Welcome to ReflectionV3.
This has been the best month of the year so far. Spring is finally coming to Stockholm and I am happy to share what happened in the last few weeks. I started writing the first part in my bed on the 1st of May at 12:02 and finished it up on the 5th of May at 14:57.
Best!
Johannes
This is a good one. At the beginning of April, I came home like the biggest sunshine in the world. I was in the kitchen of my flat with Ellis and she asked me what happened. So I listed up a bunch of things that I was grateful for that day. And then I asked her what was great for her today, and she was proud of her 110 kg new deadlift record. So we decided to celebrate that. As well as the hot chocolate I got to enjoy during our conversation. And because our other roommate Matteo returned home at the same time, stressed from work, ready for his pizza from the fridge, we also decided to celebrate that.
That day, we celebrated the day of the cacao, the day of the 110 deadlift (for Ellis), the day of the square root 10 (which is actually celebrated on the 16th of March because square root(10)=3.16, but we didn't celebrate it back then so we had to do it on that day!!!), and the day of the pizza (for Matteo). It's a great practice, I swear it will boost your happiness.
And since then, I try to ask in our flat every time: what do we have to celebrate today?
Honestly, this is such a valuable mindset shift and I can highly recommend practicing awareness, being aware of how you feel and reacting accordingly. As stupid as it sounds. But in the past, I sometimes forced myself into things, because other people thought it was the right approach and I tried to copy them in the hope that it works for me even though it felt wrong. I think I learned to listen to my inner compass more. This dialogue is the best navigation tool you'll ever have.
I recommend you start here:
Rinpoche is my guru
In the cold Swedish winter, I was mostly home like a bear in his cave. The city was just empty and public life shut down. The good thing is: this is an imbalance and April showed me that human activity goes up drastically again.
One mantra of mine is: you cannot change the world from your room. I am not aiming to change the world in any dramatic sense but I found some beauty in this sentence which encourages me to go out in the wild. Every time I push myself and go out to new destinations it feels great. Every single time because I expanded my horizon.
No matter if it is an event or a trip. What I measure is that I go out somewhere. Somewhere not familiar. And I will grow one step closer to the Johannes Brix version I should become.
But I still write and read a lot. It's about the balance.
At the beginning of the month, I set the goal that I upload one video where I use the Python library Manim to create a video with math animations. I almost started making videos with it, I played around and it is frustrating if you realize again that this is not the right thing.
I am happy that I tried it out.
I was just frustrated that this again is not what I want to do. My interpretation for that was not ideal at first, I just stopped, trying to reflect, not just working on something blindly over and over again. Luckily from my accountability with Leon, I had the pressure of making a decision which I in the end decided to go with. I indeed also technically didn't fulfill the time requirement for the challenge, so I take a penalty for that. Not the 10k for now, but something different. If you are curious about what it is, reach out to me, I can tell you.
I am deeply convinced of the power to train your mind from early on not to quit. To never give up. So I cannot just stop. It's all good and fine to write this down but the real evaluation of this comes from the actions I take in the future.
I am also writing this down and sharing this as a reminder that you, Johannes, set out to do this thing. So Johannes, you should better bring it home.
I've tried out tools like Lovable and Cursor quite extensively to "Code a website". However, I came to the realization that this is bullshit, at least for someone from my position who has never done web development before. If you want to integrate those tools in your workflow, you have to understand WHAT they produce. And that was and still is not the case for me. So I decided to work on the basics and work my way up to grasp what is going on. One of my goals is to create my own blog which I coded myself. This is a wonderful Frontend practice. I got to learn the basics of HTML (creating the skeleton of the website), Git (version control: tracking your old progress so you can adjust and restore anytime), CSS (Styling) and JS (Interactivity). I am proud of the progress I've made so far since my start.
I am a very happy, positive person. But this doesn't come from nowhere. I push myself to appreciate what I have. Every time. If you like, feel free to paste this excerpt of one of my journal entries in and you might understand what I mean :)
"War so froh, als ich in der WG war, weil es arschkalt war. Sau windig, end Àtzend mit dem Radl aber umso schöner drin. Wenn ich hier so schreibe, fÀllt mir eine Parallele immer auf. Ich pole mich selbst zum Positivismus. Ich versuche immer, das positive in einer Sache zu sehen & das dann zu exploiten."
