Welcome to ReflectionV4.
May has been an exciting month! I am a bit delayed with this one! So much happened! It's July 9th and I am sitting at home at my desk, working my way through the past 2 months. In May, I've been to Spain to run an incredible half marathon with my friends, ran the Stockholm Marathon, had lots of visitors in Stockholm, prepared for my finals and much more. I am grateful for this exciting life that I can live and I am happy to share parts of it with you today. Let's get started.
Best!
Johannes
One inspiration I got in May was from my granduncle and aunt Ewald and Inge. They are 76 and 77 and still full of life, traveling the world. It is now or never.
They came to visit me in Stockholm as mentioned in the last blog and I always admired that they were still open to doing a trip like this. Their perception of age is still different than most people and that's what got me thinking.
You are only as old as you think you are. Always keep on going. Always keep on exploring.
Navigating my life is always exciting for me, that's why I want to track it. I am now in a phase where I tend to recognize a change in responsibilities. After finishing my bachelor's degree in December 2023, I had the luxury of having a few months off to do whatever I wanted. In the end, I produced mediocre results and continued my intended path of studying again in August. I kind of "wasted" that gap of more than half a year! Back then it felt like it was fine to tank an "empty" gap like this.
But especially now is the time where good things as well as bad things compound for later. I didn't make a clear preparation, I just let time decide it for me.
Looking back, I could have spent it differently.
I was out of the "normal" path of school or studying for the first time and didn't really know how to deal with this. Especially planning forward, I completely ignored thinking about what would be good to tackle in this time frame.
I don't want to let time decide for me again. Now is the time to appreciate that lesson and use it for the future to make me stronger and better prepared.
I had a very privileged life so far, especially when entering the carefree age of 20. You have so much lightness inside of you because you literally don't have to worry about anything. In August I will turn 23 and inside of me I need to take more responsibility. Now it's the time to set sail for the Johannes Brix in 10 years. The next 10 years will be a lot of changes in responsibilities for me.
That's why I'm in the process of planning ahead now and preparing for the next destination. In it I received help through a great act by my older brother. When people don't really need to help you but they do it anyway and then they do more of it than you expect, that is a really, really great gesture.
When formulating applications or writing essays in general, my brother Andi is the person to ask for. When finishing the application for my stay at TUM, my brother helped me scan and improve the whole text. He spent at least 2 hours working together with me in a video call until it was finished. I am grateful for having such people in my life.
This month I learned another lesson of how to never starve again and get food for free forever. Without even trying! That's the thing. I didn't even try. And that's probably why things turned out the way they did. Isn't that crazy?! How did this happen?!
It became the climax of a relationship that developed over the past few months. Friendliness is one of the traits I try to pursue as best as I can. Just trying to be friendly to my surroundings.
I regularly went to the canteen at my university, a small restaurant where everyone knew each other. Being the person that I am, I always like to talk with the people and ask how things went. After a few weeks and months we became friends. Later I made an Instagram reel for them which made our relationship even better. From there I got free food for the first time. But what happened in May was too crazy to be real. I got treated like a king. I always got the "It's on me today" and basically enjoyed free lunch for the past month or so of staying in Sweden. From my friend Nibbe who has such a big heart. I can still hear him saying this in my head. Such a good guy!
Regarding relationships! I never regret going somewhere and then going home again with the rich memory of having invested in the most amazing thing in the world: interactions with my people. I visited Marc, Juanjo and Marcos again in Barcelona and it was such a blast. We first ran the famous Jamon Race in Olot together, one of my favorite races ever, and went on a hike after.
In this race, I set out to be the pacemaker of Marcos. And that's again where I found my passion for giving everything to get people to become the best version of themselves. I tried everything I had to push Marcos through the finish line and every single second mattered.
As I am writing this, I realized that I also published this website in May. I am in the process of learning to create things on the web like this so bear with me. I want to slowly extend the functionality of my baby in the next months. Suggestions and wishes on what I should show and what features to add are highly appreciated.
Furthermore, one big joy of May was the visit of my parents. They inspire me in being a wonderful example for my future family. I am always fascinated about how lucky I am that I have such supportive parents. They literally let me do everything and support me in everything that I do so I can live a great life. That lifts a big burden from me. If your family is not as cool as mine, I have a story for you.
There was a father who was a drug addict and he had 2 sons. One became a successful man and the other one became a drug addict. They both were asked the same question: why do you think you became like that? They both responded with the same answer: how couldn't I be with such a father?!
You see, even if things with your family don't turn out the way you like them, you always have a choice how you interpret your surroundings and take actions based on that.
A second insight: A child has nothing to give. It just receives unconditional love. I realized this when my mom recently did something amazing for me. I thought to myself: how the hell do I earn this? Even if I am not a child anymore and I am in the process of becoming more and more independent, the vision still stays the same.
It is up to us to recognize this incredible gift. My mission for us now is to inspire them in getting out of their comfortable surroundings and keep exploring and challenging themselves.
