Kwan Xhen

Problems untangler.
Inspired by retro-tech & open-source.
Sovereign individual.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

@noverthinking Love the latest episode.
Quoting @taimurabdaal
“I’m very much sold on the value of having a broad knowledge base. I think knowing about lots of different kind of things does make life more meaningful.” 👇

[Balaji @balajis]

I am pleased to announce that a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Republic of Kazakhstan and Network School.
Our new campus will become a haven for global techno-optimism, with expedited visas, streamlined redomiciliation, and active recruitment of talent.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

NS lives on because it was never the location that matters.

Now, we simply kickstart it again like we always do. We are writing history and today goes down as a victory that NS survives another country-level threat.

@balajis , I’m sure you need some rest too. Trust us in figuring this out alongside you. A great story is being written, some twists and turns are necessary.

#NS #networkstate

[The Startup CA @mehulshahca]

So Network School got shut down today. I was there, part of the July cohort and you saw that.

Been watching this unfold for 5 days and honestly I'm still confused about what actually happened. Let me just lay out the timeline as I saw it. 🧵

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

Made a fun project inspired by @levelsio inflation chart
https://t.co/POgzXwBg9M

Too many metrics in this world...
I made this so I can just track whatever I want to track, reducing the noise, since I have an anxious fomo monkey brain. Less is more.
https://t.co/gdY2bUmZUp

#AI #inflation #BTC

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

## AI and security
If I'm an AI expert or engineer, I will immediately pivot to information security or warfare now. All these new tools are more dangerous than we think. I don't think we need to panic yet, but we need to start studying these areas and create Lindy systems that can withstand these attacks.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

My portfolio in this chaotic market
20 Jul, 2026

Building a dashboard to track a few US economy metrics that aligns with my investing philosophy. Position well enough not to get diluted by the absurd money printing from the US economy. I will upload this dashboard for free when it is done.

The portfolio thesis is simple. Position yourself to capture humanity's growth (US SP500), while keeping yourself somewhat hedged against an inevitable implosion. This rewriting of the agreement is already underway, marked by conflicts, posturing, and economic war.

Assuming no new superpower is created (nuclear was the last), the tech, raw materials, energy resources, and geographical route advantages will be how we measure our power against one another. Monopoly eventually becomes duopoly; it will simply weaken the US dollar hegemony, accelerating inflation and taxation.

The incumbents will initially be in denial that their inflation-taxation machine will still work against the world, accelerating even more towards the next equilibrium. Equilibrium and peace are temporary; chaos is the constant. We may or may not see or feel the equilibrium while caught in the situation.

I also know that China wants to be the smaller of the duopoly. There are simply too many benefits to being the second in power.

Tech is flourishing, medicine is increasing lifespan, humanity is creating and consuming more than ever. I bet on humanity that it is up and to the right. Sufferings are still everywhere and will still be around till the end of time.

The only remaining question that we need to answer is whether capitalism will be overridden by another "ism" in our lifetime through a revolution. My guess is not in the near future or within our lifetime. As far as my capital gains are concerned, this portfolio style should allow me to survive and maybe even thrive, for I'm a very simple man who puts his hope in humanity.

Originally written here:
https://t.co/gdY2bUmZUp

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

This makes me happy on so many levels.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

@wassielawyer Although it is a pain in the proverbial ass, there is a 50-50 chance that NS will have to be ported to another state. Msia's secularism is highly debatable, and it is showing problems now. Also, corruption is still severe.

[Balaji @balajis]

Should the global tech community continue investing in Malaysia?

Given recent events, I raise this question respectfully for the consideration of Prime Minister Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim (@anwaribrahim), for the people of Malaysia, and for our friends in the Malaysian tech community. The answer will be of interest to anyone in global tech that’s considering building, investing, or expanding in Malaysia, including executives at Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, founders of tech unicorns like Coinbase and Solana, and investors at the world’s largest venture capital funds like a16z and Polychain.

As context, I am the former CTO of Coinbase and former General Partner at a16z. In October 2024, I opened a startup society called Network School in Malaysia, because I felt I’d been invited in by the government’s pro-tech policies.

Specifically, the KL20 initiative set out Malaysia’s ambition of becoming a top 20 global tech hub. Their MDEC digital nomad visas and MM2H investor visas were created to facilitate an influx of global talent and capital. And the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone was announced to facilitate the flow of capital and talent between Malaysia and Singapore, where I live. When taken in combination with Malaysia’s datacenter buildout and its policy of welcoming visa-free visits for 98% of the world, it seemed like Malaysia might be a great place to build a global tech hub that was simultaneously inexpensive and easy to visit (especially for non-Westerners).

