Updated Blog Style

After more than a year of writing this blog and a extremely lame layout and overall look & feel, I felt it was about time to make a small redesign and several improvments for things that always bothered me.

First of all, you will note a new theme - instead of the blue font on what background you will now find a combination of dark colors (black, grey) and orange.

Next, I tried to get rid all the unnecessary clutter on the page - label overview, archive, about me section are all now cut away from the main page. Instead, I created dedicated pages for archive and a quite rudimentary "about" page as well.

Furthermore, I found that I did not offer any possibilites to get in touch with me - so here they are!

Finally, I moved to feed burner for feed generation, which also allows subscribing via email now.

And what do you, dear reader, think about the new design? Each kind of feedback is truly welcome!

Economist, Dentist, Computerist - An Essay on Ist-Ism

"What are you?" is probably among the most often asked questions whenever two people see each other for the first time. Many people are so used to that question already that the answer is quite flat and straightforward - don't expect much more than some job description ending with "-ist" (ideally followed by some impressive title)."What are you?", as if what one works or studied before would reveal anything about her personality.

Even worse, some people apparently even feel the need to declare themselves again and again during a conversation.

A: Me being an ***ist, I think the sky is blue
B: Well, but since I'm a ***ist, I would say it's rather gray

As much as I understand the human need for being part of a group, and also convincing himself about that fact every now and then, I seriously doubt that defining the entire personality by one's job is very smart.

Both of the above are different forms of what I call istism. Actually, it does not quite fit to the definition from the urbandictionary.com, which says:

An istism is a use of the 'ist' suffix, when being derrogatory. If Alice was to say "I hate coloured people", she would be being RACIST, thefore committing an Istism

So, I'll try to come up with my own definition.

Istism is the attempt to sum up somebody's perspectives about various topics under one umbrella term, topically by his job or one any other group he feels connected to. (e.g., "I'm capitalist, so I think about economics what all capitalists think".) Another form of istism is using the membership to a group as a means of reasoning (e.g. "I (have to) think that markets successfully regulate themselves, because I'm a liberalist.")

In my understanding, istism may be interpreted as another form of stereotypes. Even though the word "stereotype" is generally used in a rather negative way, I think that's only half the story. Quoting a close friend of mine, you also don't wonder whether the neighbour's dog showing his teeth is also willing to use them, but rather see to escape and thereby accepting the stereotype without questioning it in that case.
The world is simply too complex to be fully re-discovered every day, so no, I wouldn't say stereotypes are a bad thing in general. What bothers me about istism, though, is that somebody puts a sticker onto himself and thereby willingly exposes him to all the stereotypes - as if all dentists would be the same! The same in terms of views about politics, hobbies, favourite football club, drinks, ... whatever "really matters".

I think another reason for "What are you?" being asked that often is that people don't know how else to get a conversation started. I normally try avoiding answering such questions too straightforward (unless I'm in a business meeting, where it didn't turn out to be too successful to avoid talking about business matters), and of course, asking them myself either.
Instead, "What are you passionate about?" has worked wonders for me quite often already. For example, I really couldn't imagine one quite ordinary colleague being a passionate writer of short-stories in his free time. Every other minute he loves to spend with Icelandic horse. Admittedly, horses are not my major field of interest, but whatever is communicated with enough passion is simply contagious. I did not start horseback riding myself immediately (having made rather bad experiences on vacation, where I tend to end up with quite red an ass ...), but it was a great starter for an entertaining six hours drive from Bosnia to Vienna. I doubt that would have been possible had we only talked about business matters.

The thing is, everybody loves to talk what he is passionate about (some of our fellows actually even too much so), so I think that's a good starter to really get to know somebody. There might be other ways as well ... so how do you really get to know strangers? And maybe even more important ... what are you passionate about?

What is Your Mant(r)a?

No, this is not about the famous German car from the 80s.

Also, this is not about the "flying" fishes.

(If you have a proper "oh no", "fucking bad joke" or whatever picture of gif at hand, the stage is yours. I didn't find a suitable one.)

No, this is about mantras, which according to the Oxford Dictionaries is: 

mantra
(originally in Hinduism and Buddhism) a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation:a mantra is given to a trainee meditator when his teacher initiates him

a Vedic hymn:her high, sweet voice began chanting the mantra of life
a statement or slogan repeated frequently:the environmental mantra that energy has for too long been too cheap

Origin:
late 18th century: Sanskrit, literally 'instrument of thought', from man 'think'

I also don't want to talk about Hinduism, Buddhism or meditation. What I want to focus on is the literal translation, "instrument of thought". An instrument using which you keep your mind in good shape. Something you repeat to yourself, over and over, maybe even in a truistic way (or, as we guys with thick glasses like to call it, a tautology, a statement that is always true just by being true).

