Martin

I make things on the Internet.

[Martin @martinrue]

Hello, I'm Martin.

I've connected with a few new people recently, so here's a little reintroduction.

I don't like labels, so let me tell you what I'm doing instead…

🌎 I live in different places

I don't have a fixed home, which means I can be anywhere.

For the past couple of years, that's been Southeast Asia.

I've mostly lived in Bangkok 🇹🇭 and Da Nang 🇻🇳 plus some other places in between.

It's hard to capture how transformative it is to sell everything you own and move to the other side of the world.

New experiences, communities, friends, food, languages, values and ways of living.

10/10 recommend.

👨🏻‍💻 I build software that aligns with my passions

In the past couple of years I launched 4 apps, all within the language learning space.

I'm currently building a new app called LangBot, which helps people practise languages on X.

I always want to do my best work. I care about details, experience, great engineering and building great things. I'm a perfectionist and I suffer all the consequences.

I'm very unmotivated by money, and have been both when I earned over $20k/month and when I was broke.

I believe the only valuable assets we have are our time, health and attention.

🗣️ Human language deeply interests me

Over the years I've tried to learn lots of languages.

🇩🇪 Mein Deutsch ist immer noch schlecht...
🇪🇸 Pero creo que mi español es un poco mejor...
🇻🇳 Và tôi cũng biết nói một chút tiếng Việt
🇹🇭 ตอนนี้ผมเข้าใจภาษาไทยนิดหน่อยแล้ว

But my favourite language is Esperanto.

It's an invented language, which I speak fluently, and oddly, have more friends than in English.

👦🏻 I got into coding as a kid

I spent my early days being welcomed onto the internet by a chorus of strange noises.

Modems, people.

I have a lot of great memories of learning to code from being around 11 or 12.

I've written about some of my early coding stories, as they were both sort of crazy and very transformative. They're all on my blog.

🤏 I love small teams

I've worked at startups and huge companies, doing everything from engineering and education to leadership.

Over that time I've collected some axioms for engineering – things I think are generally true, and guide my future work. Also on my blog.

Now I work solo.

I quit working for other people when I moved to Asia, and after 2 years at it, only just reached "ramen profitability". There's a lot more work to do!

Working lonely can be lonely, for sure. But it's amazing to be spending all of my time creating my own value in the world. And I started Build Mode so I could take the best people with me wherever I go.

And that's me.

You should totally introduce yourself.

[Martin @martinrue]

@__cski I do the same... with payment systems, and the real flows that can happen in more complex scenarios, it's always better to test the real thing you hope users will use IMO.

[Martin @martinrue]

Damn dude, very glad to read everything is okay! 🙏🏻

Like you said, health first. There's always more work to do, always a reason to push too hard.

PS: If you're looking for a new read, Oliver Burkeman's books are a great "other voice" for some of this stuff. If you like https://t.co/dkZH0qvjDi, pick up Four Thousand Weeks and enjoy.

[Martin @martinrue]

@offpaths Cheers dude. How’s the app release going?

[Martin @martinrue]

Langmaxxingmaxxing.

The act of working on my new language learning app, Langmaxxing, while ensuring the experience itself is as maximum as it can be.

[Martin @martinrue]

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

[Martin @martinrue]

@eftegarie Any agent at all.

[Martin @martinrue]

I work from a lot of coffee shops, beach bars, and other public spaces. At this point I've stopped caring... I just talk to it. I even physically lean in so it's obvious. Soon enough this will be most people's girlfriend, so I'm sure everyone else will come along soon enough.

[Martin @martinrue]

@ProjectPivott @_frederickjames Great to hear Ben! Also, hi, nice to meet ya 🙌

[Martin @martinrue]

@itsmikefrost Ko Pha-ngan.

[Martin @martinrue]

Hope you’re all having a nice Sunday. Mine is, well, no complaints. 👌

[Martin @martinrue]

@itsmikefrost Yep! They simply shouldn't be allowed to ride without showing some evidence they can. In his case, due to being drunk and probably on something else, he'll learn this the hard way.

[Martin @martinrue]

I see about one crash per day on this island.

The issue is that lots of people who've never ridden before just jump on a bike here, and they create problems.

They don't have the right intuitions, they don't know how to control a heavy moving vehicle on sandy road surfaces, and a lot of the time here, they're smashed out of their mind, especially on weed.

Tonight a young Western lad, drunk or high, or both, drove at about 40kph directly into a local. I was playing pool when it happened. Amazingly she is still alive.

He tried to flee, knowing what was about to happen, but the advantage of an island where there's nothing to do other than Muay Thai is that another dude took the key from his smashed up bike and restrained him.

It's going to be bad for him.

Honestly, I can't wait to get back to a safe environment to ride in, like Vietnam lol

[Martin @martinrue]

@andmyjake @VanpeltVentures At least it's not "a thong"... but that's probably a banger content idea.

[Martin @martinrue]

Errr... I'm having way too much fun with this. Damn, the content I need to be making off this!

[Martin @martinrue]

Yeah politics is a crazy one. Also had that here too. It reminds me of:

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Got ya! Well I'm sure it'll happen one way or the other. Let me know if you need any advice / soundboarding... I've spent a decent amount of time in both places and happy to jump on a quick call and share.

[Martin @martinrue]

Yeah I totally get you. It's a good sign, or at least I'd take it that way.

If your "friends" can't support you in succeeding, that's all you need to know. Great to hear that new connections are already arriving to fill the gaps 🙌

Looking forward to potentially overlapping in Thailand or Vietnam this year and chatting more over coffee mate.

[Martin @martinrue]

@offpaths I've never even played it so I don't know. It's just what has gradually come out of my brain (no AI on the UX).

[Martin @martinrue]

@barnetvilem Haha, plenty of time. Once you eventually have the space and time, and a trip planned, make sure to DM me and I'll share all the best spots. 🙌

[Martin @martinrue]

It's that time again... quick shoutout to @thorstenball for writing an absolutely excellent newsletter.

Each week he pulls together a bunch of super interesting things to read.

Joy and Curiosity is very apt name. Go sub: https://t.co/S0aEHFqo7c

[Martin @martinrue]

@eftegarie I've got an AI skill that will do this for you.

[Martin @martinrue]

@eftegarie True! But there's also the dimension of it being captured and watchable again afterwards. I think that can add an opposing tension in some cases, and makes people play it way safer than they might in private, making them less likely to be honest, raw, or say controversial truths.