It’s time for the next step in the evolution of our species. John Maynard Keynes wrote an essay in 1930 entitled “Economic possibilities for our grandchildren“, in which he tried to explore what our economy could look like in a hundred years time. We are now 90 years after the first publication of this essay. … Read more Work less, live more
A brief history of environmentalism in Germany There are strict rules governing environmental protection in Germany. Natural areas are protected in different degrees of importance. For example, there are areas of international and national importance related to the value of the habitat, their value for (migrating) birds or just areas with a great landscape, which … Read more What environmental activism and fascism have in common
Manuela Höfner is a decluttering coach. The many facets of her story are utterly fascinating. She started out as a tax advisor. After happily helping people with their tax for 25 years she noticed that those who had their documentation in order were MUCH happier than those with lots of bits of paper stuffed in … Read more Decluttering: Peace with your stuff
We need to talk about PP. For some reason it’s a taboo topic to talk about anything related to excretion. It’s understandable from a health standpoint to be a little bit concerned about poo. I get that. There are bacteria in poo that you wouldn’t like to have anywhere near you. But pee is an … Read more Urine has what plants crave
“Quality … you know what it is, yet you don’t know what it is. But that’s self-contradictory. Some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes Poof! – Robert Pirsig, Zen and … Read more Beauty and value in the modern age
“The valuable space around the bed is good for nothing, except access to the bed.” Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language When fulfilling one of our essential needs, shelter, we usually pay money to temporarily (rent) or permanently (buy) use a structure to store our stuff and find a place to sleep away from the elements … Read more Why are bedrooms still a thing?
When choosing how I eat, I looked at the data and statistically those who eat a mostly vegetable based diet with some fish live the longest of all diets. Also, a plant based diet is good for the planet by reducing the forest area cleared for pasture and enabling other uses for land currently growing fodder … Read more Plant based diet 101
In the context of the lifetimes of trees or even the planet, human lives are very short. Even doubling our life expectancy in the last 100 years (world average 1900: 31y, 2014: 71.5y) has done little to change the role that the limitation of our time on this earth plays in our lives. Most of … Read more Designing with Time
We know now that we need to act on climate change. We probably needed to start acting on it 30 years ago… But at least we have the Paris climate accord since 2016. All countries in the world signed it. The USA, unfortunately, left later because they thought the atmosphere is about “fairness”. Unfortunately, the Paris climate agreement … Read more Tesla & Co: Electric cars and the communist future
I visited the German bee museum in Weimar last week. It was founded in 1910 by Ferdinand Gerstung. Gerstung was a big deal in the early twentieth century beekeeping world and introduced the concept of “the bien”. The “Bien” considered the whole hive-super-organism instead of focusing on the individual bees. While bees are totally amazing and I … Read more 5 lessons I learned from beehives