Here’s what’s happening: VCs are pouring billions into AI companies. Y Combinator’s recent batches are over 70% AI focused. The technology is powerful and solving real problems in automation, infrastructure, and data processing. But everyone’s also using the free writing tools for everything: emails, LinkedIn posts, customer service, content. The result? We all sound exactly the same now.

Open any inbox and the AI written messages are obvious immediately. Same phrases, same structure, same lifeless tone. LinkedIn is filled with posts that say nothing in 500 words. Customer service responses are technically correct but completely soulless.

The irony? We have access to incredible AI technology, and we’re using it to make ourselves more generic.

Your AI emails aren't working

I’ve implemented AI for backend automation and it works well for the right use cases. Data processing, categorization, workflow automation. But I also see what’s happening with communication.

Sales teams are using AI to blast thousands of emails. Sure, the AI pulls in context about the company, mentions a recent funding round, references a LinkedIn post. But the tone, the structure, the phrasing, it’s all the same. People can tell.

Marketing teams are using AI to generate content at scale. The articles are SEO optimized, grammatically perfect, and completely forgettable. Nobody reads them because they say nothing.

Job seekers are using ChatGPT to write cover letters. Recruiters are getting hundreds of applications that all have the same tone, the same phrases, the same structure.

The funny part? Many companies are now using AI to filter out AI written applications. A zero sum game where robots are screening out robots.

The problem isn’t the technology. It’s that everyone’s using it the same lazy way.

Stop letting AI write your important shit

Here’s what I’ve learned from implementing AI and watching companies use it well versus badly.

Use AI for research and structure, not final output. Let it gather information, organize ideas, create outlines. Then write the actual content yourself in your own voice.

If you’re going to use AI for a first draft, rewrite it completely. Add your personality, your specific examples, your actual perspective. The AI version should be unrecognizable in the final output.

Anything where personality matters: job applications, sales outreach, important client communication, do it yourself. The time you save with AI isn’t worth sounding like everyone else.

The companies and people winning right now aren’t the ones using AI most. They’re the ones using it for the boring stuff and staying human for everything that matters.

Being different is your advantage

While everyone else is sounding like robots, being authentic is a competitive advantage.

I get cold emails every day. The ones I respond to are the ones clearly written by a human. Typos and all. The AI ones get deleted without reading.

I see LinkedIn posts constantly. The ones that get engagement are personal stories, specific opinions, anything with personality. The AI generated thought leadership pieces get ignored.

I review job applications. The candidates who write their own cover letters stand out immediately. The ChatGPT ones are obvious and forgettable.

This is the opportunity. Everyone has access to the same AI tools. Most people are using them to sound generic. You can use them smartly and still sound like yourself.

The solution isn’t better AI

It’s remembering that communication is about connecting with humans, not optimizing word count.

Again, your personality, your voice, your specific perspective, that’s what people actually respond to. AI can’t replicate that no matter how good the models get.

Don’t be the person sending robot emails. Don’t be the company with a LinkedIn feed full of generic AI content. Stand out by being human.

Let's face it, most millennials, myself included, have a bit of a love affair with our phones. But what really gets me is seeing folks of all ages, from wise grandparents to little kiddos, and even whole families, glued to their screens while enjoying a cuppa at their favorite café. It's like a universal pastime, and it makes me wonder about the side effects on our health.

By doing a quick Google search I found we spend an average of 3 hours and 15 minutes on our phones every day. That's like watching the movie Titanic, from start to finish, every single day! And we check our phones around 58 times a day. That's quite a lot, don't you think?

The good, the bad, and the (smart)phone

Our smartphones are pretty cool. They help us stay connected with friends and family, find new recipes, catch up on news, and even navigate when we're lost. But they also have a downside.

Have you ever felt like you're missing out on what's happening around you because you're too busy staring at your phone? The social aspects are quite clear by now, in real life we are actually more “disconnected” to the world around us than before.

Here’s something else: some research suggests that the radio waves from our phones might cause health problems like cancer, and with the new 5G technology coming out, we don't really know what the effects will be. For example, as a study from the National Toxicology Program by the US Department of Health and Human Services points out that high exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RF) used in 2G and 3G cell phone technologies were associated with cancer in male rats. 

