She sells seashells on the seashore.

Funny where inspiration can come from. Somewhere October 2025, while still in Guatemala, I’ve been going through a darker period of my trip, this heartbreak thing, that I detailed in one of the earlier posts.

I’ve been heavily listening to Ren, an otherworldly talented Welsh rapper, whose song Money Game pt 2 had these lines. Going through this heavier period, I could incredibly resonate with his songwriting.

Once I listened to these lines, I came to an awkward realization.

I have to keep the footage I make for myself, because it only has value, if it gets presented in a format, that worths watching. Instagram stories have the potential to keep your attention span for 10 seconds tops to boost your dopamine level instead of the morning coffee, while sitting on the metro trying to kill your time, but not much more. And the more I’ve invested into creating content, the more impact I wanted to make. At one point you just have to draw the line if something worths putting your effort into. So I’ve just stopped sharing any information of where I went for the following year. Even my closest circle hardly knew about anything about where I went. It wasn’t easy – especially not for my mom who hasn’t seen his child (I know I’m a big ass grown man but I’m still her child) for almost 2 years – you can imagine. And I did continue my trip though, but I intentionally shared photos that gave you very little context of where I was, what I was going through or what I was doing, simply because I wanted to boost the value of the raw footage I was making. I’ve been going through these videos a few weeks ago, and without being biased (or trying not to) I can say, that it has potential.

I heavily invested into making better footage as well.

I bought some action cameras that sit well on my motobike (also upgraded the motobike to a proper tourbike over time) and a drone too, so I can make fancy 4k aerial footage. Now, after hundreds of hours of footage taken during this period, I’m working on to make this presentable for you in a meaningful way. You might not care, I do. It’s a bigger challenge for me at this point than going down to Patagonia. Patagonia is not all that far away anymore. I could drive down from here in about 3 stretched weeks if I wanted.

Down with 2 youtube episodes, and I already have an imaginery future lunch date.

If all goes as planned, I can start releasing episodes soon on a weekly basis. I haven’t been putting so much effort into things like into this one for a long time.

And I’m on a slippery slope, because there is absolutely no guarantee if this will work out. Burning my own cash in a foreign country, my mom says, I’m wasting my time. I want to see that I don’t. And honestly, I always had a vision with this. I’ve been filming through the past almost 2 years while on this trip and it’s only a matter of how a story is being presented. I’m a maniac making this vision a reality.

While I’ve been already working on videos in Guatemala for a language school and in Honduras for a coffee farm and for a dive school, but – and I wasn’t expecting this, launching my own Youtube channel is an exponentially bigger effort.

I could reduce the prod cycle turnover time, but I would need a team around me.

An editor, someone who goes through the raw footage, someone who gives directorial directions, a team I obviously don’t have. So here I am the one man army with Chatgpt.

I’m fighting with my own perfectionism.

Perfectionist me tries to get every single music, video transition, animation, effect, coloring, every single micro-second right. And that’s why I only have 2 videos done after almost 3 weeks of staying where I’m at right now.

And now I need to speed up because I’ve wasted so much time. Okay, I haven’t wasted it, I’m learning. But it still takes more time, than what I’ve initially expected.

They will obviously don’t look always right, because I hardly have any experience on this field, but at least I can try. And trying costs me time, money and energy.

I want to produce at least 6-10 more episodes while I’m here.

I’ve transformed into this strategist Youtuber guy without having any videos on my Youtube channel. Or there were, but they either didn’t add up to the storyline or they were just so bad quality that I had to delete them. Funny, isn’t it? I’m the first Youtuber without Youtube videos.

Since I’m at about day 550 going from Hungary to Patagonia, I won’t be able to make a classical travel vlog, but maybe that’s my actual advantage. Because I already have so many experiences from this trip under my belt, that I can start reframing them into actual learnings and conclusions drawn, that are part of a bigger transformation and personal growth.

I realized the prod-cycle for a video took me too long, so I need to cut it and stick to it, whatever it takes.

I’m working with Chatgpt to build a sustainable-cycle that is followable also, if I get to continue my travels. I have to say, I’ve been improving with each video, ever since I’ve started this trip. My first video had 5 pictures and one motion picture jointed together and in these Youtube episodes there is a production plan followed by a complete production cycle.

Youtube videos work well, if they follow an up-to downstream cycle, where everything starts with an idea and the last piece is the video itself.

Source: Chatgpt

Just a disclaimer, but I don’t know if you have realized, that I’ve been using Chatgpt shamelessly as a source for these photos. What AI is great at, is to decompose tangled thoughts and cut through to clarity. So I’m using it to structure my thoughts and untangle my ideas when I get confused. The sad part is – that I have to acknowledge, that AI works best if you feed more data to it. And I’ve been heavily feeding it with my lifestory for the past months. Seeing AI becoming rapidly and scarily smarter, I doubt that’s a good thing. But well. Exitus acta probat.

Since I’m learning a completely new craft from scratch, it’s important to accept the limitations of my skills and that whatever I’m doing, I’m pretty much all doing for the first time. I’m not a filmmaker but with AI, I’ve been empowered to think like one.

I think it’s important that whatever I produce, is my production and the viewer or reader don’t feel, that it comes from AI.

People cannot vive with AI, but they can vive with other people. They can resonate with other people’s emotional journey, struggle, honesty.

Also had never thought – and this is a big plus, because I’ve been missing this part of my life, I can finally get use of my acting skills I learned on stage.

Now I have to rewire to a 3 day prod-cycle where at the end of each 3rd day a video gets produced, without exceptions. So let’s have a look at that. Of course the source is Chatgpt here as well.

THE 3-DAY PRODUCTION CYCLE

The goal

One finished video every 3 days.

Not one perfect video every 10 days.

The purpose of this system is to create good, meaningful, sustainable videos while continuously improving through repetition.

For the next 3 weeks, the priority is:

Make → Publish → Learn → Make again.

DAY 1 — THINK & WRITE

Goal: Finish the creative plan.

Maximum time: 4–5 hours

By the end of Day 1, I need:

• One clear idea
• One strong hook
• One story
• One emotional point
• One useful takeaway
• A 70–80% finished A-roll script
• A simple B-roll list
• A shooting plan

The key question

What should the viewer think or feel after watching this that they didn’t think or feel before?

If I can’t answer this clearly, the video isn’t ready to shoot.

Important rule

The script does not need to be perfect.

It needs to be clear enough to shoot.

Leave room for natural delivery, improvisation and things that happen while filming.

DAY 2 — SHOOT

Goal: Capture everything needed to tell the story.

