[michepriest]

First of all, congratulations on the success of your project!

Secondly, I'm sorry to hear about your headaches. I suffer from fragrance induced migraines as well as migraines triggered by pressure changes in the atmosphere. Calgary, Canada was terrible for me. I moved to Vancouver, and it's been a game changer.

I have a few questions:

1. What are all the ways your headaches impact your productivity?

2. What are all of the options available to you (other than location)?

Sounds like these need to be full-time cities for you to grow the AI research team. I'm wondering if a rotation could work or some other ways to grow the team without been in London full time. Options could include living outside of London and having the team come to you for their "off-site" a few times a month. I lived in Dorset. It's gorgeous there. Probably too far from London for you, but perhaps there's something workable.

3. What are all of the risks with all of the options available to you?

For example, missing out on talent by not being in a hub like London (an assumption to validate), not forming deep bonds by not being in London full-time (tons of ways to address this), etc. A risk analysis may help bring clarity to your decision.

I help people get unstuck for a living. Hopefully these questions help somewhat.

[notacat]

Thanks for the input.

The atmosphere change is an interesting hypothesis. It's one I though about but haven't researched much. Do you know good sources for reading about it?

With the team, we agree that me not being physically present sucks for everyone (in the plan where most people are in London but I'm not). We also think that things will work great in Zug because we can eventually open a second office in Zurich, and Zurich is a very decent tech hub for talent (for trading, crypto and and ML research).

What makes the choice tough is my belief that London is the "superior" tech hub in Europe, and I don't like missing out on it. I'm tempted to try an extended stay in London to see if the headache eventually goes away while there. But it's also a very unpleasant experiment, which makes me want to just go to Zug.

Regarding your questions:

1- I can work and I have energy when I have the headaches. But they are unpleasant and ruin my mood over longer periods, eg after a few days I don't look forward to doing things and I'm mostly concerned with feeling better, which ultimately affect my productivity quite a bit.

2- I have a daily log, and headaches are very correlated with location. I know that I will feel good in Zug, so if I want to solve the headache for good, going there is a good option. I also thought about quitting altogether (I have enough to retire and finance ambitious projects). But I think the best course of action is making the trading independent of myself by hiring people and transferring knowledge, then start the AI research operation. The AI research operation is my long term goal. I plan to operate it independently but in tandem with the trading. Both the trading and research will benefit from each other long term.

3-

- Going to London: potentially suffering long term from the headache and having to live elsewhere and away from the team

- Going to Zug: missing out on London

- Quitting: missing out on a potential bright future of the trading operation

[michepriest]

Thank you for your reply to my questions.

I don't have any reading materials to suggest. Calgary is known as being a "migraine capital." People talk about it with every Chinook (warm weather event with high pressure changes). There's a migraine forecast site https://www.accuweather.com/en/ca/calgary/t2p/migraine-weath...

I used the Migraine Buddy app to identify alcohol as a trigger. I haven't had a drink in 4 years, my frequency of migraines is reduced. I'm not sure where you log your headaches, but Migraine Buddy might be worth a try. They use the data to suggest ideas you might not have thought of otherwise.

I'm in a similar stage in my life. I want fulfilling work and to follow my curiosity. I also want a high quality of life which includes being healthy. I have a few suggestions to explore...

The question mark that's easy to time box and answer aside from the discomfort is London. Perhaps you can time box and commit to being there for a year to see if you would indeed be missing out on anything. While there, work diligently to build your research operation. This way you will know one way or another if you're missing out on anything. After a year, or sooner, you may have the data you need to make a more permanent decision. There is the risk of future relocation costs, but you can cross that bridge if it comes up.

See if there are ways to manage your concern with feeling better. That's much easier said than done, but I wonder if you have the expectation that it will be uncomfortable and don't attach the desire to eliminate it, if it will lessen the impact. Vipassana meditation is a technique that might help. Although you'd need to endure 10 whole days of silence (no talking, gesturing, eye contact, reading, or writing) which is mentally and physically (in the beginning before you learn the full technique) painful. The technique is powerful for pain management. The time away if you choose to take the course will also help you with your decision.

In advance of going to London if you decide to do so, research your options for triggers and treatments. Talk to others who suffer. See specialists if that's available to you. See what else you haven't tried. Seeing specialists may feel like overkill (I have a habit of being in denial about my migraines even though I've had them for 20+ years), but it's impacting the quality of your life enough that it's a factor in a decision as big as this.

Another option is to go to Zug and be content with doing what you can with what you have there. A client of mine said he wanted his company to be as big as Airbnb. I said being VRBO isn't a bad option either.

Another question for you: If you can imagine the best version of your company that's possible with the opportunities available in Zug, would that still be fulfilling?

I've made a couple of assumptions such as you not knowing about the Migraine Buddy app and not seeing specialists. I hope you don't mind. I thought it would help fast track the conversation. Happy to continue discussing further. A lot about your situation resonates with me

[notacat]

Thanks for the additional suggestions. If you want to take this offline and setup a private call email me at not_a_cat at fastmail