Since my very childhood, I remember having come across several sayings by the grown-up world (sorry for the quite literal translations from German; if you are aware of a similar phrase used in native English, please leave a comment):

• Nothing causes nothing ("von nix kummt nix"). I understand that this should encourage you learn more, work harder, live a busy life altogether ...
• Until you marry, it will be fine again ("bis du heiratest is' wieder gut"). Said to children when they are a little bit hurt, or, ironically, when they are full of grief because of being left by their first sweet heart
• And, finally, my probably most hated one: Those who can go out can also work ("wer fortgehen kann kann auch arbeiten"). Something you would typically hear from your uber-orderly colleague at work about your hangover. Big BS!

Lucky me, I've turned old enough to question those sayings. My current point of view is that even though there might be a piece of truth in some of them, I would say that they show a heavy gravitation towards huge pieces of shit.

Admittedly, this might appear quite bold statement, since that is what most of us have been told since years. Most likely even so by people we know for quite a while already and whose opinion we typically highly value.

For some people these mantras might even play an important role in their daily lives. Thus, I will now not start arguing about my opinion. Just be invited to question those sayings that you might have taken for granted since ... well, ever since.

Just to be clear, the above sayings might provide some useful guidance through daily life. However, from my point of view most of them are too much focused on normalizing towards a proper, daily-from-9-to-5-working-nice-wife-nice-house-nice-children life and consequently lack universality.

So, no mant(r)as at all?

No, that is not to say that I consider mantras and sayings a dull thing in general. On the contrary, I think it is very useful if you have something to hold on. Something to come back whenever in doubt. For me, these are:

• You always make the right decision
• Everybody looks for individual happiness
• It's gonna be ok

Take the time, and read the above again. Yes, you always make the right decision! If you feel like doing so, read it once again and enjoy. Isn't that incredible freeing? Free yourself from the burden of questioning yourself all over, and tell yourself that you did right!

Of course, you might do and decide differently if you would face that same question now again, but that is great! It only shows that you learned something and grew, and actually, the opposite would be sad.

Whatever it is, with regard to everything that you knew when facing that question, and everything you could possible know, and all your values at that point in time - you did make the right decision.

While that first mantra is rather egoistic and oriented on self-esteem and self-confidence, the second is about dealing with others.

Whenever I'm dealing with somebody who I cannot quite cope with, or when I cannot understand others' decisions and actions, I tell myself that everybody looks for individual happiness. Naturally, people have different needs and desires, but hold on for a second, and think about people surrounding you.

Whatever they might be looking for, in the end it is happiness. Keep that in mind the next time you are facing a tricky situation, and feel the difference. I promise you won't regret it.

Third, I'm quite convinced that in the end everything's gonna be ok. Whatever it is, it helps me to face it with a fundamentally optimistic attitude. Of course, there might be challenging days and phases in life where this is hard to imagine, and things might not always run as expected, but this way or the other, it will be ok.

P.S.: Credit for the first two mantras goes to a former professor at university, for the most useful thing I learned there. The third I cannot quite track back any more, but it always remembers me about Bob Marley's Every little thing's gonna be alright.

 

P.P.S.: I decided on a posting schedule. Expect posts here every Wednesday (starting next week, not tomorrow). I'm writing this here, because once I told the whole world about my plan, I know I'm much more committed and there is no way back ... and I'm sure this is the right decision!

Sisyphus’ Motivation

For those of you expecting the breaking, new insights on motivation now: sorry to disappoint you. I guess there has been plenty said about motivation already, there is probably more to come in the future, so no need to sum it up here again.

However, I promised to come up with my motivators last time. Now, considering myself a generally trustworthy person (do I hear anybody laugh??) keeping my word, and well-behaved as I am (do I again hear anybody laugh?), also feeling the need to further introduce myself, here they are.

Apparently, they are not as epochal as the ones from the guy on the picture below.

Source: http://www.jerichoschools.org/hs/teachers/lfischer/stranger/myth_of_sisyphus.htm

Have you checked the link above or are generally familiar with the pretty broad meaning of the word “motivation”, you might cry out loud now, wondering that being compelled to do something by the gods is not quite what you would refer to as “motivated” (If you don’t care at all, that’s ok as well. It’s quite liberating to recognize that you don’t need to have an opinion on everything). 

Nevertheless, I chose that analogy for two reasons. First, I strongly feel that those words are quite often mixed in daily usage as well (“Due to my enthusiastic promotion of corporate vision, I motivated my employee to do overtime. Oh, and did I mention threatening to lay her off otherwise?”). Having revealed that outstanding discovery now, I already feel much better.

Second, and thereby I’m now finally connecting to the actual topic of this post, because we might sometimes feel that we are currently performing a "sisyphean task", a task that seems completely useless, or endless, or both. The latter was the case when I was in high school and obliged to write what my German teacher happened to call “cultural diary”. We were asked to keep track of all “cultural” activities we performed back then (like going to cinemas or concerts, reading books ...), and to hand them in by the end of the year.

We never found out why exactly he considered that to be important (I guess the same was true for Sisyphus), but apparently he did. Needless to say we did not quite share that point of view back then, and that the majority of those diaries where copied together from Wikipedia and IMDB on the very last evening before deadline.

