Personal decision:
1. Sri Lanka is in multiple crises (economy, fuel, meds, industries of all sorts struggling). This is backed up by Watchdog data.
2. Those who can leave are leaving or have left already
3. Food is the next big crisis. It’s coming. Urban poor are hardest hit.

One of the things I’ve been thinking hard since 2019 (when I started seeing the writing on the wall) is how to survive as a writer in systems collapse.
Solution is simple. Either I leave and write poverty porn from afar, or I stay and do something.

First path is not an option. While I have no problems with others leaving the country, I care enough about this place to stick around. It isn’t patriotism; I don’t like most people; but this is home and I’m damned if I’m going to be turfed out.

Second path: something. But what something?
1. Writing. Mostly because I like it. That’s forex coming in (I almost never publish locally)
2. Keeping Watchdog alive past our funding
3. Making sure I have enough food and energy to support myself, family, and friends

4. Maybe figuring out some creative solutions to hard problems like housing
(Construction industry is being gutted; concrete is extraordinarily expensive; I estimate between 600K and 1 mill people losing their jobs in the industry )
So

1. Sometime next year, I will go off-grid and become a farmer. I cannot depend on the state for reliable energy and food, but I can build enough infrastructure to sort my needs out.
2. I’m going to build a house using earthbags. Minimal reliance on concrete or supply.

Possible outcomes:
1. I either starve or I gain some independence from conditions around me
2. House collapses on me and I die, or I end up with a workable build system that reduces (~30% est) cost of building a home

Gains are high enough to be worth the risk

With enough solar energy @nisalperi and I can keep Watchdog running way into the future. There’s plenty of shit to be done; from tracking people of interest to exploring more robust avenues for digital democracy (we have plans).

It’s ironic that I’ve spent so much time bashing libertarians, but here I am essentially becoming a hardcore prepper.
By mid next year this account will mostly be about these experiments and the occasional update from Watchdog.
Everything I learn will be documented.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t some sort of ‘I’m being a selfless activist’ bs. This is me pulling the trigger on a plan that’s been on since 2019. There are problems that I’m solving for my interests first.

But it’s going to be interesting. Either I die (low but nonzero probability) or I end up with the peace of mind to work on my writing, and can still continue to be able to help the overall system of the country in some small way.

Reward outweighs risk. Onward!

Realistically this also means that some things about me will die. Eg: academic career. FWIW, I doubt I’ll be working on local language NLP problems anymore. That system relies on too many levels of functional abstraction to be worth the effort right now.

But some new things will emerge. For example, I’ve spent the last three years now studying architecture, and ways of highly robust building that don’t need a lot of modern tech. From load bearing structures in European castles to qanats to wattle and daub.

I’m not a certified architect, so the easier option for me to do what I always do - is to build, test, record data, and learn by practice and trial and error. It’s pretty much how I’ve done everything so far.

My friend @UmeshMoramudali points out that if I can apply this

It’ll be solving a major problem for the middle class of the country (affordable housing in an economy that was unaffordable even before it crashed)
Dunno about scale. But one way or the other, I’ll figure out enough to keep coming back with proofs of concept. And more novels.