Hey there!
That’s the first article I’m actually writing for this newsletter.
Last one was originally intended for my other newsletter The European Engineer.
But then, after realising that I had been publishing too many articles on remote life / remote biz setups over there (mainly a newsletter about tech careers in Europe), I decided to create a new newsletter.
Which is the one you’re reading right now (RemoteGoats).
Today’s article is free.
Next one will be - at least partially - paywalled (it’ll probably be about my research on my next city to move to / best city for remote workers in Switzerland).
In today’s article we’ll make some progress on the analysis already carried out in my other newsletter:
I’ll be sharing a few considerations I made, since coming back to Warsaw after the past 6+ months in Zurich.
Plus, some comparisons with Dubai.
I will also zoom-out, re-introduce myself, and give a big picture / biographical / historical explanation of how I got here.
In case you don’t follow me there yet, check out my X profile.
Some of the things I’ll post here today come from there.
(at this point I’m basically using it as a note taker / drafts collector, for things that I then re-elaborate and wrap up in an article such as this one)
Alright, let’s get into it!
A little background first
Here is Nicola Amadio.
I’m an Italian national, currently based in Zurich, Switzerland.
I’m 31, male, and this is my background in a few sentences:
Grew up in small-town Italy
From 5 to 15 years old, I spent most of my time training and doing sailing competitions (“optimist” class first, then “laser”)
I went to a humanities focused high-school despite being more math/science-inclined (wanted to expand my horizons). Looking back: an interesting choice, given that my current job is 50% writing.
Afterwards, I went on to study Robotics Engineering in “the best uni in Italy” (which I didn’t really like) in Milan.
Then, I worked as a dev in Zurich for a year, and went back to Milan for a master’s degree in Computer Science (thinking I’d end up doing a PhD in AI).
In the meantime, I spent half a year in Germany (in Bavaria, during high-school), almost 1 year in Spain (half in Seville during the bachelor and half in Madrid for my master’s thesis), and about 1 year in Zurich.
Then I spent 6 months in Barcelona interning for Amazon.
And afterwards went back to Zurich to work first in a Scandinavian tech consulting firm, and then at Oracle.
You can see my “CV” on LinkedIn.
What you can also see from my LinkedIn is that I have over 57k followers. This is because, while at Oracle, I started The European Engineer newsletter (now almost 14k subscribers), sharing all the hard-earned lessons around pursuing top tech careers in Europe and making good money that way.
As I started this journey as an online entrepreneur, I bumped into another riddle: where do I move to, now that I earn online? Does it make sense to stay based in the most expensive city in the world (Zurich)?
I found this question hard to answer, and went on on a long discovery path, that reminded me my previous discovery path of “how to make good money as a dev in Europe”.
Since the obsession and research about that previous topic ended up giving me useful info to share online, get an audience, and build products, I thought I’d do the same for this new path.
Which is why I launched this newsletter and the AI-based software tool to find a place to move to (remotecompass.ai).
So that’s roughly how we got here.
My current setup is: base in Zurich + exploring other locations.
When I started my business, I was resident in Switzerland, operating as a sole proprietor.
But I wanted to open an LLC.
I research the topic in-depth, spent way too much time on it, and since I didn’t find another good place to move to, and didn’t want to have my company in one place while living in another (to avoid tax complication), I set up shop in Switzerland.
I’m not unhappy about my current hybrid setup. You can read more about it also in last week’s article, i.e.:
It’s also not a perfect setup, obviously.
Today’s article (and probably future ones too) will touch on the nuances about its pros and cons, and on the things I get to learn while I study and research how to improve it / refactor it.
As I mentioned earlier, my “second base” at the moment is Warsaw.
It’s not really an “official” or “terminal” solution, but rather a place I ended up hanging out in often, over the past couple of years.
A little background on how I ended up in Warsaw:
While being based in Zurich, during my last job at Oracle, I would spend long weekends and/or holidays abroad, checking out some cities that could give me what Zurich wasn’t giving me:
A great nightlife
Affordability
Social and dating scene
All 3 are pretty horrible in Zurich. And it’s not like I didn’t try.
I went out every weekend in Zurich for a few years but the experience was always the same: spent a lot of money, went to fairly boring and very “mid” places.
Same with dating: dated tens of girls, yet didn’t find one that I was happy starting a serious relationship with.
Obviously, all these things might be subjective:
Maybe you like spending time in the mountains more than going to restaurants/bars/clubs.
Maybe you prefer to date “math geniuses girls” (dated a few ETH students back then that were a bit like that) or “western girls” that go 50/50.
But, to be honest, I talked to plenty of people and they mostly agree:
You’re gonna pay $10 for a matcha latte and $50 on a normal pizza + beer, locals have like 5 friends each (made in high school, keeping them for life), most expats are obsessed with FIRE and retire back to their home country, are corporate drones, or not that fun in general.
Dating is not great.
