You feel stuck. Trapped in a cycle that repeats endlessly, day after mind-numbing day. Nothing new happens. No forward movement. No improvements. Just the same fucking loop playing on repeat while your consciousness screams for something – anything – different.

You wake up, check your phone, work at a job that drains your soul, scroll through other people’s lives, sleep, and repeat. Your surroundings stay the same. Your thoughts stay the same. Your habits stay the same. The faces you see stay the same. And that quiet voice inside you keeps getting louder, demanding change that never comes.

This feeling of stagnation isn’t just uncomfortable – it’s unnatural. Your brain is literally wired to seek novelty. Scientific research shows that new experiences trigger dopamine release, enhancing mood and motivation. As neuroscientist Andrew Huberman puts it,

“Our brains are plastic, and we have the ability to change and shape them throughout our entire lives.”

Your mind craves this reshaping – it hungers for it – yet most of us stay trapped in environments that reinforce the same neural pathways day after day.

I’m going to share one of the most powerful methods I’ve found to break this cycle. It’s extreme. It’s disruptive. And it’s exactly what you need when nothing else works.

Relocation.

Not just a weekend getaway or a vacation. I’m talking about physically uprooting your entire life and transplanting it somewhere new. Preferably in another country.

If you’re feeling that mix of excitement and fear right now – good. That tension is your body recognizing truth. The most transformative opportunities always exist at the edge of your comfort zone, not buried safely inside it.

What I’m about to share isn’t just theory. It’s a framework I’ve tested personally and seen work for countless others. The research backs it up too. Studies show that the first three months after relocation create a unique “window of opportunity” where habits are in flux and far easier to change. Psychologist Bas Verplanken, who led this research, explains:

“Life can be up in the air and people are generally more open to new ideas… after that point habits begin to get entrenched and become much harder to break.”

This is your opportunity to rewrite everything.

You feel stuck.
Trapped in a cycle that repeats endlessly, day after mind-numbing day.
Nothing new happens.
No growth. Just the same loop on repeat.

Want to break free in 3 months?
Relocation is your reset button.
____________________________________________________

Your brain is literally wired to seek novelty. It craves it.
Yet you stay trapped in environments that reinforce the same neural pathways day after day.

This novelty starvation creates that deep sense that life should offer more. But somehow isn't.

Notice the pattern?
New purchase → brief euphoria → rapid return to baseline.

This is hedonic adaptation.
Material upgrades create a spike that quickly drops.

Experiential changes like relocation?
The satisfaction curve trends upward over time.

Science confirms: the first 3 months after relocation create a unique "window of opportunity."
Habits are in flux.
Neural pathways rewire more easily.
Your brain's operating system becomes reprogrammable.

After that?
Patterns entrench again.

The source of your stagnation isn't lack of willpower.
It's your environment constantly reinforcing who you've been rather than who you want to become.
Same bed, same routine.
Same kitchen, same habits.
Change the environment, break all triggers at once.

Relocation isn't burning your life to the ground.
It's controlled demolition.
You're not destroying everything.
You're strategically dismantling the parts that no longer serve you.
With purpose.

Don't try to change your life while keeping your environment the same.
Change your environment, and your life will be forced to change.
Half-measures don't work when you're deeply entrenched in patterns.
The key is breaking hundreds of context cues simultaneously.

This isn't comfortable.
Up to 30% of expats meet criteria for clinical depression in their first year.
Yet 80% who persevere report strengthened self-confidence and independence.

Growth occurs at the edge of your capabilities.
When you're stretched but not broken.

Once the initial 3 months pass, you enter the exciting phase:
Consciously designing your new operating system.
What daily routine supports your ideal identity?
Which relationships will you cultivate?
How will you use this location to expand perspectives?

Don't immediately seek familiar comforts.
I'm bewildered by people who move to new countries then search for familiar foods.
What's the point?
The more you immerse in difference, the more your brain forms new neural pathways.
Break patterns.

We all reach points where we feel stuck in loops of our own making.
These provide comfort through familiarity but gradually strangle growth.

Relocation breaks loops.
Transforms them into upward spirals.
Each rotation brings new growth.

Your future self is watching your decisions today.
Will you keep circling in familiar loops, or are you ready to spiral into new dimensions of possibility?
The decision to relocate is the ultimate pattern interrupt.
It forces growth when nothing else can.

_____________________________
This is the short version of my new article: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/breaking-the-matrix-how-relocation-creates-the-ultimate-fresh-start-in-3-months

Why Your Brain is Begging You to Change Your Coordinates

Let me be clear about something: our consciousness craves changes. It’s a fundamental human need, as essential as food or connection. When that need goes unmet, we experience that novelty starvation – a deep sense that life should offer more, could offer more, but somehow isn’t.

I’ve always felt this hunger for new experiences. Since childhood, I had this feeling that I wasn’t like everyone else. I didn’t want to live my life the same way as most people around me. I was fascinated by documentaries about Ancient Egypt, by pyramids and mysterious cultures. There was something magnetic about that uncertainty, about exploring what we don’t fully understand.

This isn’t just my personal quirk. It’s hardwired into human psychology. Novelty activates the brain’s reward system, triggering dopamine release and creating positive feelings of anticipation and excitement. Research from Psychology Today confirms that “novelty is needed for humans to psychologically function and is essential for life satisfaction and fulfillment.”

