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 22, 2013
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.
April 12, 2013
How I stimulate creativity
Since March 2007, I have been writing 2312 blog posts over at netzwertig.com. Naturally, I’ve learned a lot during that time, among other things how to stay creative and to fight lack of inspiration. Here are a couple of recommendations and strategies based on my experiences on how to achieve maximum creativity:
1. Sleep
Often I go to bed without a clue what to write about the day after. The next morning after waking up, I don’t need to think longer than a few minutes to know what to type.
2. Meditation
It’s hard to know exactly what the benefits of mediation are, but I find it easier to come up with ideas for articles after having meditated 15 or 30 minutes and cleaned my thoughts. Sometimes, enlightenment already strikes me during meditation. Not the way it is supposed to be but I don’t complain.
3. Excercise
Taking a break for running or the gym forces me to focus on other things. Often when getting back to my desk, I already know what to write next. Read the rest of this entry »
April 10, 2013
Crazy times
Mind-boggling things are going on right now. Technology is leaving almost no important industry/field untouched.
Privacy: Google Glass
Work: Automatization/Robots
Production: 3D Printing
Creation/Financing: Crowdfunding
Information gathering: Crowdsourcing
Finance: Bitcoin
Politics, secrets: Leaks
War: Cyberwar
Thinking: Artificial intelligence
Education: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)
To say these are exciting times would be an understatement. Also, they are bad for everybody who is afraid of change. There really seems to be only one option: to embrace it! Whether we want to or not. Because there is no off-button for technological progress.
April 8, 2013
Sweden establishes gender-neutral personal pronoun “hen”
Swedes are usually pretty good at embracing change, and even at initiating it. Yet another proof of that is the introduction of a new gender-neutral personal pronoun.
In addition to “han” (“he”) and “hon” (“she”) Swedish speakers can now use “hen”, which does not carry any gender associations, but does relate to a person, not a thing.
Swedish media is currently witnessing a “breakthrough” for this new word (translated). Read the rest of this entry »
April 6, 2013
The 5 best burger restaurants in Tokyo
In my eyes, Tokyo’s main attraction is the food, and I tried lots of Japanese dishes. But occasionally, I had to take a break from Ramen, Soba, Gyudon, Sushi and all the Izakaya food. So I made it a little mission to try many different burger places. Apart from the typical fast food chains such as McDonalds, Burger King and their Japanese competitors Freshness Burger and Mos Burger, there are lots of great restaurants in Tokyo preparing high-end burgers. To everybody who is into burgers and plans to visit Tokyo in the future, I recommend to check out the following places:
Blacows
Delicious burgers made of Japanese Black Wagyu beef. Some say it’s the greatest burger joint in the world. Burgers are quite pricey for being rather small, but taste extremely good. I went there a couple of times, and at one occasion I tried that massive thing pictured below. It is the most expensive burger I have ever eaten (2700 Yen, 21 Euro), but it was more than worth it. Despite Blacows’ reputation, it was never a problem to get a table instantly. foursquare link. Read the rest of this entry »