Maximum time: 3–4 hours

A-ROLL

Maximum 2 takes per section.

Take 1: Natural delivery
Take 2: Improve what didn’t work

Then move on.

Do not keep repeating a section because:

“I know I can say this better.”

I probably can.

But the goal isn’t the theoretically perfect performance.

The goal is natural, clear and emotionally believable.

B-ROLL

Don’t spend hours searching for the perfect shot.

For each major section, aim for:

• 1 establishing shot
• 1 medium shot
• 1 detail shot
• 1 movement shot
• 1 emotional / atmospheric shot

Then stop.

Use existing footage whenever possible.

The B-roll library exists to make production easier, not to create another perfectionist rabbit hole.

DAY 3 — EDIT & FINISH

Goal: Complete the video and release it.

This is where perfectionism will be strongest.

So every edit decision gets classified into one of three categories.

TIER 1 — MUST FIX

Fix anything that genuinely damages the viewer’s experience:

• The story doesn’t make sense
• The opening is boring or confusing
• Bad audio
• Missing context
• Confusing pacing
• Repetition that hurts the story
• Something objectively distracting

Fix it.

TIER 2 — SHOULD FIX

Things that would improve the video, but aren’t critical:

• An awkward transition
• A slightly weak B-roll choice
• A repetitive sentence
• A pacing issue
• Music that could fit better
• A shot that could be slightly stronger

Fix these if there is time.

TIER 3 — IGNORE

This is where perfectionism lives.

• “Maybe this shot would look cooler.”
• “What if I change the music?”
• “Maybe the color grade could be slightly better.”
• “I could make this transition more cinematic.”
• “Maybe I should find another B-roll sequence.”
• “The subtitle could be positioned slightly differently.”
• “I could spend another hour polishing this.”

Don’t.

If it doesn’t materially improve the viewer’s experience, leave it.

THE GOOD-ENOUGH TEST

Before exporting, ask:

1. Would I personally click this?

2. Does the first 30 seconds make me want to continue?

3. Do I understand why this story matters?

4. Does it make me feel something?

5. Is there at least one thing I’ll remember tomorrow?

6. Is anything objectively broken?

If the answers are:

YES / YES / YES / YES / YES / NO

EXPORT.

Even if I can still see things I could improve.

THE 3-WEEK SPRINT

Target: 6 videos.

Stretch goal: 7 videos.

Video 7 is not mandatory.

The buffer exists because travel is unpredictable and because a sustainable system needs room for reality.

THE RULES FOR THESE 3 WEEKS

1. Don’t make every video a masterpiece.

Make every video worth watching.

2. Don’t confuse effort with quality.

More hours do not automatically create a better viewer experience.

3. Don’t optimize things the viewer won’t notice.

Spend your best energy on:

Story → Emotion → Clarity → Hook → Pacing

Not tiny details.

4. Two takes is enough.

Natural beats perfect.

5. Existing footage is allowed.

I don’t need to shoot everything specifically for the video.

6. When the video passes the Good-Enough Test, publish.

No additional polishing without a specific reason.

7. The objective is repetition.

Make → Publish → Observe → Learn → Repeat.

THE REAL EXPERIMENT

The next three weeks aren’t about proving whether the channel will succeed.

They’re about increasing the number of opportunities to discover what actually works.

Six strong experiments will teach me more than two heavily polished experiments.

Some videos may underperform.

That’s not failure.

A video that underperforms still gives me information.

A video that resonates gives me information.

A video that takes half the time to produce gives me information.

The goal is to build a production system that can survive travel, uncertainty, pressure and real life.

THE ONE QUESTION TO REMEMBER

Whenever I feel the urge to keep polishing:

“Will making this better materially improve the viewer’s experience?”

If yes:

Do it.

If no:

Ship it.

Good enough is not the goal.

Sustainable excellence is the goal.

As I wrote in the last blogpost, I had this brilliant idea. And the brilliant idea was, that I would write a blogpost about the topics, that I would later transform into Youtube videos.

The idea is that this blogpost later gets transformed into a script. The script gets transformed into a video.

Why this transformation is so powerful?

I am a shy person when it comes to public appearance. And it’s really hard for me to think clearly, when I think about writing a vlog script. Because preparing a vlog makes you instantly feel that you are doing this for your audience. I get blocked. ‘What would others think?‘ ‘How could I say this in the camera?‘ But if I get to write a blogpost, that’s different. I can detach from the audience. People might just not read it anyway.

I will put this quote from my last blogpost here, because it’s so important and I will also repeat, what I was saying over there from David McCullough:

“Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.”

And a vlog can only work, if you deliver clear messages. But you can only deliver clear messages, if you think clearly.

Why do I write this into a blog and not into my personal notes?

Because writing with the assumption, that someone might read it, enforces me to put out something more meaningful. A blogpost has a superpower, that I can publish a writing within seconds. So in my case, it’s like a ‘public commitment‘. And since I need to motivate myself and need to get this work done, I’m using this technique to put myself inside the arena.

Since I’m locked down in this hostel I’ve been working really hard, doubling down on shifts working both at the hostel reception and on content (mostly at public libraries) at the same time – just to make this thing happen. And I want this to happen.

Hopefully the channel will resemble the journey I’ve been through, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, in all ways. At this point, I feel more ready to deliver these messages. It’s a lot of work though, and I tend to lose the big picture at times getting lost in the details. It’s a steep learning curve at the moment and I do enjoy the process a lot.

The reality is, once I put the words out here – let them be vulnerable for me and the words already exist on paper, they don’t belong to me anymore. I can start to think objectively about them and it gets much easier to start structuring my thoughts around.

It works the same way with the camera. I record myself and then detach from that experience. And when I’m editing the recording, it’s just another dude in the video whose material I need to work with. Then it becomes another puzzle to solve. Once this post gets all written, I can start reframing the words and structure for a video script and AI is actually quite good at doing that bit as well.

Also let’s point out, what is Chatgpt not great with: generating ideas. Original thoughts. I cannot outsource that, so I need to push that out from myself.

But the idea needs to be here. MY IDEA.

To summarize, the workflow looks like this:

1. Confession in the blogpost
2. Refine the blogpost into a script
3. The script will drive the video’s message

Now let’s get back to the actual topic of this blogpost.

Why someone decides to go to the end of the world alone?

It’s very important to get this right from the Youtube channel perspective. It might not get many views, but it’s important to create context when people see that I’m traveling – why am I doing that.

Why someone decides to leave everything behind?

I’m wondering. Having a stable life, having seemingly everything fine, until – all of a sudden, everything cracks down. Were there signs? Were they always there? Or the cracks on the wall just started to show up gradually.