Yet we live in a society designed to keep us in predictable loops.

Most people try to satisfy this craving for novelty through material purchases. A new car. The latest iPhone. Designer clothes. But have you noticed how quickly that feeling disappears? That rush of excitement when you first get something new rapidly fades until the object becomes just another part of your routine.

Graph showing novelty euphoria spike after a new purchase followed by return to emotional neutral level over time
If you plotted this on a graph, with time on one axis and feelings of novelty/euphoria on the other, material purchases create a sharp spike that quickly drops back to baseline. This is hedonic adaptation – we quickly get used to new things and return to our previous happiness level.

Now contrast this with experiential changes like developing a new habit or moving someplace new. At first, there might be discomfort or even struggle. But then, as you begin to see the benefits – muscles forming if you’re exercising, clarity of thought if you’re reading regularly – the positive feelings actually multiply over time. The satisfaction curve trends upward rather than downward.

In my own experience, the desire for this type of change began early. My first significant relocation happened when we moved from an apartment in a multi-unit building to a standalone house in the same town. That move transformed my life in unexpected ways. My social circle completely changed – I lost dozens of friends from the apartment building and gained new ones from neighboring houses. I suddenly had to walk 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) to school every day, creating a necessary new habit because there was simply no other way to get there. At the time, I envied classmates who lived closer to school, but now I understand it was actually a blessing in disguise.

This is where the real power of relocation emerges: when you change your physical location, it becomes virtually impossible to maintain your old lifestyle and habits. Society is structured in a way that forces adaptation.

A longitudinal study of German college students found that those who studied abroad for a semester or year became significantly more open-minded and less neurotic compared to those who stayed home. Researchers attributed this to broader perspectives gained from breaking out of comfort zones. Another major study across six experiments discovered that people who lived abroad had significantly higher “self-concept clarity” – they became clearer about who they are and which values define them.

This clarity doesn’t come from staring at your navel in your same old apartment. It comes from the clash between your existing identity and new environments that challenge it.

You feel off. Something that awakens not just your body, but your mind. That sensation when you're facing a complex problem in your business or life — where all the parts seem disconnected, and you can't quite figure out how to make sense of it all.

You're trying to build something meaningful — whether it's a sustainable online business, a remote career, or simply a life that gives you true freedom. But everywhere you look, you see only fragments: isolated tasks, disconnected projects, and problems that seem to exist in their own universes.

This feeling, which says that everything is disconnected and nothing fits together in a meaningful pattern, is painful to experience. However, you understand there's some truth in this assessment.

Research from MIT shows that professionals who master systems thinking report a 29% direct positive impact on their careers, with nearly half (48%) seeing immediate benefits in their work. But more importantly, 77% report it fundamentally changes how they manage responsibilities and lead projects. They begin approaching their work more holistically — and with dramatically better results.

What if instead of seeing fragments, you could see patterns? What if rather than being overwhelmed by complexity, you could navigate it with confidence? This is the power of systems thinking — the ability to see the whole when others see only parts.

As systems scientist Russell Ackoff observed,

"A system is never the sum of its parts; it's the product of their interaction."

When you understand this concept deeply, you unlock a new way of approaching every challenge you face.

In this article, I'll share with you a practical framework for systems thinking that can transform how you approach your work and life. You'll discover how to identify the objects and functions that make up any system, how they interact, and how this understanding can lead to breakthrough insights that others miss entirely.

The power of dawn. The light of sunrise. With fog not yet dissolved in your head. But a framework that will bring extraordinary clarity.

The Awakening Power of Seeing Interconnections

To determine the complete picture of what you're dealing with — whether in business, life, or a specific process that needs adjustment — a systems approach or systems thinking helps tremendously. And to learn this approach, I want to share the very tools I learned from, acquired, and which now subconsciously reside in my mind. I probably use them without even thinking about it consciously.

However, all the information I present about any process, business, or situation is presented precisely in this format or key. Therefore, my brain is likely just trained to arrange everything into a systems framework and then deliver a complete, ready picture.

So, what is systems thinking? It's a way of viewing or representing any situation, object, or subject from a systems perspective. We need to look for and find the system. A system doesn't exist everywhere. If we turn to the definition of a system, it's a set of interconnected elements whose interaction leads to a set goal or result.

Not everything in the world is a system. However, most things we encounter in daily life are either elements of some larger system or systems themselves. So it's at least useful to look at things from this angle and understand what we're dealing with.

Renowned systems thinker Donella Meadows defines a system as "an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something."

This definition highlights three crucial aspects:

1. Elements,
2. Interconnections,
3. Purpose.

Without all three, you don't have a system.

Most people see fragments. Isolated tasks, disconnected projects, problems that exist in separate universes.
Systems thinkers see patterns, interconnections, wholes.
The difference? 48% career advancement, 77% better results.

Systems thinking is a way of viewing the world where you see the whole when others see parts.
A skill without which you can't make any business truly work.

The power of dawn. The light of sunrise.
With fog not yet dissolved in your head, but a framework that brings extraordinary clarity.

Research from MIT shows that professionals who master systems thinking report a 29% direct positive impact on their careers.
More importantly, 77% report it fundamentally changes how they manage responsibilities and lead projects.
Do you feel this? The change that's possible?

