connecting dots around the earth

At the start of this year, I rotated around the Earth in a full circle for a month (Jan 7th ~ Feb 8th): Asia > Europe > America > Asia

Since deciding to move on from my job last November, I had been thinking a lot about my next step. Mainly, I wanted to find a clearer motivation that genuinely comes from myself, because I need the conviction of why all of this even matters in a bigger picture so I can really double down on something. To zoom out, I decided to place myself in random locations on Earth by simply following people I respect for various reasons and also consider good friends whom I’d like to hang out with no matter where they are (rotating Earth in a full circle is kinda cool anyway, plus escaping from Korea’s cold winter as a bonus).

I was a bit worried since it was my first experimental fully solo trip without any work related planning, like attending a conference or doing in person work. Instead, this time, I just tried to be open to new things, new people, and random occasions.

So it was an amazing experience. I freely flew across the Earth with just one carry-on luggage. I decided on my next location, flight, and housing only a week beforehand. It felt like living in the unknown all the time, constantly being forced out of my comfort zone. But over time, my threshold for handling risk got higher, and I simply got used to this unstable state with minimal anxiety. I got to hang out with totally different friend groups in different environments each week — like one day I was in Sicily and the next day I went to SF… it’s a whole different world and it was even pretty fun to compare. Of course, there were quite a few challenges from this very unplanned travel, like unexpected weather, I almost got scammed (twice), I didn’t have a place to stay for few days, ate some weird food and got sick, etc. But I enjoyed it and slowly gained some confidence — confidence that I could survive in any random place on Earth, make friends, and become part of a community from scratch. Basically it gave me idea of there’s nothing you can lose, because you can start from scratch anytime.

This confidence came from people who shared small kindnesses: some invited me to dinner, events, hangouts, some accepted my random reach-outs, or even invited me to stay (when I was homeless lol). I feel really grateful to the people I met on this journey — those who were open to friendship, shared experiences and inspirations, and deep conversations about life. It was surprising to realize how many people are genuinely open to connection if I am also being genuine. And this made me feel fulfilled.

Toward the end of my trip, I started to realize that maybe the reason I’m fascinated by cryptography, systems engineering, crypto (a combination of economy and tech), or any other intellectually stimulating and unique things isn’t solely because they are interesting. Motivation also contains expectation to interact, share ideas, and build something with smart, interesting, and curious people — people whose knowledge and understanding of a field form gated niche communities, creating a special intellectual bond that, in many cases, leads to unique friendships which I am looking for.

So, what started as a random journey has, in some way, helped me discover myself and find some genuine motivation. I appreciate every friendship and bond I had with people along the way. So yes, it’s just a small note on my random travel <3