And when you get there and you reach your own limit, all of a sudden your whole life perspective changes, and just like that, you pull the plug.

Relationship, work, material things. As they came, they are gone. Before you blink twice.

Reputation, professional excelence. All gone.

Call it a burn out? Existential crisis? Or ego?

What’s left after all this? Emptiness? Chaos?

And only YOU are left there, in the middle of all this.. Naked.

It’s the scariest moment that can happen to us, humans. When we find ourselves lonely.

And yet, for some awkward reason in all that loneliness, something unique is deeply embedded. But it’s dug so deeply within the chaos that you can only find it, if you can cut through it, if you have true clarity. Clarity about yourself.

Otherwise chaos will take you down. It will consume you. Or you will just get back to the old routine. Someone will come tomorrow and tell you, oh, you are not doing that anymore? Then come do this. And when you ask why? They ask back, what why? Because that’s what you’re supposed to do. You are supposed to do. Something. You cannot do. Nothing. Because nothing is not something. And this world only works when you are doing things. Some. Things.

In my case, I had to cut through the chaos and find clarity within. Within me. I was super clear about, why I did what I did, but there was chaos around me in that moment.

The powerful thing is, when you find clarity in the chaos. That can be very liberating. I found myself first absolutely free at 32. It came gradually. First I was drowned with the heavy decision I made stepping out of a relationship after close to 7 years, and letting the work and all the reputation go, that I built for many years. I was confused. Why I couldn’t foresee this? How is it possible that my senses let me down?

But then, when you have faith within, these noises settle and then there is peace. And silence. And the best way to create, is in peace and silence.

And from this peace and silence freedom emerges. So I have experienced freedom. But real freedom can only grow where self-discipline is the soil.

Otherwise you will fall apart. So I had to practice extreme self-discipline starting from day 1 when my life changed.

So let’s make sure that we get this right.

Self-discipline and inner-peace nurtures freedom and transformation.

While I was disciplined, freedom also took over. So I’ve experienced Munich differently. In total freedom. I went to party. I partied hard. Every single Friday or Saturday you would find me usually alone – chasing girls in places you wouldn’t see me at, for several years before that.

But as I was letting the steam off, an even bigger plan started to emerge. Since I solved the separation from my ex and leaving the workplace in peace, I thought I could pull off other things too. Things that seemed almost impossible at the time. Solo traveling. Ocean crossing.

The self-discipline taught me, I could actually do anything if I put my mind into it. But it had to be a big project, a large one. One, that seemingly doesn’t have an ending. And at the planning stage almost seems impossible. To go to the end of the world. And do it without flying.

What were the real drivers?

Well, in short, I could say that these cards were dealt to me. Break-up, freedom, decision to go. And yes, in simple terms, that’s what actually happened. But my reality 2 years ago was far more nuanced.

The dream

I told someone in my early 20s that I will go to Patagonia at one point. I think I only told it to her haha. I lost my virginity with her. I don’t know if she would remember.

As a kid, I always dreamt of seeing the world. Had a huuge world map, with all the continents’ countries. We were playing games on the map with my cousin. Find all the capitals of Europe, etc.

But you know, then you grow up, and face all the responsibilities. All of a sudden your priorities change. And the childhood dreams all of a sudden look so far away. Creating this freedom in my life, made this possible.

I keep reminding myself every single day, that I’m actually living my dream. Getting to know new cultures, living freely, you actually realize that all those material stuff doesn’t make any sense. Don’t get me wrong, I like comfort but I always felt, I was at the right place when I could keep learning and growing as a human being – whatever that may mean to you, that’s the most profound life experience you can ever achieve. Learning and growing is the best you can get. I wake up with this in my mind every single day. Every day is a mission. Did I learn something today? Fuck yes. Then you already won.

Inspiration

I think I could write a book about this. I’m living by inspiration. I walk the road and see a red light that inspires me to stop. To slow down. This is just one example. But below I cherry-picked a few that I think makes actual sense to highlight.

As I lived in Germany I saw that Germans actually travel the world. They go big. Of course they have better financial opportunities than most of the world, but that was paired up with curious minds. And I had Omar, my excolleague as an inspiration. His Egypt to Japan no-fly project made me think that – damn, this is cool stuff. I would do that. So after making my moves to quit all, it was already very clear what I wanted to do. I wanted to travel. I didn’t know how long, or where. but the intention was very clear. Fun fact, that I actually met Omar on this side of the world a few weeks ago. I was surprised to see, that despite his Instagram fame, he is the most humble guy you could possibly imagine.

There is this guy from Ukraine, Anton Ptuskin (damn I can still read cirill), who’s content we always watched with my ex-partner. I didn’t understand a word he said, as it was in Russian and only a few of his content got actually translated (this was before the AI world), but the man did all the cinematography for his travels and could deliver highly cinematic videos. What he did at the time seemed unreachable. His content quality is far beyond my own capabilities but I’m doing my own little thing in my own little ways haha. He was truely inspiring, and it’s good to see that after the war has started (and he was banned from leaving the country for so long), somehow he managed to post again from Antarctica, a huge film last year.

I think I was an anti-Coelho fan until I went through these epiphany moments. But then things happened and I came across his book, the Alchemist. And I fell in love with Santiago’s, the poor, Spanish shepherd’s story, who decided to follow his dreams. I wanted something like that in my life. Nothing else mattered but to follow my dreams. And I want to keep following them.

Philosophy. Spiritualism. I learned about both when I went through the hard shift in my life and they both taught me tremendous about self-acceptence. And also about the acceptance of difficult situations. Situations you may not have the control over. And to shift my focus on things that I indeed could control.

Existential stability.

Let’s be honest, I’m not a 20 year old kid anymore, who would hit the road with 1 Euro in his pocket to see what happens. Luckily I never had any debts, but I don’t have a passive income either. I’m living off my savings and it’s been shrinking heavily over time. Out of the 20 months on the road, I had the chance to work at many different places, but the financial bleeding never stopped. I don’t have any belongings back at home apart from a bycicle, a few pens and some clothes. I have a motobike here in Latin America though and a full gear to film stuff. That’s more than I could ever dream of for now.

Also my parents health is doing relatively fine so I was lucky enough to not be a caretaker at home. I know this is also luxury and so many of us take that for granted. I’m not a hero traveling the world. Heroes are the caretakers doing their duty silently. I’m aware of that.

Existential crisis.

I think existential crisis is a modern world phenomenon. Visiting 3rd world countries you get to see that in order to question your existence, you need to be able to step out from the daily survival hustle. Most people on the planet don’t get to experience that luxury.

