The Denial of Death and the Knight of Faith

The Denial of Death and the Knight of Faith
“You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
— Morpheus to Neo, "The Matrix"

This famous movie quote depicts the choice for the main character Neo of either staying in his normal life inside the faked matrix or waking up to the bitter reality where mankind is enslaved to machines. A hard choice between comfort and truth.

When I read the book "The Denial of Death", by Earnest Becker, it felt a little bit like swallowing the red pill.

Publications on the Money System

The excuse for severely neglecting my blog in the last months has been my master thesis on "Profit opportunities for the banking system due to deposit money creation and potentials of a sovereign money reform". If you are interested to read it, you can find it here.

As you might know, I am pretty involved in a German initiative to reform the money system so that only a public institution is in charge of all money creation instead of private banks (as they are at present) - the reform is called "sovereign money reform".
Therefore, my current interest is with money and I have written two articles on other platforms (in German though) criticising the contemporary monetary system: 

And there is a video on youtube of my presentation (in German) at the "2. Ergänzungsveranstaltung des Vereins für Socialpolitik" on the need for a sovereign money reform ("Die Vollgeldreform - warum wir eine neue Geldordnung brauchen").

Tips for Travelling

Tips for Travelling

After two exchange semesters, one in San Diego, USA and one in Taipei, Taiwan and travelling around Asia and Europe I made a lot of valuable experiences that I would like to share here for the prospective traveller. Many of these tips would have been very useful for me during my first journeys and I hope that some of them can be useful to others now. If you've already travelled some continents though, you've probably figured out most of the stuff by yourselve. Yet I hope that you can still take away something.

Meat

Meat
“Almost always when I told someone I was writing a book about “eating animals”, they assumed, even without knowing anything about my views, that it was a case for vegetarianism. It’s a telling assumption, one that implies not only that a thorough inquiry into animal agriculture would lead one away from eating meat, but that most people already know that to be the case.” 
— Jonathan Safran Foer

If just about three years ago, you had let me choose between a schnitzel and some tofu sausage, I would have picked the schnitzel without thinking twice. The mere title of this post would have made me hungry and there were few things I would have considered more delicious than a juicy steak.

But times have changed.

On the Righteous Mind and How not to Win an Argument

There is the common view that the truth can be found through reason and argument. That if only people get access to information and the knowledge from science and research they will adjust flawed opinions and convert to the truth no matter how they personally feel about it. This is the ideal of science, that man can leave his emotions and personal views behind on the road to objective insight. 

“A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections - a mere heart of stone.” — Charles Darwin

But then there is an opposing view, that man is a self-righteous scumbag, mostly using his mental faculties to win pointless arguments and to justify his egocentric worldview.

Whats wrong with Economics?

I want to understand the big relationships in our world. I want to learn the reasons of unemployment and inequality; how to design successfull economies and how to prevent financial crises.
I am as passionate about economic issues as one can be and this is why I have been studying economics for the last 5 years.
Unfortunately, to say that I am a little unsatisfied with my major would be a strong understatement - I am deeply frustrated.
In this post, I'll try to explain why that is and what's wrong with the current state of economics.

Cool Challenges

Cool Challenges

Personally I enjoy to regularly set myself new challenges and to try out new stuff. Following is a list with multiple interesting challenges and inspiring "Life Hacks" that you could try if you'd like to spice up your life a little. I will probably write about my motivation and experiences about some of the items below in some more detail in my blog.

Democracy and Participation

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” — Winston Churchill

What makes some nations great, people there living in dignity and prosperity whereas other states fail, again and again, trapped in poverty and misery?

I have often wondered about this question.
Common explanations focus on differences in geography, resource endowment, the amount of capital, culture or religion but these answers have never really satisfied me as they didn't seem to go to the core of the problem.
Then, very recently I stumbled on a new explanation, as simple as convincing: Institutions.

On the Pursuit of Happiness

During my own search for happiness I have come across various sources of insights and advice that have been very helpful to me. In this post I would like to share the best texts, videos and books I have found and also put forward some of my own ideas about happiness.

So ... what is happiness?

Maybe being with a loved one? The intensity of a crazy party? The peace of wandering in nature? Or laughing your ass of because you accidentally kicked your roommate in the balls?

And what makes up its importance in our society?
Is a life of maximum happiness a successful life? Would it be justified to measure a countries success through the average happiness of its citizens as the Happy Planet Index does? Should one agree to Jeremy Bentham, founding father of utilitarianism, saying:

“It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”

Expanding the Comfort Zone

Speaking in public, travelling a foreign country alone, approaching a stranger to ask for a date or running around in a mankini in a busy shopping street. All actions that are typically outside of peoples comfort zone.
In case you are not familiar with the term, the (psychological) comfort zone describes the restricted set of situations and activities that a person feels comfortable doing and usually does on a regular basis. “Where our uncertainty, scarcity and vulnerability are minimized. […] Where we feel we are in control” (Brene Brown). A comfort zone differs among people and is dynamic and changeable over time. You might feel embarassed to sing karaoke while your sister is crazy about it and what might have been a major challenge in your teens can seem normal today, like driving a car. The comfort zone is not to be confused with the set of things you enjoy doing though. These sets can and often do overlap, but you can for instance be comfortable about dancing in a club without enjoying it or also enjoy it even though you feel sleightly weird.

Meditation and Mindfulness

When most people hear the term “Meditation” they think of Buddhist monks, hippies or general esoteric weirdness. Definitely nothing for normal, down-to-earth citizens.

I used to share this same skeptical attitude, but after stumbling on multiple blog posts about the various benefits of meditation and scientific studies proving countless advantages regarding health and happiness, my curiosity was aroused.

Materialism and Minimalism Part 2

Materialism and Minimalism Part 2

To describe the philosophy of minimalism I will reuse Leo Babautas excellent description: "It's one that is stripped of the unnecessary, to make room for that which gives you joy. It's a removal of clutter in all its forms, leaving you with peace and freedom and lightness. A minimalist eschews the mindset of more, of acquiring and consuming and shopping, of bigger is better, of the burden of stuff. That earning more and having more are meaningless. Figure out what makes you happy. Get rid of the rest, so you have room for those important things."

The decisive inspiration for me to become a follower of the minimalism philosophy has been a blog post by Mark Manson. I realized that currently even a massive increase in my living standard just wouldn’t substantially improve anything relevant about my life.
That I already own enough.

The Benefits of Writing Down Your Goals

The Benefits of Writing Down Your Goals

For almost three years now I maintain a document where I explicitely write down short- and long-termed personal goals plus some general facts about my current life situation. Working on that document is like zooming out and having a look at the bigger, overall picture of my life and maintaining this explicit statement of goals has enormously increased my general focus and perserverance.