It doesn’t stop there. Since more than a decade ago many studies have been performed about the effects of radio frequencies (RF) on brain development, tinnitus, fertility, cancer, mental issues, and more. I suggest you watch the video below, as it will give you a great understanding of the possible implications RF can have.

Now, 2G/3G/4G could possibly be as damaging to your health as 5G and maybe even more, but by having used the good old Nokia for a few days, I didn’t feel like checking my phone all the time. Normally, I used to always start checking my phone the minute I woke up, I think you’ll know what I mean. Try going without your smartphone for 24 hours. I know, it sounds scary, but you might be surprised by how refreshing it feels to unplug for a bit.

Stay curious and remember - there's a whole world outside your phone screen waiting for you to explore!

Bitcoin has seen a staggering growth over the past months, and well known figures such as Elon Musk, the Winklevoss brothers, Gene Simmons, Michael Saylor, and even Snoop Dogg make sure to Tweet about cryptocurrencies on a daily basis. What surprises me though, is that sustainable projects with high potential and great values are still not being mentioned by these folks, the focus still seems to lie around Bitcoin.

While Elon Musk is one the most brilliant persons alive today, blockchain experts find it both funny and disappointing that he chooses to promote projects such as Doge coin. To Elon it’s probably hilarious to see many people invest in something without value while increasing short-term price action, but some argue that it's definitely not helping the blockchain industry as a whole. 

Tesla and Bitcoin, a contradicting marriage

Cambridge researchers concluded that the Bitcoin mining (verifying of transactions by computer calculations) consumes around 121.36 terawatt-hours a year, that's more electricity annually than the whole of Argentina. In 2020 Tesla received $1.5 billion in environmental subsidies, funded by the taxpayer. Recently, Tesla invested the same amount in Bitcoin. This investment seems to completely contradict Tesla's mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

What is the value of Bitcoin?

Besides the energy consumption, Bitcoin is not made to use for daily life transactions, and probably this is not going to happen either. At the moment Bitcoin is used as a store of value (or so called digital gold)

Nouriel Roubini, Peter Schiff, and other economists have been trying to warn people about Bitcoin, they say Bitcoin can't be used as a currency, and thus it has no real value. To some extent I have to agree, Bitcoin does not seem a sustainable and realistic solution to replace money, but if enough people keep storing value into Bitcoin as a replacement of the bank, then you have to also agree that there is value to it. 

What the economists don’t speak about are new inventions and solutions in the blockchain industry, and because they only talk bad about Bitcoin, they indirectly paint a dark future for the blockchain industry. There are many great projects in the space trying to contribute to a better world. For example: building financial instruments for unbanked people in third world countries, so that everyone can participate in the financial system, no matter who you are from, or where you are from.

How about Ethereum?

Everyone who has been dealing with Cryptocurrencies knows that Ethereum has problems with scaling, and that the gas prices (the cost of sending transactions) are incredibly high because of a congested network, not to mention that it can take over a hour for your transaction to arrive. 

The Ethereum community has been talking about Ethereum 2.0 to solve these issues, but thus far, it seems that they have the disadvantage of being such a large community. Similar to what we have seen with Bitcoin is the past, too many people are having too many opinions about what should happen, which causes innovation to delay. 

Solutions to Ethereum’s overheated network

There are plenty of blockchains trying to solve the issues of scaling, some of them are Algorand, Chainlink or Polkadot and Avalanche who are trying to bridge blockchain platforms together into one interoperable ecosystem.

One project that stood out to me is Fantom, the foundation presents itself as an‘ Ethereum helper’. It’s a highly scalable blockchain for DeFi, dApps, and enterprise applications. The interesting part is that the platform uses the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), this makes it extremely easy for Ethereum developers to deploy smart contracts to the Fantom blockchain. Transactions on the Fantom blockchain are 1-2 seconds, and only cost a fraction of a cent. 

Noteworthy to mention, is that DeFi Architect Andre Cronje (founder of Yearn Finance) is heavily involved, which helped the project draw attention from eager investors and partners. 

These types of projects will help to take off some of the load from the Ethereum blockchain, making it a better experience for everyone. 

The future of blockchain 

There’s no doubt that Bitcoin is currently seen as the ‘gold in crypto’, and that other projects are trying to help scale Ethereum with innovative solutions, but is there a better solution to all of the issues the industry is currently facing?

