✨ What's up in the (R) is a behind-the-scenes look at what's happening inside the R Generation community - written by the humans actually building it.

Hi (R)emotes 👋

Boris usually writes this one.

But Boris is busy, and I have things to say, and Silvia told me the newsletter is mine now.

So here we are.

Greetings! I'm Deb. Community Catalyst for R Generation, editor of ☕️ (R)emote Expresso, and the person who records team calls on her phone because her brain runs away from the important stuff if she doesn't.

This is what's up in the (R).

No polish here. Just honest updates from inside the conversations.

The newsletter is changing.

More voices. More of what's actually happening inside this community - from the people living it. I'm still figuring out exactly what that looks like, but the direction is clear: less top-down, more us.

This issue is proof of concept.

We want to feature you.

Here's something we've been talking about: a dedicated spotlight in the newsletter for community members who are doing something worth knowing about. Not a brag piece. Something more like - this person figured something out, built something interesting, is working on something real.

The question I want to ask every member: What would you like to be acknowledged for today?

Think about how rarely anyone asks you that. Think about the last time someone just... clapped for you.

We want to build a pipeline of those stories - so there's always someone to spotlight and I'm never chasing anyone down at the last minute. If you have something worth sharing, hit reply. Tell me what you'd want acknowledged. That's it. That's the whole ask.

Co-working and office hours are coming back.

Steve Lastavich is relaunching sessions - alternating co-working weeks with what I can only describe as sparring-partner-style office hours, where you bring a stuck problem and leave less stuck. More details coming. Watch the community events calendar.

We're thinking differently about who's in the room.

One of the things we talked about on our last team call: a lot of community members are quiet. Not because they don't have things to say - because nobody's made it easy to say them. We're working on changing that. Smaller asks. Lower friction. More ways to participate that don't require you to be brave in front of strangers.

More on all of this as it develops.

Last week our team had one of those calls.

You know the kind. You're supposed to talk about one thing, and you end up somewhere completely different, and it's so much better than what you planned.

We ended up talking about language.

Specifically - the cost of working in your second or third language. The way your ideas move faster in your native tongue than they do in English. The way brilliance gets lost in translation - not because it isn't there, but because the labor of translating it eats the energy that should be going into the idea itself.

And then we fell into the rabbit hole I cannot stop thinking about.

Words that exist in other languages that English doesn't have.

Not just "untranslatable words" in the cute listicle sense. Words that, when you sit with what they mean, make you realize English has been leaving entire human experiences unnamed.

A few that have been living rent-free in my head:

Cariño (Spanish) 🔊 kah-REE-nyoh

Warmth. Tenderness. The feeling of being held by someone who genuinely loves you. Not romantic, not platonic exactly - just... warm human love. There's no single English word for this. We have to use a whole sentence. The Spanish just... have it.

Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan, indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) 🔊 mah-mee-la-PEE-na-ta-pie

The look two people share when they both want something to happen but neither wants to be the one to initiate it. Every single human has felt this. Most languages don't have a word for it. This one does.

Forelsket (Norwegian) 🔊 foh-RELS-ket

The euphoric feeling of falling in love for the first time. Not love itself - the falling. The specific joy of that particular moment in time that only happens once with each person. One word.

Torschlusspanik (German) 🔊 TOR-shluss-pah-nick

Literally "gate-closing panic." The anxious feeling that time is running out, that opportunities are closing, that you need to make a decision before it's too late. Every person over 35 who has ever stared at the ceiling at 3am knows this feeling intimately. German gave it a name.

Saudade (Portuguese) 🔊 saw-DAH-deh

A deep longing for something or someone you love that is gone - or maybe never existed. Nostalgia, but heavier. More resigned. The ache of absence as a way of being. Our crew based in Portugal knows this one in their bones - and honestly, so does anyone who's ever moved far from home.

Hyggelig (Danish) 🔊 HUE-geh-lee

The warm coziness of being together in a comfortable, convivial way. Not just "cozy" - the specific feeling of being exactly where you want to be with exactly who you want to be with. We have to say all of that. Danish just says hyggelig.

One thing from that call I keep coming back to.

Silvia said something on the call that I've been sitting with: when she finds a word in one language that doesn't exist in another, she feels like it's telling her something about the culture. The people who speak French aren't warm like cariño people are warm - and the absence of the word says that.

What would it mean if we could actually share these concepts across language lines? Not just translate the word, but transfer the understanding?

Silvia literally interviewed someone for a project - in English, while the interviewee responded in Greek, with live translation running between them. It worked. Imperfectly, with preparation, but it worked. We are at the beginning of something that is going to change how global teams operate, and I don't think most people have caught up to what that actually means yet.

More on this in a future Expresso. This thread is not done.

🕐 10 AM CST | 11 AM EST | 4 PM GMT | 5 PM CET | 11 PM SGT

That's tomorrow. Come hang out for 2 minutes or 2 hours. Think of it like an open bar - except you bring your own beverage and nobody has to drive home. Bring something you're working on, or just bring yourself. We'll tinker together, talk, and see what sparks. No agenda. No big whoop. That's kind of the whole point.

This one filled up fast. Kusuma runs a workshop on using AI as your design thinking co-pilot - and clearly people want it. Watch for the next one.

We've been thinking about what this community is actually for.

Not the marketing version. The real version.

Here's what I believe: most people in R Generation are living some version of a life that their neighbors don't fully understand. They work across borders. They built careers that don't fit neatly into a job description. They're figuring out how to be location-independent, or they already are, or they want to be and have no idea where to start.

What they need isn't another webinar. It's people who get it.

People who are one or two steps ahead and are willing to turn around and say - here's what I learned, here's where I got stuck, here's what actually worked.

That's what we're building. Slowly, honestly, without the confetti.

Thanks for being here while we figure it out.

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R GENERATION brings together remote professionals from 50+ countries to explore the future of work through events, workshops, and AI-powered collaboration. Join a community where curiosity meets innovation and connections transcend borders.

There are words for what we're building. They just haven't been invented yet.🧡