Venture Capital and Private Equity and it concludes the academic part of the masters program. I wrote academic because the courses weren’t just theoretical. We did had a lot of practice preparing our assignments and working on business cases.

Now, the only thing is left is to finish the team project that my team of three worked on for the pretty much the entire year. My team and I have to present the pitch deck for our product to the jury in a similar way how the startups pitch investors. We’ll get our grades and finish our Master of Science degree.

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Many of you know Maslow’s pyramid of needs. Actually, Maslow’s never came up with a pyramid. He had a ladder. Other people took his ladder and created a pyramid that is now used in management books.

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