They’ve got clients everywhere, and they’re always hustling for new clients. This is the new economic order, part of it anyway. It’s not the future of all of us, doing...
...but it’s significant, and if you want to bring young talent here...
I don’t know. You’re working in a place you don’t have official work status.
But you’re still working.
I don’t know. I’m...OK.
It’ll be interesting to see what they...
What if you wanted to be established here? What if you wanted to stay longer‑term, or at least have some flexibility with that, and want health care and things like that? What if you wanted to pay into taxes? What if you wanted to be part of that system? It’s not that easy. You have to have that Taiwan...
I’m not sure what that is, like H‑1B or something?
Oh, I see.
...patents, or papers.
Sure. That’s pretty standard. Most countries attract...Anybody who’s got that certain level...
...Nobel prize.
I’m actually thinking about this global community, because you want to attract global talent, right?
I think there’s separation. The digital nomad is not the Silicon Valley professional, right?
They’re not software engineers, necessarily.
Yes, right.
They’re welcome here.
You get health care, and you get...
It sounds good.
How will they know about this, though? They’re working in Chiang Mai, and they’re sort of bopping around. Obviously, they’re well‑read, and they’re online, and they’ve done a lot of stuff, but, "Oh, let’s go to Taiwan."
"What’s the laws like?" "Oh, you can get your landing visa, the 90‑day landing visa." They may not ask the next question. "Well, what if I..." I guess that would..."
"...and I could be here for a while."
Kind of streamlined...
I see. As a producer, to me, you put together a visual, a media campaign or such, whether it’s a documentary or a commercial, things like that. I’m not sure if it’s just that bump up to the level of actually raising money for it and things like that, because the higher the quality, the higher the costs.
I’ve estimated with my director one to three million for a 10‑minute documentary about this very subject.
We think it could be very colorful, including surfing in Wi‑Ho, or all the other benefits of a cool place to stop.
It’s in the works, so how would I apply for...I don’t think the government’s just going to hand over money of that kind to a project like that.
This is the idea, "Taiwan Trending." Fast‑moving, music, skateboarding.
Why is it sort of broken out like that?
It was your idea, but they get the credit for it. [laughs]
No, they propose all the time, but they don’t...
Yes.
I guess...
Yeah, but if they’re president of the United States, it doesn’t really matter, right? They don’t need to extra credit.
Yeah. I would like to let you take a look at that. There’s other information I’d like to talk about. One is...You saw this, right?
This is so cool, that they’re opting out of Hong Kong, and the fact that a lot of Hong Kong people are immigrating here to get away from the oppression of the Mainland. I’m not anti‑China, but I think Taiwan is a special place for its tolerance and freedoms.
Was this a new article?
They’re under attack in Hong Kong, where there was supposed to be 50 years of freedom. It’s not. They’re lying.
This is the imagery of this sort of startup. This is all familiar stuff to you. I just wanted to say Berlin, London. This is London and Silicon Valley. There’s so much activity out there, these hubs, and I don’t really see it happening here. I know...
...startup stadium, but they’re sort of individual and separated.
I’ve only seen the sign.
TAF, right?
What’s happening to it now?
TAF is becoming more like a museum?
Showcasing, right?
But not purely the innovation sector?
This is sort of the second half of my presentation, which is something you may or may not have heard about. It’s called Building 21. It was a pretty ramshackle office space that entrepreneurs could go in and move walls and do all kinds of experimentation in the ’50s. It’s been torn down now, but it’s on the MIT campus.
I had this idea of why don’t you or we start something like that, Building 21, and sort of emulate what they did at MIT. The whole idea is...I’ve seen that the ITrI has something in Hsinchu. There’s a very expensive big building, all this great architecture. I’m not sure what the name of that is...
...but it’s gorgeous. It’s stunning. This is where people could go in and engage and even camp. It’s much more on the kind of grass‑roots level. Getting into the ITRI building, it just seems like there would be a wall of paperwork and red tape.
I think that that’s what is sort of like Steve Jobs’ garage, but before that. I like the story here. There was a lot of science and a lot of brains, and I know that there’s abandoned buildings in Taiwan that are just kind of sitting there.