However, similar to Sisyphus wondering about the deeper aim of him rolling that stone uphill forever, even though we might not know about the deeper aim of things at one point in time, we might find out about it later. When I now read my “cultural diary” from some ten years ago, I remember several things I thought I had forgotten already, and the thought of what kind of lad I was back then simply makes me smile. Might you have imagined that anybody would bother writing about a red card in football, The Day After Tomorrow and at the same time finding himself to be a big fan of Seeed? Well, me neither, but apparently back then I was.

So, one reason for me writing this blog is keeping track of my interests. I’m looking forward to reading these lines in ten years, and smiling about my style of writing and my current interests as well.

Among the others there are (but, again, not in order. Failing on what the majority of modern scientists on economics expect from proper economic subjects, I sometimes seem to be bad in rationalizing and therefore a bad homo economicus. Dooh, poor me.):

• to laugh about myself in hindsight 
• to learn from my past mistakes
• to reflect about myself and things that I’m currently thinking about or surrounded by 
• to inspire others as well as showing them interesting, thought-provoking ideas 
• to improve my writing skills

As much as I know that some topics need to be dealt with seriously, I believe that some people completely misinterpret this by also taking themselves too serious. Who wants to spend his time with somebody like that all the time? I prefer to face myself with a loose, yet positive, attitude, and like to do so in hindsight as well.

It is a well known fact that personal growth and self-development is mainly the result from past mistakes. Making mistakes is actually a crucial prerequisite for improvement, and exposing yourself to interesting mistakes helps in improving. Do you think there would be an iPhone as we know it now (in its 5^th version), had there not been a version 1.0? That first version seriously sucked in several regards, yet sometimes version 1 sucks but ship it anyway. If you are interested, the overall impressive writer and speaker Scott Berkun shares some interesting thoughts on learning from your mistakes either.

Learning and self-development need to be supported by self-reflection as well. Not only reflecting on myself, but also writing down things that I’m currently thinking about helps me clearing up my mind. You may have experienced the same, when even you yourself understood things better or in another way upon explaining them to somebody.

When listening to music with a friend the other day, she was wondering whether the artist we were listening to was actually among the very best in the world. “How would you know? “, I asked. “Well, would he otherwise be that popular?” Apparently, she never heard about survivorship biases before, and was astonished upon getting a short introduction to that concept. Thus, inspiring you and provoking interesting thoughts is among my motivators for writing this blog.

And, last but not least (as demonstrated by these words, I some have difficulties to express my thoughts within one sentence and have to interrupt them in a sub sentence like this. I know some people get that as bad style, but I like to let my words float around similar to my thoughts) ... So, last but not least (which, by the way, happens to be one of the most frequent used anglicisms in German language, and, similar to many popular things, one of the dullest as well). Third try ... last, but not least, as you may already have guessed, I want to improve my writing skills. Trying to avoid being trapped by a causation fallacy, I cautiously assume that is partly due to an inspiring article from Jeff Atwood.

Now, having written about my motivators and inspiration, when have you reflected about what inspires and drives you the last time? If you are willing to share your thoughts with us, the stage is yours!

First post

Annoyed? Interested? Doesn't matter! Anyway, when you read up to here, I'm past the first critical 50 milliseconds already, because, like it or not, as a user of the www you probably behave like an animal online.

Next, in order to fulfill your demand to see what you can expect here (and you do have that demand, see below), let's face it: Just another blog, probably nothing special around here, some random thoughts from a walk down the earth. Not as spectacular as Random Walk Down Wall Street, but hey, logically speaking, Wall Street is part of this as well, so who knows what I will cover one day here.
This blog has neither dedicated topic nor purpose. You might or might not find posts on my thoughts on some of the topics that I currently consider interesting, among them (but not in order):

• Diving (just found a fairly new bike in Vrbas today)
• Politics and History of the Balkans
• Software Engineering and Agile Software Development
• Project Management
• Scientific skepticism
• Sports, especially football

Alright, I promised I'll proof what I meant with the bold statement above. Apparently that was kind of a lie (well, at least it kept you reading, right?), as I'm not proofing myself, but instead citing the awesome guy from above again:

• Demand to see what you have to offer in under four seconds.
• Form a first impression of your site in just 50 milliseconds.
• Give up on your site entirely within two minutes of arriving.

Reading that myself again, I admit that sounds a bit like I would desperately be hunting for readers. Of course, I would be more than happy could I inspire one or two of you out there with my ideas, but that is not my major ...

Purpose

Some people don't get tired of telling you how important it is to have goals. If you ever attended a business administration, marketing, HR or whatever 101 course at university, I trust you know what I'm talking about even better. Well, I recently adopted the idea that sometimes you are actually better off without having goals.


Unless you are a football player, of course.

Nevertheless, there are a few motivators, both intrinsic and extrinsic ones, which make me trying this blog. For an overview of them, you'll have to wait for the next post, though ;-)

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Talking about motivators, I'd be interested how you found or heard about this blog. I'd be grateful for a few comments down there.