You're trying to build a life that gives you true freedom.
But everywhere you look, you see only fragments.
This feeling, which says that everything is disconnected and nothing fits together in a meaningful pattern, is painful to experience.
However, you understand there's truth in this.

As systems scientist Russell Ackoff observed:

"A system is never the sum of its parts; it's the product of their interaction."

Every system has three crucial aspects:
1. Elements
2. Interconnections
3. Purpose

Without all three, you don't have a system.
_____________________________
Practice

Step 1: Define your system's purpose.

Before diving into components, start by asking: "What is the goal of the system as a whole?"
For your online business: "to generate sustainable income while providing value and maintaining location freedom."
This creates immediate focus.

Step 2: Make a list of all objects.

For a remote work setup, objects include:
— workspace
— communication tools
— contracts
— workflows
— team members
These are the indivisible elements from which you build your system.
First, gather everything. Sort later.

Step 3: Create a list of functions and connect them.

Functions are what the system DOES - the verbs, not the nouns.
For a freelancing business:
— acquire clients
— deliver services
— manage finances
Then draw lines: which objects participate in which functions?
_______________________________________

Yes, and this is where magic happens.
In Toyota's production system, managers found that improving one isolated piece doesn't improve the whole.
Instead, they focus on synchronization between stations.
Remote workers who understand this outperform those who optimize fragments.

As a person building your business, this approach transforms everything.
While others fixate on symptomatic fixes (better Notion templates, more tools), you'll be addressing root causes and creating lasting solutions.
You'll see the invisible connections others miss.

"Synergy is the only word in our language that means behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the separately observed behaviors of any of the system's separate parts."

-Buckminster Fuller

You now have a framework that transforms how you see the world.
Since I started applying systems thinking to my work and life, I simply cannot stop—it has become my favorite approach.
In a world of complexity, this is your unfair advantage.
See the whole when others see parts.

I wrote detailed article on the topic: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/the-power-of-systems-thinking-how-to-see-the-whole-when-others-see-parts

Every system can be represented as several elements that comprise it. These elements are so-called independent atomic particles that are indivisible. We can consider them as separate objects. If we take the example of a watch mechanism, it's an individual gear or any part.

Of course, we can break it down to atoms or elementary particles, but when we talk about a mechanism we can manipulate, we're talking about the parts from which we assemble these watches. And the gears themselves, even when assembled together, don't work until we start the mechanism — that is, wind the spring. And this is already something dynamic, some process, an element in motion, or an element in the process of change, or something that happens over time.

This something is called a function or process. In systems terminology, these are functions — some dynamic change in the state of individual system elements. Dynamic means it changes over time, whether due to interaction with other elements or not. The main thing is that it changes. The gear's position changes over time; this gear rotates, thereby moving the next gear, which, for example, initially connects to another external system called "human" when they turn the winding gear, winding the spring itself.

This is already an interaction with an external system, but we'll get to that gradually. First, we're talking about a system isolated from other systems. In this case — a watch.

I like to use a watch as an example because it's very simple to understand and easy to visualize. It has a simple and clear goal — to show the exact time according to settings. And a fairly understandable mechanism — a set of gears, springs, and other parts that are closely interconnected.

There is not a single extra gear. If we remove even one, the watch will stop showing the time correctly. If we try to add something, the watch will also stop working as expected. These are very understandable and simple system properties worth considering.

Systems scientist W. Edwards Deming famously analyzed organizational problems and concluded that "94% belong to the system (responsibility of management); 6% are special." In other words, over 90% of issues in organizations are due to systemic causes rather than individual errors. This statistic quantifies the relevance of systems thinking: it implies that to solve the vast majority of performance problems, one must take a systems view rather than a narrow focus.

According to research from the public health sector, 72% of professionals admit to having little knowledge of systems thinking tools, yet 87% express high interest in developing those skills. This mismatch between demand and current capabilities highlights the growing recognition of systems thinking's value in navigating complex challenges.

So, how do you start thinking systemically? We have several parts into which we can divide a system, as we've already discussed. These are its individual elements or objects — indivisible elements from the system's perspective that are independent particles included in this system. Like gears in a watch.

The next part is a function or process that occurs within the system. For example, a gear rotates, the winding mechanism moves the spring, or the spring stretches, the watch hand turns. All these are processes or functions — dynamically changing properties of the system over time.

Connect elements and functions together and the system emerges.

"Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things."

— Peter Senge

Most people are zoomed in when they need to zoom out.

Why your lifestyle feels chaotic:
— You're ignoring feedback loops
— You're optimizing individual tasks
— You're missing crucial connections
— You're blind to system boundaries
— You're solving symptoms, not causes

Rewire your brain to start seeing the whole.

It’s 11 PM and you’re still staring at your screen, surrounded by unfinished tasks. Your brain feels like overcooked spaghetti. Deadlines loom. Client problems multiply. And that algorithm you’ve been wrestling with for days? Still broken.

You’ve been there before – that feeling of complete mental saturation. Tasks piling up throughout the day, more getting added, and suddenly you realize there’s no way to complete them all. Your brain feels like it’s hit a wall. The solution seems distant, maybe impossible.

