Hi, I’m Rich

Originally from UK, and founder of China Admissions and Global Admissions. We’ve helped thousands of students study abroad.

Most students miss out for one reason: they start too late and don’t know the system.

Here’s how it actually works.

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The main scholarships you can apply for

• Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) - the main one. Covers tuition, accommodation, and a monthly stipend. You can apply two ways: through the Chinese embassy in your country (Type A), or directly to a university (Type B).

• University scholarships - most universities offer their own, separate from the CSC. Often easier to get and less competitive.

• Provincial / city government scholarships - e.g. Shanghai, Beijing. Usually applied for through the university.

• Confucius Institute Scholarship - if you’re studying Chinese language or teaching.

The timeline (this is where most people go wrong)

• December–January: start preparing your documents. Don’t wait.

• For bachelor’s applicants: you now need to take the CSCA test (China Scholastic Competency Assessment) before the deadline - this is new, and many students don’t realise it exists. Check dates at csca.cn.

• Application window: opens around Spring Festival and most deadlines fall late February to March. University and provincial deadlines can run into June.

• Results: usually announced in July.

The single biggest mistake is starting in spring - by then the best scholarships are already closing.

What makes a strong application

• Understand what they want - they don’t give free scholarships for nothing - they want to build international influence, and attract talented students to learn about China and build ambassadors who understand will connect China with your home country.

• A clear study plan that connects your background to the program and show your China interest. Learning some Chinese is a big advantage.

• Strong reference letters and well presented documents with good English.

• Applying to the right level of university for your profile and showing that you’ve done research - eg., reached out to others and understand their culture.

• Getting your language certificates sorted early (HSK for Chinese-taught programs; or IELTS/TOEFL for English-taught).

• Because each country, and agency has a certain quota, applying early and making a connection at the embassy or university can give you a big advantage.

• Make sure to present your application documents perfectly, because usually they won’t give any feedback - they’ll just put it aside and you’ll never know. With the number of applications they have, they usually don’t have the resources to give you feedback and help you refine your documents.

• If you can present it to them in person it can be a big advantage - either in person at the embassy, or at a university, or ask a friend to hand it in - so you can watch them review it and then update it if theres an issue. You can also get their contact so you can follow up on the status.

Go deeper

• Our full written guide: Scholarships to study in China

• My video tutorial on applying

• Browse open programs and university scholarships: China Admissions

• Explore and apply to other global scholarships on Global Admissions

  

Explore more scholarships on Global Admissions here.

Want help?

Applications for 2027 open right after Spring Festival - the best time to start preparing is now.

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Recommended Article:

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They felt attractive because something was happening inside them that hadn’t finished yet.

The Alpha Framework Is Incomplete

The concept of the alpha captures something real. Status matters.

Presence matters. Confidence matters. Pretending otherwise is naive and frankly dishonest.

But alpha is a snapshot.

It describes where you sit in a hierarchy at a given moment. And hierarchies shift. Status is fragile. Dominance without depth eventually reveals itself as hollow - and the people worth attracting can sense that hollowness faster than you’d like.

The alpha framework also has a deeper problem: it’s comparative.

It requires others to be below you to work. That means your value is always relative, always dependent on the room you’re in, always one status shift away from collapse.

That’s a brittle foundation for anything - a career, a relationship, a life.

It’s also zero-sum and not abundant thinking.

Alpha is inherently zero-sum and a scarcity mindset

For every alpha there must be betas.

Your dominance requires someone else’s submission. Your status rise requires someone else’s fall. The whole framework only functions inside a fixed hierarchy where the total amount of value is constant — one person’s gain is another’s loss.

That’s an exhausting and brittle way to exist. You’re always defending position. Always scanning for threats. Always one challenger away from losing what you’ve built. And crucially - you can never fully collaborate, because the person beside you is also a potential competitor for the same fixed resource.

But the real optimum mindset is emergent which is abundant

What Emergence Actually Is

Emergence is a concept from complexity science.

It describes what happens when parts combine and produce something that none of the individual parts could have predicted or explained.

Water molecules aren’t wet. Neurons aren’t conscious. Individual people in a city don’t constitute a culture. But water is wet, consciousness exists, and cities have souls. The new property only appears at the level of the whole system - and it couldn’t have been reverse-engineered from the components.

This happens in people too.

Our cells are emergent from the DNA
Our organs are emergent from our cells
As people we are emergent from our organs
We are also emergent from our cultures and all our inputs
And the best couples are emergent when they have a family

When Lincoln spent years copying out Shakespeare and the King James Bible by hand - not just reading them, but internalizing their rhythm, their logic, their emotional architecture - he wasn’t accumulating information. He was allowing those patterns to collide with his own thinking, his political experience, his specific historical moment, and the question he couldn’t stop asking about what kind of nation America was going to be.

The Gettysburg Address isn’t Shakespeare. It’s something Shakespeare could never have written. It emerged from Lincoln - from the specific collision of everything he’d absorbed, everything he’d suffered, and the impossible pressure of that moment.

That’s emergence. And it’s what people are actually responding to when they feel drawn to someone in a way they can’t quite explain.

That’s what happens when you build something that pushes society and civilisation forward

When you create a business, when you become someone (emergent), or are becoming someone emergent.

Emergence vs Alpha

The difference becomes clear when you lay them side by side.

Alpha is a position. Emergence is a trajectory.

Alpha is comparative - it needs a hierarchy to exist. Emergence is absolute - it’s about what you’re creating regardless of where you rank.

Alpha peaks and is fixed or declines. Emergence compounds and grows

Alpha can be performed, and often is.

Emergence is real, it can be detected or uncovered- it cannot be faked for long, because it requires actual depth, actual synthesis, actual output that holds up under scrutiny.

Most importantly: alpha describes what you are relative to others.
Emergence describes what you’re creating or becoming and the value you give to others.

And what you’re becoming and creating is infinitely more compelling than what you are.

Why This Is What Attraction Actually Tracks

Think about the people who have genuinely captivated you- not just turned heads, but held attention, created real pull, stayed interesting.

They weren’t necessarily the most dominant person in the room.

They were the person where you could sense something unfinished - a process underway, a synthesis building, a trajectory that hadn’t reached its conclusion.

It’s a process in motion.

That’s the quality that registers as magnetic.

Not position. Not performance. Generative momentum.

There’s an evolutionary logic to this that goes deeper than status signaling.

Alpha selects for current dominance in current conditions. Emergence selects for creation - which is actually the higher-value signal in a world that keeps changing. A person in genuine emergence is compounding.

They’re building something that will be worth more next year than it is today. That’s a better bet than someone who has already peaked.

The most selective people- those who aren’t just responding to obvious status cues but making considered choices about who they give their attention and energy to -seem to track this quality instinctively. They’re reading trajectory, not snapshot.

The Deeper Idea: 1 + 1 = 3

Here’s where it goes further than individual attraction.

The question isn’t just whether you’re greater than the sum of your parts. It’s whether the two of you together produce something neither of you could have produced alone.

That’s the real standard. Not compatibility in the conventional sense - shared interests, similar backgrounds, comfortable familiarity. But genuine creative emergence between two people.

When two people with real depth, real trajectory, real creative momentum come together - and their respective syntheses collide - something can arise that neither of them predicted. A new direction. A new capacity. A new thing in the world that has no other explanation than the specific combination of those two people at that specific moment.

That’s a generative force.

It’s deeper than chemistry. It’s deeper than compatibility.

But it’s what people are actually searching for when they say they want someone who gets them - not someone who mirrors them back, but someone whose depth interacts with their depth to produce something new.

What This Means In Practice

If alpha is about performing dominance, emergence is about actually building something.

It means:

• Having genuine breadth of input - not just in your field but across domains, traditions, disciplines, places, conversations

• Processing those inputs deeply enough that they interact with each other and with your own specific obsessions

• Creating output - putting your synthesis into the world, receiving feedback, refining

• Carrying a question you can’t stop asking, that gives your accumulation direction and pressure

• Being visibly in process - not performing arrival but actually moving toward something

The confidence that comes from this isn’t positional. It doesn’t depend on the room you’re in or who’s watching. It comes from creative momentum — from the felt sense that something is building inside you that hasn’t finished yet.

That quality is not subtle. People feel it. And it lands differently than dominance ever could — because it doesn’t ask anything of them except to be present to what’s emerging.

The Conclusion

Alpha gets attention. Emergence keeps it.

Alpha is legible immediately. Emergence takes longer to read but compounds over time into something no status signal can match.

The most attractive version of a person isn’t the one at the top of a fixed hierarchy. It’s the one where you can sense that the process isn’t finished — that what they’re becoming is still unfolding, that the most interesting chapter hasn’t been written yet.

And the most compelling relationships aren’t the ones where two complete, polished people find each other. They’re the ones where two people in genuine emergence combine — and produce something the world hasn’t seen before.

That’s not alpha. That’s not dominance.

That’s emergence. And it’s what we’ve been looking for all along.

In some ways Human has been defined by what we are not - we are not beasts, we are not animals, or we are not machines

A superhuman is the type of person who succeeds and thrives in the intelligence age.

