Miscellaneous (3)
Why Being a Digital Nomad Sucks (to Me)
For countless years has it been a thing to romanticize the lifestyle of digital and global nomads, of people who live and work remotely. I believe thereâs also much to question.
#88 · · adventure
Highlights From âAdvice to Young Menâ (William Cobbett)
âThe first thing to be required of a man is, that he understand well his own calling, or profession; and, be you in what state of life you may, to acquire this knowledge ought to be your first and greatest care.â
#87 ·
On Loyalty
We should be protective of our greatest possessionâour values.
#86 ·
Oh WTF My Tone, or: On Germans Speaking English
Anecdote. When I was working at Google, shortly after I had made one of my first bigger contributions, I experienced one of my more memorable performance reviews. Youâll never guess what happened next.
#85 ·
Highlights From âThe Elements of Styleâ (William Strunk Jr.)
âConsciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; he wishes to be told what is.â
#84 · · design
On Meeting and Leaving People
Humans are social. Cooperation got us where we are. There are several ways to get to know new people, and, in relationships, to leave them. A few thoughts.
#83 ·
On Writing 1,000 Poems
A story of venturing into an entirely different genre.
#82 · · design
Privacy Experiments: How to Auto-Generate Random Web Traffic
I believe that privacy, which has never been about âhiding something,â is a fundamental civil right, one that is but must not be infringed on; so I once more played with randomizing personal web traffic.
#81 ·
What Happens When You Email the Companies That Are Responsible for 71% of All Greenhouse Gas Emissions
A few months ago I ran into an article referring to data from the Carbon Disclosure Project. I realized that the data may have been inaccurate and incomplete but also that it presented an avenue for us to actually do, a little.
#80 · · advocacy
What Happens When You Email Each of the 1,380 Members of the German and European Parliaments
Over the last couple of months I have emailed, each individually, all the 631 members of the (departing) German Bundestag as well as 749 members of the European Parliament (I was short two MEPs).
#79 · · advocacy
Why It Would Be Bad if Jesus Was Here
Arguing is something we have to learn. I observed this particularly in recent years when I started studying philosophy and went through courses for logic and argumentation theory. These coursesâŠ
#78 · · philosophy
Living Websites, Living Books
To me, websites are living objects. They require regular care and maintenance. Such care starts with monitoring, from uptime control to visual site tests, demands technical quality control, and ends with content checksâŠ
#77 · · development
Highlights From Martinâs âThe Behavior of Crowdsâ
âWhen most of our neighbors are motivated by certain ideas, those ideas become part of the social environment to which we must adjust ourselves. In this sense they are âreal,â however âcrazy.ââ
#76 ·
Why Iâm Suspending Interviews With U.S. Companies
Over the last few quarters I was in conversations to move back to the United States. Over the last few weeks I noticed that that would feel like endorsing U.S. policy, and contradict my principles and values.
#75 ·
The Simple Answer to Our Terrorism Problems
How about we stop invading countries and murdering people. How about we allow those who are too afraid to live in freedom to live in supermax prisons (for free). And how about we finally remove from office who ever proposes to violate a human right.
#74 · · advocacy
On Work
On work, retirement, definitions, and mixing things up.
#73 ·
Highlights From Lippmannâs âPublic Opinionâ
âWho actually saw, heard, felt, counted, named the thing, about which you have an opinion? Was it the man who told you, or the man who told him, or someone still further removed? And how much was he permitted to see?â
#72 ·
Highlights From Wattlesâs âThe Science of Getting Richâ
âMan is a thinking center, and can originate thought. All the forms that man fashions with his hands must first exist in his thought; he cannot shape a thing until he has thought that thing.â
#71 · · philosophy
My Top 10 Android Apps
Years ago, in 2009, I wrote an enthusiastic post about my then-favorite apps for Android. More for fun than anything I decided to write a follow-up.
#70 ·
Foreigners Are Heroes
Foreigners to our countriesâexpats, immigrants, refugeesâare heroes. Foreigners, people like you and I, add to our lives and our cultures. Foreigners deserve our respect and our support.
#69 · · advocacy
A Digital Charta
When we think about it, although we live in a time of rights violations we donât lack good intent, nor good law. That leads us to a particular initiative, the Digital Charta.
#68 · · advocacy
The Great Neglect
What is most important for us to learn in our lives? Are we learning it? Teaching it? On âone of the greatest motive powers in the world,â and âthe noblest of possessions.â
#67 ·
Highlights From Smilesâs âCharacterâ
âThe very sight of a great and good man is often an inspiration to the young, who cannot help admiring and loving the gentle, the brave, the truthful, the magnanimous.â
#66 ·
Privacy, Obscurity: Randomizing New Tabs
You want to leave a less predictable online trail? I wrote a little browser extension for Chrome that accomplishes that: the New Tab Traffic Randomizer. The extension requests a random URL every time a new tab is openedâŠ
#65 · · advocacy
Living and Mistakes
We canât make a mistake living our own lives. A counter to the fear of doing wrong, the harmful idea of guilt, as well as unhelpful doubt, the statementâs power lies in the realization that itâs impossible for us to live our lives âincorrectly.â
#64 ·
A Note on meiert.com Feeds
There are a number of ways to follow what I write on this website, from a very low volume newsletter for German publications to an enriched account on Google+. The most reliable and focused option, however, is to subscribe to one of this siteâs RSS feeds.
