Posts

Longer Form Essays about Tech and Self-Improvement

a table with a laptop, a notebook, a pen, and a cup of coffee

My Productivity System

People often ask me how I can do so many different things, and be so productive. . . some even tell me that I am very disciplined. But yet, when I think about myself I don't consider myself to be very disciplined at all. My willpower to resist things is often zero.

a bunch of dollars stacked on top of each other

The Answer to AI's 600 Billion Dollar Question

The talks about AI have intensified greatly in the last few years since ChatGPT was first launched and since then generative AI tools like Midjourney, Udio, and Runway have taken the world by storm.

multiple crammed bookshelves in an old library

The People I have Learned from the Most

When I think about influential internet people in my life, I can assemble a list: a sort of "guide" through the internet, showing the route that I took. A route that links to people who heavily influenced my decision making, my thinking.

a bunch of different yellow colors I bought from Amazon

The Best Yellow

I want to get back into painting but the one thing that always bothered me with my old acrylic paints is that they never really covered each other well. So I set out to test which is the best yellow I can find on Amazon.

a diatom arrangement by Klaus Kemp

Diatom Arrangements

This post is a bit of an odd one: it's a collection of images of diatom arrangements. Diatoms are single-celled algae that have a glass shell. This shell refracts light in beautiful colors if viewed under a microscope.

A polygon with a shadow cast onto a line

Collision Detection in 2D

If you have ever played any video game in your life, you used algorithms that solve the hard problem of collision detection, without even knowing about it. The solutions are often ingenious and answer the question of "what do we need all this math for" beautifully.

Vector Demo

A practical intro to Vector Mathematics

This post is an exploration of many different and important vector concepts. After reading it you should walk away with an understanding of how and why these operations work and where they could be useful. Points can be modeled with vectors.

Fractal Garden

Fractal Garden Learnings – Part 2

This is part 2 of a series of posts on building the Fractal Garden, my first 1 month project. In this post I will dive into the technical learnings and decisions that went into making the Fractal Garden website.

Mandelbrot Set

Fractal Garden Learnings – Part 1

I finished my first 1-month project. During the process I learned a lot about how I approach work and this post is a reflection and documentation on the process. This is part 1 of a series of posts on building the Fractal Garden webpage.

A picture of morning dew on a meadow.

Morning Meditation

It's September now in Berlin, and it starts to get cold. The fields are still green and damp from the cold night. But the sun has retained its energy from the summer. When it comes out it evaporates the dew over the fields and meadows. Clouds are moving over the sky.

A Cuckoo

The Problem at the Heart of Capitalism

I think something is wrong with our world and I have not seen this thought expressed anywhere else in quite that way yet. That's why I sat down to write this blog post. It will be a deep dive, covering lots of different topics, like social media, economics, neuroanatomy.

Open AI's Codex

Open AI's Codex

A few days ago I watched the OpenAI Codex demo and I am still thinking about what to do because it means that I will lose my job as a software engineer pretty soon. This post explores what I could do to prolong this period for some time. OpenAIs codex is a computer program.

Brain

Decisions

Decisions are the most important thing in life. And yet there is a fundamental problem with decisions. . . You don't make them. . . If you had to sum up your life in the most concise way possible, it would all be about the decisions that you have made. And yet.

Tall buildings in a city

Betting Heavy when convinced

This article is a consortium of things that I think about how or why to invest money. My opinion on investing is fundamentally split, between thinking of it as a waste of time and a necessary evil, and this post is going to explore investment advice in both directions.

A person writing down what they know

Writing down what I know

Something that I am playing with as an idea, is to write down all of the things I know and the knowledge I accumulate in the form of blog posts. The idea behind this is to present a synthesis of what I am learning intermingled with thoughts of my own, that come up while learning.

FKJ playing in the middle of the Salar de Uyuni - a large flooded salt flat in Bolivia.

The beauty of being alive.

I am sitting alone in my room. It is dark outside and my speakers play some soft and mellow music. FKJ, beautiful piano, with some techno mixed into it. The video is from one of my favorite performances.

Rice field in Laos

Why do I like traveling?

Reading through the notes I wrote while I was traveling for the first time I can not help myself but wonder at the feelings surging through me. A sense of wonder fills my chest and my mind drifts away. . . Far far away into the jungles of Sri Lanka and the mountains of Nepal.

Road

Improvement as the Purpose of Life

What is life? Life is the continuation and spreading of complex patterns of information throughout time and space. Life is the process that turns matter into more of itself. But what does that have to do with improvement.

Water

A sense of Flow

An idea that shapes my view of the world is the experience of flow. Flow is losing yourself in an activity. It's about doing something that is just on the edge of your abilities. Something that pushes you. Not too little, not too much.

A keyboard with a mouse and a headset

Computer Games

Are computer games a valuable way to spend my time? At some level I feel they are, but why do I get a bad feeling when playing too much? Why don't I get such feelings when traveling or listening to music or playing the piano.

Puzzle

Fundamental Problems

When I think about life there are many problems I have, problems that I need to solve, if I want to live a fulfilled and good life. And I think that many people share these problems because they are fundamental problems.

write code motivational poster

So many awesome things to do

There are so many things in this highly complex world, that humans can devote their time to, so many new things and skills to be learned, so much to discover, to do, to invent. . . It is insane.

hiker group on a mountain

A Sense of Progress

Most people think of progress as a good thing. We want to be better than we were before, we want to push our limits, and we want to invent, create and thrive. We have a sense of progress, and that sense makes us feel good. But why.