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DON’T BULLSHIT. JUST THINK.

All Posts — Impressum


DEALING WITH DEATH

Why are believers so bad at dealing with death? All Christian believers I know
don’t really believe in the afterlife. When it comes to the (potential) death of
their loved ones, they truly believe that death is the end.

I’m deeply confused. Believers often spend countless hours in churches,
listening to priests discuss life’s big topics or whatever. But what does that
accomplish, if it doesn’t even prepare them for the difficult situations in
life?! Dealing with death is often a challenging situation for people –
understandibly so. Why don’t religions manage to do prepare their believers at
all?

Contrary, all atheists I know are well-prepared to deal with death. They’ve read
some basic philosphy, maybe – and in my experience, even children’s books about
philosophy give good advice on dealing with death.

So, what’s religion good for, if it doesn’t even give comfort when it matters?

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PLANET-FRIENDLY COOKING

I’m pissed with vegan & vegetarian food. Ok, maybe it’s mostly salt-reduced,
fat-reduced, flavor-reduced vegan restaurants that pissed me off. Vegetarian &
vegan cooking is one of the big ways that people try to eat more sustainably. I
think it’s not the best way. Here are my principles for planet-friendly cooking
that also help make things taste good.


1. NO COW, NO SHEEP, NO GOAT, LITTLE MILK

The biggest climate impact of our food usually comes from cows, sheep and goats.
And their milk. That’s why I never cook these types of meat, and try to reduce
using dairy products to an absolute minimum. Vegan dairy products taste really
good these days.


2. USE MEAT FOR FLAVOR, NOT AS THE MAIN COMPONENT

Products like Guanciale, Pancetta or bacon provide a lot of flavor per weight.
Ground meat can also help distribute tons of flavor in a dish, even if only
little is used. I prefer those instead of the nearly flavorless lean meat (that
is also more expensive for some reason). Similarly, products like dashi or fish
sauce maximise flavor without having a strong climate impact (because so little
is used for each dish).


3. GAME IS GAME

Local game is just awesomely sustainable. I love boar or deer, and it’s pretty
easy to get here in Germany. Wild boar are pest here, so they need to be killed
anyway – of course we should then also eat them. Same goes for local fish, which
is common in Germany, even though it’s usually farmed, not wild.


4. LEGUMES ROCK!

Lentils, beans, chickpeas … all make great bases for awesome dishes. Most people
have never eaten bean burgers, but those are the best burgers that there are.
Falafel is another great example – it’s one of the best dishes one can make
(also nutritionally), and it has an extremely low climate impact.


5. CULTIVATE UMAMI & FAT

Most vegan foods lack flavor. Sorry, but it’s true. There’s also an easy fix:
add enough fat and umami. Fat is easy, high quality olive oil is just the start
here. You have to work for your umami, though. Learning from the Japanese
cuisine has helped me the most: miso and soy sauce are umami bombs! Fish sauce
and tomato paste are also great contributors, and of course alliums (onions,
garlic, …). Browning is also a big win – a hot wok is a vegetables best friend!
Using sweeteners and sufficient salt neatly rounds out the flavor of any dish.


6. MINIMIZE FOOD WASTE

The key to reduce food waste for me was to think about cooking in components,
not in dishes. I might roast some veggies or cook some legumes one day, and used
it over the next couple of days in multiple meals. Roasted broccoli might be a
tortilla topping on day 1, pasta sauce ingredient on day 2 and a bowl topping on
day 3. Preparing components ahead of time also speeds up cooking, and can even
prevent ingredients from spoiling. Components are also easier to freeze than
full meals are. With meals, thinking about the best way to reheat them while
maintaining texture & flavor also helped me reduce waste. Pasta & pizza reheat
best in a pan (where they don’t get soggy), for example.

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REFLECTING ON A LIFE

Two of the most important people of my life have recently died. My grandfather,
who was like a second father to me, died in 2019. My father died recently, at
the end of 2021. After both their deaths, there were the respective festivities
that christianity prescribes. And I felt they both were lacking an honest look
on the lives of the deceased. This forced me to reflect on how I as an humanist
and atheist reflect on someone’s life.

I’m going to outline the general principles here, that can be applied to
reflecting on anyone’s life. I’m also going to bring them into the context of my
fathers life – a life well lived.


IMPACT ON THEMSELVES

First, let’s examine the person’s relationship with themselves. How did they
treat themselves? What were their personal goals? What did they sacrifice to
achieve their goals? What can we learn from all that?

My father lived 150%, one might say he was burning the candle at both ends. But
that also means he lived fully, in the moment, not in the future, which is a
virtue I still strive to mirror. I feel he had achieved all his personal goals
and was at peace with himself when he died – even though he was only 61 years
old. He derived too much pleasure from buying things – which led me to try to
suffocate that same impulse in myself.


IMPACT ON INDIVIDUALS

Now their relationship with us and other individuals. While reflecting, this
maybe the most important perspective to us personally, because it also includes
the impact this person had on us. What did we learn from them? What did they
want for us? How did they shape our relationship?

