Welcome to ReflectionV2. I planned to sit down one time every week and collect what had happened over the last week. I wanted to break down this big task of writing the report into smaller pieces and get the benefit of ending this chapter quickly to move to new, fresh chapters.
In theory, this sounds nice, but looking back, I realize I just wrote too much and spent too much time reflecting rather than doing stuff. I had too much stuff and in the end decided to cut out a lot and focus on the basics. You are busy.
I like how Swedish schools approach this: they do not tell the students that they have to write a minimum of x words, no. They teach the more valuable skill of writing a maximum number of words. Condensing your message in a specific frame. This was my task too.
Note: Feel free to share your thoughts on whatever comes to your mind when reading this, or share what has happened in your last month.
As always, I love to hear from you!
Best!
Johannes
I spent the beginning of March at home, celebrated Fasching and my dad's birthday, and then left to return to Stockholm. I wrote 2 exams to finish 2 courses (I am now done with 50% of all of my master's courses!), read a lot of books, went on a hike, enjoyed spending time outside, and had plenty of realizations along the way.
As always, a lot has happened again. Let's get started.
My dad surprised me by picking me up from the train. Great gesture. It felt very good to be at home again after 2 months! I have never regretted putting something in the calendar by booking flights or whatever. I am happy that I didn't wait until Easter to come home again.
My first grandmother passed away last year at 88, my grandpa is 89 now, and he is very old and weak. It is crazy how time flies. At the beginning of COVID, we were still doing a workout together in our basement.
This year, I got a special birthday gift from a highly appreciated friend. Turned out to be an even greater joy than expected. I was building this town like in the old childhood days while listening to the audiobook Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. It was a magical experience. I started at 8:00 p.m. and finished 3 hours later, but continued to finish the 5-hour-long audiobook in one go, because I was so drawn to the story & the amazing narrator.
My father celebrated his 59th birthday, and it was a blast to see the family and his friends come together again after a while.
I think, especially in this age, many people often become comfortable with not strengthening their connections with their loved ones. That's why it is especially crucial to take the opportunity and celebrate together with those amazing people whenever we can and as long as we can. #grandpa
My father made the hero move and brought me to the train station in the morning at 5:30 after his birthday party, which I highly appreciated.
I took the digital train ticket from my brother because you can access it via multiple devices, but I still had no official document to prove that I am the student "Andreas Brix". Destiny wanted to let me meet ticket inspectors in a very special way. I had to change trains, and while waiting for the train, 2 ticket inspectors placed themselves right next to me. I was thinking to myself that if I go in with full confidence and show how I walk in with them like everyone, they should assume that I have a clean sheet. In the end, we were both waiting in the standing area across from each other. I was waiting for them to make the move, but they suddenly left and never appeared again. What a ride!
I went home fast and met our new roommate, Ellis from the Netherlands, who is nice. I am now the longest living inhabitant in the flat, together with Widad. Time flies!
How I approach YouTube right now does not feel right. However, I know that I should use YouTube in some way. I either make videos out of necessity to do them, rather than feeling that what I am doing is the right thing.
However, I am currently building up a team out of a few creators, and we meet up every 2 weeks. This has been very valuable, and that's where I currently see my role: bringing together those talented video makers so they can become great in their craft, and I can connect them in the background.
You tackle those challenges, and they never turn out as expected. But it will always be good in some way!
My degree here is a wild ride between hating and loving it. And it all comes down to how I look at things because the situation did not change. To be honest, I don't like the material and quality of what they teach me.
I currently look at things from the Johannes Brix perspective, I usually know myself: positive. Only then can you see all those opportunities lying around waiting to be collected by you. From hating those courses, I switched my mindset to: It is incredible how little time you have to invest in this. You have so much free time in which you can do so many great things. This is incredible. It took a while to adapt this mindset, but I am thriving right now. It had the side effect that I enjoyed my time here way more. Ready to rock the last 10 weeks here!
During the exam prep, I was watching YouTube tutorials and was thinking to myself: what a world we live in. The Indian guy teaches me how to do Data Science. Thank you, Krish Naik. Also, another good thing about my degree: I can choose my teachers. :)
I have an incredible opportunity to learn as much as possible now in those 2 ½ months in front of me to learn as much as possible about stuff I always wanted to learn and "didn't have time for," or let's better say was not my main priority.
My goal is to get a fundamental overview of topics like religion, science, politics, history, design, and a few more. I fucking enjoy it right now.
I love to capture basic moments, f.e, recently in my classroom, so I can capture my situation back then. My GoPro is my pocket camera again. It is really good.
I applied for a one-week summer school in Oxford in June on economic networks and got accepted. Interesting stuff! Furthermore, I got accepted for doing an Erasmus in MUNICH! About to become one of the first pioneers in doing an Erasmus in their hometown! :)
I just realized again how much I have changed. Almost 3 years ago, in Singapore, I was out every single day, spending time with my friends, doing everything I could to spend time around people. I fucking loved it.
