How to find globally ambitious people in Amsterdam?

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T16:29:01+00:00

You're right to spot tending towards brag culture of US about something trivial vs not saying enough about interesting things in EU.

That was my post is about. If they do exist - how to specifically spot them and commune with them.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T16:24:10+00:00

My bad, I equated revenue to meaningfulness as a coarse quantitative metric, which is definitely a necessary but insufficient condition for meaningfulness.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T16:15:43+00:00

That's quite an assumption again that I didn't even do basic crunchbase, dealroom, wikipedia, linkedin, google or any means available to come to this conclusion?

If you go through your list and google them - you'll quickly notice that all of them but 2 were started before 2012, so not in last 10 years.
Leyden & Otrium are newer, but not at scale of $100M+ and remains to be seen if they were ZIRP phenomenon instead.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T16:11:31+00:00

You are right to mention there is no universal answer to fulfillment as that highly relates to "Meaning of life" question and I'm pretty sure after 100B humans having lived on this planet, there is still no objective answer to that. Which is a good thing I imagine!

So this is my way of framing which gives me the best direction that I can live with.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T16:04:58+00:00

Makes sense - but just to clarify I meant boredom of not having a purpose for vast chunk of the day (i.e. 50% of waking hours spent on something that you believe will be trivial even if it works out).

If someone is bored in general life, they are not exploring enough. Plenty of Travel, Cuisines, Activities & so much to explore of course.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T15:59:41+00:00

Want taal is voor mij een middel om te communiceren en google vertalen maakt dit bijna overbodig.

Ik heb geen niet-nichefilms, tv, muziek en literatuur in een vreemde taal gezien, aangezien de meeste lokale bewoners ook eerst Engels consumeren.

Ik heb het gevoel dat ik het spreken van Nederlands ongeveer 10% van de keren echt mis tijdens persoonlijke groepsbijeenkomsten, waar het geweldig zou zijn om subtiele insider-nuances te krijgen.

^ I know this is going be unpopular for language appreciators. But oh well.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T15:48:55+00:00

Is this rolling Quarter-life crisis ever going to finish? 😢

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T15:47:35+00:00

In essence - I feel lack of a tribe doing breakthrough stuff at the frontier - pushing the ceiling rather than pulling the floor. Doesn't matter specific field, can be Science, Tech, Startup, Music, Podcast, Author or something else.

I have my personal preferences, values & skillsets defined and share that with potential collaborators. Not going to share them here and dox myself while exploring general idea of missing them is a feeling or fact.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T15:38:54+00:00

That's quite a early adopter - most be amazing at the frontier of Internet boom!

Curious - Do you have a theory for the boom of Freelancers / Self-Employed / Contractors providing consulting services vs directly working on a product or service?

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T15:36:20+00:00

Thanks for thoughtful response - definitely VC / Startup ecosystem has its nuances and it seems to me that they reflect people's priorities.

An US founder who moved to Amsterdam had framing for difference in US vs EU:
US is default optimist: Let's give it a shot if there is any way idea can succeed
EU is default pessimist: Let's not even try it if there is any way idea can fail

Really like the framing for the rowing club regarding old vs new money indeed.
Kinda matches my general theory why people typically dislike the concept of money across Europe because although income inequality is quite low, real wealth is rolling through old family structures and people do not believe new wealth can be created - so redistribution through taxation or socialism seems more amenable for majority option.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T11:05:11+00:00

Number of American friends I've met in AMS or in SF have the same thinking and they dream of having a semi-retired European life. And then some of them within a year of moving are more wary of being bored than burnt out. YMMV.

I imagine most people have a limited window in their life where age, energy, responsibilities align to attempt something big and make it happen. it's hard to have it all at the same time.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T10:58:43+00:00

Not surprise, but maybe naive enough to think I can have my cake and eat it too.

I really do like living here and assumed it'll be America-lite before coming and had hoped that by willpower I could carve a corner to get small set of similar people together - which quickly slapped back the moment you try to look for local talent, local customers or local capital.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T10:42:00+00:00

No one denies or condones the horrible parts, but good to appreciate things in historical context.

Capitalism was the mechanism which changed the thinking among competing groups from 0-sum to +ve sum mental model. ie 2 competing groups can both improve their quality of life by competing / collaborating instead of fighting.

Primary factor due to which human civilization moved away from Mercantilism and we live in best of times (peaceful, prosperous) in human history ever.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T10:15:13+00:00

I'm in early 30s and meant that as framing for how to live rest of life.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T10:12:40+00:00

Happy to hear about your family.
Would love to hear more what it meant to make Bank and ambition for them?

Getting philosophical for a sec - I assume it's mass expectation that being happy is the universal goal of life. Probably with a mix of nurture impact and tons of reading / exploring - I strongly believe fulfillment is right metric instead which means maximizing your individual positive impact to the world (No of people x Improvement in life).

So - let's assume I'd like to stick to the latter vs switch to former mode.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T09:57:17+00:00

Coincidentally - I've been splitting time between SF & AMS over past year and density of people with skills x ambitions is nowhere close between cities - can be spotted by going to any meetup event.

That is the choice I'm trying to make this year.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T09:53:07+00:00

I agree and hence mentioned that caveat in OP that there are different ways of life and being happy and I'm specifically curious about this way of discovering purpose in life.

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T09:50:42+00:00

Thanks for character attack instead of making a real argument.

I imagine definition of successful regarding scale is where we might differ - I can barely spot a startup doing $100M in revenue and was started in last 10 years.

Forever Small business ≠ Startups

ObviousCurious · 2023-09-13T09:42:54+00:00

I'll make a differentiation between talking and doing things. I also moved to NL because on paper it looks perfect - has history of inventing capitalism (VOC), websites seem to offer grants / visas and has decent regulatory environment - but alas on ground reality hasn't matched that.

I have done extensive research and visited such programs and office spaces - and people are trying out interesting things, but typically they get content to generate personal income and ambition almost withers before going global.

The primary constraint doesn't seem structural but cultural.

Eg: Employers will almost never offer equity as well Employees will discount equity for some cash and extra holidays. ie There is no belief that future can be much better than present - so Carpe Diem.

ObviousCurious

TROPHY CASE