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Breaking Habits
Published on 2012-11-21 06:42:42
Earlier this year, I wrote about how most online advise sucks because it only tells you the obvious or the goal, but not how to get there. It leaves out precisely the part you need help with. So I am always very happy when I find a counter-example, l
What is wrong with Prometheus? Everything.
Published on 2012-08-07 02:57:53
I’ve just watched Ridley Scott’s inofficial Alien prequel and read a couple of the reviews online. And I came away being certain that those people must have seen a different movie. To make it short, Prometheus is horrible, and an insult to the Science Fiction genre and the Alien franchise. Set in the near future, [...]
Smoking Kids
Published on 2012-06-22 10:37:38
I don’t post videos on this site, usually. This one is so brilliant, it deserves it: Indeed, the question is valid.
Guild Wars 2 – Concepts and Design
Published on 2012-06-11 05:22:49
An unusul topic for this blog, but after the second beta weekend, it deserves some thoughts written out. Guild Wars 2 being one of the most anticipated games of the year, it will be reviewed and picked apart by thousands of blogs and hundreds of magazines. So this is not a review, but some specific [...]
Why we cheat
Published on 2012-06-09 03:35:30
There are at least a million articles both on- and offline trying to explain why cheating happens constantly, even though the vast majority of us agree that it is bad. Most of the explanations are complex and unconvincing. And then comes this gem of an article, and explains the phenomenon in a simple, no-nonsense, straighforward [...]
Why Blog-Advise Sucks
Published on 2012-05-21 10:16:03
While reading through yet another “hack your life” article, the feeling I’ve had for quite some time now solidified into something I could finally write down. This strange sensation I get when I read the sub-par scribbling that most of the “blogosphere” consists of. The drivel that is thickest and strongest in the same area [...]
Theft of intellectual property exists, after all
Published on 2012-05-01 11:11:32
The words “piracy” and “theft” are being used by copyright holders as deragatory terms for copyright infringement. Of course, they are used wrongly, misappropriated from other contexts to evoke emotions that the sterile correct terms, such as “copyright infringement” or “unauthorized copying” do not. However, there is one condition in which the term “theft” actually [...]
Jesus Reconsidered
Published on 2012-04-22 11:29:55
The central myth of christianity is the suffering and death of the alleged saviour, Jesus of Nazareth. Something in that story didn’t sit right with me, but I could never put my finger on it until today. No, it wasn’t that the story has glaring holes – that was expected, and stories about other famous [...]
Politicians are amateurs
Published on 2012-04-13 12:27:06
For much of human history, government was bequeathed to the sons (usually) or daughters of those currently in power. Either they were kings with a direct lineage, or a relatively small aristocracy where while the actual distribution of responsibilities was subject to change, those in power were usually selected for being in power by the [...]
My First Book
Published on 2012-01-31 10:29:49
If you have a blog, you should use it to tell people about your stuff, right? So, I’ve written a book towards the end of last year, and got it published. It’s called “Beyond the Blight” and is a collection of fantasy short stories set in my online game world of BattleMaster. You can get [...]
Friendship, Romance and Sex
Published on 2011-12-14 13:00:26
Two movies are tackling the topic of (casual) sex, romance and friendship right now, and both don’t do it justice. One is the Hollywood “Friends with Benefits” which, despite the title, is very little about sex between friends and a lot about the only Hollywood-approved kind of relationship – romantic love and exclusive sex. The [...]
Parasite: Financial Industry
Published on 2011-12-13 13:14:29
There have been many articles about the crisis, the financial system, Occupy Wall St. and so on. Few, however, dig beneath the surface. Here are two that do, and arrive at interesting results – the kind that seems obvious to you once you’ve heard it. The (original german) article “The Financial System as Parasite of [...]
Borderline Survival Afterword
Published on 2011-11-15 08:40:25
Several months ago, I wrote a post titled Borderline Partners’ Survival Guide. I’ve not written much about relationships and borderline for a long time now, because I needed the time for the step named “put yourself together again” in that post. But it’s time to re-visit the article and add a few things, especially for [...]
Banking Bonus Proposal
Published on 2011-11-10 04:10:27
N.N. Taleb, author of has a fantastic proposal for avoiding the next financial crisis. Fantastic due to its simplicity: End Bonuses for Bankers is his idea, and since it was posted in nothing less than the New York Times, it will certainly receive some public discussion. Of course, the comments are already all over the [...]
The Illusion of Success
Published on 2011-11-08 04:00:18
While it doesn’t live up to its title “The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen“, this article in the british Guardian deserves to go high and wide. It has two vital key points. First, the claim of the super-rich that they have earned their wealth are in general nonsense [...]
HSI
Published on 2011-10-31 04:08:24
I want to launch something new, but badly required: The Human-Security Initiative I will be developing the concept over several posts. The basic idea is that the security industry is still making the same mistake over and over – using users as a cheap scapegoat, avoiding some hard questions and better solutions. HSI – yes, [...]