My father showed me – by example – the boundless joys to be had listening to and
making music. He also taught me how to make up my own mind and come to decisions
quickly, not idle for too long. I think my father wanted me to become an
independent and confident person, and only when necessary, pushed me in a
direction to help me get there. He also showed me that it’s possible to be a
family person that supports their kids, a passionate doctor who found his
calling in helping people and still retain a strong personal identity.


IMPACT ON THEIR COMMUNITIES

Time to zoom out one step and look at more than individuals. What direct and
indirect impact did the person exhibit on their communities (be they local or
digital)? What communities did they inhabit and how did they change them? Did
their actions inspire examples? How did they treat strangers whom they might
never meet again?

My father was a bit of a recluse regarding the immediate local community of his
village. But when it mattered, when the four neighboring houses were filled with
refugees (from Syria, mostly), he not only donated heaps of money to help, he
also took it upon himself to personally be there for them, finding old bikes and
making them road ready for the refugees, giving them the gift of a much higher
freedom of movement – amongst many other helpful activities. That phase of his
life made me insanely proud of him. As the seven-year president of the local
sailing club, he tried to foster an environment of positive competitiveness and
skill growth.


IMPACT ON SOCIETY

Another zoom-out. Let’s look at the rest of humanity – society as a whole, and
the person’s impact on it. What role did they play to move society into the
future? Which cog in which machine did they represent? How did their utopia look
like?

My father was a doctor by calling. He played that part very well, always stayed
reasonable and science-based and thus also moved his profession by practice into
a more science-based future. He spent most of his considerable income on music
and art, and became somewhat of a local art beneficiary for at least 10 years –
and through that small role, helped society move into a more beautiful future.


IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

And lastly, let’s not look at the impact on humans any more, but the impact on
everything else. How did they contribute to a more sustainable way of life? What
did they do for the environment? Have they changed their impact on the
environment over time? In which areas were they exemplary?

Politically, my father supported the progressive instead of the
backward-looking, the reasonable over the fearful. Other than that, there is not
too much to say about my father on this topic.


IN SUMMARY

No person can shine from all perspectives. I imagine everyone’s lifes as a
branch with five leaves – like an elderberry leaf. But differently from nature,
a persons branch has five differently sized & shaped leaves. Some people exerted
their impact mostly on individuals. Some forewent individual relationships to
pursue higher goals for society or the environment. Which means that maybe one
of their leaves looks quite wilted, because the person spent no time to nurture
it.

I’m convinced that any reflection of a person’s life should forego the wilted
leaves and rather not mention much instead of delving in a person’s shortcomings
– with the exception of shortcomings that one can draw a useful lesson from.

Maybe the content of a person’s elderberry leaf also helps us understand a
person better in retrospect. It definitely helped me to understand my father
better.

These five leaves can also be seen as the five fingers of a hand – they make up
the person’s handprint, also known as the sum total of positive impact the
person had on people & planet. Unfortunately, people don’t just have handprints,
but we also leave footprints – the sum total of negative impact (maybe measured
in CO2 equivalents) a person has left behind. While I wouldn’t encourage anyone
to try to compare handprint and footprint, I can clearly say this: while I will
strive to match or exceed my father’s handprint, I will also strive to stay
vastly below his footprint.

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THE POINT OF HUMANITY

The discussion about how to deal with climate change consists of two rough
perspectives: one of sacrifice (we need to reduce travel, purchase less, …) or
one of techno-utopianism (creating ways to keep doing what we do, without
negative impact). While the techno-utopian extreme might seem desirable, the
extreme position of sacrifice would be suicide, which isn’t quite so desirable.
As always, the solution we truly find is probably one in between: some
regulation to avoid stupid waste of energy, but also create a lot of new
opportunities.

What I often miss in the discussion, though, is this: What are we doing this
for? What’s the point? I don’t like the goal of saving the planet. I don’t care
much about the planet – what good would earth be, if no human lived on it?
Without anyone to conciously experience the beauty of life on earth, the
planet’s not worth much in my view. The ultimate goal, why we fight climate
change, should be to preserve experience in all of its beauty. Here are a few
examples of that beauty:

 * Risking one’s life just for fun, doing extreme activities.
 * Driving a Porsche 356 through Antarctica.
 * Try to learn everything there is to know about everything in the universe.
 * Dedicating one’s life to learn a weird, complicated musical instrument.
 * Building a miniaturized brick castle from millions of parts, spending many
   years doing so.
 * Meditating on the side of a mountain for 20 years.
 * Spending one’s life travelling the planet, meeting a plethora of cultures.
 * Organizing huge events where millions of people meet & share experiences.
 * Paddling a canoe across the Antlantic Ocean.

These quirky and weird experiences often don’t seem to have a point, as it’s
visualised beautifully in The Culture Series, where other (alien) races miss the
point of The Culture (= humanity). Not having a point is – in my view – exactly
the point of it all: realizing the full range of (human) experience.