(I don't focus on the cold weather outside, I focus on the warm flat inside)
Is the question which I asked all the time. But this question only comes after "Do you want to publish stuff?". I never really answered this question, but the answer is yes. So I should start publishing whatever and find out by doing so how the frequency should be.
I spent a spontaneous weekend in Göteborg. I don't wanna talk too much about what happened, this was just another puzzle piece in the way I want to live life. Like a free spirit. Just from one day to the other deciding to go to this place. In reality, nothing but yourself can stop you. At least in a privileged life like mine.
I know exactly why I did it. I knew if I pull something off like this, good things will happen. I developed such a trust in myself that I can build upon now. No matter where I go. This trust combined with my natural curiosity makes all the difference.
On my way back home for the Easter visit, I went through Frankfurt where I stopped to visit my friends Frederik and Thais. If I cross somewhere, I always reach out to anyone. It just has to be, if I want to stay in touch with them and I can only encourage everyone to do so too. Usually, the people are happy to see you. But don't forget the quote by Benjamin Franklin if you visit them at home.
"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."
I will visit my amazing friend Luka in Barbados this summer where I will stay for around a week. I hope I don't stink too much by then. :)
After I returned home, my whole family was complete, sitting there together at the table. In our conversation, we somehow got to speak about our America family trip almost 10 years ago.
In this conversation, I remembered that I still had my journal from back then which I started at the age of 12! I managed to document the entire trip. And I am grateful for that, another motivator to continue doing these monthly reflections.
I only wanted to see and connect with the people who went there. And it was great.
I made some reflections about everything that came to my mind after.
Optimize for the team, the idea should follow after: No matter if it's a company, friends or the relationship with your loved one. If you are a great team you can achieve anything.
I also found it super interesting: Y-Combinator is like a religion. Everyone in the room was part of it and it was easy for you to assume that this was the right thing. In reality, I think this is the wrong path for so many people even those who attended this meeting.
An extreme comparison could be: imagine back in the days when the Nazis met. If you are in one room where everyone thinks the same, do you even question if this is right or wrong? Even if it is something as bad as the Nazis? Always question.
But in this talk, I saw that my future lies in Munich rather than Stockholm. I have way better access to the people, simply because I am German and I am more familiar with this place. Everything I've learned over the past 3 years will compound very soon in Munich if I can make this work.
In my endeavor to work for Lovable as a student representative, I managed to get a Lovable workshop slot at the TUM.ai hackathon. This event was amazing. I've never been to a hackathon before and this made me really hyped to try out one of these in the future.
One moment I particularly enjoyed was meeting Consti again after 8 months. We walked through Munich for hours, had ice cream, a drink and such a wonderful conversation about everything while enjoying the sunshine of Munich. We just enjoyed spending time together as good friends after a long time. What else do you need?
I rarely appreciate just how lucky I am to have this amazing family, with cousins as playmates all over the years and even grandparents whom I could enjoy for such a long time.
This is a true gift. I think this is also an unfair experience to those who never experienced something like this, for example in the Y-Combinator bubble. I truly experienced that a strong family cannot by any value get to the level of Amazon or Google. (Which I didn't experience yet but at least I can say that I am probably less attached to achieving something like building the next Google or whatever because of that.)
Which is fine, everyone makes completely individual experiences and that's great, so everyone tackles different problems and we grow as a society.
One day before my return, I still imagined myself to be in London 24 hours later. However, I landed in London. The EU and UK changed their travel regulations and it is now only possible to travel to the UK with the passport (which still was in Stockholm) and an entrance fee. So I booked a train instead of a plane. This is a step back for the global community. This is so sad. The world does not change from one day to the other. It changes in small steps like this and we are moving in the wrong direction. At least, I know now that I need this when going to the UK in June. :)
The train ride turned out to be the wildest train ride of my life: a fight in the compartment next to mine which I had to resolve (the controller and a passenger started fighting at 2am), constant terror from people moving around, an old man wanted to take my seat at 5am in the morning and the border control greeted us 2 times in the night.