As for me, I reached a point at work, where I felt my personal goals were achieved and didn’t feel that staying would have moved the needle in my life. I slowly thought I was drowned into work chasing something that didn’t even exist. There was no more objective.

At the same time I had to make a move in my relationship – in the 7th year, – left or right, that simple. I chose to go left. There is nothing really more to say about this. Simple gut feeling.

Loss.

My grandmom has passed away. I was on constant calls with my mom, she was back in Hungary, I was in Germany at the time. She gave me updates that my grandmom’s state is not getting any better, it’s just getting worse. So I decided to go back home via train. I arrived about 20 minutes ago before she was taken to her final dialisis. Never saw her again. She was a symbol of permanence in my family. After her loss everything felt so fragile. There was no permanence anymore. Realized that everything was moving, everything was fluid. And everything has a finite ending. At least in our mortal lives.

War in the neighborhood.

War became a benchmark. Since my partner was Russian, I could experience war from both sides. I’ve been to those places in far-east Russia, where they were recruiting the men from and they were bringing them to war. I bet most people died or are on the frontlines on the Russian side against their will. If they don’t go to the battlefield, they face 10 years in prison upfront. I saw the many Ukranian families escaping from the war to the west. Families broken apart. A nation’s soveregnity being hammered down. I had to ask – then, what are all those nations for? And borders? What good does it do to call ourselves nation A and then go and destroy nation B? Later meeting Erik, the captain on the boat, with whom we crossed the ocean together we had a lot of these philosophical talks. For hours. For days. For weeks. I aim to go into details on those soon.

I had war anxiety. I remember going to bed in Munich every night thinking, what if a nuke would land on our heads over night. That’s not a nice feeling, but at the same time something slowly transforms within you.

I started to think, what could be worse than war?

Crossing an ocean? Living and traveling in discomfort? Experiencing life at it’s pure form? If you think about it, that’s all peanuts. 

My granddad told me always, when I was a kid and didn’t like or refuse to eat a dish at the Sunday lunch table, that “you’ll find it out soon enough“. He told me with a tone, who exactly knew it, coming from the first post-2nd war generation of Hungary, growing up in harsh destitution. He didn’t have a chance to be picky about food. But he didn’t want me to experience it either. At that point as a kid, war seemed like an ancient object from the history books. It’s the past. Like dinosaurs. Cannot affect us.

But at this point humanity is heading into a state, where it’s becoming a possibility again. At a global scale. And somewhere it is already the reality. The middle-east is under extreme heat and Ukraine is trying to keep up with the Russian meatgrinder.

Climate crisis

When humanity as a whole, would need to be united the most, to solve a problem, that can only be solved with unity, it is having the greatest disagreements. Politics are taken over by populists or autocrats, who don’t see beyond their own or their closest circles’ (let that close circle even be a nation) interests. Let’s be honest, no one really gives a damn shit about what effect the global heat may have on the marginal communities and the eco-system. And a huge percentage of the companies response to climate change is green washing anyway. I’m not an expert of the topic, but you don’t need to be one to see the alarming signs everywhere.

Long story short, everything got into my head.

I had nothing to lose. Everything around me all of a sudden seemed so fragile. Like a glass that is about to fall.

I still wanted to believe in humanity though. I wanted to believe in art. In science. In the good things. I wanted to believe that we can do this better. Together.

I said, I will go and find it out. So I packed my bag and hit the road.

No prompting, no Chatgpt involved on this one. This will be my own full writing. I promise. Okay, maybe some fancy, AI powered jpegs. But that’s it.

Also, well, this title maybe misleading because it suggests, that I will go on Youtube and be the next unicorn rocking 100k views with my first videos. It’s obviously not the case, but I drew some important conclusions recently, of how the platform actually works and I’m here to share them.

Few words upfront

Today I had a brilliant idea. And I will tell you why at the end of this blogpost. So you better keep reading hahah. Now before I start, I need to get this clear. I’ve been trying to kickstart this Youtube channel that I’ve been heavily procrastinating on for a long time. Honestly in the past months, I’ve just been surviving while riding through Central America on a motobike, that I didn’t even have the driving licence for. So just tried to stay under the radar, really. And at most times, I didn’t have electricity or internet. So I still try to be gentle with myself on this.

This week I arrived to a place however (where, it doesn’t really matter from this blogpost’s perspective, if you really want to know, shoot me a message), where I can finally focus on putting a working mechanism together, to start the fly-wheel spinning. This is it. Now is the moment. I cannot wait any longer. And I want to find sponsors. Yes, I have a goal to find sponsors via Youtube. It’s not easy, but I have to try. And I want to try exactly, because it’s not easy. It’s actually really damn hard.

So this week I locked myself into a hostel and went to open library spaces to revisit about 2.000 raw footage of my trip (video clips between 10 seconds -10 minutes long) that I’ve been shooting in the past months.

• Shot in the air via drone (in the past months I became a quite acceptable dronepilot and despite my drone was hit, got overheated and almost got lost several times in the bush, for some awkward reason I can’t really explain, I still have it healthy with all its’ footage stored),
• on the motobike with action cameras, me talking into the camera to reflect on my story and
• even underwater footage while diving (yes, that is a sentence, I would not have thought to write down in this lifetime, but even became an acceptable underwater cameraman for a bit, something, that I’ve deeply enjoyed), etc.

Traveling the world alone for a while now, over time I had to realize, maybe I’m starting to have a story to tell. A more compelling story that has main quests and side quests. A story that can flow, can go left and right and go back to center. Effortlessly.

It’s definitely not the best story and maybe I don’t even have the natural charisma to shine through a video, and bring it alive, but it’s definitely MY story, so at least I’ve got to give it a shot. I think after shooting videos for almost 2 years in all kinds of conditions, I – at least – deserve a chance.

About the craft

Over this process I’ve explored that video making is a craft. You cannot take it for granted. You have to earn it. You have to earn it through hard work. And I’ve also realized, that doing Youtube is another craft. Because what they don’t tell you about Youtube too often is, that Youtube is part of Google. And Google is a tech-company. So Youtube is heavily driven by tech as well. And I’m actually not a complete analphabet in tech, having decent big-tech work experience. Tech is actually something I’ve always deeply enjoyed exploring. Not that I’m a tech nerd. I’m not a software engineer whatsoever. Quite far from that. But I deeply enjoy learning about algorithms and breaking complex processes down to scratch to understand their foundational drivers.

