Personal blog on early retirement, selling tradelines, and analytics projects. I write about what I learn as I am learning it.
Costa Rica keeps coming up in conversations about digital nomad visas, and it’s not hard to see why. The country launched its remote work program in a clean, accessible package — a defined income threshold, a single-entry point for applications, and a one-year permit that’s renewable. It’s not the cheapest option in Latin America, and it’s certainly not Europe, but it occupies an interesting middle ground that a lot of remote workers find genuinely appealing.
As I was planning (daydreaming) about my always-postponed digital nomad life I watched, on a plane, of all places, the movie “Nomadland”. The movie is not really about a digital nomad but a “regular” nomad. It won the Oscar(!?) and it is an interesting movie. But it made me think again about life on the road and the movies that portray it. My two favorites by far are “Into the wild” (I also have the book but never read it) and “The motorcycle diaries”.
I have Italian roots, and for years I’ve had this persistent fantasy of working from a terrace somewhere in Tuscany or a flat in Bologna — laptop open, espresso at hand, pretending I live there instead of just visiting. So when I started seriously researching digital nomad visas, Italy was the first one I looked into. The short version: Italy was late to formalize this, but the situation has changed, and there are real options now.
In a world where everyone seems to follow the same trends, it’s easy to fall into the trap of herd mentality. But let’s be real here – following the crowd won’t get you very far in life. And if it gets you far it probably won’t be much fun. In fact, it can be detrimental to your personal growth and success. So, let’s take a moment to explore some good examples of herd mentality, and how to break away from it.
Not an Italian luxury car.
No. Pareto was the Italian economist that came up with the 80/20 rule. He figured out 20% of the richest families held 80% of the wealth (this is probably worse nowadays). More generally stated, the 80/20 rule says that 80% of the results come from 20% of the inputs, you spend 80% of your time doing 20% of your tasks, etc, etc.