I’m not the type of person who prioritizes tasks over my well-being. I have a routine that I maintain, one that I value more than arbitrary deadlines. I understand that my physical and mental state is infinitely more important than checking boxes on my to-do list.

The most fascinating thing? Science backs this up. Research shows that an astonishing 95% of our brain activity happens completely outside our conscious awareness. Your mind processes an incredible 11 million bits of information per second, while your conscious mind can only handle about 40-50 bits. The rest? It’s all happening beneath the surface, in your subconscious.

Think about the last time you were stuck on a coding problem, designing an algorithm, or making a critical business decision. You stared at the screen for hours, feeling your productivity drain away, only to have the perfect solution spontaneously appear while taking a shower the next morning. That wasn’t magic – it was your subconscious delivering exactly what you needed, exactly when you weren’t forcing it.

“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking,”

Albert Einstein once admitted. Even one of history’s greatest analytical minds understood that breakthrough insights rarely come from brute-force conscious effort.

This isn’t just philosophical musing. It’s a real, practical method you can use to solve even your most challenging problems – whether they’re technical obstacles, business decisions, or personal dilemmas. And it’s surprisingly simple.

In the next few posts I’ll show you this reliable three-step process that leverages your brain’s natural problem-solving capabilities – a method that’s been used by entrepreneurs like Larry Page, scientists like Dmitri Mendeleev, and countless others to create world-changing breakthroughs. A method I’ve personally used time and again to solve complex problems that seemed unsolvable.

Your brain processes 11 million bits of information per second.
Your conscious mind? Only 40-50 bits.
The rest happens in your subconscious - your hidden superpower for solving impossible problems.

It's 11 PM. You're staring at your screen surrounded by unfinished tasks.
Your brain feels like overcooked spaghetti. Deadlines loom. Client problems multiply.
Yet our productivity-obsessed culture tells you to push harder, grind more.
Science says that's exactly wrong.

I'm not the type who prioritizes tasks over wellbeing.
I maintain my routine, one I value more than arbitrary deadlines.
I understand that my physical and mental state is infinitely more important than checking boxes on a to-do list.
This isn't laziness.
It's strategy.

"I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking."

That's Einstein. Even history's greatest analytical mind understood that breakthrough insights rarely come from brute-force conscious effort.
The magic happens elsewhere.

The Wagner study is mind-blowing:
People who slept on a difficult math problem were 2.6x more likely to discover the hidden solution.
59% of the sleep group had breakthroughs compared to just 22% of those who stayed awake.
Your sleeping mind keeps working.
__________________________________

Step 1: Information Collection
Gather everything about your problem. Your subconscious needs raw material.
Document inputs, constraints, expected outputs. Create a comprehensive registry.
Your subconscious has no hidden agenda. Its interest aligns perfectly with yours.

Step 2: The Conscious Disconnect
The most counterintuitive step - and most important.
Once you've loaded all necessary information, deliberately shift attention away from the problem.
This isn't procrastination.
It's strategic disengagement.

Step 3: Capture & Implementation
Be ready for solutions that arrive unexpectedly - during a shower, on a walk, or in those first moments after waking.
These aren't vague ideas but fully-formed approaches you can immediately implement.
Keep capture tools handy.
__________________________________

Sleep is the most reliable disconnection method for complex problems.
One night is sufficient for most challenges; two nights at most for the complexities.
It may feel uncomfortable initially - like avoiding responsibility.
Your subconscious is still working diligently on your behalf.

Ever notice solutions appear during mundane activities?
EEG patterns show that moments before insights occur, the brain briefly reduces visual processing input and increases activity in areas connecting distant neural networks.
The shower effect is real. It's science, not magic.

If no solution appears within your expected timeframe, it means one of two things:
— Either your subconscious needs more information (return to Step 1)
— Or you haven't fully disconnected (revisit Step 2)
I've rarely encountered problems that didn't yield eventually.

Whatever advice others give will always be incomplete.
No other person has what your subconscious has – your entire history, every experience that has shaped you.
Your subconscious is your ultimate helper, working tirelessly for your benefit.
Trust the process and use it to prevail.
_____________________________

The full article: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/a-hidden-superpower-you-possess-how-to-use-your-subconscious-to-solve-the-hardest-problems-in-your-l

The Subconscious Powerhouse You’re Ignoring

The human brain is astounding when you look at the raw numbers. Your conscious mind – the part you’re aware of right now as you read this – processes around 40-50 bits of information per second. That might sound impressive until you learn that your senses are bombarding your brain with roughly 11 million bits of data every single second. Where does all that information go?

Into your subconscious – that vast, mysterious part of your mind that works tirelessly without your awareness or direction. It’s like having a supercomputer running in the background of your life, constantly processing, analyzing, and making connections while you go about your day.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate,”

said Carl Jung. Yet most of us never learn to intentionally harness this incredible power. We keep trying to solve complex problems using only our limited conscious resources – the equivalent of trying to move a mountain with a stick when you have a bulldozer parked in your garage.

Scientific research has proven just how powerful this subconscious processing can be. In one striking study by Wagner and colleagues published in Nature, participants who slept on a difficult math problem were more than twice as likely to discover the hidden solution – 59% of the sleep group had breakthroughs compared to just 22% of those who stayed awake. Their sleeping minds continued working on the problem, connecting dots their waking minds couldn’t see.

