Thomas Germond 🖼️

Why I'm leaving Bali after 6 years: - Far from everything - Not cheap anymore - Air is polluted - Food chain is polluted - Ocean is polluted - Not walkable - Too hot all year - Wife gets catcalled often I want mild weather, walkable areas, organic shops, clean air, tax-friendly, and young vibes. It's a utopia, of course, but I'll choose the place that ticks the most boxes.

They said photography wasn’t art. They said cinema wasn’t art. They said video games weren’t art. Now they say AI arts/digital art isn’t art. I’ve spent over a decade with my studio team turning millions of data points into living, breathing artwork experiences ethically — at MoMA, at the Guggenheim, at the Venice Biennale. Not because a machine told me what to create, but because I had a vision that no traditional tool could realize. Denying all AI technologies as an artistic medium doesn’t protect art. It limits it. The artists who embrace new tools don’t replace the old masters — they join them. Art is not defined by the brush. It’s defined by the intention, the emotion, and the courage to see the world differently.

Where do I start… For a big part of my life, I didn’t fit in. At school, I’d argue with teachers because I didn’t like what I was learning. At university, I got bad grades and drank way too much to build a personality. At my short 9–5 job, I kept wondering what I was doing there. I joined Twitter in November 2021. When I discovered the indie hacking community, I felt a sense of belonging for the first time in my life. It’s hard to describe, but I loved the idea of working on your own thing and sharing everything publicly. It felt like freedom. So I started building startups. 1 in 2021. 10 in 2022. It took almost a year to reach 1,000 followers. I never planned to build an audience. I thought that if I kept building things, some people might discover my work. In my wildest dreams, maybe 10,000 followers? So I kept building. 10 more startups in 2023. As I shipped many small bets, some started to take off. They paid my rent. More people followed. Then ShipFast launched in August 2023. It reached $50k/month, and my audience started growing faster. In June 2024, my account passed 100k followers. It felt unreal. A few days ago, I saw my profile picture in the 𝕏 App Store screenshot. Today, my account crossed 300k. Now, some people recognize me in the street. None of this was planned. None of it was expected. I’m beyond grateful. Thank you for being here. You gave meaning to this whole journey. ❤️

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