At least, I made it and had good company of some people in my compartment as well as my relatives in the morning who went with me to visit Stockholm.
I came home and slept the last 8 hours of April from 16:00 way into the morning of the first of May.
I feel like sometimes a lot of stuff, e.g. the organization of my Göteborg trip from the decision to the execution comes down to a few crucial moments.
Same on yearly basis. This year has the opportunity for a lot of things to fall into place. Let's keep on working towards the life we want to build.
For me, this month was a great win.
Because again, I had some crucial moments where I kept going. Sometimes, it's only in absence that we truly recognize the worth of what we once had.
As always, some selections of interesting content from this month.
Lee Kan Yew from the Biographics channel, always great treatment in the evening
Watch the video
Highest respect for someone who does something like this. 25hr speech.
Watch the speech
I have a crush on singaporean politicians. PM Lawrence Wong on US tariffs.
Watch the video
Don't take democracy for granted. It's up to each and everyone of us. Obama speech.
Watch the speech
I hope you'll make a lot of kids. We need them. And they are amazing. :)
Watch the video
I love the dutch. Always very creative.
Watch the video
Great if you want to learn how the german empire formed.
Watch the video
Poland is leveling up. They can be proud of what they've achieved in the last 30 years. Keep on pushing.
Watch the video
Again, as a mathematician, one can only admire 3blue1brown aka grant sanderson the legend for being such an amazing human being. Highly recommended commencement speech.
Watch the speech
At least in my top 3 TED talks. You have to listen to him. Such a wonderful person.
Watch the TED talk
My personal meditation guru now. I love him.
Watch the video
As a mathematician, I fucking love this video!!! Haha.
Watch the video
Amazing HTML intro course.
Watch the course
Best fucking course. If you watch this playlist from him, "Introduction to Web Development", you'll understand this. He is a wonderful teacher.
Watch the course
If you want to understand Machine Learning. You have to understand the basics. I don't really have both, before I watched this video and got enlightened in some way after.
Watch the video
He has the same opinion about vibe coding that I have.
Watch the video
This is a master piece. Leo Tolstoi's german version of a book he wrote in 1885. You should check it out in your language of choice.
Listen to the audiobook
Beautiful audiobook in german about following your heart and doing what feels right.
Listen to the audiobook
Spanish music is my summer vibe.
Listen to the music
In terms of beauty this is the most beautiful songs I've ever heard
Listen to the song
I currently read and listen to multiple books. Often it's one huge book like Walter Isaacson's Ben Franklin, but also a few smaller ones like The Little Prince, frequently as an audiobook on YouTube. There are so many gems out there for free.
One lesson I've taken away from this is: I used to only read self-development books for self-improvement. I asked myself, "Why should I read all those books where the message is integrated into a story if you can just present this lesson plainly and straight to the point anyway?"
This was not wise. I realized that with stories, my brain goes on a journey with the protagonists if it's a good book. I imagine every little detail, and it sticks in my brain forever. I'm not so sure about what I've read, for example, in "Deep Work," which contains good and helpful information, but I finally see the value of fictional books with respect to becoming a better person.
Picture 1: Me in front of the Olympia stadium in Stockholm
Picture 2: Me before conquering Gothenburg
Picture 3: Me with my "Iron Horse", my cycle, which has served me since day 0 after the train from Gothenburg
Picture 4: Cherry blossom in Stockholm
Picture 5: Night train back to Germany
Picture 6: Frederik & Thais in Frankfurt
Picture 7: Before the Y-Combinator meeting at the beautiful LMU aula
Picture 8: TUM.Ai hackathon workshop with Consti, Emre and Henri
Picture 9&10: Night train back to Stockholm with my granduncle & aunt Ewald and Inge
#3 finished! I hope you enjoyed it!
Keep on rocking,
Johannes