Mosaic of thoughts

On Tuesday, July 27th, at 17:00 CET, the HR person in five words pulled the stable foundation away beneath my feet. After nearly two years of working alongside them, I was quickly reduced to a human resource, measured in the cost that could be saved by getting rid of it, as quickly as possible — presumably to make shareholders happy and not stir emotions in current team members — with the least human touch. Of course, those who made the decisions would hide behind HR, none of them offering co...

You know that feeling when some thing you see strikes a chord in you, triggers something deep inside, resonates, sends vibrations through your inner state? The modern urge is to take out your phone, or maybe, if you're fancier, a camera, and record it. Often, when looking at the so-captured moment, it disappoints. It's nowhere near as vibrant, as visceral as experienced. No filter helps,. In those moments, I often think to myself, 'I should learn how to paint.' Perhaps this explains why human...

I don't know a whole lot about fashion, but one rule that's been ingrained in me was this: you either show cleavage or legs, never both, because that's overkill. More skin is not more. A rule that applied as much to club outfits as to office uniform picks. Scrolling through what's trending fashion items on the feeds, one quickly realizes people don't adhere to the rule anymore. If anything, they go by sex sells... Not everyone is taking it to the extremes that Kanye pushed his ex-girlfriend, ...

The sky outside the windows is covered in thick grey, making it impossible to tell with certainty whether it's 11 am or 4 pm. The wind moves the trees back and forth in a staccato dance, occasionally, thrusting a branch around in the air. The raindrops bslown against the window glass paint an abstract work of art. In short, it's the epitome of North German weather, the kind everyone tells you is the reason for North Germans' inner coldness and lack of humour (both of which I'd refute). It's c...

In the age of AI, they say, that's the only way. Be more of your most real self. But what does that even mean? In the context of a medium that, more often than not, rewards conformity over originality. That houses a mob with wifi acting as the Gestapo over who is deemed real and who is fake. I have a love-hate relationship with social media. When I was in high school, Facebook was still a place where the feed was full of pictures shot at awkward angles during a house party the night before. Y...

When you ask people how to best build your personal brand, they'll recommend consistency, finding one's niche, becoming if not an opinion, at least a thought-leader. When you ask people what you should learn, it's usually related to paving the way for your future career aspirations or, at least, something that seems immediately useful. I too fell into these traps at first. I am sure it works for some, but it didn't for me. When I started working in crypto, all I wrote were introductions to ne...