And that’s what we did, by creating Network School. It’s an international tech community with its first node in Forest City, Malaysia. We picked Forest City because it had millions of square feet of empty space, because it was one hour from Singapore’s capital markets, and because it was within the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone. Then, within 18 months, without a single penny of government money, we built Network School into a global attraction that brought thousands of engineers, investors, and builders from 70+ countries to learn technology, burn calories, earn online, and have fun, integrating with the local Malaysian economy along the way.

Indeed, in terms of quantifiable contribution to the Malaysian economy, we’ve already invested 100M+ MYR in our campus to make it startup-friendly. For perspective, that’s about 4% of the budget of Johor, the Malaysian state where Forest City is located. We employ dozens of Malaysians directly and indirectly at every level from executive to staff. We’ve backed Malaysian tech startups like Collektr, hosted events for local teams like Superteam Malaysia, and are major customers of many local businesses like barbers, laundromats, and restaurants. We’ve also revitalized the multibillion-dollar Forest City project, causing millions of MYR in real estate appreciation. And, as the video below describes, we were on the cusp of a 500M+ MYR expansion to grow our community, as well as a global merit scholarship with my friend Amjad Masad of Replit.

However, that emerging multi-billion dollar success story — which should rightfully have been hailed as a huge victory for the pro-tech policies of the Malaysian government — is at risk of being derailed by a fake story spread by an anonymous account named MP4P.

In short: on the day before the July 11 Johor elections, MP4P posted an Instagram post falsely accusing Network School of harboring illegal aliens. The sensational accusations caused a tizzy in Malaysia, until Malaysian authorities came to our campus on July 14 to investigate. (I should note that the officers were very polite and professional.) After checking hundreds of physical passports from 40 countries, including dual passport holders, the authorities confirmed to the press on July 15 that all travel documents were in order. During the process, we cooperated fully; in the thread below you can see a photo of the men, women, and children of Network School smiling and holding up their passports in the bright daylight. Our faces are shown and our names are known; we have nothing to hide.

With that said, the process is the punishment. What MP4P did is very similar to the American crime of “swatting”, because MP4P created a hoax report of a serious threat, thereby forcing the Malaysian police to take time away from protecting the Malaysian people towards investigating a nonexistent issue. Moreover, this anonymous MP4P account has also called for Malaysia to boycott Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft…a move that would cost ordinary Malaysians thousands of jobs…even while MP4P’s own Instagram collaborators promote their Apple and Google apps! I mean, we aren’t talking about a credible accuser, but just someone screaming inconsistently at the top of their lungs on social media for traffic, an all-too-common phenomenon these days.

Anyway, at this point, all further investment we were planning to make in Malaysia is on hold until we get sufficient assurance that such issues won’t recur. So are the investment plans of many of our friends, including the execs and investors at global tech firms that we brought to Forest City. Because to put it very plainly: we have invested 100M+ MYR in Malaysia, while creating jobs for dozens of Malaysians, and our faces and names are known. Our Malaysian executives and employees deserve the benefit of the doubt over anonymous internet trolls.

There are two paths forward. In the first case, if Malaysia still wants continued global tech investment, if it wants to be a top 20 tech hub, if it wants us to revitalize Forest City, then we request an audience with the Prime Minister’s office to discuss the terms of a memorandum of understanding between Network School and the Malaysian government, similar to the document recently signed between the Solana Foundation and the Kazakhstan government.

Specifics can of course be discussed, but we would publicly commit to abiding by all Malaysian laws (we already do) and respecting Malaysia’s sovereignty (never in question). In return, they’d get to know our friendly community, and realize that we actually chose Malaysia because we thought it was a great place to build a tech hub where engineers from the global South, investors from the West, and builders from Malaysia itself could meet new people, build cool things, and perhaps create millions of dollars in economic growth in the fullness of time.

That vision of peace and trade, internationalism and entrepreneurialism, is still on the table. We aren’t asking for any money — just a meeting, to help restore confidence in Malaysia as an investable jurisdiction. Alternatively, if you don’t want our investment, or those of our colleagues at billion dollar funds and trillion dollar companies, we will of course respect your wishes, and reallocate our capital to other countries instead.

Either way, we will remain friends and abide by your decision. Please let us know.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

TIL - Ph.D means Doctor of Philosophy.