The answer could be with Charles Hoskinson, CEO of IOHK and creator of Cardano, where the goal is to build an energy efficient, decentralized blockchain, including a governance system, which can handle many more transactions compared to Ethereum at a fraction of the cost. 

The interesting part about how Cardano is being developed, is that Charles and his team have been looking at blockchain technology from a first-principles thinking perspective, they first studied hundreds of scientific papers to discuss different solutions, and new proposals are peer-reviewed by some of the brightest people in the blockchain space.

Cardano also discussed options for plug and play solutions. In a few years it doesn't matter anymore what your preferred coding language is, so that for example .NET developers can code projects and plug it directly into the Cardano ecosystem. 

Don’t invest in nonsense 

In a bull market everyone thinks he/she is a great investor, because the project you invested in will go ‘to the moon’ 🚀 right? The reality is that only a few will stand the test of time and that the crypto market is highly volatile, so be careful. 

I am personally invested in Fantom and Cardano. I believe the teams of these projects work on solid solutions and have shown great leadership, but things can change as there are many contenders out there. Who is the creator of Bitcoin again?

My hope is that business magnates, celebrities, and influencers stop Tweeting nonsense about blockchain projects. Many people have been put on a trail of losing money, as they simply invest in what influencers say on Twitter. Don't be that person, don’t believe in things blindly.

To the people that do have knowledge, try to help others, explain why you think something is great (or not) based on research and fundamentals. Try to help each other in this fast moving, complex, but fun space.  

Good luck and see you next time!

First off all, thanks for all the comments and feedback from the previous newsletter, it was amazing to see such great responses which motivates me to keep writing more often. 

Today, I have a special announcement about our newly launched platform: Remote.io 2.0, so if you are looking for a remote job or are looking to hire remote talent you’re in for a treat! 

MENU

1. Crypto: Even your grandmother knows about Bitcoin, what’s next?

2. Tech: From 5G to 5.5G, Wifi on the moon

3. Remote.io 2.0: Our redesigned remote job platform 

Crypto

At this time even your grandma knows about Bitcoin and maybe she is even thinking of trading some of those old silver coins for Bitcoin. While Bitcoin has been reaching a new all time high for 2020, I feel a lot of people still lack good information about what other Crypto projects are trying to achieve. 

Since I got involved with Crypto about four years ago, I stuck with two of my favourite projects: Cardano and Digibyte. These projects are well on their way to help companies implement Blockchain technology at very low cost. For example: Digibyte recently released DigiAssets, a simplified way to create digital assets and Digi-ID, A security protocol to login online accounts, which you can integrate in your website and is completely free to use. 

I know you want to know, what’s next?... I believe Cardano is working on something incredible which even has the potential of taking over Ethereum at some point. Because of the hyped price all eyes are on Bitcoin, but there are projects such as the ones mentioned above which are far superior in terms of technology. It will take some time and education effort before people are starting to pick up on it in mass, but I have good hopes for this to happen soon. 

Tech 

News from the East

Huawei's Managing Director recently presented his vision for 5.5G. The core of the 5.5G vision is to support the internet of everything to empowering the intelligent connectivity of everything. 

He said that the current 5G technology only achieves basic interaction between people and the virtual world, but in the future holographics need an immersive experience, therefore, the requirements for cellular communications will be much higher, with average access rates increasing from 120Mbps at 4K today to 2Gbps at 16K in the future.

This made me think: do I still need a driver's license in the near future, and when can robots start making up my bed?

News from the West

NASA has selected Nokia as the official cellular provider to the moon, yes the moon! The Finnish telco won a $14.1 million contract to build a 4G LTE base station on the moon by 2022, That means the lunar surface will have 4G coverage before roughly 4.5 billion earthlings do.

The launch of Remote.io 2.0

During COVID we heard that many people are struggling to find work. This got us extra motivated to do a complete design overhaul of our platform to present a better user-experience for remote job seekers.

Hunt us down

We launched our new website on Product Hunt today, so if you are looking for a remote job or if you are currently hiring you’re in luck! 

That’s it for now, it was good to have you here.

Until next time!