They are:

• Fully directed

• Entrepreneurial (but not necesasrily an entrepreneur)

• Free thinking

• Self improving

• Improving exponentially

• Driven by a deep purpose

• Using leverage

• Creating a high level of excellence work in the world

The Superhuman is the next stage of human evolution.

The type of humans we must become for the future. It seems like a Superhuman to us, but after the intelligence age, it will just become “Human”.

There are some Superhumans among us now, but the vast majority of us are not Superhumans.

Because every evolution and societal shift starts and builds on the individual level.

To become superhuman, we must break free from the limitations of our mind and our world.

It is driven by the ideas of Humanist Accelerationism

What is the intelligence age?

The intelligence age is the next stage of human progress as distinct from the industrial age.

A superhuman is not necessarily someone who uses technology, but they can, and probably do. There is some overlap with transhumanism.

Transhumanism

Transhumanism (often abbreviated as H+) is a philosophical and social movement that advocates for the use of technology to fundamentally enhance the human condition. It posits that human beings are currently in a "transitional" stage and should use science and tech to move beyond our current physical and mental limitations.

But a Superhuman is a distinct and different concept. The critical difference is the self-directed agency rather than “merging with machines”, or living forever.

We must decide and consciously build ourselves.

You can become a Superhuman by following the Superhuman curriculum which is like a software update.

This is the Spawn Point: the cognitive bias that assumes your birthplace is your optimal ecosystem.

In reality, your high-leverage skills are likely “misaligned” and your potential constrained by your current geography.

You cannot outwork a misaligned environment; you can only transcend it by choosing a new one.

Choosing your own geography is one of the fastest ways to improve your life.

To reach the next level of human flourishing, you must stop viewing geography as destiny and start treating it as a strategic operating system - the invisible architect of your potential.

What I’ll cover

• Spawn point fallacy

• Growth through change and challenge

• How the world is interconnected - understand them is essential

• Increase the opportunities - and choose one - Abritrage and bridge

• How to choose - connects to your purpose and alignment - explore and discover phase, then build phase

The Randomization of Birth: Transcending the Spawn Point

The Spawn Point Fallacy is the cognitive bias that assumes the environment you were randomly assigned at birth is the optimal ecosystem for your unique talents. In reality, your birth is a statistical lottery; you “spawned” into a specific tax code, cultural narrative, and economic climate without your consent. Just as a Ferrari engine is wasted in a traffic-congested city, your specific skills might be “misaligned” with your current geography.

Most people in the world are not born in the best environment for them to become their best self, and would benefit from moving to a ‘better’ place.

The world is essentially a collection of different servers, each running different software - some prioritize rapid growth and “permissionless” innovation, while others offer stability and deep-rooted heritage. By treating geography as a strategic choice rather than a destiny, you move from being a passenger of your circumstances to an architect of your environment. There is a high probability that the “Product-Market Fit” for your soul exists in a jurisdiction you haven’t even visited yet, where your specific pillars of expertise would compound at an exponentially higher rate.

For most people they can benefit from being in another of the worlds locations, or learning from the others and bring that to your home as a richer person.

Your Environment Shapes You

Your environment acts as the invisible architect of your identity, serving as a continuous “software update” for your ambition, habits, and perspective. While we often credit willpower for our progress, the reality is that the systems, social circles, and cultural norms surrounding us set our internal “factory settings” by default. If you are immersed in an ecosystem that prioritizes stability over scale or silos over synthesis, your growth will eventually hit a systemic ceiling regardless of your individual effort. To achieve true alignment, you must treat your surroundings as a strategic choice rather than a random inheritance - intentionally selecting geographies and networks that provide the intellectual density and high-leverage opportunities necessary to fuel your life’s work. You cannot outwork a misaligned environment; you can only transcend it by choosing a new one.

Much of the study abroad industry is just about students moving to a better place.

You cannot outperform your environment indefinitely. Eventually, the system wins. If you want to reach the next level of transcendence, stop trying to work harder within a broken simulation and start building the bridge to a better one.

What kind of person do you want to become, and and what kind of environment suits you best?

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Property and Urban Environment

Your living space and urban environment aren’t just passive backdrops; they function as the primary operating system for your future self. A home designed for focus provides essential cognitive leverage, reducing the friction required for deep work and high-level habit formation.

While the above image is an extreme example, it can manifest on multiple levels.

On a larger scale, a thriving urban environment acts as a massive matching engine. When density is high and housing is abundant, the “friction” of daily life decreases, creating a surplus of time and energy that allows you to move beyond mere survival and toward the “M-shaped” development of deep expertise across multiple fields.

Equally critical is the social architecture of your surroundings, as proximity remains the strongest designer of personal standards. Being immersed in a community that pushes the boundaries of intelligence and agency creates a silent, constant pressure to “upgrade” your own capabilities.

Ultimately, your property and the people around you are the architects of your potential; by consciously selecting both, you are choosing your future identity.

Growth through Change And Challenge

Growth is a byproduct of friction, and there is no greater source of friction than the total displacement of your environment. When you remain in your “spawn point,” you live largely through autonomic habits - your culture, language, and social structures act as an invisible auto-pilot that makes decisions for you. Stepping into a radically different geography forces a “hard reset” on your cognitive software.

Because you can no longer rely on the default settings of your upbringing, every interaction - from negotiation to navigation - requires a conscious, high-resolution choice. This constant state of navigational challenge is the ultimate forge for agency. You stop being a passenger in a pre-written narrative and start acting as the primary agent of your own survival and success. By forcing yourself to solve for X in a foreign equation, you develop a level of adaptability and self-reliance that simply cannot be simulated in the safety of the familiar.

Cultures

In a globalized, intelligence-driven age, culture is better understood as an Operating System (OS). Just as you wouldn’t run high-end graphics software on an outdated OS, you shouldn’t try to run a high-leverage life on a cultural system that isn’t built for your specific goals. If your results are stagnating, the problem might not be your effort; it might be your environment’s architecture.

The first step in choosing a culture is identifying its primary objective. Every society is optimized for something.

• The Growth OS: These cultures prioritize speed, “permissionless” innovation, and meritocracy. The underlying code says: “If you can build it, you should.” You see this in hubs like Shenzhen or the United Arab Emirates, where the physical and digital landscape changes month by month.

• The Stability OS: These cultures prioritize social safety nets, heritage, and “work-life balance.” The code says: “Protect what we have built.” You find this in much of Western Europe, particularly the Nordic countries, where the focus is on a high “floor” for all citizens rather than an infinite “ceiling” for the few.

High-Context vs. Low-Context

Communication is the “data transfer” of culture. Different OSs handle this differently.

• Low-Context (Direct): In countries like the US, Germany, or the Netherlands, communication is literal. Information is “packaged” into the words themselves. It is highly efficient for transactional tasks but can feel “soulless” or blunt.

• High-Context (Indirect): In cultures like China, Japan, or the UAE, the message is in the relationship, the hierarchy, and the setting. What is not said is often more important than what is.

Knowing the Language: The Insiders Software Update

Language is the firmware of a culture’s operating system; without it, you are merely interacting with the user interface of a geography. Mastering a complex tongue doesn't just facilitate communication - it changes how you think, allowing you to think in new dimensions and process logic through a different cultural lens.

It also enables you to interact and build deeper relationships. Just the act of knowing the language breaks down a barrier.

In an era of AI-driven real-time translation, many will think learning a language is obsolete, but while AI translates the words; only the human brain can translate the cultural subtext.

Mastering a language isn't just about utility; it's about signaling deep commitment and gaining access to the high-trust protocols where the real deals are made.

This depth is what transforms a tourist into an architect capable of building within the "backend" of a society.

Beyond mere understanding, language serves as a formidable barrier to entry. Most competitors are unwilling to invest the thousands of hours required to pay the "linguistic tax," leaving the highest-leverage opportunities to those who do.

By scaling this barrier, you create a defensible moat around your presence in that geography, turning your ability to navigate local nuances into a unique advantage that a mono-lingual specialist simply cannot replicate.

Understanding Truth through Triangulation

Mastering multiple geographies provides a unique form of intellectual triangulation, allowing you to filter out regional noise to find the objective “ground truth” of the global economy.

When you are rooted in only one system, you mistake local cultural quirks or temporary policy shifts which are excessively loud.

However, by observing a phenomenon - such as the roll-out of agentic AI or a shift in capital allocation - across three distinct jurisdictions, you can identify the exact point where the narratives converge.

This creates a high-resolution map of the future. If you see a specific technological pattern emerging in the high-speed execution of Shenzhen, being validated by the deep capital structures of London, and refined by the regulatory flexibility of Dubai, you aren’t just guessing - you are triangulating a global inevitability. This multi-point perspective transforms geography from a mere location into a diagnostic tool, providing the navigational accuracy required to make high-stakes bets with a clarity that the mono-geographical mind simply cannot access. You stop looking at a flat, 2D projection of the world and begin to see the underlying architecture of the 3D reality.

The World is Interconnected

We often fall into the trap of believing that mastering our local location is sufficient to navigate the global landscape, but this is a dangerous illusion of completeness. The world does not operate in isolated silos; it is a single, hyper-integrated, and complex system where a ripple in one jurisdiction can trigger a tidal wave in another’s economy, culture, or technology.