Girls are generally worse looking - and less nice overall? - than in many other cities out there; I heard from female friends that it’s the same for them dating in Zurich actually 😆 I guess it’s because it’s a fairly nerdy/corporate city and many people don’t look that good and/or have poor sense of style, or maybe mostly working in industries like pharma/tech/finance with little media/beauty/fashion industry etc.
That’s why I started spending many weekends abroad and travelling more in general.
Since my job was in Zurich and I would often just travel for the weekend, I mostly explored Europe.
Southern Europe IMO is elite for early and late summer
Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey. All great: weather, sea, nature, food, vibe, people, etc.
Zurich is actually quite nice during summer
As it’s most vibrant part of the year, with quite a few events, both free and paid. There’s the lake and the rivers, and it’s not as crowded or hot as other places in Southern Europe. Which is why I would spend the peak summer months here, and then go to southern europe for early/late summer.
Western and northern Europe is pretty much useless at this point.
Not particularly fun, increasingly dangerous, not that cheap, a bit woke, etc.
The only 2 cities I would regularly hop on in this category are Paris and Milan. Both are cool, in the end, and have a direct train from Zurich. So that’s pretty much the only exceptions I would do.
Lisbon I used to go to because at some point I had a rental property there. It’s a nice city overall!
Central/Eastern Europe is where I found the best big cities:
Safe. A big one tbh if you’re going out at night etc.
Affordable. Also important if you plan to go out, ball etc.
Fun. Compared to Western Europe, which is stagnating and where it seems to me everyone is a bit low on energy or a bit depressed, Central/Eastern Europe is GROWING and has a captivating buzz.
Great for dating. On one hand, girls are more feminine and usually more enjoyable to date. Plus, I find that there’s way more good-looking girls in this area of Europe (not sure if it is genetics, the way they take care of themselves, or something else). If you like latina-type girls, you might prefer Spain and Portugal. If you want to go 50-50 (broadly speaking), stick to Western Europe - Central/Eastern Europe is good if you don’t mind being the “man with a plan”.
Belgrade was cool and fascinating, Bucharest OK, Warsaw quite amazing.
Warsaw kinda has everything:
Modern
Great infra
Full of beautiful parks
Tons of places to go out
Sick skyline (tallest skyscrapers in EU)
Growing and also good for work and networking
So that’s why I ended up going there more regularly.
I haven’t moved there permanently, for a few reasons.
Some reasons I’ll highlight in today’s article, while discussing pros and cons of Zurich and Warsaw.
In general, though, I’m currently not of the opinion that you should “bank all on your country”.
I think if one has the flexibility and enough money, it’s worth building a diversified and international life. At least to some extent.
You never know what is gonna happen in the future, and you want to keep your options open.
I still think that committing to places (and people) has value, though. And that’s why I’m in the process of doing a thorough research on where to set up long-term.
This year will check out Dubai, which is the de facto home of 90% of online entrepreneurs. And, either end of 2026 or 2026, check out also some popular spots in Asia and LATAM, such as Singapore, Uruguay, and more.
I will talk a little bit about Dubai as well later on in this article.
If you want to get an idea of my aforementioned experiences traveling/workationing in Europe, you can check some vibes on my IG posts/highlights. 📷
Warsaw
Pros
Switzerland
Pros
Cons
We already talked about them earlier on, as well as in the aforementioned previously published articles.
Dubai
Here’s some more perspectives about Dubai (and its pros/cons) as shared by someone who recently moved there from London.
The argument for which “Dubai is not polluted because most of the PM2.5 is desert dust, which is not unhealthy” is completely BS and here’s why:
So, yeah… Not great. Also no seasons, far from Europe - compared to a base in Europe (obviously).
Conclusion
First of all, I’d like to take the time to thank you for joining me in this new adventure! ❤️
Let me know by replying to this email where you found this newsletter (if on X, LinkedIn, etc). And why you decided to subscribe (so I also know what topics to touch on in the future).
Make sure to become a paid subscriber if to join our Discord community and access paid articles, like the one I’ll publish next, on my Swiss city research.
What’s next
As hinted above, for now I plan to stay based in Switzerland, and I’m looking for the better options with regards to where exactly in Switzerland to be based in, and for which months to be there during the year, and how to improve the logistics of my setup.
I’ll share my progress on all of this in the next article.
With regards to Warsaw, for now I’ll keep hanging in there, together with my other “2nd bases” like south of Europe in early/late summers, and Milan/Paris as weekend gateways when I’m in Zurich.
As mentioned above as well, now that I’m fully-remote with my job, I’d also like to spend some time outside of Europe, checking out places strategically (and for fun).
Long-term, while I believe in diversification, I also think that probably I will always hold a European-bias in my planning.
To stay close to home / family / friends / parents as they age etc.
Because I like the European lifestyle.
Cause my gf (and her family) is European too.
Thanks for reading it all, appreciate the support!
Social life and going in Zurich are fairly bad + everything is overpriced.