#63 ·
On Rationality, and Love
Philosophy can be heart-breaking, orâ
#62 · · philosophy
Can We Prevent Terrorism?
That terrorism can never be prevented is actually very important to understand to also understand our political leadership.
#61 · · advocacy
198 Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Action
Just when one wonders how many options there are exactly.
#60 · · advocacy
The Reminder Trick
This tool is so powerful and at the same time so trivial to make a routine that I ask everyone who regularly employs it to transcend their disappointmentâIâm mentioning it for the people I meet who donât use it.
#59 ·
Humanity and âThe Other Manifestoâ
On a wish for more work on a vision, on values, on principles, on goals actually worth striving for, on utopias, on a good future, a good cause, a good world for all of us.
#58 · · philosophy, advocacy
Itâs Not Too Late
âŠto contribute to good causes.
#57 ·
Endless Peace
Amidst all the wars we never wanted but our governments and industries wage and participate in regardless of our will, we threaten to lose sight of our goal. That goal, surely, is peace. That goal, clearly, is durable peace. That goal, indeed, is endless peace.
#56 · · advocacy
Crowdfunding, 5 Years and 81 Projects Later
Iâm a Kickstarter and Indiegogo backer. Iâve backed my first campaign in February 2011, and the so far last one in May. In the five years on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Iâve bid on 81 projects of which 73 funded successfullyâŠ
#55 ·
Personally Speaking
After my eternal travels Iâve had entered a new stage of my life. Now that I and the dust have settled a little, the position that I assume in the world is a bit more clear, at least for the next couple of years. A few notesâŠ
#54 ·
Rules for the Media: Independence, Transparency, Accountability, Comparative Reporting
Iâve suggested to opt out of following news for the simple reason that news rarely constitute reliable and actionable information, and in the spirit that even ignorance may be preferable so to at least keep an open mind. Now, what would make me change this view?
#53 · · advocacy
Media: The Choice Between Misinformation and Uninformation
âThe man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.ââOur media, generally speaking, are not trustworthy. They are not trustworthy because of conflicts of interestâŠ
#52 · · advocacy
Love Reciprocity
Love! What a wonderful topic. My mind would instantly turn into a good number of directions, from love in our personal lives to different forms of love, to the powers of love, to the possibly universal character of love. Letâs be more specific.
#51 ·
The One Belief to Cultivate
Thereâs a particularly important belief, habit, or trait for us to cultivate: that whatever it is we want to be or master, we can learn how to be or master whatever it is we want.
#50 ·
On Conspiracy Theories
These days, many a serious inquiry into significant events leads to something marked a âconspiracy theory.â Use of the expression âconspiracy theoryâ has gone as far as to be used as a blanket dismissalâŠ
#49 · · advocacy
Business Practices, Reframed
Ideas for the next performance review.
#48 · · advocacy
On Guidance
Why we urgently need better guidance, need to give better guidance, and get out of the way if we ourselves, when in position of authority and leadership, canât give good guidance.
#47 · · management
The 1% Hypothesis of Mass Surveillance
A few weeks back I read this security article about how itâs odd that no one has ever suspected and detected anything related to all that mass surveillance we learned about through Edward Snowden. In particular, physical manipulation of devicesâŠ
#46 · · advocacy
No
Have we stopped killing yet?
#45 · · advocacy
News Headlines I Want to Read
A brainstorming with assumptions and implications. We shouldnât use our creativity to come up with ever horrid scenarios; we could use it to envision awesomeness.
#44 · · advocacy
A Population Control Primer
An incomplete, roughly sorted sketch of actions, methods, and developments that donât serve us, that instead divide, distract, confuse, manipulate, exploit, demotivate, control, and dominate us. We have a lot of work to do.
#43 ·
On Age
Age is wonderful. Aging is wonderful. Age is wonderful for in a life reasonably lived, in a life not exclusively spent idly or hedonistically, age signifies the accumulation of experience and knowledge, and perhaps even wisdom.
#42 · · advocacy
Love
Love is vulnerability. First and foremost, love is vulnerability. It took me many years to recognize this. Many years in which there wasnât much love in my life, even permitted in my life. I had locked it all out, out of fear to be⊠vulnerable.
#41 ·
Character
A couple of weeks ago I read Samuel Smilesâ Character, a book extraordinarily useful and important. I think youâd like it. âCharacter is one of the greatest motive powers in the world. In its noblest embodiments, it exemplifies human nature in its highest formsâŠâ
#40 ·
Ground Rules for Working With Web Agencies
After we identified inherent problems of working with agencies, letâs look at some of our options. We may still need to hire an agency after all, or make the best out of a project. The leg work weâve done in the first part will help us keep this briefâŠ
#39 ·