By focusing only on a single part of the machine, you are essentially trying to navigate a ship while only looking at a tiny fraction of the horizon. To achieve true Systems Intelligence, we must recognize that the world is a unified organism - one where the relationships and feedback loops between different regions are just as critical as the regions themselves. Relying on a single “operating system” leaves you vulnerable to blind spots that only a global, interconnected perspective can reveal.

The Gravity of World Cities

World cities function as the high-performance hardware of the global economy, acting as concentrated nodes where capital, talent, and influence collide to create massive leverage.

These aren’t just urban centers; they are strategic “operating systems” that define the speed of progress for anyone plugged into their networks.

London remains an unparalleled legal and financial anchor, providing the stable “source code” for global trade, while New York exerts dominant cultural and capital force through its sheer density of media and markets.

Meanwhile, the rising power of hubs like Shenzhen has redefined the limits of physical execution and hardware innovation, and Dubai has positioned itself as the ultimate bridge for geographic arbitrage, connecting disparate markets through hyper-efficient logistics and a pro-business “clean slate” architecture.

In the Intelligence Age, being positioned in the right city is a force multiplier that determines how fast your life’s work can actually compound.

Double or Triple the Opportunities

Mastering a second or third geography isn't just an additive skill; it is a geometric multiplier for your life’s work. When you move beyond the boundaries of your native and learn to navigate the cultural, legal, and economic protocols of another country, you don't just "add" a market - you exponentially expand your field of play.

This dual or triple perspective allows you to see arbitrage opportunities that are invisible to the mono-geographical mind, effectively doubling or tripling your potential for impact and wealth.

Instead of fighting in a competitive, saturated pond, where there are multiple people similar to you, you gain the ability to move talent, capital, and ideas across borders with the ease of an insider, while being different. By bridging the friction between different jurisdictions, you create a unique Category of One that is mathematically protected by the sheer complexity of your cross-border expertise.

The Advantages of Being an Outsider

Being an outsider is a strategic superpower because it grants you immunity to the "Native Blindness" that plagues those who have never left their spawn point. When you are the "other" in a system, you are not bound by its unspoken dogmas or the social pressure to conform to its traditional scripts.

This difference is your highest-value asset; while the locals are swimming in the water they no longer notice, you are the only one who can see the currents, the obstacles, and the untapped reservoirs of potential.

By maintaining the perspective of the "Perpetual Outsider," you turn your lack of assimilation into a tool for Intellectual Arbitrage, importing foreign rigor to solve local chaos. You don't need to fit in to be successful - you need to stand out as the unique bridge that links disparate worlds.

Arbitrage or Bridge

Exposure to multiple geographies enables you to spot arbitrage opportunities or be a bridge. Being a bridge between worlds allows you to capture the margin that lives in the friction of borders - margin that narrow specialists can’t even see.

When you master multiple geographies, you stop being a passenger in someone else's economy and start practicing strategic arbitrage, moving ideas, talent, or capital from where they are common to where they are revolutionary.

By synthesizing the best protocols of different systems, you become the essential link that connects them, effectively exiting the competitive rat race to occupy a Category of One. You aren't just "working" across borders; you are the infrastructure that makes global progress possible, turning cultural and economic gaps into your own personal force multiplier.

How to Navigate and Choose Geographies

Selecting a new geography or navigating between them begins understanding yourself and your direction.

During the Explore and Discover phase, you act as a strategic scout, learning about different cultural operating systems to see which one provides the most frictionless Alignment with your internal narrative.

I think usually we can know which ones are best with us or they feel more aligned. We are naturally more drawn or attracted to them.

Alignment and Building a Geographical Advantage is a part of what I call becoming a Szegemon.

While some people say choose the one where you are treated best, I would argue to choose the one where you are likely to grow the most.

Once you find the jurisdiction where your “Life’s Work” feels like play and the market’s needs match your soul’s output, you transition into the Build phase.

This is where you move from tourist to architect, officially “installing” your presence, anchoring your assets, and allowing your progress to compound in an environment specifically designed for your transcendence.

Overcoming The Emotional And Practical Barriers

The greatest barriers to geographic freedom is rarely logistical - it is emotional. The idea of leaving your home triggers a primal resistance: family guilt, financial anxiety, relationship uncertainty, and the quiet fear of starting from zero in a place where nobody knows your name.

These are real costs, not excuses, and pretending otherwise is dishonest. But the mistake most people make is treating geographic exploration as binary - either you stay forever or you uproot everything at once.

The smarter approach is to sequence your exposure. A university exchange program or studying abroad is often the lowest-risk, highest-leverage first move available - you arrive with a built-in community, a structured reason to be there, and zero pressure to perform.

Extended travel or a dedicated exploration trip of three to six months comes next, long enough to get beneath the tourist surface and feel whether a place genuinely fits your operating system.

From there, digital nomad visas - now offered by over fifty countries including Portugal, the UAE, and Thailand - provide a legitimate, low-commitment legal pathway to live and work remotely in a new jurisdiction without permanently severing your existing roots.

Think of it as a trial installation before you commit to a full migration. The goal is not to make one irreversible leap; it is to lower the cost of each experiment until the right geography reveals itself through lived experience rather than imagination.

Connector Nodes

Connectors are the high-leverage hubs of any network - individuals or entities that bridge “structural holes” between disparate groups. In a world defined by silos, a connector node is the single point of contact that links otherwise isolated clusters, functioning as the social and professional infrastructure that allows information, capital, and talent to flow.

By spotting these nodes, you save years of manual effort; instead of building a thousand individual bridges yourself, you plug into one central hub that grants you immediate access to the entire web.

You can also seek to become a connector node yourself which also takes a lot more time but has it’s own unique value. When you inhabit the intersection of multiple geographies or industries.

This positions you in a Category of One, where you help provide the “on-ramp” for others, turning your network density into an exponential force multiplier that compounds with every new connection made.

Building Roots vs Being Rootless

There is a shadow side to the pursuit of geographic freedom that few nomadic philosophers will admit: the danger of becoming a ghost.

When you optimize purely for arbitrage and mobility, you risk building a life that is wide but paper-thin - present everywhere and rooted nowhere. Humans are tribal by deep biological design; belonging, continuity, and being truly known by a community are not soft luxuries, they are load-bearing pillars of psychological health and long-term performance.

The perpetual outsider who never transitions to chosen insider eventually pays a hidden tax: loneliness, a fragmented identity. The goal is not to be permanently rootless - it is to be deliberately rooted. Choose your geography with the same rigor you would apply to any high-stakes strategic decision, plant yourself with intention, and build the kind of depth that only time and commitment can create.

A tree with shallow roots can survive fair weather. During a storm those who are rootless can move but those who are deeply rooted are also more secure.

Depth Vs Breadth

In the pursuit of global leverage, the tension between depth and breadth is often misunderstood as a binary choice, but it is a strategic optimization problem.

Geographic breadth - having a surface-level awareness of many regions - is valuable for identifying macro-trends, but it lacks the defensibility required to build a Category of One.

True power is found in geographic depth: the professional-grade immersion that allows you to navigate a jurisdiction's unspoken social protocols, legal architecture, and linguistic nuances with the precision of an insider.

While the "jack of all trades" traveler experiences the world as a consumer of scenery, the individual with deep roots in two or more strategic anchors becomes an architect of results. The goal is to avoid the trap of being everywhere but belonging nowhere; instead, you cultivate deep, compounding expertise in your primary "Growth" and "Safety" anchors while maintaining enough breadth to recognize when the global "puck" is shifting toward a new horizon.

Why This Is More Important

In an era of shifting alliances and increasing jurisdictional volatility, geographic optionality is no longer a luxury; it is also an insurance policy.

The 20th-century illusion of a flat, stable world has been replaced by a multipolar reality where different “Operating Systems” are frequently in conflict.

If your assets, your residence, and your business are all in a single jurisdiction, you are 100% exposed to that system’s specific black swan events - whether they are regulatory, economic stagnation, or geopolitical friction.

By diversifying your presence across multiple geographies, you move from dependence to antifragility. You own sovereignty and agency, while also building unique advantages.

You gain the ability to “switch servers” if a local environment becomes hostile or stagnant and navigate between the world.

In this new landscape, the Bridge doesn’t just generate profit; it provides a strategic escape hatch.

You aren’t just betting on one country; you are betting on your self and your own ability to remain mobile and relevant, regardless of which way the wind blows.

To Summarise

In conclusion, transcending the randomness of birth requires treating geography as a part of your life plan, not as a fixed constraint, but as a strategic variable for optimization.

By moving away from the “Spawn Point Fallacy” and viewing world cultures as distinct Operating Systems, you can intentionally select the specific environment - from micro-living spaces to macro-urban hubs - that provides frictionless alignment with your personal purpose and amplifies your ambition.

Leveraging the advantages of the “outsider” perspective, building bridges for geographic arbitrage, and cultivating functional language skills enables the geometric multiplication of opportunities.

This deliberate approach to navigation, transitioning from exploration to deliberate construction and deep rooting in strategic anchors, moves you from a passive passenger to an active architect of your identity.

Ultimately, in a volatile, multipolar world, geographical optionality is not just a tool for profit or growth through displace friction; it is the ultimate insurance policy that converts dependence into sovereign antifragility.

