No crocs in southwest Australia. There are many poisonous snakes but they're really not a worry - more scared of you than you are of them. Wear boots and long socks if you're concerned. A lot of poisonous spiders, too, but just shake your boots out before you put them on and you'll be right. The real danger is heat, lack of water and remoteness. Hiking in summer is extremely ill-advised.

The big thru-hike track in SW Australia is the Bibbulmun Track: https://www.bibbulmuntrack.org.au/

Venemous. They're only poisonous if you eat them.

Was the stake enough to never work again (if you chose)? If so, how do you conceive of the rest of your life?

Not in my country but yes in Thailand etc.

I moved to the frontier of technological development and intend to stay here for the foreseeable future. What I think about now is pushing technological boundaries, not fulfilling my personal monetary needs.

This is a very sad perspective. You have thousands of years of art, history, media, culture to dive into. There are more hobbies out there than you could ever even attempt in your lifetime. There are more regions of the world than you could ever visit, more hikes than you could ever hike. Every day, artists all over the world make entirely new creations the world has never seen before - and there'll be even more tomorrow.

Having your life on autopilot is a choice you make.

It's better to think of Dwarf Fortress as a simulation project rather than a game. The developers have stated that improving the quality and depth of the simulation comes before making it playable or fun by games industry standards.

I like this idea much better. It is their intention.

I was there a few weeks ago. The soldiers are still there, in patrols and along roads, but they don't bother tourists. Electricity is pretty solid, cuts are common but long outages are rare. Most accommodation has UPS systems fitted anyway. The petrol shortages are a thing of the past and there are paved roads in some areas now (main roadways and Thamel).

Kathmandu is a nice city. The traffic and the dust are awful but the city is filled with charm.

I'm in Melbourne right now but I'd love to move over the strait to Hobart. Do you have a remote job? The only thing stopping me is not being able to find work there - of the many things Hobart has, a thriving high tech industry is not one of them.

Melbourne here too wave -- greatest city on Earth, IMHO (I'm not from here), but we were in Adelaide just last week and it's getting interesting there. I assume rent is cheaper than Melbourne due to lower demand.

Yeah, I've been writing open source software mostly, plus a bit of software consulting. Several folks in my co-working space work remotely for companies in Melbourne.

KL is also polluted and very dirty. I couldn't recommend it to someone used to clean air and clean streets.

Can try outskirts of KL such as Petaling Jaya / Bangsar / Damansara. Decent tech talent here. Decent number of tech meetups. English-speaking people in general.

Honestly, KL/Klang Valley is such a gem, cost of living is super low for USD folks. Met many Americans who work on their startup/product here. Your runway extends by 4x thanks to currency exchange.

A huge number of co-working spaces around. Gyms too.

He said he's from the Bay area so I doubt he's used to clean air and clean streets. :)

also the internet in MY is very slow an unreliable.

edit: fix abbr

Really, I live here and we have speeds up to 30Mbps/100Mbps/1Gbps. 3/4G is quite reliable too.

ML is Mali, Malaysia is MY.

I’m there a few times / year and never had a problem. Maybe if you rely on some coffee shops WiFi it could be a problem but that’s a general problem. Internet is really cheap too if you get a SIM card.

It's a lot more variable than surrounding countries in that you're more chance of winning the lottery than finding a coffee shop / restaurant / bar with usable internet, or working government sponsored free internet but 4G sim cards and coworking spaces, and chain hotels, it works well.

Your tax calculation is low I think - looks like $250k would put you in the 33% band, let alone any other regional tax calculations.

$60k/year spending for the rest of your life is very ambitious for a high CoL area. I don't think you're accounting for medical insurance, car ownership, home ownership fees, children, a spouse that earns less than you, etc etc. Costs go up as you get older.

I also don't think you've accounted for inflation.

Please also keep in mind that huge Google/Facebook/Bay Area salaries are a historical anomaly and will not persist throughout your entire career.

If you read the sentence just before it, 2% of GDP is the growth target: "[...] the Defence budget growing to two per cent of GDP by 2020–21". The $36b number is the target value in 2020-2021, not right now. The current US defence budget is 3.1% of GDP.

As a percentage of total government expenditure, Australia spends 6% on defence and the US spends 16%.