Shoestring Soul Searching #13: Chiang Mai

It was inevitable we would come to Chiang Mai sooner or later. For those who don’t know, Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second-biggest city but also strong contender for digital nomad capital of the world (second to Bali maybe). We didn’t think we fell in that category but one day we looked in the mirror and thought, we sure do check a lot of the prerequisites.

But hey, there’s a reason people like coming here. Thailand is user-friendly for a foreigner to figure out, which goes a long way after you’ve been in places like China, Korea, and Japan. It’s the right balance of functional and chill. Food is delicious and cheap. It’s safe and the weather is great for part of the year, although that time is rapidly ending.

I honestly haven’t done much Thai stuff here. Both of us have been to Thailand before so this time it’s been about laying low and focusing. The one exception: I’ve been practicing muay thai at my friend Kevin’s suggestion. I’m not even talking about sparring, which I’m avoiding because I’m afraid of getting injured. What I mean is every week for 90 minutes the trainers come at me with padded targets which I jab, knee, and kick the shit out of. I learned two things:

1. This is the most exhausting cardio on the planet. If you think you’re fit, try kickboxing for three minutes and see if you don’t get completely winded. My first time I was wrecked and could barely get up the next day.

2. Right after each session is when I’m the most relaxed and light the entire week. The world would be a better place if we all get to have a safe bout of contained violence every now and then. Anger requires energy. How can you be angry if you used up all your energy on muay thai?

When you learn fighting styles in other countries, you get some people who take themselves a liiiiiittle too seriously. Maybe it’s some primate reflex where laughing feels like letting your guard down. Not so in Thailand. All the trainers are kind of goofy. If you look at the video I linked above, the Thai trainer is nothing but smiles as he levels his opponent. This is some weird cognitive dissonance for me, because I’m also probably stone-faced and serious while doing muay thai. I believe it’s something cultural. I’m generalizing, but Thais seem to have the distinctive characteristic of having nothing to prove. Pretty rare and refreshing.

Welcome to my map room

Last newsletter, I pledged to teach myself foundational skills in geospatial analysis. I actually followed through on this. Let me show you a couple things I worked on.

Geographic data is crucial for disaster relief. The most vulnerable places on Earth are also the least well mapped. In the US, we take it for granted that Google Maps has everywhere covered but in fact, there’s plenty of places where there wasn’t a business case for it. In these areas relief teams have a hard time getting around, and that’s where this project comes in. Volunteers build open source maps in disaster areas, creating roads, buildings, and other features using recent satellite data. Above is my contribution to a part of southern Thailand afflicted by cyclone flooding at the end of last year.

This next map doesn’t serve a specific purpose. It’s just to demonstrate what the software can do. Without much explanation, you can already tell this is an elevation map. Being able to intuitively depict 3-dimensional space on a 2-dimensional screen is a powerful tool we have to understand the natural world. There’s a lot deeper analysis one could do - terrain, vegetation, and climate are all data points. If you told me there’s a mushroom species growing on forested north-facing slopes with a 15-25% gradient receiving more than 2,000mm of rain a year, I can tell you where to find it in a matter of minutes without you needing to get your boots stuck in whatever 2,000mm of accumulated mud looks like.

Finally, this is a real project requested on Upwork that I did for practice. They wanted to measure energy vulnerability in Turin, Italy using the variables of population density, building age, and building density/compactness. This requires breaking the city into fragments, running the data analysis, and distilling everything into a neat 0 to 1 index that enables visualization of spatial trends across neighborhoods. Other than my color scheme making me hungry for a McDonald’s hamburger, I’m pretty happy with this. If you want to see my deeper breakdown of how each variable actually affects energy vulnerability, take a look here.

I enjoyed doing this. I found myself voluntarily fine-tuning the analysis whenever I had a free moment. Caveat: things are always more fun when the stakes are low and the pressure is off. The question is what comes next. Will I continue building more knowledge in this area? If so, how does this combine with my existing skill set to tell a compelling story about what I offer?

If you can think of an area in your own life where a geospatial approach makes sense, I’d be curious to hear it. As with most tools, the biggest constraint is the failure of human imagination to see how it can be applied.

Limiting beliefs: fences to protect (or constrain) ourselves

Are you being held back by your limiting beliefs?

By limiting belief I refer to a view about ourselves that hinders us. I recently did some reflection to uncover mine. Here’s one:

The important thing about limiting beliefs is they’re not a sign of dysfunction or pathology, but a survival strategy meant to protect you. In the case of the above, the belief protects me from ever hearing a bad word against me. I have an image of myself as someone who never disappoints colleagues, friends, and family, and that image is protected by this belief.

But there’s also a cost. Because of this belief, I will be paralyzed about doing anything with a chance of failure. What’s the point of having a perfect record gathering dust? Isn’t it better to have a mixed record and gain experience? It’s the difference between a restaurant with one 5-star review, or a 4.6-star restaurant with a thousand reviews. Which sounds better to you?

Again, a belief meant to protect myself. Sticking to what I know, I’m sheltered in my fortress of security and comfort. It’s scary to be out there exposed. But a little annoying thing called time erodes all structures. Every day the fortress crumbles a little, and while seeking safety within its walls the wind eventually sweeps away everything around you. Staying in place has a cost. Safety has only ever been a temporary reprieve. If this fleeting safety is all you ever chose, what exactly did you protect?

Through this exercise I had a conversation with my limiting beliefs. I want the beliefs to know I acknowledge their good intentions, but need them to give me space to try things and live more authentically. It’ll take more time and work to internalize a revised set of beliefs, but at least I know where I currently stand. If you’re feeling stuck in any way, I encourage you to try something similar.

Yours in strength, truth, and fairy dust magic,

Bryan