The Superhuman Curriculum

This is one of the core pillars of the superhuman curriculum which you can read about here.

Do you believe you really understand yourself?

And do you understand what you are capable of?

Has this updated or changed at all with the rise of AI?

Today I’ll explore four concepts and how they can work together to create the best version of yourself.

1. The Super-Ego

2. The Mask

3. The Alter-Ego

4. The Rival-Ego

And how to use these concepts to improve and become the best version of yourself.

This article was inspired by Jayson Meng’s article called - The Super-Ego.

A few years ago, I never thought I’d live in a world where I’m meeting robots, using AI to augment my work, speaking Chinese in discussions and see the world changing so fast.

I genuinely thought that working harder would solve every problem and I just kept trying to get more juice and efficiency out of myself and everything.

Now I’ve been meeting Robots

Giving panel talks in Chinese, and then speaking in Russian at dinner later.

This is one of the many counterintuitive lessons I’ve learnt. At a certain point, most of the important lessons are counterintuitive. Here are some of the other lessons I’ve learnt.

Counterintuitive Lessons I’ve Learnt

• How to overcome any situation and achieve any goal by focusing on the destination rather than the obstacle.
  

• The importance of demand / supply in business and positioning for surplus.

• The importance of direction and alignment.
  

• Overcoming enmeshment and how to set boundaries in relationships - in personal and professional relationships - from a recovering micromanager.

• Many more that Ii’ll share in the future. (I’ve been recording all the lessons I’ve been learning in a notebook that I’ll share). You can learn more by subscribing.

So first I’m going to introduce the idea that you can be much more than you currently are and to create the bigger version of yourself.

The Superhuman Version of You.

This is the blue print and idea of who you can become.

The Super-Ego

The super-ego is one of the three parts of the psychic apparatus defined by Sigmund Freud in his structural model of the mind.

It represents the ideal self, creating positive feelings (pride) when behavior aligns with internalized societal standards and parental values.

The important thing about the super-ego is that you are given it by parents and society.

This was good for most of human history, but as we enter a massive societal shift, we need to take control of the super-ego into our own hands.

We go from a passive super-ego to creating it consciously.

As Jayson Meng says:

In the AI era, the Super-Ego is something entirely different. It’s a future self that can be deliberately constructed. Not a constraint — a compass. Not morality — possibility.

“Not a second me. My PLUS.”

That’s the Super-Ego. It’s the version of you that you’re trying to become. Your ideal operating state. Your God’s-eye view of your own life.

That’s level of meta-cognition and meta-thinking is more important now.

Why is that important? Because the society and world of those inherited values no longer exists.

Humans now are like the fleas experiment.

The constraints have been lifted but we are still stuck in our old ways of thinking.

And there is another idea that I learnt that I think stops many of us from improving and that’s the idea of our mask.

The Mask

Another idea I got by speaking to a drama teacher. It’s that many of us wear masks which we learn through society and education. To limit ourselves to fit in.

In order to break free and become better at acting, we have to learn to lift this mask, to be our own weird self.

It’s scary because it’s vulnerable and we are all a bit weird.

On the one hand we need to learn to be quiet in when someone else is speaking and we need to learn how to queue so society can work.

But many of us have also been told that it’s not OK to be real ourselves.

And that’s something we need to learn to overcome.

So we can learn to listen and transmit and tap into our unique signal.

The mask is the limiting beliefs that we hold about ourselves to the outside world. But they are also connected to how we see ourself.

Our mask affects our concept of self, and our concept of self and what we believe is OK puts up our mask.

It’s scary to become something bigger than you are because people are not going to like it.

You are changing, you are no longer your old you.

Have solitude and space to listen to yourself is one essential part of it, which is something I explore in Signal Vs Noise

Another concept is that of the alter-ego.

Another version of yourself.

We are all multifaceted and complex organisms.

We play multiple roles, we are friends, leaders, workers, clients, customers, fathers, sons, brothers, and many more.

We present oureslves in different ways to different situations.

So who are we really? We are not any single one version of those but a combination of all of those.

Sometimes those selves are logically inconsistent and incomatbile. Our externalised self is different to our real self when we wear masks.

One idea that I think is helpful is the idea of the alter-ego.

Even a version of yourself that doesn’t even exist in the world yet.

The Alter-Ego

This is like how Clark Kent has the alter-ego of Superman.

This is our vehicle for becoming the Super-ego - and a mental model for that.

We can create an alter-ego in our mind that we don’t inhabit all the time but we inhabit it in one small place.

We might even create that alter-ego first in our mind - we write about it, or we find one small outlet to become that alter-ego.

It exists just in private first.

Then we feed it and watch it grow.

It gradually begins in a new domain.

For example if you travel to a new country and meet new people, you can more easily become that alter-ego.

But how do you actually create that alter-ego and do that?

Being Delusional

One way is to just be a little bit delusional.

That can be good, but you can also just become delusional eg., a mad man.

How do you draw the line?

The line is often quite fine.

But I think the vision of your greater self should come from somewhere grounded in reality.

It should start from the macro or the micro.

By looking at things in the small scale and expanding it, or the large scale and reapplying it.

One idea I have is by really being conscious about your reality and how your mental models work which is how I explored going into detail about your definitions.

Another is to learn from super successful people and get inspired by what people are actually doing in the world already.

Elon Musk is one figure that we can take great inspiration from. He has created himself and has said that he believes anyone can become excellent.

If he can do something, then it can’t be impossible.

But you don’t need to become Elon Musk, you can take inspiration from anyone alive today or in the past, or take bits from different people.

One of the great things I did was to meet Billionnaires and speak to them. I went up to speak to Chinese business leaders in conferences, and I read biographies of great people in history.

It helps you see what’s possible.

Because often people around you have limiting beliefs that keep them safe, or limiting stories they tell themselves.

Being OK to Make Mistakes

One thing I learnt from watching China’s robotic development is that failures are common and part of the process, and it was a reminder that we need to be OK to see failure if we are going to progress.

But this article is about how we can create a forcing function to improve ourselves and thats by creating an imaginary rival-ego.

The Rival-Ego

The concept of a rival-self isn't new - performance coaches and competitors have used versions of it for years

One idea comes from Andrew Tate in creating a better version of yourself that is competing for you.

And for anything you say about Andrew Tate, he has achieved fame, wealth and success and there is something to learn from his mental models.

What would your ideal and best version be like? And imagine a world where that person exists and he is your rival?

Think of it like the ghost car in a racing game with your personal best time.

It's a transparent version of your best lap, always just ahead, showing you exactly where you're losing time.

It’s an incredibly powerful way to think and make decisions.

Because it overcomes our natural inclination to focus on how we feel in the moment, and how we feel is often a result of our tendency to stay safe, and to stay comfortable and not take any risk.

Because there is a potential version of yourself that is completely different and much better, and your goal is to get as close as possible to that version.

It was good for our survival in a dangerous world, but if we want to create our best self, that safe version of ourself has to die.

Here’s How I Built My Rival-Ego

I built my super-ego by sitting down and imainging what I can be. By focusing on where I go, and what really excites me.

But I built rival-ego less by spending time on a grand vision, but rather as a heuristic when making any decision.

Would my rival-ego do this? or not?

By Elimination

It helps by getting clear on what I’m not going to do and what my rival. I’ve found that the first step to getting or becoming something new is to delete and prune your old self.

The path to maximal potential isn't through adding more, but through elimination.

This is an essential part of gardening and something I learnt from that that can be applied to business and self development.

Plants grow in all sorts of directions but in order to self direct you must trim back those areas of growth that are consuming resources and pulling you in different directions. So you can channel resources and growth into the direction you want to go.

By unfollowing everyone who no longer gives value, and closing doors that no longer serve you, you have an abundance of energy, and you can listen and watch where that goes.

For example I recently did pruning of my social networks by unfollowing everyone on instagram andX who I felt was not aligned with my future self. I had only 30-90 followers on those platforms.

My feed was basically empty, and that created a vacuum in which to fill it.

It’s about turning down the noise, and going quiet so you can fill it with your own signal.

I also grew Global Admissions by reducing our services for students that didn’t align with our future services. We increase prices, and we converted our old contracts to new ones.

You can learn more about what we’re building at Global Admissions here

It reduced our customers, and left a huge surplus of energy and resources to explore new ones.

By Decisions

Would my rival ego waste time sitting in a cafe or go and meet people? Would they be sending emails or have the courage to go to talk to a certain person or reach out?

You can tap into this idea that you probably already have or can easily imagine, and it’s a fast way to make decisions.

Golden Era of Expansion

We are in a golden era of expansion where anything is possible, and as Mark Zuckerberg used to say.

The greatest risk is often not taking any risk.

I talk about this more and why alignment in this era is much more important.

Do you think your super-ego and sense of self has changed with the rise of AI? What possibilities do you see for yourself? I’m Interested in your thoughts.

The Sequence

So here we have gone through four concepts to create the best version of yourself.

First you build the Super-Ego - the deliberate compass, the possibility of becoming better. The version of yourself you’re actually optimising toward. You overcome the version of yourself that your parents or society handed you.

Then you remove your Mask - the learned helplessness and limitations that are capping potential. First you identify it, then you get comfortable lifting it, step by step where you can. Your best version of yourself has no mask.