Today, I spend more time with books than friends. This is perfectly fine for now, and I am super happy and fulfilled right now. I know that this will only be a phase, but an interesting observation, I didn't think a while ago that something like this would be possible.
I changed my attitude towards AI in general, which made me move away a bit from using it. I try to use it as minimalistic as possible now. When I had to code again, I realized just how bad I've become at debugging. I was used to just throwing it in the next LLM and seeing what it had to tell me instead of trying to understand the error myself. Sometimes this can be good, but this is pure poison in the process of learning something. To have something that does the hard work for you. But hard work is required to grow muscle.
I've been training every day since the 2nd of March. Mostly running, without Strava, tracking only when running with friends. After I slipped while running with my phone, I want to run without anything in my hands. xD
I currently try to be more aware of how I spend my money.
The interview that shifted the Ukraine war - different winds in Europe.
Interesting thought experiment: Canada joins the EU?
One of my favorite TED Talks ever by one of my favorite role models. Who would you bet on if you got 10% of what this person makes over his life?
Watch the TED Talk
Be more grateful! A video about dissatisfaction, a very good message by one of the best YouTube channels out there.
Watch the video
Recently, I discovered my Singapore hosts' YouTube channel again. Pure gold. He is a mid-70-year-old man and started his karaoke YouTube channel!!! A true pioneer!!!
Check it out
Found my love for evening piano music while writing down some stuff. Such a badass combo. This guy will become a piano legend. He is a genius.
Listen to the piano music
You always need to have one focus music video, which you can once in a while use as a joker :)
Focus music
The song "Bella Napoli" is the favorite song of my Italian roommate Matteo and me.
Bella Napoli
Listen to this. It will make your muscles grow by 20%.
Workout music
Best DJs from Mars mix for a while. So good!
DJs from Mars mix
I love his channel. So much wisdom out there. I listened to his takes on:
A fantastic documentary about the life of Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore, is incredible.
Lee Kuan Yew documentary
My favorite Lee Kuan Yew speech part - the durian story is genius!
The durian story
Good as well from Lee Kuan Yew.
More Lee Kuan Yew
2 ½ h interview of Lee Kuan Yew about Leadership. Almost made a video about him, but then decided to cancel it. Consumed so much stuff about him. He is great.
Lee Kuan Yew on Leadership
I knew that Charlie Munger would like him! Then I saw this video and it blew my mind to see that he has a fucking bust of him in his house.
Charlie Munger on Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew 1980 Rally speech.
1980 Rally speech
Documentary about Deng Xiaoping, Lee Kuan Yew's most respected world leader.
Deng Xiaoping documentary
Create a blog in HTML/CSS, which I currently work on.
Blog tutorial
Try to learn this software for math videos in Python. It is fun to create those videos!
Math videos in Python
Created an origami crane again after a while. This is my symbol! :)
Origami crane tutorial
Besides that, I consumed a lot of tutorials about how to use git, what forking is, cloning, .gitcore file, live server preview, how to deactivate GitHub Copilot…
Amazing lecture by Charlie Munger about the psychology of human misjudgment.
Charlie Munger lecture
Social Media and the Influence on Football. Super interesting.
Social Media and Football
When watching a tutorial like this, I am always amazed by the quality that is out there on YouTube. It is crazy how things can evolve. Who thought that something like this would get shared in 2005? :)
Amazing tutorial
How Fruit Ninja got created. Video by the maker of it. Flashbacks!
Fruit Ninja creation
Watched a German documentary about the American Civil War. Only the first out of 7 parts, but I think the Civil War is vital in understanding the US as it is today.
American Civil War documentary
About Germany's new national team. We will crush it! (Video in German)
German national team
How to find a coach? Great video by Bodo Schäfer. Ask the question: What can you do for him? Why should he or she care?!
Finding a coach
Siddhartha. German Audiobook. What a masterpiece.
Siddhartha audiobook
Listened to "Der kleine Prinz" - le petit prince in German.
Der kleine Prinz
Nice (German) audiobook on asian wisdom.
Asian wisdom audiobook
Read articles from my dad about Arnold Schwarzenegger's tools for success, MBAs, a critical view on Elon Musk's DOGE organization, Fusion technology in Bavaria, a critical report on X (interview of Tristan Harris).
Read an incredible article about why the German "Schuldenbremse" (not allowing the state to take any extra capital) by Ludovic Subran. Simple key message: to make the investments to bring the economy forward, the state needs to take loans. The message is simple, but you can see that he is a smart guy.
Made a content consumption list of books or areas I want to study. It will be a long way from them:
Picture 1: Me after finishing my last exam
Picture 2: Me in my bed, reading a lot
Picture 3: with mom & dad
Picture 4: with Stefan
Picture 5: with Hossam & Yassine during their layover in Munich on their way to their Erasmus in Italy
Picture 6: Lux's last day in Germany
Picture 7: With cousins Frieda & Paulina
Picture 8: with Alex and Lukas
Picture 9: Fasching in Türkenfeld
#2 finished! I hope you enjoyed it!
Keep on rocking,
Johannes
Thank you for reading my March update. More adventures to come in April!