Occupy the Mind
Published on 2011-10-29 07:21:03
Following the Occupy Wall Street movement has been interesting. Following the media coverage doubly so. It is revealing to see how quickly the media loses interest, and how shallow most reports are. But the main issue I feel the need to write about is this “what is your demand?” thing. And hats off to Occupy [...]
Procrastination for Pros
Published on 2011-10-03 16:25:52
While this would be an excellent candidate for a “Page 2″ section – stuff that doesn’t belong on the main page because it’s mostly rambling – it actually does have a solid base. Solid enough to win an Ig-Nobel Prize: Procrastination the productive way. Its author, John Perry calls it “structured procrastination” and the concept [...]
Rating Agencies Fail
Published on 2011-10-01 04:40:29
The official SEC report on the top ten rating agencies is making some news here in Germany. Less than it ought to be, but most of the mainstream press is over it. A few of the headlines tell you the story (all articles in german): SEC finds faults with rating agencies SEC accuses rating agencies [...]
Draft Theory on Poly vs. Mono Brains
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
This is a draft, a rough thought, on what makes the difference between monogamous and polygamous people. Any feedback much appreciated. First, what you need to know to follow this thought is Helen Fisher’s research on how love works, biochemica
Trust and Character
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
As I promised in an older article, I am currently reading The Science of Trust. Do you know the feeling when you are reading something and realize they are up to something? That is what I started to get around page 20 or so. John Gottmann’s boo
On Empathy and Self
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
I’ve been gathering knowledge on empathy for a while now, prompted by the two facts that there is someone with the borderline personality disorder in my life and also because that sharpened my realization to my own empathy, its limits and the a
Forbidding Makes the Heart Grow Fonder | Psychology Today
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
In an article on his blog, Piercarlo Valdesolo, one of the authors of the book “Out of Character”, which I’ve quoted before, writes about an interesting experiment: Forbidding Makes the Heart Grow Fonder | Psychology Today The
Relationship Model Rankings
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
This started out as an entirely different post, but sometimes you have to go with the flow. So it ended up as a collection of studies and numbers about various relationship models, because the results were quite surprising. In my earlier postings, I
Political Test Runs
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
It seems I was on track with my earlier assessment of politics. The Guardian posted a short piece on saturday about trial-runs of political programs, with many links to the papers. All of them conducted in developing countries where money for these k
Mutually Assured Relationship Destruction
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
According to recent studies, about 90% of mankind are expecting faithfulness in their relationships. At the same time, many more than 10% are themselves not faithful. It is a built-in self-destruction mechanism. There is a nuclear-war option built in
The Enemies of Progress
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
If you haven’t seen all episodes of Bullshit yet, go and do it now. I’ll wait. There are a few recurrent surface themes in that series. The strongest one is that there is a lot of nonsense out there and that it usually survives because so
No-Brains Politics
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
“Intelligence has largely moved out of politics” titled an article in the german online magazine Telepolis recently. And indeed, if you have been following german politics for the past few years, there is no intelligence to be seen, our c
Illusions of Self
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
In an interview on his book “Out of Character“, David DeSteno lay out how much more situational and less based on character or “this is how I am” our decisions actually are. A revelation that vibes strongly in me as I’m
Notes on Facts
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
I’ve said a few things about facts and evidence in The Enemies of Progress and will probably say more about it in future posts. So it is important to get a few things clear up front about these. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it well: You are e
When Cheating is not Cheating
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
In addition to my negative thoughts on monogamy, I came across this interesting piece about betraying your partner today. It references a book I have not yet read (but will), and the argument is that there is more to cheating than sleeping around. In
Children don’t need Brain Gym to spot nonsense
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
Nice article with implications: Children don’t need Brain Gym to spot nonsense | Ben Goldacre | The Guardian. What does that say about us? Basically the same thing people like Michael Shermer have been saying for many years: That we t
Metaphors
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
I re-watched James Geary’s TED talk about metaphors, which gives a great introduction to the topic: The most memorable part of it is this one: Take the three most famous words in all of Western philosophy: “Cogito ergo sum.” It is r
Emotional Leadership
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
There is much similarity between this talk by Tony Robbins that I took the post title from and my earlier posting on Steve’s 10 Steps. Priya Sher has summed up Robbins’ the main points well, there are three quotes that I’d like to a
Steve’s 10 Steps
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
This is actually from an in-flight magazine some five or so years ago. I have a hardcopy of the page, but I don’t remember which airline or who “Steve” was by last name. What I recall is that he is a british coach with a no-nonsense
Borderline Partners’ Survival Guide
Published on 0000-00-00 00:00:00
A while ago, I have come out of a relationship with a women with borderline personality disorder. It was both the most intense relationship and the most damaging breakup of my life, and while there is a vast amount of material on the Internet for par