This week: EXIT HQ; File leaders

“There’s nowhere left to go.”

Think of your ten closest friends: the guys you talk to every day, or nearly; the people with whom you have the most alignment, who you’d like to raise your kids around. How many live within a 20-minute drive?

In my case, only one of them lives within an hour of my house, and no two of them live within 200 miles of each other.

It’s just so much easier nowadays to find friends all over the world who really get you.

But as the internet has made it easier to find your weird niche ideological subtribe, it has also made it far more difficult to be certain of common ground, no matter where in the world you live.

My rural county went 70% for Trump in 2020, but everyone under 30 is adopting the same insane ideological commitments and watching the same weird porn as everywhere else. I live 1,700 miles from the border, but the immigrant situation is about what it was back home in North Texas.

Doomers say, “There is nowhere left to go” — and they’re right — but all that means is that geography is increasingly irrelevant. It’s not longer feasible to run away to Montana or Idaho, but it’s also easier for our people to shop jurisdictions and build the communities we want.

If my parents wanted to move, they had to give up their entire professional and social network. Even if the taxes sucked or whatever, it wasn’t worth moving — certainly not out of state.

But now, our professional and social ties are everywhere, and nowhere. If you can earn a USD salary from your laptop, why not live somewhere with perfect weather and a weak currency?

Citizenship renunciations among the wealthy are skyrocketing, partly due to economic and political mismanagement, but it’s not just the US — high-net-worth migration is way up, all over the world. And unlike in previous decades, the US is no longer the undisputed destination of choice. All over the world, the smart money is moving.

Being geographically distributed is obviously not ideal — the last two years have taught me that there are fundamental constraints on “virtual networking” — and there are all sorts of cool things we could do if we lived in the same town.

If I want my kids to grow up in an actual neighborhood with my ten friends, and have barbecues and book clubs and a “neighborhood watch”, at least nine of us are going to have to move.

So, this year, we’re pulling up stakes.

We’re going to create the kind of place where my friends would want to raise their kids — where we can build together, in the real world.

We wanted to find a place close to a tech hub, but in a red state with a friendly regulatory environment. That narrowed it down to Austin or Miami — and since Austin is comparatively cheap and family-friendly, and we’ve already got a solid crew out there, it was a pretty easy decision.

I also like Austin as a nerve center for the group as a whole — cheap, short flights to most US cities, and quick access to Central America.

I’ll have more to say on this in the coming months. I’ll be in Austin for most of March, scouting locations and drawing up plans with friends.

File Leaders

For the last two years, I have been the primary bottleneck in the group, and we’ve long since outgrown my capacity to keep everyone connected.

So, last Tuesday night, we put out a call for volunteers to lead small groups of 5-10, organized by geography and/or expertise. These file leaders will help new members get acclimated, and check in with each of their guys once a month to make connections and help him find what he needs in the group.

Huge thanks to all the guys who signed up. You’ll receive your list tonight. Everyone else should hear from their leader later this week.

Speed Networking

One of the guys put together a virtual speed networking event on Thursday — a great way for the guys to get to know each other outside the framework of the accountability calls. Will announce date for the next one soon.

Utah Valley Meetup

We’ll be grilling at an Airbnb and having an unconference for members this Friday, March 1. Newsletter subscribers and other guests are invited to a cocktail hour mixer that evening (link below the fold, along with Seattle (3/29) and Austin (4/26) meetups).

Or sign up as a full member today at exitgroup.us.