I’ve experienced this phenomenon countless times in my own life. Recently, I was faced with a complex algorithm design challenge. I needed to create something for my client’s ERP system we developing that could handle dynamic variables that changed throughout calculations, preserving necessary information while still running efficiently and calculating correct results. I could have spent all night banging my head against this wall, forcing my conscious mind to keep grinding away.

Instead, I gathered all the information – input requirements, expected outputs, current algorithm steps, test data – and documented everything clearly. Then I simply stopped. I shifted my attention completely, went for my evening walk, and went to bed at my normal time. The next morning in the shower, without actively thinking about the problem, the solution appeared in my mind, fully formed. I understood exactly how to structure the algorithm – something that might have taken hours of frustrated effort the night before.

Man taking a shower with a calm expression, symbolizing subconscious problem solving through relaxation
This isn’t unique to me or to programming. This same approach has led to some of history’s most significant breakthroughs.

Larry Page conceived Google’s revolutionary PageRank algorithm during a vivid middle-of-the-night insight. After waking from a dream where he had “downloaded the entire Web,” he immediately jotted down the idea of ranking pages by analyzing their backlinks. This midnight revelation – a product of his subconscious – led to one of the most successful companies in history.

The chemist Friedrich August Kekulé struggled for years to determine benzene’s molecular structure until he dreamed of a snake biting its own tail, forming a circle. This subconscious image gave him the revolutionary insight that benzene forms a ring, not a chain – transforming organic chemistry forever.

Dmitri Mendeleev, after days of struggling to organize the known chemical elements, fell asleep at his desk and dreamed of a table where “all elements fell into place as required.” Upon waking, he immediately wrote down the first Periodic Table – one of science’s most important organizational frameworks – with only minimal corrections needed.

If your subconscious can coordinate something as complex as your entire biological system, imagine what else it can do for you – if you learn how to use it properly.

You feel the potential inside you. You know you’re capable of so much more than what your surroundings expect. The path society outlined — the conventional one — doesn’t work for you. It’s that traditional route where you follow the script, the template, the pre-made plan that’s supposedly for everyone.

You’re supposed to grow up a bit, go to school, get good grades, then go to college or university, keep getting good grades so you can become a rookie in some career you had to choose when you didn’t understand anything about yourself, your strengths, or what you even want to do in life. Yet somehow, miraculously, you need to make this choice, a decision that will impact your entire future from that point forward.

And this decision is critical because if you choose the wrong specialization, your life is doomed. You won’t be able to earn enough money to support yourself, to support your family that you’re supposed to start after you finish your education. You’ll need to buy property on credit that your salary from your new career can afford. You’ll need to buy a car and several pieces of furniture from a list.

Somewhere during this period, either during your university life or after, you’re supposed to find your spouse, create a family with them, have children. And then comes the next wonderful algorithm. You wake up. You wake up with difficulty, because today will be another hard day, and you have to do things you don’t really want to do, maybe things you really hate, things that make you sick, and there’s absolutely no pleasure in starting this day.

In your mind looms the ghostly goal called “Friday,” Friday evening, when you can go party with your work friends at the local bar. Discuss the latest political news, come to some conclusions, and so on. But for now, you need to get ready for work. You make your way through traffic jams and other people, trying to find some meaning in this exercise.

Well, I did feel like this conventional path wasn’t for me. And throughout my conscious life, I’ve unconsciously been searching for ways to avoid this script, trying all possible methods that somehow differ from those prescribed in this scenario, in which I had no desire to become an actor.

I was 10 or 11 when I tried my first business in quotes — when my neighbor and I wanted to organize a lemonade stand near our house and feed passersby with meals we prepared from instant noodles, tea, coffee, and a small dessert. We were going to sell this literally for a few cents, adding a small margin to the cost of purchasing the goods, which we naturally bought with our parents’ money.

The next attempt came many years later after I finished university. My girlfriend and I organized a flower business and launched a flower salon in the city where I lived then, and started selling them. Everything went pretty well, we had such a side income because at that time I was working at my second job in an IT company, earning good money. I had money to cover the loan we took for renting the premises and purchasing the first batch of goods to get the machine spinning.

And it actually spun quite well, we had a side income, and we developed it to the point where we could even sell it. And this was, in fact, the first real experience of feeling out the life model called “business.”

There was something attractive and wildly appealing about it — the fact that we solved all the problems ourselves, no one told us what to do. The tasks were, of course, much bigger, the problems were much more complex than when you work at a job, but we did it ourselves, we did it by choice, it was interesting because it was ours. And it was a feeling of freedom, real independence from other people, and this feeling, which didn’t leave me alone, in fact, doesn’t even now.

I will continue to share my business journey in future posts, so stay tuned.

The Missing Key: Your Business Is Failing Because You Skipped This One Step

42% of startups fail for one reason: they build products nobody wants.

I wasted years making this mistake.
The solution isn't what you think.

Here's the counterintuitive approach that changed everything:

I tried every business model:
— Flower shop
— Rental business in Bali
— Digital agency
— Online courses
— Startup founder

Some worked.
Most failed.

The difference?
One invisible factor.

The failures: I created products first, then hoped customers would magically appear.