No wonder so many great books end with wisdoms.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

@teo_kai_xiang Show us the reminder (screenshot or email). This is too funny!

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

@raminnazer Love the artistic sense of humor! Have been following your work on Instagram for a long time.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

Chill Guys... The Anxious World
You will imagine the world, far into the future, far backward into the past, and see that the whole universe goes on with or without you.
You will arrive at the same destination Virgil reached in his Fourth Eclogue, where the ingenuity of change has been exhausted; the whole universe will fall into a repeated forgotten antiquity.
As you do so, you relieve yourself of all of the anxious thoughts that there is somewhere to go. Only then can you calmly lift your foot and take the next step.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

@bluewmist Felt it through the screen

[Bryan Johnson @bryan_johnson]

The world wants me to die.

My incurable disease diagnosis became global news. It was omnipresent on social media and 1,900 articles were written in a matter of days.

Many were saddened.

However, joy dominated the commentary.

People pointed to schadenfreude, the pleasure of another's failure. Yes, there’s that. There is a special place in people’s hearts that loves to see others fail, especially when that person’s presence threatens their own psychological stability in some way or helps them feel better about themselves.

But, if you look over the social media commentary about me, you’ll see that pattern:

“he deserved it.”

I deserved it because I challenged death. The crowd was running a deeply rooted psychological script that represents the oldest, most deeply embedded stories of human culture.

This was the first story ever written down, 4,000 years ago. Gilgamesh sought eternal life after losing someone he loved, only to have the plant of youth stolen by a serpent as he bathed. Leaving him to accept his mortality.

Asclepius became so skilled at rejuvenation that he raised the dead. As punishment, Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt to enforce life and death authority.

This is the story of Jesus. Pontius Pilate offered a choice between a thief and the immortalist, and the crowd demanded the execution.

People need this story conclusion to keep themselves sane. The challenger must lose and the loss must appear deserved. It’s a shield of self preservation.

For if death is inevitable, their existence and that of their loved ones is justified and unavoidable. If death is not inevitable, nothing about their reality is safe.

I occupy the same philosophical and archetypal position as Gilgamesh, Asclepius and Jesus.

This statement will draw outrage and accusations of blasphemy, hubris and narcissism. Nevertheless, it’s the pattern that has repeated itself for thousands of years.

Death has been the omnipresent concern of the human race. It encapsulates our greatest fears, joy and curiosities. The discourse around it changes over time; however, the fundamentals remain unchanged.

What’s different about this moment, that is unlike any other moment, is that physical death may no longer be inevitable.

What if I didn’t deserve it?

And what if I am your ally, and not a threat?

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

Some that left good impressions are these

Indistractable - Nir Eyal
The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel
Digital Minimalism - Cal Newport
The PARA Method - Tiago Forte
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
Seven Brief Lessons On Physics - Carlo Rovelli
Same as Ever - Morgan Housel
Deep Work - Cal Newport
How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom - Matt Ridley

The full list can be found here:
https://t.co/20aDyafyBz

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

## Avoiding books found at the airport.

Most books on airport shelves are contemporary. They are sensible books, but are not that helpful for growth.

It's like doing bicep curls instead of chin-ups. I have read about fifty of these self-help books in the last few years, and they are starting to become really boring.

They are written in similar styles, address similar problems, and generally just make you feel hopeful and encouraged.

From this vantage point, I guess they make a good start for someone who hates reading or does not even know where to begin. I guess that's why they are so popular - Bestseller this, Bestseller that.

I'm optimizing for truth-seeking now. I want to read books that explore truths. The more boring, the better.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

@lennysan This data reflects well anecdoctally. Will be interesting to see more data on this.

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

To me, "The Anthology of Balaji" book is:

1. A map for humanity's future.
2. A guiding light for confused Gen Z or late millennials.
3. A Socratic inquiry into our social issues.

If you are confused about the state of the world (like me), read it.

@balajis @EricJorgenson

[Kwan Xhen @kwanxhen]

Praise and criticism are two sides of the same coin

Sometimes, I listen to criticism, especially when it comes from someone I respect. But praises, almost never.

More often than we think, people criticize others not objectively but when they see behavior that does not align with their interests. (Insult is a better word here)

On the flip side, people compliment others not objectively. They compliment when they like a particular behavior that suits them.

Ultimately, praises and criticisms are based on opinions, and opinions are not truths. As such, praise and criticism are inherently non-valuable information and, technically, the same noise to me.

Don't criticize and don't praise.

Instead of criticizing, try explaining or writing.
Instead of praising, try expressing appreciation.