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MY WINDOW TO EVERYTHING

One thing I don’t like to complain about is screen time. I believe others
complain about too much screen time, because of what they associate with the
screen. Maybe it’s work they don’t like. Maybe it’s some software that
frustrates them. Maybe it’s because they consistenly think faster than their
computer. Especially in COVID-times, it’s kind of understandable that people are
fatigued by their “screen”.

I like to think one step further, though. Computers aren’t just what we
associate with them right now. Computers can do almost anything and therefore,
screens can be your window to everywhere and everything. Today, using only my
various computers and screens, I did all of these things:

 * Watch a man-made rover land on Mars.
 * Learn about the history of a coat of arms.
 * Get to know nine new people from four different countries.
 * Play a (wooden/paper) boardgame via webcam.
 * Did a workshop creating a new process of collaboration for a project team.
 * Interviewed two job applicants.
 * Become a wizard and cast fireballs and mind control spells.
 * Learned how to cook my dinner, with step-by-step video instructions.
 * Travel to another universe.

Given sufficient curiosity, it’s hard to see how a screen can be something bad.
But I get it. If you don’t know now to use it, you might end up refreshing your
social media feed all the time. Don’t be that person. Be that other person, that
owns a window to everything, and knows how to navigate that infinite cosmos of
knowledge.

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OUR FAMILY MOTTO

It does feel a bit weird to have a family motto – after all, that’s something
that was common hundreds of years ago. But not unlike a common vision for a
company, a family motto can strenghten the connections between its members.

Our family motto is “Im Kerne sind wir Sterne”, which translates to “We’re stars
at our core”. My wife and me chose this motto, because it works on so many
layers for us. First, it connects us to ourselves and to the cosmos. It helps us
have the right perspective on things. Second, it makes us reflect who and what
we are at the core, and what we care about. Third, it shows a scientific
curiosity about everything. If we ponder about what we are made of, we’ll have
many interesting questions that arise from that, and this deep sense of
curiosity is something we wish to not only remember every day, but also foster
in our children. Fourth, it’s a nice combination of deep wonder at the cosmos,
but without any supernatural connections, building on a humanistic foundation
instead. Fifth, that motto highlights the potential in each one of us to achieve
great things, to become a star – not in the sense of popularity, but in the
sense of providing enlightenment to others.

I’m very happy with that motto. It’s simple, but it also allows a lot of room
for interpretation and deeper questions. I even hope it got you thinking!

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HOW TO COMPARE YOURSELF

The most obvious way for me to evaluate my skills is to compare myself with
others. The most obvious way to figure out where my company stands is to compare
it with our competitors. And of course, the most obvious way to do these
comparisons is also the least beneficial way, if growth is my goal.

Every person and every company is so different, regarding our specific
experiences & skills, that comparisons are always unfair, and it’s hard to draw
actionable conclusions. Also, if I compare myself to others all the time, I will
always walk right behind them.

If I want to lead and achieve sustainable growth, I need to compare my current
self to my past self. That way, I can make sure that I continuously grow my
character & skills, no matter what. That’s also the only way to outgrow, for
example, my company’s competition.

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BUSYWORK

It’s probably uncontroversial to say that busywork is detestable. By busywork, I
mean work that keeps me busy, but won’t move things forward. A few examples:
sitting in a meeting without contributing, obviously superflous; starting
something without learning from or finishing it; producing something that is
never needed.

As a recent second-time father, I have to up my productivity game — again. One
of the keys for me is to weed out busywork, so that only productive work
remains. Doing that, I realized that I’m probably not the only one at
interfacewerk who’s sometimes busy with busywork. Since I’m deciding about a
decent amount of my teams work, I’m now trying to come up with some guidelines
to find which activities are busywork and which aren’t. Here’s what I came up
with:

It’s unclear, what goals is being furthered by the activity. If that’s the case,
the activity should be examined and it should be clarified what goal this
activity is moving us towards. Hint: “to keep things running“ is insufficient,
there has to be a higher goal.

The activity has skipped one or two necessary steps. If there is research needed
to figure out if the activity is worthwhile, do the research first. This pattern
is common in software development, and I call it “premature implementation”
there.

The activity takes more investment that it’s worth. A common pattern in
administrative or strategic work, where the investment isn’t easy to keep track
of. Basically, each hour spent has a cost (and additionally, an opportunity
cost), and this investment has to produce an outcome that’s higher in value (in
the long term).

The activity involves more people than necessary. Oversized meetings are
commonplace, but I’d also say that many software development teams are too big
for their own good. Small meetings are quicker, cheaper and more efficient.
Smaller teams are nimbler, can come to quicker decisions and faster releases.

As a final note: I vowed to never reply “busy“ when somebody asks me how I am,
because “busy” is not a state of mind that I should be in — “focused” is
prefarable.

This is all for now. Find older posts in the archive. Write to me at
echo@eulenherr.de.

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