Before the arrival of our son, we used to cook at home a lot and also eat out very frequently. In Barcelona, you can find lots of great options for lunch since most restaurants have a menu del dia, which means a set menu for a fixed price that is usually excellent value for money.

Given that we both worked from home, it was a nice break from work to go out and have a nice lunch somewhere before getting back to work.

Around the last year or so, a new trend seems to have arrived in Barcelona. The trend consists of kitchens instead of restaurants. So the kitchens would cook dishes and concentrate on selling them via delivery apps or by customers picking up their orders at the kitchen. This minimizes the costs of having tables and staff serving those tables.

As a customer, I love the idea. It’s a trend that has been picking up steam in the United States as well. What we’re seeing is essentially the nascent era of cooking as a service. In much the same way as we have outsourced a lot of our daily chores to specialized services, cooking seems to be the next chore that is going to be outsourced in developed nations.

Cooking has traditionally been the role of the woman, and it takes up quite a lot of time to shop for the ingredients, cook and then clean up after. If you have a family with a few kids, it takes even more time. If you calculate it, it could easily take 4-5 hours a day once you factor in everything. Since more women are heading back to the workplace, it makes sense for them to outsource this chore.

In my opinion, leaving the cooking to a specialized chef will also most likely result in you eating a healthier and more varied diet. A kitchen with a good chef will be churning out many different dishes, while if you cook at home you will most likely eventually stick to a small variety of tried and tested dishes. Unfortunately, we are also living in a period in history where food has become very processed, and good raw materials are not easy to come by. A chef who buys raw material in bulk has the expertise of being able to distinguish between poor and great quality fish, poultry etc, and he can even buy it at a cheaper price due to his contacts and the amounts he is buying.

Even without calculating the monetary value of time spent on cooking, food is easily the biggest monthly expense for my family after rental payments. Since switching to purchasing most of our food from one of the kitchens, our costs have remained equal, but we have gained a lot of extra time and eat way better since we have a professional chef with years of experience cooking for us.

Here are some reasons for giving up cooking your own food:

• Gaining extra time
• Spending more time with your partner and kids
• Letting the pros do the work
• Better control your portions
• Protecting yourself from injuries (burns, cuts etc)
• Less cleaning up
• No grocery shopping

Another benefit for me specifically as I pursue athletic excellence for padel is that I can have my dietician coordinate with my fitness coach and chef to make sure I am getting exactly the right fuel for my workouts and upcoming tournaments. If I had to do this myself I would definitely get it wrong and it would be too time-consuming.

Cooking at home on occasion is of course still a nice idea, especially when it involves all family members and serves as a relationship-building activity. It’s also great to go out for a nice meal at a restaurant every once in a while.

Here are some related services in the US and Canada. I hope to see more of them opening up in Europe.

• Genie
• Home Chef
• Sun Basket
• Freshly
• Blue Apron
• EveryPlate

In Spain, we have the following healthy food delivery services available in major cities so far:

• Wetaca
• Foodinthebox
• Fitdietbox
• Menudiet

There also some kitchens focused on healthy cuisine in Barcelona, which I’ve listed in another post.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

Over the past twenty years I’ve learned how to distinguish between amateurs and professionals. I’ve seen the difference in many areas of work and life and at the core it’s always the same concepts that differ the best performers from the mediocre.

So what are these differences between amateurs and professionals; what sets the great thinkers and action-takers apart?

The answer is nuanced and likely multifaceted.

There are many differences. Let’s consider some general ones.

·  Amateurs have a goal. Professionals have a process.

·  Amateurs give up at the first sign of trouble and assume they’re failures. Professionals see failure as part of the path to growth and mastery.

·  Amateurs focus on identifying their weaknesses and improving them. Professionals focus on their strengths.

·  Amateurs complain about mankind’s flaws, biases, and contradictions; professionals exploit them for fun and profit.

·  Amateurs think good outcomes are the result of their brilliance. Professionals understand good outcomes are (also, largely) the result of luck and randomness.

·  Amateurs want money. Professionals want freedom.

·  Amateurs focus on the short term. Professionals focus on the long term.

·  Amateurs avoid risks. Professionals take and domesticate risks.

·  Amateurs think in absolutes. Professionals think in probabilities.

·  Amateurs seek to win the rat race. Professionals seek to escape it.

·  Amateurs look for problems. Professionals look for solutions.

·  Amateurs save money. Professionals both save and invest money.

Reference: Farnam Street Blog

One of the reasons that I am not interested in politics is the fact that most of what politicians say is just fluff and outright lies. When their lies and corruption gets uncovered later, they resort to apologies and pronounce them “mistakes”.

Big businesses, like politicians, have a habit of making very good use of the words “apology”, “mistake” and “sorry” for things that were not mistakes in the first place, and for which they are not really sorry in the original sense of the word.

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Just watch this:

Being a digital nomad for several years was one of the most enriching experiences in my life, and I would say our time spent living in Chiang Mai in Thailand were an essential part of that whole experience.

Chiang Mai was ground zero for digital nomads back then, although now there are many other good options. It was the platform we needed to both launch me and my wife’s life together as a couple as well as grow our business.

No wonder I think back very fondly of our time in Chiang Mai and Thailand in general.

However nowadays I’m seeing a trend of too many people being sold the dream of living in paradise and earning money with little or no skills.

I also think that perhaps the Thai government have not handled the increased interest from foreigners that well. People wanting to go to Thailand and work from there have a harder time now getting visas and the exchange rates are not as good as they once were, decreasing the overall attractiveness of the place.

My word of warning is that Thailand and other Asian countries are not necessarily the paradise that Instagrammers describe. Life is rougher there in many ways than what you are used to back home in Europe or the US. You will need to adapt and you better have some savings and skills if you want to live comfortably without worries and actually enjoy the good sides of these places.

I think the video below sums the point I’m getting to quite well:

Basically, if you want to be a digital nomad, by all means consider it and explore the options, but do it because it actually fits in with your goals and ideals and not because other people are promoting it as the ultimate lifestyle.

What works for them will not necessarily work for you, reality is not always what it looks like on Instagram, and nothing comes for free. You will have to work hard and adapt yourself in many ways, but if you can do that it can be a very enriching experience that will serve you very well for the rest of your life, whether you decide to become a permanent traveler or settle down back in a more conventional place in the West.