About addictive platforms

Before, I tried to be present everywhere. I was present on Instagram, Youtube and Tiktok. But to be frank, I didn’t like the fast-food content, that you can serve on silver plate on Instagram and TikTok. Brainrotting content exists. These 2 platforms are heavily powered by algorithms that select the videos with the highest traction (comments, likes, shares) and push them forward to new viewers. I don’t want to talk down on these platforms, because they also have brilliant content, BUT to be honest, you have to be extremely selective of what you let into your brain. Because they can push you down into a rabbit hole and make you addicted easily.

I’ve actually created a rule for myself, that I can only check Instagram for 5 minutes a day. Then I delete the app. So everyday, I would download the app, just to check if someone texted me, I respond, or I put out a story, and then DELETE. Every single day.

The reason I do that is, I need to be real honest with myself. I’m an addiction-sensitive person. I get easily addicted to things. Whenever I watch Instagram videos, I feel like I’d be drinking Coca Cola or smoking a cigarette. I feel that my power of will deteriorates heavily after watching every single video. By the time I stop watching, I feel I’ve got mentally pushed down and my energy level actually drops.

Recently Mark Zuckerberg had to face a court trial where he was accused of building the Meta platforms too addictive, that has a HUGE mental health impact – on teenagers especially, see the link below. So I’m not just making this up. These are facts.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-settles-social-media-addiction-suit-16-billion-rcna594492

Mark Zuckerberg faces trial

Source: https://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=nx-s1-5358434

Crafting compelling stories

So I eventually had to realize, that fast-food content is not for me. I’m a slow speaker and a slow thinker. I wanted to give more context. I wanted to take my time in the video. Let it breathe. Let it sit. Let it stand up and let it levitate. Let it speed up. Let it slow down. Like a dance. My pace just couldn’t catchup with the needs of Instagram or TikTok. And let’s be real honest here, my content wasn’t good enough either.

Through this learning curve, I eventually came to a realization, that I want to tell more compelling stories. Without time limits. And to give you information and most importantly – to give value. We will come back on this in a bit.

I’ve learned a lot about the algorithms of each platform, but to be honest, trying to excel on 3 different ones is like, you are trying to excel at 3 different workplaces. Each workplace has it’s own foundational context, culture, suppliers, customers and in this case, most importantly – technology. Instagram will have a very different tech and audience versus Tiktok or Youtube.

The Sean Hammond case

There is this Irani/Irish guy on Instagram, who’s been traveling the world and sharing content amongst others, from Indian trains, Pakistani mountains or from Buddhist temples. He is extremely handsome (man to man, I’ll shamelessly give it to him), culturally open and sensitive and in his content, while he is smiling in front of these beautiful places, above his head – while a cinematic or emotional soundtrack is played, a catchy text is displayed, like “The side of Bali you haven’t seen.” The video takes only 30 seconds, it’s visually extremely provocative and it has 100 million views. He became so successful with these videos, that he collected more than 1.2 million followers sharing these 30-40 seconds takes. He’s got sponsorship deals up to 5 figures in USD. Monthly. You can check him out.

I was curious to see if he’s present on Youtube, so I looked him up. I was super surprised to see, that he actually posted the same content on Youtube as well and there they were stuck – at an average of 8-10 thousand views. How the hack is that possible?

So just to turn back on this thought, all the platforms have different audiences, who have different wants and needs. The platforms align the algorithms to these needs. And the platforms were created for different purposes as well. Youtube has a VERY different purpose and audience compared to Instagram and the content type needs to match those needs.

As my favorite Youtube guru, George Alexander would say, you need to ALIGN WITH the Youtube algorithm to get successful. You cannot work against it. Youtube, well. Youtube is a money earning machine, nothing more, nothing less. It’s aim is to earn more money. And it does so, through your content. It has its best interest to push your content forward, if your content worths watching. So it can display more ads, and earn revenue. So you need to increase the audience watch time of your videos, to get noticed by the algorithm and have your videos presented to new audiences. You can actually do that, by breaking down the video into its puzzle pieces and see, based on which key characteristics would Youtube videos become highly successful.

About valuable storytelling

Before I get into this, I want to share a disclaimer here, that in order to collect the information and knowledge I’ve gained about how Youtube works, I was heavily studying the top Youtube educators’ content, like George Alexander or Kallaway. While there are great other educators out there, to me, these 2 guys stand out and they are the alpha and omega (being very subjective here) of sharing information about how Youtube as a platform works. While I have refined the information I learned in the past months (among others) from these guys, that I will share below, I do recommend to check them out if you have any intention of entering into the Youtube game. So let’s get back to this.

To define a good video’s elements I will break this down into a triangle. Let’s call it the triangle of valuable storytelling.

Good storytelling is inspiring, transformative and connects people. It provides value, information and context. These are the raw puzzle pieces. And to glue them together, it entertains at the same time. Because even if your video has banger value, if it’s not presented in an entertaining way, no one will watch it. There are exceptions, but you need to be a rockstar for that. Or at least close enough.

Source from Chatgpt

The good way to measure a video’s provided value – as George Alexander would say, is through micro-transformations. Could the video provide some value or information to the audience, that they didn’t posess before watching your video? If yes, you indeed reached a micro-transformation provided to your audience.

Now, while micro-transformation is important, it’s not everything. Here comes into picture, how Youtube videos actually operate. Youtube as a platform today has extreme high competition. So let’s break down into pieces, how you could actually stand out in a highly competitive environment.

About friction elimination

Friction is anything that gets in BETWEEN the audience and the value, you promised to deliver in your videos. Frictions can be an unclear message, slow pacing, confusing storyline, distracting edits, transitions, music, unnecessary info, bad audio, poor video quality, etc.

Source from Chatgpt

Any good video on Youtube, right at the start has a clear promise. Before you would even start watching the video, a video’s “shop window” is its’ title and thumbnail. If that doesn’t look right, or it’s confusing, nobody will click on your video. Youtube is trying hard though. It pushes your content in front of new audiences. But if the title and the thumbnail fails to create a ‘curiosity gap,’ no one will will give you a chance. This means, looking through the shop window, your audience needs to feel tempted to get into your shop. Simple psychology.

If you’ve got the title and thumbnail right, you might get a click to your video. And there comes the magic element right upfront, when someone clicks on your video: ‘the hook.’ A video’s hook, has to be the first visual that the audience sees in your video. And it has to create an aligned ‘promise‘ with your title and ‘thumbnail‘. IF the title, thumbnail and hook, are working hand in hand creating a comprehensive promise, you have a good chance to retain the attention of your audience for the first 10-30 seconds.

