June 18, 2013

Tap water culture & German restaurants

It doesn’t matter if you go to a restaurant in Sweden, Japan or the U.S.: If you don’t want to buy a beverage, you can simply ask for tap water. Often it’s being served per default. I love that. Not only does it save money – or make you spend more money on the food – but it’s also the most healthy (or at least least harmful) beverage of all.

Unfortunately, when in Germany, you can’t expect tap water. It almost never is served when you don’t ask, and when you ask, they might tell you that they don’t have tap water. I could experience this again when I stayed in Berlin for 3 and a half weeks recently. German newspaper Zeit Online described the other day how hard it is to get tap water at a German restaurant. Read the rest of this entry »

June 15, 2013

One unique moment at Taksim Square #occupygezi

The past 8 days I was in Istanbul. Since I lived close to Taksim Square it came natural to spend some time around the square and Gezi Park. I recorded this short video of when Davide Martello brought a piano to the square and played music. I agree with media reports: It’s partly his responsibility that no clashes happened during the nights to June 12 and June 13, when protestors and police faced each other and lots of tension was in the air.

The atmosphere was more than unique.

May 30, 2013

Some articles I’ve really enjoyed reading

Here are a couple of articles I’ve read recently and that I really enjoyed.

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Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup

I’m skeptical of this system’s slavering, self-congratulatory fetishization of “disruption” while so obviously becoming the sort of stolid institution it seeks to displace. I’m skeptical of the startup community’s often short-term outlook. I’m particularly skeptical of its callous disregard for both the lives of the people who participate in it and the lives of those who live in the world that startups seek to reshape. Read the rest of this entry »

May 25, 2013

Why the Stockholm unrest doesn’t come as a surprise (and is less dramatic than it looks)

Due to the fact that I have my home base in Stockholm, a couple of people have asked me what I think about the current riots in some of Stockholm’s suburbs, and whether I am surprised by it. So I thought I’ll write down some thoughts.

Let’s start with the important things: In my eyes Sweden has been rather successful with integrating immigrants into the society. I base this statement solely on my own perception and observation, and in comparison to Germany where I’m from. Take the subway in Stockholm and you’ll notice that many foreigners with a common ethnical background talk to each other in Swedish instead of their mother tongue. At least this is what I have been observing a lot, and for me that’s one of the most important signs of being integrated. It’s very different in my hometown Berlin (where I currently am). Also, most Swedish people have accepted that whether somebody is ethnical Swedish or not doesn’t really play a big role in whether he or she is being perceived as “Swedish”. It’s only about if the common values and behavioural norms of the Swedish society are being shared. Personally I find that Germans still have much bigger difficulties in accepting somebody as “real German” if this person has an obvious different ethnical background. A couple of weeks ago, a liberal German politician questioned whether Germans would be ready for a vice chancellor with Asian appearance (which the country currently has). I don’t think this thought would even cross a liberal Swedish politicians mind. At least I hope. In 2007 a study proved that Sweden was the best European country in regards to helping migrants settle.  Read the rest of this entry »

May 22, 2013

Personal mood tracking with Expereal

I don’t count myself to the growing number of self quantification enthusiasts. For some reason I don’t feel I need data about my fitness/body to make the right decisions about how to live, although that might change in the future. But what I dig is the concept of mood tracking. The other day I installed an interesting iPhone app called Expereal (via).  Read the rest of this entry »

May 21, 2013

Major German newspaper FAS writes about the end of the phone call

Major German Sunday newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) has published an article in its print edition about the trend of not using the phone anymore for calling. The piece has some quotes from me about my experience in Japan when I was equipped with a Data-SIM only. It’s now available online as well. Read it here if you understand German.

May 20, 2013

Swedes are fast adopters

Swedish people are early and fast adopters, which is one of the major factors contributing to the success of Sweden-based startups. Need another proof? In the middle of October 2012, the U.S. video subscription service Netflix was launched in Sweden. Today, only 7 month later, 645.000 Swedes say they are using the service.

7 Month after launching. 7,6 percent of the Swedish Internet population use a service which required them to enter their credit card details, even if they only wanted to use the 30-day-trial – and that despite lots of local competition.

I find that to be an incredible figure.

May 12, 2013

“News is to the mind what sugar is to the body”

“News is to the mind what sugar is to the body”

Concise quote by Rolf Dobelli, a Swiss writer who is propagating the theory that news are bad.  I don’t buy all of his arguments and some kind of contradict each other. But I agree with him that excessive news consumption doesn’t add any value to people’s lifes, other than maybe a bit of entertainment (at best). And much of the news we can read and see in the media is redundant and needless.

via @zendealer

April 30, 2013

Yet another positive side effect of blogging

Recently I was best man at an American-German wedding. When the groom asked me whether I want to do a little toast I said yes, although I’m far from being an experienced speaker. On the contrary, in the past I’ve always rathered avoided speaking in front of a bigger crowd. But this time I decided to leave my comfort zone. Read the rest of this entry »

April 25, 2013

Time zones and work

I have been fortunate to get the chance to travel to both Asia and the U.S. within a few weeks – while simultaneously doing my editorial and writing work for netzwertig.com (with the exception of 1 1/2 week of vacation).

There are many reasons to enjoy both places, but in one point, Asia is my prefered travel destination (when working why travelling): The time difference.

Read the rest of this entry »