Thanks to neuroscience research, we today know that we don‘t exclusively absorb culture through univerally shared, standard issue, human perceptual equipment, but culture determines what we can and can‘t perceive. Our functional cognitive architectures are changed by the culture we live in. The impact of this so-called perceptual learning is bigger than most of us imagine. Not only literacy and language, but also such fundamental brain activities, such as sight
Being an entrepreneur, my life has always been thrilling and rich in variety. While studying and after a few stunts as a working student at Henkel, it was clear to me to become self-employed – I wanted to be my own boss. I started with Web 1.0, an online travel agency, a pure e-commerce play. Then I moved into Web 2.0, building a social news aggregator. After that, it was
Mankind seems to have reached a crossroads. At environmental, political, and economical levels more and more urgent hazard warnings appear. Man has to cope with this high-speed change, and there are many well-intended activities already under way. However, what we need to survive exceeds fast-track rescue plans and well-meant community engagement. We have to bethink ourselves of our inherent abilities and leverage our entire skill set – we need a
There are many ways of interpreting the things that happen in our lives. For me, there is no such thing as chance, but everything happens for a specific reason. Good and bad things alike, have helped me to understand my environment better and to improve the quality of my life. It’s not that I’d be looking for bad things to happen or that I I’d be explicitly happy when they occur
It is said that a brain‘s size positively correlates with its host‘s level of intelligence. The ability of human beings to use tools in very elaborate ways, to create art or to invent and tell stories to each others, seems to prove a certain supremacy over other creatures. As long as we won‘t have discovered supernatural life, humans regard themselves as being the pride of creation. Ok, then – all
Having enjoyed a few days of skiing in Italy, I was reminded of a pearl of wisdom by a ski instructor of my kids. After a downhill run, when discussing what to improve skiing, the instructor told my son: “Not the slope must change – it can’t – you must!” This simple statement by a veritable expert in this field (as opposed to my son’s father) had deeply impressed my
During winter, it sometimes snows in Germany, even in climate change-raddled 21st century. In the first weeks of January 2019, we are experiencing heavy snowfalls – a weather condition that results in a variety of effects, from the impossibility to bike to work, over flight cancellations or accidents. to snowball fights and deep powder skiing. Weather is a phenomenon beyond the reach of human beings. It is broadly predictable but
Yesterday over lunch, we discussed the libertarian notion of essentially getting rid of legacy complexity, such as legislation, regulation, etc. Some of the early proponents and creators of crypto currencies have expressed libertarian world views by trying to leave the monetary system of central banks and hand over the power of money creation to the people.
At school, I was never good in maths. At the university, I was interested in statistics, but only marginally. Honestly, I started tu learn about the beauty of maths many years later, when working with more intelligent people than me who understand computers and data, in general. After I started working on Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies in 2014, I began to realise that some aspects of maths, such
A change agent is a person from inside or outside the organisation who helps an organisation transform itself by focusing on such matters as organisational effectiveness, improvement, and development. This is, what the dictionary says. For me, change agents are everywhere, and always behind the next corner. My behaviour could be defined as my actions based on several given different preconditions, such as my environment, my state of mind and