And then you need to live up to your promise, delivering the value bit by bit, eliminating the upper mentioned frictions. You need to make sure that the value gets delivered in fractions. Piece by piece. If a 7 minute video has a clear promise to deliver a value in 3 steps, you need to make sure that the third step fills in the 7 minute video. You cannot shoot all your bullets by minute 3. But if you can deliver the 3 points in 3 minutes, then you better do that in 3, not wasting the audience valuable time.

Okay, now let’s look into, how to create compelling stories.

The video crafting fly-wheel

These 5 points are not my 5 points and you can also find them in any good Youtube educators’ break-down material of how a video creation process works, but I had to fit them specifically to my Youtube channel’s needs, because I’m about to enter into a very specific niche: ‘travel experience‘.

Source from Chatgpt

The points speak for themselves, and as you can see, everything starts with an idea. As a future travel channel, these ideas can only breed from the memories of the experiences I’ve lived through.

And the memories of my experiences live in the footage I’ve created. But since I’ve been on this trip for almost 2 years now, my memories have been fading a lot. Of impressions, of situations, of people. How I felt that day, what was running through my head.

So to power the idea creation, I had to come up with another fly-wheel, where the ideas are powered by the footage I’ve created, which brings me to my next point.

Building the video catalog

The reason why I spent a whole week relooking at my footage, is to organize them into a living and breathing video catalog.

Source: Chatgpt

Building the catalog is the first foundational step to start even thinking of the ideas I’ve had in mind. I’m talking about almost 1TB footage coming from 4 different action cameras of 5 months of travel (not talking about the whole travel window, but specifically in Central America). And I haven’t even looked at my phone that has 1.3TB content with the past almost 2 years travels. That is a piece I need to swallow a bit later.

But essentially a pulsing video catalog can power a whole Youtube channel. I will try to not use jargon terms here, it’s enough for you to know that this had to be my step #1.

If I had to reframe this concept, I would call it, the ‘tip of the iceberg’.

The video what is uploaded to Youtube is what you would eventually see as an audience, but to make that work, to start this channel, I’m already laying down the foundation behind the concept.

Source: Chatgpt

The foundation has to be actioned upon, involving heavy research and these steps need to be broken down into a production process – not skipping any step. Without this, it simply cannot work. And even with them, chances are still slim to shine through the competition. So I need to create a unique experience, when you get to watch my videos, you would feel you are actually traveling with me, that brings me to the next diagram below.

The Kiss The Journey experience

I had to think hard on this one. Why would anybody care? Why would this journey be unique? What’s the unique angle? What’s the unfair advantage I have? And after creating a long list of different chapters of my trip, I had to realize that certain patterns come back time and time again:

Being thrown into situations, learning how to swim and start exceling in them.

Source: Chatgpt

You find yourself on a sailing boat not knowing how to sail? Sail it.

Oh, so you eventually crossed the ocean sailing, now what? Find a job.

So you found a job as a boat repair apprentice, not having a clue of what you are doing? Learn it.

Oh, you found yourself on a 24m super-yacht on the middle of the Atlantic having a paid job not actually having an idea of what you are doing? Do it anyway.

You found yourself in Latin America not speaking a word of Spanish? Learn it.

Oh, now you work for a hostel not having an idea how to run it? Manage it.

You’ve got on a motobike, that you don’t even know how to switch grades on? Ride it.

Now you’ve got some fancy cameras but you don’t know how to create content? Just do it.

I could honestly continue on and on, but this pattern kept coming back starting to eventually draw a picture of interconnecting stories that I’ve actually found compelling enough to start thinking of sharing.

The learnings and take-aways from some of these experiences, if well played, could actually provide a unique angle.

So I had this brilliant idea

And this drives me back to the starting point of this blogpost. Filming compelling storytelling is still NOT my superpower. But I think – and feel free to object me on this one – I’ve got quite good at writing. Dropping words down in a natural language just feels effortless. I wrote this whole blogpost in about 3 hours.

So this brilliant idea is:

To film stories, first you need to work out the ideas and the script. SO I would actually draft each Youtube episode transparently in this blog, before it ever gets into the production phase. This would also be sort of a public commitment that I’m about to make a new episode. Then the production steps would be as follows:

1. Write a blogpost about the idea and crystalize each thought (this is a step that I cannot actually outsource to AI to keep the core idea original). To quote David McCullough: “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” Every single thought in the blogpost has to be crystal clear. If I can write it down clearly, I can reframe it into a video script.
2. Get it summarized by chatgpt into a 1 pager providing bullet points on key thoughts that will eventually be more or less my script
3. Revise the script with my own words, ideas, thoughts and language (I still don’t trust fully AI on this one)
4. THEN roll into the next phase and follow the steps of the production fly-wheel

Let’s be honest, I have 7-8 readers on each blogpost, so not many people actually care, what’s in here, which gives me the advantage of using this platform freely, for my own needs – and if you actually want to learn about the process, well here it is for you, all transparently.

One more thing. I will not be promoting my published Youtube videos on any platform. I learned about the disadvantages through this video. The simple reason is, that you (and if you’ve got to this point all my appreciation goes to you), as harsh as it may sound, well. You are probably not the main audience for my travel channel. And I feel Youtube knows it better to send it out to the right audience. I have to trust Youtube on this one. So if you haven’t signed up to the channel yet, you can still do it here. Otherwise you can learn more about my travels through these blogposts. Or can back to my channel anytime haha.

Now I have to confess, that I actually wrote this blogpost in a desperate try to procrastinate to AVOID working on my first video. Will I ever get there? That’s still an open question. I don’t know the answer for that, but I can tell you this. Any given situation that makes me think of the design of this channel may – one step at a time, actually bring me closer to the main goal: to eventually kick it off.

Stay tuned.

Tonight I had this thought that, fuck. I might be responsible – at least partially for what has happened in Nepal. I was lazy to write a blogpost about this, but I asked Chatgpt to help me out. So I prompted it saying:

write a blogpost in my writing style with the title ‘I am responsible for Nepal.’

A few days ago an extreme mud avalanche washed away several villages in Nepal. 

the event was caused by a melting glacier in the himalayas. that glacier was caused by climate change. humans cause climate change. I am responsible. you who are reading this post responsible as well. we are all responsible. 

make it a thought provoking essay that confronts the question who is causing climate change and what can we really do about it

But before we check what it has generated let’s talk about this for a bit. Because what you may think now is ‘this fucking guy is traveling the world and he dares to complain about climate change. Nonsense hipocracy. At least he would show some life signals where the fuck he is or that at least he enjoys his fucking trip but no, he’s throwing more AI generated bs on us. I’M FED UP WITH AI GENERATED BS. FED UP WITH THIS GUY TOO.’