The successes: I had customers before creating anything.

This pattern was hiding in plain sight for years before I finally saw it.

The biggest mental shift that changed everything:
Stop being a consumer of content and start being a creator.

Most people consume.
Few create.

Creators build audiences.
Audiences become customers.

The internet gives you unprecedented leverage.
You can reach millions of potential customers with zero gatekeepers.

Your voice, your expertise, your journey can attract exactly the right people — if you're willing to put yourself out there.

My freelance work succeeded because clients recommended me to others.
I never searched for them — they found me.

I had an audience (small, informal) who knew what I could do.
This is the key most entrepreneurs miss.

Don't build first and pray customers will come.
Build an audience first who tells you exactly what they need.

Then create products they're already asking for.
It eliminates the guesswork that kills most businesses.

Find platforms where your ideal audience already hangs out:
— YouTube for visual learning
— X for bite-sized insights
— Podcasts for deep conversations
— Newsletters for direct connection

Go where they already are.

Deliver unmistakable value before asking for anything in return.

Build trust.
Demonstrate expertise.
Prove your worth.

When you finally offer something to buy, they're already sold.

The biggest mistake creators make:
Building an audience for years before monetizing.

This is unnecessary.
Start selling immediately.

You don't need millions of followers — you need 1,000 true fans who value what you offer.

Test your ideas before building them:
— Create landing pages
— Pre-sell your product
— Ask for commitments

Let the market tell you what's worth building.
This saves countless hours building things nobody wanted.

Your path to location independent success starts today:

1. Shift from consumer to creator
2. Choose your platforms
3. Deliver consistent value
4. Listen to your audience
5. Sell solutions to their problems

The audience is everything.
Find your people first.

The full article: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/the-missing-key-your-business-is-failing-because-you-skipped-this-one-step

Here’s the truth no one tells you: 42% of startups fail because they created a product nobody wanted. This isn’t just some random statistic. This is the single biggest reason businesses crash and burn according to major startup studies. Not running out of money. Not technical problems. Building something people don’t need. Lack of market need was “the single most cited reason for failure in those studies – far more common than running out of money or technical issues.”

I searched endlessly for why my ventures weren’t working while my freelance work kept bringing in steady income. The difference was obvious in retrospect: my freelance clients came to me through word of mouth. They were past clients who recommended me to others. I never actively looked for them — they found me. I had an audience, even if it was small and informal.

I didn’t realize this was the key all those years. I was building products and hoping people would come. But here’s what I’ve discovered: if there are no customers — both potential and current — then there is no business.

What was interesting to me through all these attempts was that while I created products that failed, my freelance work creating websites for clients kept growing. Over time, I started charging more and earning more from these projects. I did less work myself, having a team that I subcontracted work to immediately, and they did 100% of it independently, paying me a share for the clients.

All this time I called my business a digital agency, which is also a common business model for beginning entrepreneurs on the internet. Because it’s a business you can start literally from scratch without initial capital, requiring no special costs. You just need to find a client, agree on a deal, and then you either independently or through subcontractors complete the work that needs to be done for them or their business.

Everything sounds wonderful in theory, but the problem is that the first part — finding a client — I never managed to do, no matter how much I tried. I tried advertising, tried sending cold emails, sending messages, networking, making websites, writing articles, posting cases on the internet, running social media, running a YouTube channel — everything you can imagine. In fact, none of this led to results.

The result was exactly zero, except for wasted efforts. Probably accumulated experience — it’s hard to say how useful it was, because it seems that so far, I haven’t made any adequate conclusions from this, all because there’s no adequate feedback from this whole process. You understand that it just doesn’t work, and what to do with it — is unclear. You’re playing a numbers game, and you just need to take quantity, and the more attempts you make, the more probability that someone will respond to them. That is, you need to send not 200 letters, but 2000 or 20 thousand letters.

Maybe that’s how it works, but there’s no guiding beacon in this sea. I get a new client, again through acquaintance. They are brought by my former client. And this is a very large order, which basically covers all my current expenses, lifestyle. And I do it in parallel with my remote work.

And I realize that I can’t drag it out any further, because the longer I drag it out, the more I immerse myself in this abyss of comfort, salary from month to month, and I rely only on it. And since I basically already have an order, yes, this is not a business, this is still a freelance project, and it takes up most of my time. And here I do part of the work myself. By the way, at this time I have already gathered a team for myself, which covers about half of the labor resources that are required.

And I decide to quit my job and completely immerse myself in developing my business. But this time I don’t want to make the previous mistakes. And everything that permeates my previous attempts to do business and earn money online, while remaining independent and not turning the business into my second job, which I, by the way, currently get.

So I now have not just bosses on the side, I am not my own boss, my boss is my client. And essentially I do what my client tells me. No matter how it sounds from the side, but freelance work is still not a business. It’s the same job, only now you don’t have one boss, as it was at work, but several, if you have several clients. They tell you what to do, and you do their projects, not yours.

All the time you spend goes to making them richer and realizing their dreams, their projects. And what about my dreams, desires, interests, my projects? How do I get closer to them? That it should be a business, I have no doubt. This is the only way I can provide for my life and make it the way I want. I need money for this, since we live in a modern society, there is no other way yet. And even if we didn’t live in a modern one, humanity hasn’t come up with another way yet.