One way is to create an Alter-Ego - the best version of yourself in one area. You can create it in one area first first. Private. A new country, a new room, and a new domain where the old version of you has no authority. You eliminate an old habit by replacing it with a new one.

And you create your Rival-Ego - the forcing function. The version of you that didn’t hesitate at the door you stood in front of. The one that knows exactly what to do, and the one that you can.

You do this by elimination, by discovery, by making mistakes, by surrounding yourself with the environment that your future self thrives.

You don’t destroy the old you, you stop feeding it.

A few years ago I was trying to extract more efficiency from the same version of myself.

Working harder at being who I already was. What I didn’t understand then is that the ceiling wasn’t my effort - it was my identity.

The robots, the Chinese panels, the Russian dinners - none of that came from the person I was five years ago.

It came from deciding to compete against a better version of myself rather than compare myself to people around me.

You already deep down know what your rival-ego and future self looks like.

It’s waiting for you.

The question is if you are ready to become it.

Because it doesn’t need time, it doesn’t need effort,

It just needs alignment.

If You Like Worksheets

Here is a worksheet you can use to ask yourself these questions.

Build Your Four Egos

6.51KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

You can also prompt yourself, upload it to AI of your choice to critique yourself.

Superhuman Curriculum

This article is a part of the Superhuman Curriculum, a framework for becoming your best self in the age of AI.

If you liked this please leave a comment on what resonates and subscribe for more!

Thanks!

But no one is reading.

This one small thing can change everything.

Just write for yourself 5 years ago!

It’s not that hard.

I’ve been there.

I know how to write - I built a business, China Admissions, on the back of SEO and article writing.

But when I started my personal blog, I hit a wall. I wrote daily for a year, but the readership was slow, steady, and limited.

I was learning, sure.

But I was missing one small thing.

I actually got this idea from Ana Calin reflection on turning 44: The power of writing to your past self.

The Two Questions That Changed My Writing

1. Why am I writing?

2. Who is the target reader?

Previously, my answer to the first was: "Because I enjoy it and want to learn."

That’s a great hobby, but it’s not going to grow.

My answer to the second was: Me. I was writing for me.

The Problem with Writing for Yourself or for Fun

When you write for yourself, you write in a way that doesn’t resonate. You write like you think, you skip context, and you focus on your own curiosity rather than the reader’s transformation.

You don’t really care about others when you’re writing.

And it shows.

But it also doesn’t resonate.

If you must write for yourself, do it for yourself first, then rewrite it with the reader in mind.

Finding an audience is like digging for oil. There are pockets of readers everywhere. Once you strike a “vein” - once you resonate with a specific group - you can keep drilling.

But how do you find that first vein?

In my business, China Admissions, writing was easy. I spoke to customers every day; I knew their fears, their visa headaches, and their dreams. But on my personal blog, I hit a wall. For a year, I wrote into a void. Why? Because in business, I was writing to solve problems. On my blog, I was just writing to learn.

But when you start fresh it’s hard because you don’t know who you’re writing for.

The “5-Year-Ago” Framework

If you don’t know who your reader is yet, don’t guess. Don’t build a fake “persona” of someone you’ve never met.

Write for yourself 5 years ago

This is the ultimate shortcut for three reasons:

1. Abundance: You know exactly what challenges that person faced 5 years ago. You have a 5-year head start on the solutions.

2. Empathy: You don’t have to imagine their pain; you lived it.

3. Scalability: There are thousands (or more) of people right now who are exactly where you were 5 years ago

From Diary to Roadmap

When I wrote for “current me,” I didn’t really care if people read it. Writing it was enough. That kept my impact limited.

When you switch to writing for someone else - for the “past you,” your writing transforms.

You’ll start re-writing it.

You’ll make it much better.

And it shows.

Because you care.

The next time you sit down to write, ask:

• What is one thing I know now that would have saved me 100 hours 5 years ago?

• What was I most afraid of back then?

• How can I explain this concept without the jargon I’ve learned since?

• OR - If I could send one article back to myself 5 years ago, what would that be?

And you also need to take some risk

Some of my best writing has been a bit scary. It was real, it was raw, and it needed a bit of aggression to overcome it.

Sometimes it can be because polarising writing is powerful.

You are not afraid to upset some people, to reach the one you really care about.

Because you are prepared to stand for something.

Rather than just writing as the average of all the books you’ve read before.

Average writing is chatgpt writing. It blends in. It’s not remarkable.

So stop writing for the world.

Start writing for the person you used to be.

The rest will follow.

That’s alignment.

So who was I, 5 years ago? and Who are you?

I was extremely interested in personal development, willing to do anything, working hard building a business, with incredible potential, in a great relationship, not yet married, sometimes a bit too cautious, a bit of a perfectionist, read all the books, tried many things, and ready to achieve everything.

If that’s you.

Welcome!

So I’ll do my best to share what I’ve learnt.

Back then I didn’t understand:

• The power of leverage

• How markets work

• The value of time (it’s something you appreciate more as you get older) and how not to waste it

• How relationships work

• Greater psychological truths

Now I believe that:

• You can grow, and should be growing exponentially. If not there is something wrong, something is misaligned.

• That it’s possible to teach everything you know to someone who is 18. We can compress a decade of lessons into a day of learning. We should be able to teach everything we know to an 18-year-old so they don't have to start from zero.

• You don’t need to learn lessons personally to learn them. You can learn them by being in the right environment, with great content, and by staying away from average content.

____

So if that resonates, if that’s you, if you’re hungry to grow.

If you’d like to upgrade and become your best self, subscribe for my upcoming articles and leave me a comment to introduce yourself and what you’re writing about.

Subscribe now

Another great book about writing is On Writing by Stephen King, that I read about 5 years ago.

This article is actually the “For Myself 5 Years Ago” version of this article, which I wrote for myself to understand the topic more easily.

Can you see the difference between those two articles? Which do you find more engaging?

Learn more how to upgrade with The Superhuman Curriculum.

Is it worth it?

You don’t need to learn Emirati Arabic to survive in UAE. But why not? It’s fun to learn, and it can open doors when you meet people. Least of all, do it as a form of respect. Learning a language also opens an understanding of the culture, and there is a lot we can learn from Arabic.

Subscribe now

The good news is that you can see enormous benefits from just a few hours of learning. You can learn 80% of the language in 20% of the time. Even just a few hours can be useful so you know how to use the basics.

Greetings

• Hello: مرحبا (Marhaba)

• Good morning: صباح الخير (Sabah al-khayr)

• Good evening: مساء الخير (Masa’ al-khayr)

• Goodbye: مع السلامة (Ma’a as-salamah)

Polite Phrases

• Please: من فضلك (Min fadlik)

• Thank you: شكراً (Shukran)

• You’re welcome: عفواً (Afwan)

• Excuse me: عفواً (Afwan) [to get attention] / لو سمحت (Law samaht) [to ask for something]

Basic Questions

• How are you?: كيف حالك؟ (Kayfa halak? – male) / كيف حالك؟ (Kayfa halik? – female)

• What’s your name?: ما اسمك؟ (Ma ismuka? – male) / ما اسمك؟ (Ma ismuki? – female)

• Where are you from?: من أين أنت؟ (Min ayna anta? – male) / من أين أنتي؟ (Min ayna anti? – female)

Directions and Places

• Yes: نعم (Na’am)

• No: لا (La)

• Where is…?: أين…؟ (Ayna…?)

• Hotel: فندق (Fundaq)

• Airport: مطار (Matar)

Numbers

• One: واحد (Wahid)

• Two: اثنين (Ithnayn)

• Three: ثلاثة (Thalatha)

• Ten: عشرة (Ashara)

Miscellaneous

• Water: ماء (Ma’a)

• Food: طعام (Ta’am)

• Help: مساعدة (Musa’ada)

• I don’t understand: لا أفهم (La afham)

Remember, the pronunciation can vary a bit, and it’s always good to listen to native speakers for the correct pronunciation. Additionally, Arabic is written from right to left, so that’s something to keep in mind when reading or writing.

Numbers in Arabic (1 to 1000)

Arabic numbers can be learned efficiently by understanding the pattern they follow. Here’s a brief guide:

1. Basic Numbers (1-10):

   • 1: واحد (Wahid)

   • 2: اثنان (Ithnan)

   • 3: ثلاثة (Thalatha)

   • 4: أربعة (Arba’a)

   • 5: خمسة (Khamsa)

   • 6: ستة (Sitta)

   • 7: سبعة (Sab’a)

   • 8: ثمانية (Thamaniya)

   • 9: تسعة (Tis’a)

   • 10: عشرة (Ashara)

2. Tens (20-100):

   • The pattern is the number + “ون” (for 20, 30…90) and “مئة” for 100.

   • Example: 20: عشرون (Ishrun), 30: ثلاثون (Thalathun), 100: مئة (Mi’a)

3. Hundreds (200-1000):

   • Similar to tens, but with “مئة” (Mi’a) for hundreds.

   • Example: 200: مئتان (Miatan), 300: ثلاثمائة (Thalathmi’a), 1000: ألف (Alf)

4. Combining Numbers:

   • Combine the numbers for tens and units: e.g., 21 is واحد و عشرون (Wahid wa Ishrun).

