Open Application to the Network School
Hoping to go to Singapore to Learn, Earn, Burn and Furn.
What even is that?
Entrepreneur and tech-philosopher, 8-hour podcast guest , and author of The Network State Balaji Srinivasan, has teamed up with health and longevity visionary/eccentric vampire millionaire, Bryan Johnson , to create a drop-in school for the dark talent of the world in Singapore. They even bought their own island.
For more info, check out Balaji Srinivasan’s announcement here.
Cheeky preview:
The purpose of the Network School is to articulate a vision of peace, trade, internationalism, and technology…even as the rest of the world talks about war, trade war, nationalism, and statism. To revitalize democracy for the internet era, with digital polities and verifiable votes. To train the next generation to be not just leaders of companies, but inspirations for their communities. And to pursue truth, health, and wealth by leveling up our attendees personally, physically, and professionally.
The Network School is for people of all ages, not just the youth. And it’s meant to be lifelong rather than one-off, with both a structured and and an unstructured component. The structured part is about continuous daily self-improvement: learning skills, burning calories, and earning currency. Meanwhile, the unstructured part is about having fun and hanging out with people of similar values.
For short: learn, burn, earn, and fun.
So basically, an educational/community building initiative for people interested in leveling up in a big way.
Sign me up, please.
Anyone want to attend? Let me know!
Here’s my application:
Why do I want to attend the Network School?
Because it sounds like an adventure I want to be a part of. And then there's lifelong learning, practising true internationalism and diplomacy, solving problems and making money, becoming a ninja and sharing the wisdom of networks and improvisation in multiple languages. Let's unpack that.
I grew up with plenty of opportunity, went through the institutions and was accepted into the Norwegian Diplomatic service, so I'm not exactly what you'd call dark talent.
What attracted me to the foreign service in the first place was the rigorous training involved and the idea of collaborating with people from all over the world in solving large and important problems.
After a foundationally challenging self-education, from Bitcoin and Balaji to Mises and Moldbug via JP and Bruce Lee, I was kind of relieved when I didn't qualify for security clearance. In that world, knowing too many Chinese people and telling the truth is a liability.
So now I'm excited to finally be exploring the potential of making new things outside of established institutions. Things that are permissionless, entrepreneurial, playful and international.
Balaji's work and reading the Network State has been both helpful and enlightening. He packs a lot of ideas per minute, but I found the conceptualisation of the three future power centers especially interesting. I'm in the unusual position of being an old school pro western values and capitalism kind of guy, who also speaks fluent Chinese and believes there is much wisdom to be found in Chinese culture. So to help build bridges between the East and the West (and for the fun of it) I have performed Chinese standup, hosted New Years celebrations, and create Chinese language videos on Xiaohongshu. You could say I have one foot in the USD and the other in the CCP - but my head, heart and center are way above in the BTC.
I believe neutral technologies built on sound principles have the potential to improve all our existing systems. To borrow Balaji's phrase, we need to build something better than American Anarchy and Chinese Control. And we need people from both sides to do it.
If granted a spot at the Network School, I will share what I learn and document the experience for both Chinese and English speaking audiences. And Singapore seems like the perfect place.
All the other aspects of the school call to me at different levels.
I love the idea of everyone gathering around the problem of the day and producing something tangible. The best way to process and digest new inputs is through a deadline for creative output with real skin in the game.
Putting physical health front and center is a game changer for general education. And learning how to create "willpower as a service, where the community provides the discipline" is more than reason enough to want to join NS. I've basically been longing for a Naruto style training montage my entire life. I even spent the first three months after high-school training with a kungfu master in the Chinese countryside. Sign me up for the burn.
So hooray for Earn, Learn and Burn - but my real expertise lies in the Furn.
I'm an actor and improvisational theatre instructor, currently working on improvisation for language learning. In essence, I believe improvisation matches perfectly with the ethos of the Network School.
It's about the magic that happens through collaborative creativity and bravery in the face of uncertainty. It's about celebrating failure as a necessary step on your journey, incorporating hiccups to make you stronger - like an anti-fragile practice of treating the obstacle as the way. You learn to listen and build on other people's ideas to make order out of chaos. The stories and situations that then arise are better and more satisfying than the plans of any single player. They are wonderful result of action but not of design - like a Hayekian system of spontaneous fun.
Spontaneous games follow the same principles as BTC and other networks evolving in the wild. When you disagree with the rules of an established game you don't get upset, complain and demand that the grown-ups force everyone else to play by your rules. Instead, you get to leave, initiate another game and invite others to join voluntarily. Participate, Exit, Build, Proselytize, Repeat. And if you do it with a spirit of play you're going to win.
Anyway, these are the kinds of ideas I hope to develop at the Network School. And to me, play and fun is awfully serious. It's a style you can bring to any endeavour to infuse it with meaning and help lead people through hardship. The How that motivates the What that is also a damn good Why.
So here's another why for joining the school - to add some serious fun and share improvisational tools for cross-cultural teambuilding, storytelling and dealing with uncertainty.
For the past year, I have been working as a multi-lingual lecturer and tour guide on Hurtigruten - a cruise company, and Norwegian cultural institution, that travels up and down the Norwegian coast. This opportunity popped up out of nowhere, and with a trip to the Network School I can't wait to see what other paths might appear.
If I'm not offered a spot this time around I'll try again in the future. Regardless, the mere fact that these kind of things are being built is a great inspiration to create similar things closer to home. Exciting times.
All the best,
Magnus Lomax Bjerke