So, what am I going to do now? I’m going to earn my audience, gather people who are interested in my way of thinking, with whom we have something in common, with whom our thought processes align, with whom our desires and goals are similar, with whom values coincide, and who find close and resonant what I share on the internet.

And yes, this opens up a whole rabbit hole for discussions that all the audience is gathered in order to make money on it. But:

— First, I don’t see anything wrong with this.
— Second, that’s how every business works.

For example, any luxury brand similarly gathers its audience, an audience of its fans, those who love beautiful things, living well, and then sells them its luxury items. Similarly, any consumer product does this, publishing information about its brand in the form of advertising, inserting it into films, inserting it everywhere possible, gathering its fans, a whole army, with whom they share interests or the lifestyle that the brand promotes, and sells them its product.

In fact, this is done by absolutely every business, because that business that sells either to end customers or to other businesses, sells it to people too, because people work in business. And, selling to business, you close the needs of some specific person or an entire group of people that they have.

Yesterday I rewatched “Interstellar” and found myself pondering once again: what’s the actual purpose of a human being? What’s the goal of humans as a species in the world we currently inhabit? A world where we basically have everything, where we don’t yet face the catastrophic problems shown in the film. From an existential standpoint, things are pretty damn good. Humanity’s future looks bright, and we’re moving forward at breakneck speed.

Brian Johnson is developing immortality protocols. Brett Adcock is producing robots that will replace human physical labor. Elon Musk is building rockets to send us to other planets. Sam Altman is building AGI to solve our most complex problems. Microsoft is developing quantum computers to provide the necessary power to solve these tasks. Basically, everything humanity could dream of lies ahead. And some company is working on genetic engineering to eradicate all diseases. Another is preserving animal embryos in case of extinction and trying to resurrect mammoths to help protect the Arctic permafrost from melting. It all sounds incredibly inspiring.

On one hand, I look at these people and what’s happening with awe. On the other hand, it’s almost unbelievable that all this is actually real. It seems like these are just magazine covers or news feeds, that none of this actually exists beyond media headlines. But thinking about it seriously, I feel endless admiration for how far humans can go using creativity, thinking, cognitive abilities, and the desire to discover something new, to move forward and bring all of humanity along.

Yet for most of us, there’s a crushing reality beneath these lofty accomplishments. Research shows that nearly 80% of workers globally are disengaged from their jobs, creating a staggering $438 billion black hole of lost productivity. The gap between what we’re capable of and what we’re actually doing has never been wider. And if you’re reading this, chances are you feel that tension acutely – the pull between earning a living and creating something meaningful.

When I read such news, I inevitably think about my own life, its purpose, and what specifically I can do for humanity, maybe not on such a global scale. I’m not Elon Musk or Brett Adcock. Although, who knows, maybe they once had exactly the same thoughts, but eventually managed to bring their lives to a point where their decisions become something that moves humanity forward.

This manifesto isn’t about becoming the next tech billionaire. It’s about finding your unique contribution at the intersection of passion, purpose, and income – a place where over 90% of people admit they’d sacrifice some earnings to stand. It’s about how you, as someone navigating the digital landscape with newfound freedom, can create ripples that extend far beyond your laptop screen.

We admire the rocket builders and AGI creators.
But most of us are stuck in jobs we hate, wondering if our existence matters.
There’s a different path — where meaning and money finally align:

1. Research shows nearly 80% of global workers are disengaged from their jobs.
That’s a $438 billion black hole of lost productivity.
Meanwhile, we scroll through social media looking at "freedom lifestyles" wondering why we still feel empty inside.

2. The greatest paradox: having unprecedented freedom but still feeling trapped.
You escaped the office.
Got the laptop.
Maybe even found the beachfront.
…
Yet something’s missing.
The coconut doesn’t taste as sweet when you’re still doing meaningless work.

3. Since the dawn of time, humans have been driven by curiosity and creation.
Not consumption.
You’re part of this continuum.

Your existence isn’t separate from these grand ambitions — it’s an extension of them.
Which thread of human progress resonates with you?

4. Most of us live in pure consumption mode, even with tools for creation at our fingertips.
Yet the barrier to creation has never been lower.

The critical shift happens when you see yourself as a creator, not just a consumer.
What unique perspective do you have?

5. I rewatched Interstellar recently and found myself asking:
What’s my purpose? What can I contribute?

These aren’t philosophical luxuries.
They’re the exact questions that led to rockets, AI, and dreams of interplanetary living.

6. Your bridge point is where passion, skills, and market opportunity converge.
37% of side hustlers started to pursue passion.
41% to spend time doing what they love.
What if what puts you in flow state also pays the bills?

7. The digital nomad has an extraordinary advantage over previous generations.

5 billion internet users.
1 billion daily hours watched on YouTube.
Your ideas can reach virtually anyone, anywhere.
The infrastructure for global distribution already exists.

8. The starving artist trope needs to die.

71% of creators earn under $30,000 yearly.
But 9% earn six figures.

Those who monetize effectively don’t start with money as primary motivation.
They create genuine value first, then capture some financially.

9. Don’t try to change the world overnight.

Think of impact as expanding circles:
1) Personal impact
2) Immediate community
3) Growing audience
4) Industry influence
5) Cultural shift
6) Systemic change

Few start beyond circles 1-3.