   • For hundreds, add the hundred and the combination of tens and units: e.g., 125 is مئة و خمسة و عشرون (Mi’a wa Khamsa wa Ishrun).

Days of the Week

• Sunday: الأحد (Al-Ahad)

• Monday: الاثنين (Al-Ithnayn)

• Tuesday: الثلاثاء (Al-Thulatha)

• Wednesday: الأربعاء (Al-Arba’a)

• Thursday: الخميس (Al-Khamis)

• Friday: الجمعة (Al-Jumu’a)

• Saturday: السبت (As-Sabt)

Months of the Year

• January: يناير (Yanayer)

• February: فبراير (Febrair)

• March: مارس (Mars)

• April: أبريل (April)

• May: مايو (Mayo)

• June: يونيو (Younio)

• July: يوليو (Youlio)

• August: أغسطس (Aghustus)

• September: سبتمبر (September)

• October: أكتوبر (Oktober)

• November: نوفمبر (November)

• December: ديسمبر (December)

Additional Greetings

• Good night: تصبح على خير (Tusbih ala khair)

• Welcome: أهلاً وسهلاً (Ahlan wa sahlan)

• Long time no see: لم نرك منذ زمن (Lam naraka mundu zaman)

• Salam Alaikum (السلام عليكم): This means “Peace be upon you”. It’s a very common greeting in the Arabic-speaking world.

• Wa Alaikum Assalam (وعليكم السلام): This is the response to “Salam Alaikum”, meaning “And upon you be peace”.

• Ahlan wa Sahlan (أهلاً وسهلاً): A warm welcome greeting, meaning “Hello and welcome”.

• Sabah al-Khayr (صباح الخير): “Good morning”.

• Masa’ al-Khayr (مساء الخير): “Good evening”.

Other Ways to Say Yes

• Certainly: بالتأكيد (Balta’kid)

• Of course: طبعاً (Taba’an)

Basic Conversation Phrases

1. I need help: أحتاج مساعدة (Ahtaju musa’ada)

2. Can you speak English?: هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟ (Hal tatakallam al-ingliziyya?)

3. I don’t understand: لا أفهم (La afham)

4. How much is this?: كم هذا؟ (Kam hadha?)

5. Where is the bathroom?: أين الحمام؟ (Ayn al-hammam?)

6. I’m sorry: آسف (Asif – male) / آسفة (Asifa – female)

7. I’m looking for…: أبحث عن… (

When engaging in a conversation, especially in a different language and cultural context like Arabic in the UAE, there are several useful things to keep in mind:

Useful Phrases

• Asking for Clarification:

  • “Can you repeat that, please?” – هل يمكنك تكرار ذلك من فضلك؟ (Hal yumkinuk takrar thalika min fadlik?)

  • “What does [word] mean?” – ما معنى [word]؟ (Ma ma’na [word]?)

• Expressing Opinions and Preferences:

  • “I think…” – أعتقد… (A’taqid…)

  • “I prefer…” – أفضل… (Ufaddil…)

• Agreeing and Disagreeing:

  • “I agree” – أوافق (Uwaafiq)

  • “I disagree” – لا أوافق (La uwaafiq)

• Asking for Suggestions:

  • “What do you recommend?” – ماذا تنصح؟ (Maza tansah?)

Titles and Respect

• Use of Titles: Addressing someone with their proper title is important. For instance, “Mr.” and “Mrs.” are translated as “سيد” (Sayyid) for men and “سيدة” (Sayyidah) for women. For someone with a professional or academic title, like a doctor, use “دكتور” (Duktur) for a man and “دكتورة” (Dukturah) for a woman.

• Respecting Elders: Elders are highly respected in Arabic culture. Always use polite language and formal titles when addressing someone older.

Hospitality and Gestures

• Hospitality: Hospitality is a cornerstone of Arabic culture. Accepting food and drink when offered is seen as polite and respectful.

• Gestures: Be mindful of gestures. For example, using the right hand for eating and greeting is important, as the left hand is considered impure.

Conversation Topics

• Avoid Sensitive Topics: Topics like politics, religion, and personal matters are often avoided in initial meetings. Stick to general topics like the weather, food, or culture.

• Praising and Compliments: Giving compliments on things like hospitality or food is appreciated, but avoid personal compliments in a formal setting or with the opposite gender.

Indirect Communication

• Avoiding Direct Refusal: In many Arabic cultures, people avoid saying ‘no’ directly. Instead, they might use phrases like “إن شاء الله” (Insha’Allah – God willing) to mean something might not happen.

• Reading Between the Lines: Communication can often be indirect. Pay attention to non-verbal cues and implications.

Time and Punctuality

• Flexible Time Concept: Time can be more flexible in Arabic culture. Appointments may not always start exactly on time, and social visits can last longer than expected.

• Punctuality Variance: In business settings, punctuality is respected. However, in social settings, being slightly late is often acceptable.

Dress and Appearance

• Conservative Dress: Dressing conservatively is important, especially for women. It’s respectful to cover shoulders and knees.

• Grooming: Being well-groomed and presentable is highly valued in social and professional settings.

These tips reflect general tendencies, but individual experiences may vary. Being observant and adaptable to specific social cues during your interactions will also be very helpful.

Relationship Building

• Personal Relationships: Business and social life in the Arab world often rely heavily on personal relationships and trust. Taking time to build rapport and showing interest in your counterpart’s well-being is important.

• Invitations and Visits: If you’re invited to someone’s home, it’s polite to bring a small gift, like sweets or pastries. Remember to remove your shoes if you see shoes at the entrance.

Communication Style

• Indirectness: In many Arab cultures, communication tends to be more indirect. People often use storytelling or roundabout ways to convey their message, especially in sensitive situations.

• High-Context Communication: Much is communicated through context, tone, and body language, rather than just words. Pay attention to these non-verbal cues.

Dining Etiquette

• Eating with Hands: It’s common to eat with the right hand, especially when traditional food is served. The left hand is generally considered impure.

• Generosity and Hospitality: Arabs are known for their hospitality. It’s common to be offered more food; refusing immediately might be considered rude. It’s polite to accept at least a small amount.

Religion and Practices

• Islamic Practices: Understanding and respecting Islamic practices, such as prayer times and fasting during Ramadan, is crucial. Avoid eating, drinking, or smoking in public during daylight hours in Ramadan.

• Dress Code During Religious Times: Be extra mindful of the dress code during religious periods. Dressing conservatively is appreciated.

Business Etiquette

• Formality in Business: Initial meetings are usually formal. It’s important to address people by their full title and last name until invited to do otherwise.

• Decision Making: Decisions may take longer, as they often involve consultation with many people. Patience is key in business dealings.

Social Norms and Public Behavior

• Public Displays of Affection: These are generally frowned upon, especially in more traditional areas.

• Photography: Always ask for permission before taking photos of people, particularly women and children.

Understanding of Time

• Flexible Approach to Time: Time can be perceived more fluidly, and schedules may not be as rigid as in Western cultures.

Gender Interactions

• Gender Dynamics: In more traditional settings, there are norms regarding interactions between men and women. Wait for a woman to extend her hand for a handshake first.

Language

• Learning Basic Arabic: Even learning a few basic phrases in Arabic can go a long way in showing respect and can greatly enhance your interactions.

Greetings

• Hello: مرحبا (Marhaba)

• Good morning: صباح الخير (Sabah al-khayr)

• Good evening: مساء الخير (Masa’ al-khayr)

• Goodbye: مع السلامة (Ma’a as-salamah)

Politeness

• Please: من فضلك (Min fadlik)

• Thank you: شكراً (Shukran)

• You’re welcome: عفواً (Afwan)

• Excuse me / Sorry: عفواً (Afwan)

Basic Questions

• How are you?: كيف حالك؟ (Kayfa halak? – male) / كيف حالك؟ (Kayfa halik? – female)

• What’s your name?: ما اسمك؟ (Ma ismuka? – male) / ما اسمك؟ (Ma ismuki? – female)

• Where is the bathroom?: أين الحمام؟ (Ayna al-hammam?)

Making Requests

• Can you help me?: هل يمكنك مساعدتي؟ (Hal yumkinuka musa’adati?)

• How much is this?: بكم هذا؟ (Bikam hadha?)

Travel

• Where is…?: أين…؟ (Ayna…?)

• I want to go to…: أريد الذهاب إلى… (Uridu an adhhab ila…)

Dining Out

• I would like…: أود… (Urid…)

• The bill, please: الفاتورة، من فضلك (Al-fatura, min fadlik)

In Case of Emergency

• Help!: النجدة! (Al-najda!)

• I need a doctor: أحتاج إلى طبيب (Ahtaju ila tabib)

Expressing Basic Needs

• I don’t understand: لا أفهم (La afham)

• Do you speak English?: هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟ (Hal tatakallam al-ingliziyya?)

The internet is not full of a big load of individual people, it’s a load of different markets and interest groups. Each person is in multiple different groups.

When an article or content hits some gas, it means you are onto something. You can keep exploring that topic, going deeper, getting better, or keep exploring for different topics.

I can write excellent articles about studying in China and scholarships in China, not just because I understand the topic deeply, but because I can understand the audience deeply. I know every question they have, because I’ve seen them in my comments and in emails.

