What I'm Doing Now
It's a beautiful sunny Saturday here in the Dominican Republic.
I've been on this awesome island the past two weeks, starting 2024 exactly how it's going to continue – lots of travel and no more winter. I quit my job and I'm spending all my time in 2024 working on my language-learning app, Yakk.
2023
I spent 2023 working and saving full-time. 2023 was all about positioning. The gameplan was:
1. To pour all of the free time I could find outside of work into Yakk.
2. To save enough money to quit my job and go full-time on Yakk in 2024.
3. To launch the first version of the app with at least one language.
It's been a huge amount of work, but I'm so damn happy I can write these words and say that all of that has now happened.
Launching Yakk
A few days ago I launched the first version of Yakk. It's a great feeling to reach this milestone and be in a position to really double down in 2024.
Building Yakk was one thing, but no language learning app is useful without content. In Yakk's case, content is in the form of digital language-learning books. Most of my time the past 2 months has gone into writing Yakk's first book – Quick Start Esperanto. Next up is Spanish, with many more languages to follow.
But of course, the first release is only the start. All of this work was just to get into the game and start playing.
However, it's a big deal going from an idea in your head to something that others can see, can use and hopefully get some value from. I'm feeling great about that.
Travel
I'm making Yakk my full-time job in 2024 and that means I don't need to be anywhere in particular, so I'll be everywhere instead. In 2024 I'm returning to my nomadic lifestyle.
All I have is a rucksack with my laptop, phone, camera and a few clothes. It's minimalistic bliss.
The first stop is the Dominican Republic, followed by Vietnam. I have no plans from there, but I'll most likely be found hanging out in Southeast Asia in 2024.