#6: Expanding Worlds

☀️ Travel as a Mindset

I’m writing to you from Rio de Janeiro! 🇧🇷 I’m here for Web Summit Rio (hit reply if you're around!) and working remotely for a few days. My focus: being intentional about balancing work, exploration, and learning while I’m here.

Growing up, traveling abroad was never just a vacation in my family - the main objective was education. Whenever we had the chance to travel, my parents made sure the days were filled with museums, cultural experiences, and local discoveries. I’m forever grateful for that: it wired me early on to approach travel not as escapism, but as expansion. And that mindset stuck.

In high school, I joined an international NGO that opened doors to travel across Europe.
Later on, I searched for programs, exchanges, and internships that combined travel with community connection. Today, even when I travel for work or quick getaways, I aim to move through places intentionally: observing, learning, staying open to new ways of thinking and living.

Because travel, when done with intention, doesn’t just change our scenery. It changes us. So this week, we’re diving into that spirit of intentional exploration, and how staying open to the world around us keeps our minds curious, resilient, and growing.

📖 3 Articles to Spark Your Curiosity

1. Authenticity Is the New Leadership Currency: In a world that’s constantly evolving, the most powerful thing leaders can offer is realness, not perfection

2. Travel as Education: Beyond postcards and checklists, travel has the power to transform who we are, if we approach it with the right mindset.

3. What Is Vibe Coding and Why Should You Care? A playful (but serious) look at how subtle, unspoken signals are shaping the future of work and innovation.

🗞️ 3 Headlines Worth Exploring

1. 19 AI Startups That Have Already Raised $100M+ in 2025: The AI boom is far from over. Here’s who’s leading the charge and why it matters.

2. Massive Sea Turtle Found, Rescued, and Returned to the Wild: A reminder that conservation wins happen when people come together to help.

3. The Future of Energy: Giant Batteries for Grid-Scale Storage. As renewable energy expands, solving where we store all that power is the next big frontier.

☀️ 3 Actions to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

1. Plan a local day trip, even in your own city. Pretend you're a tourist and explore a neighbourhood you've never really wandered through.

2. Pack for a day as if you’re traveling abroad (new café, new park, different route). See how changing your usual flow shifts your mood.

3. Write a postcard to yourself from today. Reflect on what feels new, what feels old, and what you’re grateful to be exploring right now.

⚡ 6 Quick Resources

🎧 To listen: 60 Songs That Explain the '90s - A musical time machine into the '90s (and now the 2000s), breaking down the songs that shaped two unforgettable decades. Come for the nostalgia, stay for the brilliant storytelling.

🛠️ To try: Using ChatGPT at Work - Practical ways to incorporate AI without the overwhelm + 100 prompts to experiment with!

🎮 To play: National Geographic’s Where Should You Travel Quiz - Let your wanderlust pick your next destination (I got: “43% - You should visit Raja Ampat, Indonesia.” Hit reply and share your result!)

📖 To read: NASA’s Rover Finds Strange Rocks on Mars - Perseverance (the rover, not just the trait) continues to surprise us!

📺 To watch: London’s Hidden Roman History - A journey through how modern London is built on ancient ruins (previously known as: Londonium)

📚 To learn: The Monkey King’s Escape Attempts - A brilliant animated breakdown of this Chinese myth, and how wit and trickery meet spiritual lessons.

🎲 This week’s wonderfully random corner of the internet 

📺 MyRetroTVs.com - I wasn’t around during the '50s (or any decade until the late '90s, lol), but flipping through these retro TV channels still gave me a sense of nostalgia. And you know, nostalgia + randomness = a curious mind’s break room.

📝 Word of the Week

Fernweh (German, noun) – A longing for faraway places; the urge to explore beyond the horizon.

It’s not just wanderlust, but that deep, almost homesick feeling for places you’ve never even been.

🧘‍♀️ Question of the Week for Introspection

Where (or when) in your life have you felt the biggest internal shift after stepping into a new environment?

See you next Sunday! Until then, keep your eyes open, your questions big, and your sense of wonder alive.

Your curious internet friend,

Ruxandra