• How do I get a scholarship

• Which one is suitable for me

• Which documents are needed?

I know them before I ever start writing, and that means I’m already writing for someone in mind.

Creating content is not so much about understanding the topic as it is understanding the audience and presenting it in the way that they care about.

When writing a topic we often miss out the most important part - understanding the audience. And this makes a huge difference - between presenting information, and really tailoring it to the target and what they care about - because we have all the questions they’ve asked us in their mind before.

This is the same for business and politics. It’s essential to understand all the different subgroups and what they care about.

“Empathy Arbitrage” is a concept that turns the traditional idea of “authority” on its head. It’s based on the observation that in the digital world, the person who understands the user’s struggle often beats the person who holds the PhD. Most “talented” people fail at content because they are too close to their subject. They suffer from the “Curse of Knowledge.”

Too often people research content, facts and data, and not enough time spent studying people.

Don’t be the expert who understands the topic the most, be the person who understands the audience the best.

So which audience do you want to serve?

Then seek to understand everything about them, what they read now, what questions they have and concerns and doubts and dreams and tailor the content to them. Finding the specific questions is less about being a writer and more about being a Digital Detective.

It’s often easier to target smaller, under-served niche groups and then expand outwards, as there is less competition. Or even newly formed groups for which there is a lack of content.

For me - ambitious people who love learning and improving.

So here’s a prompt you can use. Copy and paste this article into AI, and ask:"
”Give me 5 persona’s of people I’d like to make content for”
”Based on the theory of Empathy Arbitrage, identify 5 high-pressure sub-groups I am uniquely qualified to serve, and tell me the one question they are too embarrassed to ask an 'Expert'.”

How to understand them?

• Reddit Search Operators: Use site:reddit.com "how do I" [Topic] or site:reddit.com "scared" [Topic]. This filters for intent and emotion. Look for the “Rant” or “Help” flairs.

• The “Zero-Reply” Filter: Look for threads on Reddit or Niche Forums with many upvotes but zero or poor replies. That is an untapped pool of gas. The community wants the answer, but the “Experts” haven’t provided a good one yet.

• Quora “Answer Wanted”: Go to Quora and look at the “Requests” or “Unanswered” sections for your topic. Look for questions with a high “Follower” count but no authoritative answer.

Search engines are the world’s largest confessional booths. People tell Google things they are too embarrassed to tell a friend.

• The Asterisk Technique: Go to a Google search bar and type: [Topic] is * or How to * [Topic] without *.

  • Example: Scholarships are * might reveal “Scholarships are scams” or “Scholarships are impossible for [Group].” That’s your empathy hook.

• AnswerThePublic / AlsoAsked: These tools aggregate the “People Also Ask” boxes from Google. They reveal the branching logic of an audience’s confusion.

• YouTube Comment Mining: Go to the most popular video in your niche. Filter by “Newest First.” Look for the phrase “But what about...” or “I’m still confused by...” These are the cracks in the expert’s armor.

• Use the “Signal-to-Noise” Filter

  Once you find 50 questions, you need to know which one is the “gas pool.”

  • High Volume + High Emotion = Gas. * If people are asking the question with words like “terrified,” “confused,” “honestly,” or “please,” you have hit the vein.

So, if you got to the end of this article, please tell me something about yourself and what you care about.

I actually converted this article into an article that was written directly for my audience. You can read more here.

Where are all the graduate jobs?

As AI usage transforms every business in the economy, there is a growing mismatch between graduates, and the job market.

Companies are not hiring as many entry level roles, and more and more generically educated graduates are competing for a limited number of roles.

There are two core problems as we enter the AI age - the education system and our economic system need to be updated.

In this article I will focus on how I think the education system should be updated for how students can prepare for an ever changing digital world.

The taxi driver problem

For some reason I’ve had many conversations with taxi drivers about their careers and business models. They all have quite different setups.

One of them recently asked me how to find better opportunities.

With millions of taxi (and truck) drivers around the world, and self-driving coming in. One thing is for sure, that millions of people are going to have their livelihoods displaced. What is the solution to that?

Up-skilling and retraining is going to be essential for taxi drivers but also many other professions from customer service, recruitment, design, administration and management and more.

We are facing the biggest societal disruption since the industrial revolution

I grew up in Bedfordshire which is one of the places that drew inspiration for the Shire in the lord of the rings. A place of safety and a refuge from the conflicts.

As I come back to the shire from living in China and Dubai I have the sense that people don’t realise how much the world is changing.

The laws of nature still apply, and it’s a mistake to take these luxuries for granted. It needs real work and constant evolution. We need to be hardcore and embrace change.

Who am I?

I am founder of an online study abroad platform called Global Admissions. I have lived in China, UAE and UK. I have learnt these lessons from 18+ years of working, reading, and experimenting. I don’t think it’s necessary to learn from experience and it’s possible to learn it all in day one. Here is my attempt to put what I’ve learnt so you can learn it in 30 minutes, and have come to think is the best path for career development.

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Dogma

What should you do in this time? I see a lot of different ideas being presented as truths.

“Study hard, go to university, working hard, get a job”. I don’t think this is enough anymore.

Many people are saying that you need to build a personal brand and create content. Others are saying you need to learn AI to succeed.

Will all jobs be taken by AI in the future?

The ideas on social media and in media are often quite one sided and polarising. The truth is usually much more nuanced.

My answer: it depends on you. Here is my attempt to build a road map for you to navigate the changing labour market.

The Economy Has Changed

These are the main shifts in our society that we’ve had.

Hunter gatherers were more egalitarian. In farming, control of the land become the key asset with wealth being concentrated into the landowners. As we entered through each stage, everything changes.

The mercantilist era and industrial revolution saw one of the biggest population increases as wealth become allocated to a growing middle class and we saw improved healthcare and longevity.

We are now in the early stages of a transition to the digital economy. While our digital infrastructure is transitioning, we are yet to see how this will play out in the labour market and education system.

Digital Economy Means Winner Takes All

The book of many of the principles for organising society in the industrial age was “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith.

We would see the division of labour and economies of scale and the famous pin factory. Multiple people working together focusing on specific parts could produce far more pins than individuals doing the entire process.

One of the key aspects of the industrial age was that it was far harder to measure the best from the worst, and so everyone was paid quite proportionally for their time.

In the physical world, we typically see a bell curve distribution of abilities - such as height or IQ, and so we saw the massive growth of the middle class.

In the digital age, we no longer have the friction of the physical world. Results are therefore allocated according to a power law, with the best performers receiving the majority of the benefits.

This fundamental shift is transforming the labour market and wealth distribution.

One example of this is how the number 1 result on google receives the majority of the benefits. In the digital world, everyone watches the top creators. The average is now almost invisible. The bar of competency needed to compete is now much higher, but the benefits much greater.

Digital Economy Means Infinite Choice

The other aspect is that in the industrial economy, there were limited choices. In the job market, there were only a few career paths you could choose. Now there are an almost infinite number of choices in different niches.

The End of Jobs?

In the agricultural era, and for most of human history, we operated on the principle of unfree labour. The industrial era saw the rise of the job.

The shift was driven by moral and economic arguments, but it was largely driven by economic reasons. Adam Smith explained how wage labor was inherently more efficient because a worker who benefits directly from their effort is more motivated and productive than a coerced laborer.

We are now entering a new era for many where a growing number of people can be creators, or owners. Instead of selling their time, they are selling results. In each stage, they are seeing more and more autonomy.

Don’t look for jobs. Look for opportunities.

As we enter the third stage, we should no longer seek jobs (to find a master), but seek opportunities and problems to solve, and then present solutions. This different mindset is the mindset of the digital economy. We embrace autonomy, ownership, creation and products. It requires a deep understanding of the economy and the marketplace that was not necessary in the first phase, and less needed in the second.

There are an infinite number of problems to solve.

The Structure of the Economy Has Changed

The industrial economy saw the rising middle class, but the digital economy is now seeing the splitting of the middle class. The above is what the distribution is likely to look like if nothing changes.

We are seeing the shrinking of the middle class, each year, by rising living costs. I highlight this to demonstrate the urgency and requirement for you to upskill and that you can’t afford to be the same and follow conventional wisdom, because conventional wisdom exists for a different age.

And because if we operate on the principles of the industrial economy in the digital economy, the system will fail.

In order to prevent this as we enter the digital age, we are going to need to implement universal basic income, or reduce living costs. I argue that it’s essential to make healthcare, housing, and education subsidised or free in the digital age, because these are infrastructure that are needed for a society to operate.

Infrastructure is the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g. buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

We will need to drastically update our economic thought. For now, while our economic thought catches up, here is what you can do as individuals in the meantime.

It is absolutely necessary to up skill and learn new skills to move to the higher level of the economy. As a society, we need to invest and carry out massive retraining.

But what should you learn? If everything is always changing. Here is a framework that I’ve come to understand and what I call “The Superhuman Curriculum”

There are two types of directions. The first is about leverage, the second is about what it means to be human. I will first explore the leverage types.

The Four Types of Leverage

In the digital age, these types of leverage replace the factors of production. We are now longer in a production economy, we are in an attention economy where attention is the most scarce resource.

