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The one about traveling

I love traveling alone from time to time. It gives me vast amounts of alone-time: between sitting on a plane and sleeping alone in a hotel room, I have plenty of time to read and listen to stuff that I never get around to otherwise. I have plenty of time to think, look around and just enjoy the abundance of time. That's the reason: it gives me an abundance of time.

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The one about internet afterhours

I absolutely love nights when everyone is asleep and I know that I have an hour in front of me to spend on the internet. It reminds me of the glory days, of the 2000s when I used to stay up late and deepdive on a given topic. Jump from link to link and read up on some tech stuff or just dig myself in how whisky is made. Any random topic would do.

Today I swing between the two extremes. I am either careless and spend my time scrolling a feed of X or Bluesky or a considerate and will read up on a topic for a few nights in a row.

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Things I like about Marseille

Marseille is an interesting city, full of contradictions. People can be at the same time very nice when sitting next to you at a cafe or total assholes while they're driving. It is a civilized city full of culture and history, but it's also France's most dangerous city and depending on the neighborhood can be quite dirty. Not sure if I like it or not once I draw the line, but here are the things I definitely enjoy in this city.

Sunshine

Marseille being one of the sunniest cities in France tops the list. Having nice weather is just an absolute mood boost: you don't need to account for the weather, you can just always assume that it's gonna be nice.

2. Sea

I love living in cities, but having a piece of nature nearby just improves the overall experience, by providing a spot where you can chill out and ground yourself. Nothing helps me do this like the sea.

3. Culture and diversity

Whether you visit a museum or just go for a stroll in the city's streets, culture and history are everywhere. The city doesn't lack contemporary cultural exposition either.

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Time scarcity

These days I feel like I don’t have enough time to do everything that I set out to do. It has to do both with life being a bit more busy, but also with my insatiable appetite to always do more on. On any given weekend I have so many competing priorities in my head: I want to go out for a coffee, a walk, read a book and do some productive stuff as well. I think this is because I largely underestimate how much time things can take. Need to work on that a bit maybe.

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The one about early mornings

I love waking up early in the morning. While everyone in the house still sleeps, while the city is still just waking up. It is a beautiful, new fresh start to what you can achieve. I know that for the next several hours I will have peak mental capacity and discretionary time, without notifications and phone calls pulling me in various directions.

This time is mine, I can choose what I want to do with it.

On a great early morning I write. On a good early morning I read a book. On a wasted early morning I scroll Twitter and the news. It depends on how much is going on in my life at that moment.

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Sipping coffee and reading the news

This is one of the activities that relaxes me the most. In my case time rarely stops as I’m extremely future focused, but a sunny morning on a cafe terrace, with a printed newspaper in hand is one of the few activities that can completely freeze time. It’s one of the activities that I really enjoy doing for doing’s sake. I dont look for any return on investment as I precisely known how short lived and low utility the information I am reading is. But it somehow grounds me.

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The one about sales

They say if you do any single job for a long enough time it’ll become sales. This is because once you start moving towards more senior goals it’s less about ticking tasks and more about moving the needle on a specific goal.

To be able to do this, you need to collaborate with fellow humans and this collaboration usually begins by convincing them that you have a common problem or that tou have the one right solution for their problem among the many potential ones.

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On Hidalgo's Paris from the point of view of an ex-Parisian

I used to live in Paris a couple of years ago. I just revisited it after a longer pause, walked around a bit and notice a couple of interesting things compared to when I was living there.

Frankly, I think Hidalgo has done a ton of good to Paris. The streets are cleaner, better organized, more walkable. The city is less noisy, crowded. It is just as overwhelming, but now in a good way.

I know that the change was sometimes painful for people who needed to drive in from the suburban area. I know that it made the lives of delivery people harder. I know that many pain points are yet unsolved. But trust me, from someone who took a step back for a year and came back, the city gets better!

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AI gold rush

The person who will make the biggest buck is the one selling the shelves.

Everyone is pouring a lot of money into LLMs without any product use case to power them. There are a few proof of concepts and betas released for customer support and IDE enhancements but the quality is just not there.

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8am in Paris

Today I didn’t sleep well. The baby woke me up at around 6:30 and I couldn’t manage to fall asleep after that.

So here I am, at by mother in law’s place, looking out the window, writing this Tumblr post about how much this place changes. 8 years ago, when I came here for the first time none of the office buildings in this photo existed.

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Future focusedness, Unrealistic expectations and stress

I am someone who is heavily future focused. Always thinking about the next step, always on to the next one, not taking too much time to sit ln my laurels or to celebrate small victories.

