Two Months in a ‘Ghost City’: What Network School Taught Me.

Published: 2025

“Where are you in the world?!” and “I have no clue where you are right now, but can you…” are, at this point, phrases I hear on a near-daily basis.

Current location: Network School, Malaysia.

I wanted to share where I am specifically this month, because I am genuinely fascinated and amazed by what is being built here.

What Network School actually is

Network School is a community of around 400-plus people living and working together on an island near the border of Malaysia and Singapore. Founders, engineers, creators — and people like me who work fully remotely and do not fit neatly into any of those categories.

The model is unusual. You live on-site. You work on your own thing. And you learn from people building things you did not even know existed. There is a gym, there are fitness classes (running in this humidity is genuinely wild), a co-working space, talks, and more conversations about the future of… everything… than you can possibly keep up with.

Why I nearly did not come

I will be honest: I was very sceptical. I nearly did not apply.

Being candid, I assumed it would be a community of “tech bros” — that everyone would be building AI or crypto, and that I would be the random woman talking about menstrual cycles in the corner. It is exactly the kind of assumption that is easy to make from the outside about any community that does not obviously include people like you.

But here I am. And so far it has been one of the most brain-expanding things I have done since leaving corporate life.

What it has actually been like

I have had conversations about community building, vibe coding, business models, longevity, AI, and workplace culture — sometimes all before lunch. Some of it I understand well. A lot of it I am learning as I go. (My AI tools are getting a serious workout.)

What I did not expect was how much it would sharpen my thinking about Nadi and about the consulting work I do — and how much it would affect my energy and focus in a good way. Being surrounded by people who are building from absolute scratch, and who genuinely believe in the power of remote workers from all over the world coming together to create a real community, is expansive in a way that is hard to describe until you are in it.

It has also been a useful lesson in checking my own assumptions. The community I expected to feel like an outsider in has turned out to be one of the most intellectually generous environments I have been part of. The “tech bros” I was wary of are, mostly, thoughtful people building interesting things and genuinely curious about what I am working on — including the menstrual health stuff I assumed would make me an outlier.

The broader point

There is a lesson here that goes beyond one residency in Malaysia. The environments that expand your thinking most are often the ones you are most tempted to dismiss from the outside. Proximity to people building things very different from your own work does something that no amount of reading about it can replicate.

Has anyone else done a residency, accelerator, or community experience that changed how you think? I would genuinely love to hear about it — I am now a convert to the idea that putting yourself somewhere unfamiliar, among people building things you do not fully understand, is one of the better investments you can make in your own thinking.