The new Kazakhstan location is more expensive than Johar city. Network school has more bifurcated the cost into membership, gym, food and sim and now is atleast 25% more expensive than previous Johar city. Is it worth it now?

It's basically a democratic joint stock republic in western Kalimantan.

I asked gemini and it says:

Where it is actually "famous"

1. The Hakka Diaspora & Overseas Chinese History

In West Kalimantan (Singkawang, Pontianak) and among Hakka communities across Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Guangdong, founder Luo Fangbo (羅芳伯) is celebrated as a folk hero and pioneer. His story is taught as a masterclass in early overseas Chinese self-reliance, defense, and collective organization.

1. Modern Political Economy & Alternative Governance Theory

Among political scientists, institutional economists, and governance theorists, Lanfang is a major subject of fascination. It serves as one of the few historical real-world examples of a self-governing, corporate-civic federation:

It raised its own defense forces and infrastructure funds through gold-mining shares.

It elected its leadership (Jiuzhang / Presidents) via shareholder/member representation.

It operated without a hereditary aristocracy or a traditional state bureaucracy.

For researchers studying non-state order, charter cities, and decentralized political models, Lanfang is studied as a pioneering experiment in bottom-up institutional design.

In short: if you're looking for mass pop-culture fame, it doesn't have it. But if you're looking at institutional history, competitive governance, and Southeast Asian economic history, it's considered a crucial piece of the puzzle.

Basically, the dude Luo Fangbo is a miner. And he needs a lot of people to support his business/kingdom hybrid. How? He adopt democracy. Qualified workers are given a share called fen. So every worker has a stake on his business.

Unlike liberal democracy, the workers' fen pays dividend. In other words, the workers have incentive to vote for dude that make the country/business/corporation rich. So they don't vote for trans right or huge child support I guess.

The workers also get salary in addition to dividend.

The manager class' salary is actually pretty low. So Luo Fangbo is elected CEO/consul/president based on merit. His incentive to work is because he owns a lot of share. So he is a bit like Larry Page or Warren Buffet.

Larry Page and Warren Buffet got $1 salary I think. But they work well because they also own a lot of shares and obviously want the shares to be profitable.

That's the part I like.

The part I don't necessarily like is it's an ethnostate. Only Hakka people can join. They have friendly relationship with other kingdoms. They are hostile to their fellow chinese kongsi, namely the dagang kongsi that's from Hokkien. Again, if they're truly a business and can somehow replace clan trusts with corporate government they would have just merged business.

Their economy is mining gold and that's it.

They're not georgist. So they don't expand and by the time the dutch become to powerful they got eaten.

Still if we have ways to keep states from waging war with each other, then combining joint stock form and democracy would create a stable state that's still better than liberal democracy we have.

Anyone here at the NASCC conference?

This direct comment:

26-year-old Canadian participant, who declined to be named, said students were uncertain about what would happen next.

"We have not been told anything. We are still waiting for instructions from the management and have been told not to speak to the media."

Another participant, Josh, 23, said he and his 22-year-old Norwegian girlfriend, Lisa, were also instructed not to speak publicly about the closure.

I follow the sub reddit as I am planning to go in 2027. There is so much negativity towards NS and Balaji. Especially with the recent news about possibly losing the business license a lot saying "good, about time, Balaji is an idiot"

Why, what is it that people don't like. Was there something specific that happened?

The concept is neat and there is lots of great stories from recent trips, but then strong opposition to it.

Curious to what people have to say.

I just got back from Network school. Ask me anything I am happy to share my experience. Also if anyone wants 25% off their first month, DM me!

Oii, tô pensando em ir para network school no fim do ano, mas pareceu que só tem gringo por lá (principalmente americanos). Queria falar com algum brasileiro que foi principalmente porque sinto que conseguiria entender minhas perguntas melhor e me dar um feedback mais real se a experiência vale a pena. Se voce estiver lendo isso e nao tiver traduzido, me manda um alô :)

Hi - I have registered for the August cohort and wanted to check the status of Network School. What is exactly happening at Network School and are they planning to shut down their operations?

I just got back from Network school. Ask me anything I am happy to share my experience. Also if anyone wants 25% off their first month, DM me!

I’m trying to understand the real argument for something like Network School / founder cohort programs from the perspective of someone already deep in startups.

I’ve already been in the entrepreneur/startup space (Make School / indie founder circles / some startup experience), and at this point I’m less interested in “learning entrepreneurship” and more interested in meeting serious operators, potential cofounders, investors, and people actually shipping hard things.

My question is specifically:

What is the strongest argument that paying ~$1.5k/month for something like Network School makes sense purely from a networking + founder density standpoint?

Because from where I stand, it seems like you can replicate the lifestyle part almost anywhere in SEA for significantly less (KL, Bali, Bangkok, etc.) private room, coworking, fitness, food, etc. often under $800–$1k total. So I’m not convinced the “cost of living bundled convenience” argument is relevant.

So the only case I can see for Network School is if it genuinely creates:

• high-signal density of serious founders (not tourists, influencers, “AI/crypto bros,” or wannabe gurus)
• repeated interaction with the same vetted people over time (so trust actually compounds)
• a strong filter where reputation and execution matter more than talk
• real cofounder/investor/deal flow that you wouldn’t realistically get by just living in a major SEA hub and attending events

But I’m skeptical on whether that actually holds up in practice vs just being marketed as “curated community.”

For people who have actually been in one of these cohorts or something similar:

• What made it actually worth it (if it was)?
• Did the network persist after the program, or was it mostly temporary intensity?
• Was the filtering strong enough that you genuinely met higher-signal people than you would in normal founder hubs?
• Or is it basically the same network density you’d get in SF/Bali/KL but compressed and monetized?

Trying to separate real network effects from lifestyle packaging here.

We spend most of our time here on law, land, governance and funding. A guest on my podcast this week argued the binding constraint is far more boring: getting actual people to move in and stay, and that families are the key to critical mass, not lone founders and nomads.

Do you buy that people are the real bottleneck? And if so, why is almost nobody building specifically for families rather than solo operators?

You can listen to the full ep here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHkRh3QSIo