As I care a lot about the future and almost dont care about the present, I want things to move forward quickly. Many times I set out unrealistic goals for myself due to unrealistic expectations on what is achievable in a short space of time. This pressure causes a lot of stress in my personal and work life alike.

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Airpods Pro 2 — the device allowing you to chill anywhere you are

The Airpods pro 2 are one of the best purchases of the past couple of years. When airpods were initially released I was completely pumped, but then never ended up getting them for environmental reasons and out of fear of loosing them.

Years passed, I had a kid and moved to a louder city. Calm moments became almost nonexistent. Up until recently having a calm environment for 30 minutes was almost unimaginable and entirely depended on luck. Now, with my new earphones, I can sit in a loud bar or a lively cafe any time during the day and recharge my batteries with reading. Best physical purchase of the last 5 years.

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The thing about Paris

I have a love-hate relationship with this city. Every time I come back I love it: the energetic vibes, the hugely diverse population, its beauty and very well maintained buildings are all wonderful.

One week of being here changes all this. The energy becomes trying, it’s too much to handle on the day to day. So many things are going on that I don’t have the time or mental capacity to notice the magnificent architecture. And all in all becomes a very trying experience of running from place to place in crowded streets and public transport.

It’s a great city to study in or retire to. In between it kind of sucks.

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The one about Sunday mornings

It's on Sunday mornings that I realize, from time to time at least, that I have high nervosity. That I am restless. That I don't like slowing down for the sake of slowing down. I only rest when I am tired.

While my girlfriend would love to rest in bed and chat or watch Better Call Saul, I need to wake up and do something that moves the needle forward or at least gives me this impression. Writing this piece on tumblr what no one will read gives this impression. Continuing a book also gives this impression. Getting in a workout also works. Checking out an idea that I had for work (although I do this less and less) does the same thing.

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The one about having kids

Having kids is a tough decision. It's a one way door you are unsure about taking, until after you've taken it already.

Something that few people mention is that it adds a whole new dimension to your relationship with your parents. You'll gain a whole new understanding of your parents' choices, way of thinking and sacrifices that they had to make.

You realize that the know-it-all 22 year old, that they tolerated in their house with unlimited patience, was once a 2 month old baby who couldn't do anything by himself.

You also realize, the number of days where they needed to reorganize their planning, without it feeling like a sacrifice, but it was.

You become aware of just how young, inexperiended and clueless they were when they had you and forgive them for many mistakes.

You understand that having kids changes you, but your fundamental characteristics won't change. If you were an impatient doer you won't suddently become a buddhist monk. Sure, you're gonna get more patient, but you'll never be able to change deep down who you are.

And finally you realize, that you can't emulate the environemnt your parents provided you. Simply, because your parents are your parents and you are you.

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What do I enjoy at work?

I am a guy who needs a momentary mission in life. Whenever I don't have it, I am less happy.

This revoles mostly around work, but it can be learning a foreign language, reading a book or building a DIY project.

At work, this mission usually revolves around improving the wheel. I am not smart enough to reinvent it, nor do I want to be. But just turning the wheel is no fun. Mostly because there is no long term added value to it. If you turn a wheel really well, you wont leave a place in a better shape than you found it.

Improving the wheel is about ego (I am smarter than just turning it), but not only. It's about making durable progress, leaving something behind, tackling meaningful challenges. It is something that I like to turn into a mission.

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The recipe of a life well lived

Many people search for it, but only a few know that science has figured it out: if you want to be able to say on your deathbed that you had a happy life, you need to pay attention to three things.

1. Define your core values

Think about what’s important to you in life and pick 2-3 important things. These can be anything from friendship all the way to hard work, the main thing is to build awareness on what is fundamentally important to you. Once you’ve defined these try to make decisions that are in accordance with your core values.

By doing this, you make sure that you are living a meaningful life, because you’ve made choices that were based on what is pivotal to you.

2. Figure out what you’re good at

Find out what you are skilled at naturally and pick a career path that is based on your talents. Not only it will be easier for you to work, but you’ll also have the impression that you contributed something of value to society.

3. Find out what you genuinely enjoy

We’re talking about activities that you do for doing’s sake, activities that bring you pleasure in themselves. A cup of coffee, a nice book, a match of tennis. It can be anything, but make sure to schedule some time for it weekly. This assures a pleasant life.

By doing the above 3 steps you’ll make sure that you live a: meaningful, useful and pleasant life.