I will not answer all the above hypothetical statements (damn you sounded aangry!) but I can tell you, that these are thoughts, that absolutely do NOT breed in my head in the brightest delight. Quite on the contrary. They breed in very dark places, where there is hardly any light. And those stuff are the most nasty, raw kind of sneaky things that can only grow in the deepest, most desert corners of my head.

Now before I started this trip, I read an important book from a Japanese university professor, Kohei Saito called ‘Slow Down’

I DO NOT recommend you to read this book, unless you want to set yourself up to a decent existential crisis. Because it just breaks your whole world view into pieces.

I bought it back in London on a trip when I went for the first time to the Foyles bookstore. Man, I’ve got lost there completely. I was there with my ex and we spent there about 4-5 hours carefully going through every single section. I felt just by reading the book covers, with each title, I’ve got at least 1% smarter (that was a false assumption though, later I had to realize). We bought there about 10-15 books in total. We could hardly carry it back on the plane to Germany. I think I never fully read any of them, just binged through some.

There I found this book I think on the second floor in front of the stairs leading up to the next floor.

Now they say, you attract what you are focused on. And that was true with me as well.

Before that, for a few months me and my ex were going through a complete physical and mental transformation, losing about 20kg+ weight together. Quitting alcohol, red meat, sugar from our diets conpletely, and rebuilt our diet on organic food, carefully choosing every single calory.

The road that has led us to this extreme switch, was paved by disappointments in ourselves that we have lacked self-control, we’ve been drinking and eating unhealthily for a veery long time. We were not fat but the summer before this twist turn was made, we have gained significant weight just by eating and drinking shit.

So we made the switch and boy after 2 months in and feeling about -13kg less, I felt my body and mind was sharper than ever before. Now the thing with sharpening things though is, that you can actually over sharpen stuff. And then things can get too thin and break. And I kinda think, that this has happened later to my mind as well.

For 9 months I didn’t drink alcohol or eat sugar (my whole family and friends can prove, we were annoying as fuck those days carrying tons of yoghurts with us at the back of our car so we could just hop out and eat healthy at any time.) and did intermittent fasting with a 16 hour pause and 8 hours eating window. I normally started to eat only at 12.00pm and finished dinner by 20.00. We literally lived like athletes.

So this kind of extremism in lifestyle also led me to buy this book. I just knew I had to take it home. And so at nights before sleep (after collecting every single datapoint of my body) with Whoop on my arm, I went to bed and read this book.

And it has triggered such a streak of thought chain in my head, that sometimes I couldn’t sleep till 3-4 am. And next day I went like shit to work. And this continued for weeks. And this has led me into a spiral. Without getting into too much details of this book, while reading it, I started to think of myself as a parasite. I thought of myself as I’d be this little grasshopper in the universe hopping from planet to planet consuming it’s goods and resources. I started to lose direction. But more importantly. I started to lose connection with myself. I couldn’t feel pleasure. I couldn’t feel rested. My brain was heavily hyperfunctioning and the sharpness started to show breaking points. At one point it got so bad, that on the way with my bike to the city, I had to record myself talking just to hear myself out loud and settle the voices in my head. A small note here, now I feel it’s completely normal whenever I’m talking to and recording myself on this trip. I do this aall the time and hopefully you’ll get to see this soon on my Youtube channel. Back to the point.

I couldn’t communicate this to anyone around me. For a while I felt helpless. I lost connection with everybody around me, including my ex. So I went to ask for help. I used the company’s provided mental support system. I directed myself to a Hungarian life coach. And we started working together. At first I thought maybe it’s time for a work atmosphere change. I’ve been doing the same job for over 3 years by then. Maybe a move to London, maybe to the US. My ex was down to move.

But then the coach kinda cut me through starting to ask me questions like: ‘if I close my eyes where do I see myself in most peace at?’ I was like, ma’am, I’m trying to move the needle here doing important work and get shit done and you ask me this non-sense?

Okay, let’s try anywaay, I asked for this, I’ve got this. You cook with what you get. And I closed my eyes and what I saw completely caught me off-guard. I was in my grandparents garden, laying on the garden swingbed, doing. Well. Doing nothing. Just being. Existing. Breathing. Feeling the sun on my face. The wind breezing on my skin. That was quite shocking. And I saw myself happy there. And there I was. In a place of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.

Then I had to realize, through collecting all those data points of my body, completely quitting alcohol and sugar, I’ve actually dug myself deep into a rabbit hole where I started to see my body and existence as an operational mechanism. It’s functioning well, but cannot really FEEL joy.

I’ve lost connection. If a bus had hit me on the road, I wouldn’t have felt it. And that little exercise helped reminding me, who I actually was. Just a simple kid from my grandparents garden. I’ve made it far from there and well, maybe I’ve got lost. But there I was. The same kid from that garden.

And I started to think of, well, what this kid would actually be really, deeply happy about. What would come from a place of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.

And I tried to NOT face the truth for some weeks but the truth was lying right in front of my own eyes. Was clearer than ever: cut ties with everything. Every single thing, that ties me down and moves me like a puppet. Obligations, responsibilities, social ties. Everything.

And so I did. Break up, workplace resignation selling all my stuff. Within 3 months I was a free person. My mind stopped racing. There was silence. Peace. Well, I started drinking again. Also smoked a few joints. Just out of joy. To see how it feels. And boy it felt GOOOD. I started going out to parties alone at night in the Munich nightlife. I showed up at completely random places alone talking to strangers, building connections. Just out of fun.

I started to rediscover my own sexuality. I showed up at a place at night and girls were looking at me. At me? Is there someone behind me? Nop, that’s me. That’s something new. But, well. Then. Let’s go all in. Almost every single Friday or Saturday I was out for the few remaining months I spent in Munich all alone. Partied all night with strangers and then just hopped on my bike and was riding back home singing into the ether. I was not a parasite anymore. I was a free bird. I was flying. My heart was pounding. My veins were full of life.

I’m getting short of money now. I don’t know where this journey leads me to. Or how it’s gonna end. It may actually seem from the outside that I took enormous risks. Sometimes I almost get hit by a truck, fall with the bike and get my foot amputed or get too close to an earthquake. But boy I‘m serving that little kid who was chilling on the swing for goood. To the fullest. That kid was soo curious. He was reading tons and wanted to learn about the world. Seeing it from the first row. OR even better. Being on it’s stage. So here I am.

All this may seem super confusing by now and you may think ‘Hold on, first the climate change thing, now his poor inner-child. What’s going on? What he’s been taking recently? Now I’m really worried for this dude.’