10. "Let the beauty of what you love be what you do."
This isn’t just poetic — it’s practical.
The research consistently shows those who align work with internal motivation sustain efforts longer and achieve more meaningful results.

11. You don’t need to build rockets to contribute meaningfully.
The act of creation itself — whether writing, coding, teaching, or designing — is fundamentally aligned with humanity’s grand journey.

The challenge isn’t finding purpose.
It’s starting small.

Start creating today.

The full article with all the details: https://anticodeguy.beehiiv.com/p/the-creator-s-manifesto-align-passion-purpose-and-income-while-contributing-to-humanity

When Freedom Isn’t Enough: The Search for Meaning in a Digital World

The greatest paradox of our time is that despite unprecedented freedom, most of us feel trapped. The digital nomad lifestyle promised liberation – geographical independence, flexible schedules, escape from corporate bullshit. Yet something’s still missing. The emptiness persists, even with a coconut in hand and a beachfront coworking space. Even with freedom.

All these grand dreams about becoming part of some global movement quickly shatter to pieces when suddenly the rent bill arrives, and you realize these dreams won’t take you far and pursuing them doesn’t help pay the bills. You quickly come back down to earth and return to your familiar circle of existence, where there’s work – work you don’t love, where you have to do things you don’t like, and after a long, hard day, you simply have no energy left to create.

And talking about creating and being creative for inspiration isn’t even on the table – it becomes quite difficult to even think about it. Because inspiration doesn’t pay the bills, creativity doesn’t earn money. The starving artist is the fate of most who engage in creative work. But is that really true?

Let’s step back and look at the bigger picture. Since the beginning of time, humanity has been driven by curiosity, the pursuit of first discoveries, the desire to create something new. The drive for development, the desire for order, the striving to answer the question: why do I exist here? The desire to understand this world and answer the questions it poses to us, and actually understand: what is all this for, why did we appear on earth, why was I specifically born, do I have some kind of purpose, is there some path I need to find during my life, why am I here and what can I do, do I need to do something?

All these questions have led us to where we are now. Robots, rockets, artificial intelligence, life extension, and dreams that someday there will be no diseases, we’ll fly to other planets, become a truly interplanetary species, and heavy physical labor will cease to be necessary, even intellectual labor, when it will be possible to live in complete abundance and do what you want.

This is, by the way, a key moment – doing what you want. Because if your life currently represents doing what you don’t want to do, then at the very least this should suggest a thought or a couple of questions about why is this happening? Why, as a human, was I born and still live in such a wonderful time, when there’s plenty of abundance around, yet must spend my life time solving some petty household issues, some tasks that seem incomparably insignificant compared to those being solved by the world’s powerful figures?

“The passion principle can lead people to accept lower pay for meaningful work,”

observes Harvard sociologist Erin Cech. And yet, there’s an economic revolution happening right under our noses. The global creator economy – currently valued at around $250 billion with an estimated 50 million creators worldwide – has fundamentally changed how passion connects to income.

Most people view the divide between meaningful work and financial stability as fixed and unchangeable. But the research tells a different story: technological progress, particularly the internet and digital platforms, has created unprecedented opportunities to align passion with income. The evidence is compelling – the number of Americans living a “location-independent” work lifestyle has surged dramatically – rising from 7.3 million digital nomads in 2019 to 17.3 million in 2023, a staggering 131% increase.

What most people miss is that this isn’t just about remote work – it’s about the democratization of impact. For the first time in human history, a single motivated individual can potentially reach millions with their ideas, creative work, or solutions. This isn’t just marketing hype; it’s the new reality being shaped by digital infrastructure that’s still in its infancy.

Indeed, by such feelings, this definitely shouldn’t be the case, there definitely should be something that I can contribute as my part to human development, humanity’s movement forward – at least at the level of my own life, even if not at the level of the entire species.

And in such moments, when I watch this film, after watching it, these are exactly the questions that arise for me. What am I doing, what am I engaged in, how important is it, how interesting is it, how much do I like doing what I do, how useful is it for me, for the place where I live, for the people I live with, at least for someone, does it bring benefit?

You involuntarily ask yourself such questions, and when you get answers that, it seems, no, it seems that everything is much simpler, more banal, more down-to-earth, and I don’t feel myself part of this big vector that moves humanity in the direction of development. Okay, but if I ask myself such a question, then at the very least it’s within my power to try to find an answer to it. And at the very least to try to make it all have at least some meaning, so that it all doesn’t lead me to the insignificant life of an insect that has one task throughout its life, which it unquestioningly follows, listening to its natural instincts.

We are humans, we have consciousness, we can think, we have cognitive abilities, we invented language, we can create, we can synthesize something from natural materials, from what we have, we can create concepts, we can think and share our thoughts, we can store information, we can pass it from generation to generation, thereby learning, expanding our knowledge zone, becoming better over time, developing. Okay, am I at least doing this?

In reality, all these questions have haunted me throughout my life, and it seems I’m still searching for answers to them. But it seems that lately I’m starting to find answers to them, at least for myself, and I’m beginning to understand that, in fact, despite not building rockets, not creating artificial intelligence, not curing diseases, I am still contributing, can contribute my feasible part to human development.