Niels

Most likely we are connected on Linkedin or we met somewhere last year… or was it at an event in Beijing or Amsterdam?

Either way, I have news for you.

The launch of Innovation Labs (and merging with Remote.io)

Early this year, I decided to launch a new company called Innovation Labs. When I registered the company, I knew I wanted to do something with services around digital nomads and remote work.

Luckily, I still had an old project on the shelf which I had been thinking about quite a bit the past year. The idea was to develop a platform for digital nomads, a central place for people to find remote jobs, travel advice, inspiration, and relocation/ visa assistance. Essentially, a full-service platform tailored to the digital nomad lifestyle.

I still love the entire idea, but when the pandemic hit hard the lifestyle of digital nomadism shifted. I immediately pivoted and thought of the one thing digital nomads would always need: remote jobs.

I launched a MVP with a remote job board named nomadify, but soon found out the site needed a ton more features to make it a sustainable project. Luckily, some weeks later I met Tony Territo, who is the original founder of remote.io. We quickly realized we had a lot of common ideas about the future of remote work and this sparked a conversation around combining remote.io and nomadify (our MVP) to further expand the platforms. Last September, we merged our ventures, which are now part of Innovation Labs Limited.

We decided to first re-brand and re-develop the Remote.io platform, which is going to be launched in a few weeks. Below you’ll see a sneak peak of what we call remote.io 2.0, so stay tuned while we are finalizing this beautiful platform with thousands of remote job listings around the world!

Note to recruiters: on the launch day of remote.io 2.0 we’re going to give away a whopping discount of 70% to post a job, so make sure to follow us.

Moving to Bali

After some thinking and doubting during COVID-19, I decided to prepare for a trip to once more explore Bali. It’s fascinating how much has been changed the past years, together with Chiang Mai, Bali has become the hotspot for digital nomads. There are even talks about a new digital nomad visa, something countries and territories such as Estonia, Barbados, Bermuda, and Dubai already offer.

I used to live in Asia for quite some years, and still today, I am fascinated by the rich culture and of course the food! Speaking of which, 10 years ago I got introduced to eating bugs in countries such as Thailand and China, and about a year ago I started to experiment with bug protein myself back home in The Netherlands.

Making a burger from insect protein

I am happy to see that several Western countries are finally starting to integrate bugs more into mainstream food and that it’s actively pursued as a solution to shortages of quality food. I sometimes experiment with bug proteins, and have made some delicious burgers from it recently. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s a great sustainable food source packed with vitamins and minerals. 

Studies even suggest that insect powder itself can act as a prebiotic, meaning it's food for other beneficial bacteria that grow within the healthy human gut. But insects are also a source of high quality protein, containing many essential amino acids required for human nutrition.

So, why not give it a try? Just Google for Insect Protein and some recipes. You can make pasta, cookies, and of course… burgers.

Products

Crypto.com card

While preparing for the move to Bali, I wanted to find a solution to not having to pay excessive conversion fees when withdrawing money from ATM’s abroad. Luckily, mainstream Crypto products are blowing up even more than I thought and now there's even generally available crypto debit cards with benefits that exceed traditional debit cards!

I have been trying the Crypto.com Visa debit card for a while now and it has been a good experience. Besides the wonderful looks of the full metal card, it has great benefits as well. With the Ruby coloured card you get 2% cash back on all your purchases and you receive the equivalent of a Spotify subscription (12,99 USD) paid in Crypto each month. There’s no ATM fees up to $400 USD per month and you’ll get interbank exchange rates up to $4,000 USD per month in case you’re traveling and need to swap between currencies.

On top of that, if you refer a friend, and you stake 2,500 CRO, then you and your friend both get a 25 USD sign up bonus. (staking means the holding of CRO in your wallet for a period of 6 months).

Signup here and use the referral code for a 25 USD bonus: 2fdxw2nw8g

Back to Nokia

The last phone from Nokia I owned was a Nokia 3310, some 20 years ago. I am an avid iPhone and Mac user but was looking for a simple second phone to use for business purposes. I stumbled upon the new Nokia 3.4, and even though there might be better smartphones in this price class, it feels good to have a piece of nostalgia back! 

That's it for now!

I'll keep this newsletter infrequent but feel free to opt out if it's not your taste. Please do reach out for questions and comments.