There are four types of leverage

Capital and people are what Adam Smith mentioned as core factors of production. Content and code are the new types of leverage that exist in the digital economy and are transforming the economy.

With one video it is possible to reach millions of people.
With one piece of code it is possible to perform the work of millions of people.

These are where some of the biggest opportunities in the economy are right now. In order to succeed in the digital age, it is essential to understand all the types of leverage, and to build an advantage in one of those that best suits you. Everyone has a natural advantage in one type, and those that they are weak at.

It is also possible to build a leverage stack of multiple types of leverage working together. Social media platforms are one such examples, where they deploy capital, use code to connect people, and build teams, and coordinate creators.

Alex Hormozi is someone who embodies all the principles of leverage. Creating content, investing in companies, hiring talented people.

There are still highly paid jobs that exist as we enter the digital age. Lawyers can be one example. But anyone can benefit from leverage. Lawyers could create content such as a podcast, book, or social media, or use AI to support their work, hire people, or use capital in financing.

How leverage changes things

It now matters more what you work on, and being the best than how hard you work. It feels weird and counterintuitive

The Leverage Gap

If you are not using leverage in a leveraged world, you are being outcompeted - and under living your potential. The leverage gap is the difference between your current results and those that you can get with leverage.

An example can be someone who sells baskets on the street compared another person creating content about baskets online and an online shop, investing capital and building a team.

The Leverage Flywheel

You can also build a flywheel of leverage

Internal Skills of Leverage

We also have internal skills of leverage. Learning becomes the master leverage which enables you to bootload all the others.

The other aspects of leverage enable you to direct the tools of leverage better. Because we now have better, more powerful tools, the ability to direct them becomes more important.

Whats important with the tools of leverage?

Each tool of leverage needs different skills. I have a quiz you can take at the end.

Low Leverage Loop Trap

Many people who are working are limited because they are working on low leverage things. I know this from my own experience. In the digital economy, if you are not seeing an exponential increase in your results and your income, you are limited because you are not applying leverage. It’s essential to break out of the low leverage loop trap by finding the bottleneck and then applying leverage.

Empires of Leverage

You can also look at empires in history of using leverage. Content, culture, code, and finance, and organising people better than other empires is what gave them competitive advantages and allowed them to conquer others. Being able to apply empires is essential for strength and defense.

Duality

With every trend there is also a counter trend. Leverage comes first, the human side comes after that, and it is just as essential.

Every age has its duality - capital and labour, reason and emotion. The duality of this age is leverage and humanity.

As Leverage Becomes More Important so Does the Human Side

What does the human side look like?

- Care
- Empathy
- Judgement
- Taste
- Alignment - Vision, Direction

These become more important as we have new powers of leverage in the digital age because they are super-skills that technology can’t replicate.

We can put every job into one quadrant based on how much leverage and how much humanity is needed.

Low Humanity, Low Leverage

- Data entry, cashiers, drivers. As leverage increases, many low-humanity, low-leverage tasks get absorbed by AI, code, or systems. The person can be guided into roles of greater humanity, creativity, and connection.

❤️ High Humanity, Low Leverage

- Therapists, Nurses, Teachers. Sacred roles, but can still benefit from understanding or using leverage because we are in a leverage economy, and to maximise impact.

⚙️ Low Humanity, High Leverage

High Frequency Trading Bots, Instagram Feeds, Onlyfans, Private Equity Strip & Flip, Multi-Level Marketing Schemes, Clickbait Personalities / Outrage News. Without grounding in human values, this quadrant can easily become extractive - driving inequality, addiction, and harm.

🌟 High Humanity, High Leverage

Teachers or Therapists using content or designing systems to reach people at scale, Regenerative Finance, Community Leaders. Many new roles and opportunities we can’t yet imagine

The bottom left quadrant is removed as we can use machines to perform. So we can move into the high human side or high leverage or both which is the top right.

There are essential roles such as nursing, electricians and plumbing that require humans are in short supply now.

What The Curriculum Is

The essential skills in the digital age are therefore to understand and become capable at leverage and the human side.

1. Leverage
   - Code
   - Content
   - Capital
   - People

2. Humanity
   - Empathy
   - Judgement
   - Understanding
   - Taste
   - Aligment

And how to design your dream life

Solving the Taxi Driver Problem

Taxi drivers and those in the bottom left quadrant can upskill into another market or they can use their human skills or leverage skills or both.

The advantage taxi drivers have now is that they have huge amounts of time that they can listen to educational content to upskill and prepare for this.

Bespoke local guides, personalised care for disabled or those needing safety are some areas that will be required although much smaller. Or changing to roles that require people and more human skills such as electricians, plumbing or care.

Creating content in a specific niche they are interested in, or up-skilling is also an option. With so many taxis could they be turned into teachers, so you can book a taxi driver and have a lesson, or counselling session at the same time? or consulting or meeting. They could also move to community roles.

I don’t have all the answers, but a framework for how this problem can be navigated.

8 Ways to Prepare for the AI Economy

Here are 8 ways to prepare for the AI economy.

1) 📚 Learning needs to be continuous

If you can learn you can do anything. It’s the core skill that’s needed in today’s economy.

There are lots of free courses online

Coursera / edx
YouTube / books
Mentorcruise

But, there are almost too many resources, what should you learn?

2) 📈 Demand Supply Discrepancy

Where is the demand far outweighing supply?

This sounds obvious but it took me ages to really really learn this. I thought it just matters how well you work and your results, but I saw others doing a fraction of the work and earning far more. It’s all a market. It’s essential to fill a missing need.

Opening another pizza restaurant next to 3 others just isn’t going to be profitable however hard you work. In a market your effort doesn’t matter if you’re selling the same product as others and it’s a commodity. Apple can charge much more because it’s totally unique. It’s essential to find where there’s a big need, or problem that’s unsolved and go there.

In UK there are 728k jobs listed on LinkedIn and massive gaps in

- cybersecurity / ai

- e-commerce

- plumbing / electrical / ev installs

These could be short term or have opportunities.

3) 🔍 Hyper Specialise

A great career strategy is to focus on some hyper hyper specific thing (for me - starting at recruitment of law schools in china) become great at that, then expand, become great, repeat to bigger market when it’s saturated. Even better is to pair leverage + your subject / interest

Eg.,

- AI optimization for museums
- social media marketing for personal injury law firms

4) 📹🤖💸Use Leverage

We’re now in a leverage economy - content, code, capital, people. It you can master these tools - you can put in a little effort, and see huge results.

At the same time, the power of these tools, makes your effort relatively less valuable. Judgement, understanding, taste becomes more valuable. In a leverage economy. If you don’t understand leverage, you’re at a disadvantage to those who do. It’s counterintuitive because working harder feels like the right thing to do. But one YouTube video can reach thousands, continually. Code can work forever for free, you can build it or no-code it.

There is a dogma that you need do build a personal brand to be successful but that’s just one form of leverage.

Combine the missing need and your niche with whichever type of leverage your best at.

Are you great at writing or videos or speaking? Create media. Content and code are the easiest because they’re newer. In the leverage economy it is essential to understand all forms of leverage, but only need to specialise in one or two.

Combine capital + code (crypto) + people + content (build a team creating content about it).

5) 🧠 Mindset

Emotional awareness, energy, diet, sleep are all things that can give huge advantages (internal leverage).

How you look at the world reflects what you see back.

6) 🛫 Be Location Independent

If you move to another location you’ll understand two markets, learn more, get unique insights, can work between them, or choose the best for you.

7) 👩🏻‍💻The Internet is the Frontier

The internet is the new constantly expanding frontier and new opportunities are found at the frontier.

8) ✅ Build Proof of Work

Get started on projects to get results, make YouTube videos or podcast about topic of your focus, it matters more than resume.

9) ❤️ Develop your Human Side

Human side matters more. Alignment wins market share. Understanding people is an advantage. Judgement creates better products, content and allocation. Leverage is controlled by humans, for humans. It also makes you happier and a better human.

Dogma Vs Reality

What you work on matters more than just “working hard on anything”
Content and AI are one of the big opportunities now but what you work on depends on your skills and personality.
The nature of jobs is changing and they are now opportunities.
It’s essential to think more entrepreneurially and understand the market.
Our Human side is now more important, not less.

You can watch this on Youtube here

Summary

We have moved from the Industrial Age into a “Digital Age” or “Leverage Age”, which operates on different rules.

The Problem: AI is automating the economy , and the old advice to “work hard, get a job” no longer guarantees success. The Digital Economy is a “Winner Takes All” market , but it also creates “unlimited opportunities in different niches”.

The Solution: Leverage: The key to success is using “leverage.” Code, Capital, Content and People.

The Duality: Leverage + Humanity: As leverage (tools, AI, systems) becomes more powerful, “human” skills become more valuable. These include empathy , judgment , taste , and alignment.

The Goal: The ideal path is to operate in the “High Humanity x High Leverage” quadrant using powerful tools and systems with purpose and “soul”. Roles with low leverage and low humanity (like data entry or drivers) are first to be automated.

Learning and upskilling is essential. Engage in continuous learning, find a specialized niche, master at least one form of leverage, and simultaneously develop your “human side”.

Learn more in the Superhuman Curriculum

Update: I also wrote in another article, how to evaluate specific opportunities