My parents came when it was exam prep. I had my finals on the 2nd and 4th of June and they arrived on the 26th of May and left on the 3rd of June. Perfect timing :)
They gave me the freedom to do my work and spend the day as I wished. In the meantime they did their trips and we met in the evening for dinner almost every day. But in the beginning to be honest, I thought to myself: this is stupid, why are they here exactly now? Couldn't they just have picked a better time, they had almost 9 months to figure it out?
That was the wrong question. I should be incredibly happy that they came up here, and Johannes, to be honest, if you look at your university effort, you cannot at all say that this should have been an issue.
I didn't really recognize the gift of them being here fully until they were here a few days in. I was wasting a day of "work" and had a conversation with my roommate Matteo about my family being here and me not being with them which struck me. From there on, I reframed my priorities and spent time with them daily, the latest from afternoon onward.
That's what I mean by giving me the freedom to do whatever I like to do. Honestly, being there in Stockholm with them was far more important than those exams. And the funny thing: they turned out to be way better than expected! Hahahahah!
During that time, I had even more visitors from home, Raphael and a friend of his, Niklas. We were about to conquer the Stockholm Marathon together.
You might be able to achieve great things alone. Then I would be scared of what you would have done with a proper team. There is a nice quote which I like by Albert Schweitzer which is "Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it."
We did this race together. And this connects us forever. My cousin now has the connection to me of being the guy who ran the first marathon with him. We suffered together and we managed to get through this so our relationship naturally grew. Relationships only get tested when things don't go well. They either grow or break and fade out. I write this point for me: if you want to connect with another person, you should do a lot of exciting things with him or her. On normal days that's not possible. Adventures and mastering challenging times together connect!
I am so proud of him that he said absolutely yes to this and managed to finish his first marathon strong. I love Raphi in that respect, he just goes for things and then executes.
Another insight about the event itself was that when setting up an event the most important thing in my opinion is to obsess over the "user experience" of participants. Events like a Pasta party create a bond between participants, everyone is in the same boat and about to tackle this big challenge the next day. Excitement lies in the air. Maybe some of them are about to run their first marathon. Some of them traveled from far away. Some of them brought friends to join them for the pre party. Under those circumstances people connect with each other way more effortlessly because of this shared bond. We got to meet really cool Swedes who approached us and we had a wonderful conversation on our table. You don't just have the race. You have this steady escalation in emotion throughout the lifespan of the event. It's up to the organizers to make a great event and I think they did a great job.
Sweden in May was a banger, every month feels like I grow a lot in my own individual way. Writing this in July, I can highly recommend checking out the June blog soon. Life is exciting right now!
I hope you are doing fantastic. Keep on rocking & best of greetings!!!
As always, some selections of interesting content from this month.
I also read a super interesting article on the projected development of Africa. The main takeaway: they either develop and make the planet a better place or we have a lot of chaos. In any case, the world will become more Africanized.
As a German, I want to remember this moment, when the chancellor Merz failed to secure election in the first round. It is one of those tiny actions which negatively compound over time. If we look at it individually it doesn't really seem to bother. But it is one of many cracks that get created in the background all over the world. Momentum for stability is against us and I see no reason why this should change in the near future. If this keeps on moving with the current rate, what will be the case if no special event happens, we will head back again to very unstable times. And I am an optimist...
Watch the video
I subscribed to an email speaking course, where you get a mail once every week for 10 weeks. The pace is a bit too slow, you could do this 15 minute exercise daily but it is a nice add on so far. The website is a fossil of the internet though. haha :)
Improve Your Speaking
This guy is amazing, you should also check out his YT channel Connor Neill
Watch the video
Such an amazing motivational video by David Goggins
Watch the video
My first ever motivational video I truly loved. Watched first as a 15 year old or so.
Watch the video
Be the man or woman in the arena. Just get out and fight.
Watch the video
You have to program yourself to become great. You work out everyday to get your body in shape? Then why don't you invest the same effort into your mind? You have to be in shape for everything no matter what happens. Self Affirmations are really good, this is a German video which I watched because I liked the book "Ich kann das" and it's a video made by the author of that book. I will share an even more powerful English affirmation video in the June version.
Watch the video
I went through the full stack roadmap, a guided roadmap to become a full stack developer. I made it until Github or so, Tailwind and React have to be conquered soon.
Full Stack Roadmap
Introduction to LLM's must watch. I came across this video during my exam phase. I threw everything away and watched the entire video in 2 parts because it was way better than anything I saw before on that topic.
Watch the video
A critical moment in the evolution of AI from 2016.
Watch the video
A great morning stretch
Watch the video
Belonging doku. I know Sam, the main actor of this documentation in person, he is a great guy and I am happy to have him as a friend. That's why I wanted to spend the 2$ and watch it. I have the highest respect for people like him standing up for his cause. This takes courage.
Watch the documentary
This German audiobook is amazing. It really made something with me.
Listen to the audiobook
I posted on LinkedIn daily for 30 days. I tried it out in English and then switched to German. Feel free to check them out. I kept most of them.
Check out my LinkedIn
#4 finished! I hope you enjoyed it!
Keep on rocking,
Johannes