Let me explain. We are part of this eco-system. And traveling the world now for a little while, I see people living their lives. We all are just trying to make it work, really. Navigating in an ever-confusing world. And we are all the same. I never met a UFO on my trip so far (with a few people though I had a second-guess). We are all humans. With simple motivations, dreams and drives. And we are almost 8 billion on this planet.

Now the tricky thing is, we were put into a closed eco-system. If you’ve read Frank Herbert’s Dunes (the books actually go much deeper into this topic) you must be nodding your head now, as he said:

“The thing the ecologically illiterate don’t realize about an ecosystem is that it’s a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche… That’s why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.”
(Found in “Appendix I: The Ecology of Dune”)

So I know. I know. That I am also responsible for Nepal. I’ve been contributing with my existence to this situation on this planet. Is there a way out? I’ve been asking myself at my elevated moments. At others, I honestly just tried to survive. If you’ve made it so far reading this post, you might just be asking similar questions. And then maybe, maybe I would still recommend you ‘Slow Down’ from Kohei Saito.

Now let’s checkout what Chatgpt has generated on the above prompt. I am sharing it without any edits or extra prompts.

Answer for the prompt by Chatgpt:

A few days ago, something happened in the Himalayas that I can’t quite get out of my head.

On August 26, a massive section of ice and rock collapsed in the Langtang region of Nepal. The collapse triggered a catastrophic chain of events: ice, rock, mud and water rushed down the valley, destroying roads, bridges, infrastructure and entire communities. The disaster has left hundreds dead and thousands missing. (USGS)

And the more I read about it, the more uncomfortable one thought became.

I am responsible for Nepal.

You are too.

Not because I personally caused that glacier to collapse.

I didn’t.

You probably didn’t either.

But we are part of the system that is warming the planet.

And that distinction matters.

Because it is very easy to look at a disaster like this and think:

That’s terrible.

Then scroll.

Nepal is far away.

The Himalayas are far away.

The glacier is far away.

The people whose homes disappeared under metres of mud are strangers.

So what does this have to do with me?

Everything.

The uncomfortable chain

Let’s simplify this.

The climate is warming because humans have been releasing enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Those emissions trap more heat.

The Himalayas are warming.

Glaciers are retreating and mountain environments are becoming increasingly unstable.

Scientists have been warning that warming can increase risks in these high-altitude environments.

And then, one morning, a piece of the Himalayas comes down.

Of course, reality is more complicated than saying:

“Climate change melted a glacier and caused a flood.”

This particular disaster appears to have involved a complex chain of ice and rock collapse, river blockage and flooding. Scientists are still studying exactly how all of those pieces interacted. Climate change doesn’t mean that every individual landslide or avalanche can be directly attributed to global warming. (Stimson Center)

But that doesn’t make the bigger question disappear.

Human activity is warming the planet.

And that changes the conditions under which these natural systems operate.

So where does responsibility begin?

With governments?

With oil companies?

With corporations?

With billionaires?

With people flying around the world?

With people driving cars?

With me?

With you?

Who is actually responsible?

This is where the conversation becomes uncomfortable.

Because I don’t think the answer is:

“Everyone is equally responsible.”

That’s too convenient.

A person living in Nepal who has contributed almost nothing to historical emissions should not carry the same responsibility as a corporation that has made billions from extracting fossil fuels.

A family living in a rural village should not be told that their carbon footprint is morally equivalent to the consumption of the world’s wealthiest people.

And Nepal itself is a perfect example of this injustice.

The people living in the Himalayas are among those most exposed to the consequences of a warming planet, despite contributing very little to the problem. (The Guardian)

So when I say:

I am responsible for Nepal.

I don’t mean:

“This is my fault.”

I mean:

I am part of the system that created the conditions in which this is happening.

And therefore I have some responsibility for what happens next.

But what can I actually do?

This is the question I keep coming back to.

Because there is another trap here.

You watch something like this and feel guilty.

You stop using plastic straws.

You buy a reusable bottle.

You feel slightly better.

And then you go back to your normal life.

I’m not saying individual choices are meaningless.

They’re not.

But I think we’ve become obsessed with making climate change a shopping problem.

Buy this.

Don’t buy that.

Use this reusable thing.

Take shorter showers.

Those things can matter.

But climate change is not going to be solved because I remembered to turn off the lights.

The scale is completely different.

We need cleaner energy.

Better transportation.

Different industrial systems.

Better cities.

More efficient buildings.

Changes in agriculture.

Protection and restoration of ecosystems.

Better political decisions.

Better infrastructure.

Early-warning systems.

Climate adaptation.

And enormous amounts of investment.

In other words:

We need systems to change.

And systems don’t change because individuals feel guilty.

They change because people demand something different.

So maybe my responsibility is not to save Nepal.

Maybe that’s the wrong question.

Maybe I don’t need to personally solve climate change.

That would be impossible.

My responsibility is much smaller.

But also much more real.

I can decide what I buy.

What I eat.

How I travel.

What I support.

Who I vote for.

What companies I give my money to.

What conversations I participate in.

What information I share.

And perhaps most importantly:

what I consider normal.

Because systems are built from millions of individual decisions.

But they’re also built from millions of people accepting things without questioning them.

That’s where I think we have enormous power.

We can make different things normal.

We can make cleaner transportation normal.

We can make renewable energy normal.

We can make repairing things normal.

We can make consuming less normal.

We can make governments being held accountable normal.

We can make caring about people on the other side of the planet normal.

And maybe that’s where responsibility becomes useful instead of paralysing.

I don’t want to feel guilty.

I want to feel responsible.

There’s a difference.

Guilt says:

I am a bad person because I am part of this problem.

Responsibility says:

I am part of this problem, so what am I going to do about it?

The first one makes you defensive.

The second one gives you agency.

And honestly, I don’t think we can afford another decade of people arguing about whose fault climate change is.

Because while we’re arguing, the physical world doesn’t care.

Glaciers continue changing.

Oceans continue warming.

Weather patterns continue shifting.

And communities continue adapting to risks they did almost nothing to create.

The people in Nepal don’t need my guilt.

They need a world that takes their future seriously.

I am responsible for Nepal.

Not alone.

Not equally.

Not because I caused that glacier to collapse.

But because I am a human being living inside the same system.

And once you understand that, it’s difficult to pretend that what happens on the other side of the planet has nothing to do with you.

Maybe responsibility begins exactly there.

Not with believing that you can save the world.

But with refusing to believe that you have nothing to do with it.

Because I do.

And so do you.