Flo’s Blog: Observations

An interview on Vivir Bien, solidarity economy in Europe and informal ontologies

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Mariana Malta of Universidade do Minho on the topic of Vivir Bien, a platform for solidarity economy I am involved with. While the interview was initially done for research in the context of the RIPESS-EU process of linking solidarity economy networks across Europe, I found it may be interesting for a wider audience, so I edited the transcript she sent me to publish it here.

Welcome to my new, self-hosted blog and website!

After years with a Blogspot blog and a single static html page as a website, I am upgrading my online presence to a full-featured dynamic web publishing outlet. While it may lack the fancy understatement of the old site for now, it will allow me to publish projects, ideas and experiments in a much more versatile way. I am also “eating my own dogfood” here, as the infrastructure this site runs on is a self written content-management-system I have sold to several clients.

Please bear with me as the site may still be a bit rough around the edges while I put all the content in and polish the design and functionality. If you notice any crass errors, please drop me a line.

I separated the blog into three main sections, which you can subscribe to individually. So if you’re only interested in one specific aspect of my writings, you can got to the categories mapping, technology or general observations, respectively.

Empty Inbox!

Usually I sort incoming mails into folders immediately, besides the ones that require some kind of action or a reply, which I leave in my inbox (I sometimes even pull automatically sorted emails back into the inbox if I want to remind myself to act upon them). This means there are always some messages in my inbox, usually between 10 and 30, depending on my workload and other factors. Some of these emails can get very old in there, years in some cases where I just don’t find the right mindset for a reply.

I am leaving for holiday tomorrow and wanted to answer some of these long waiting emails before that. The basis was laid already a few months ago when I decided to declare as abandoned some private email threads that have been waiting for multiple years, but now the impossible has happened: Empty Inbox! I can’t remember if this has ever happened before since I started using email in … 1995 I guess.

How do you handle your inbox?

Jetzt geht’s los!

[This is a German Post]

Proletarier bekriegen sich gegenseitig und fordern, den Ölmultis Steuergeld in die Tasche zu schaufeln: Telepolis: Massive Streiks in Spanien und Portugal. Manchmal wünsche ich mir schon, dass ein BWL-Gundkurs zur Allgemeinbildung gehört: Wenn der Produzent entdeckt, dass die Preiselastizität für ein Produkt gegen Null geht, wird er den Preis endlos steigern und sich dabei eins lachen. Einziger Ausweg: weniger zu verbrauchen!

A weekend with the iPod touch

Last week I got myself an iPod touch, because I had to spend money from a grant on hardware quickly and there is currently nothing else that I need. After a week of use I now want to share some of my experiences and observations with you.

My Teeth

I guess I really am one lucky guy… After seven years of avoiding it, I went to the dentist last week for a checkup, and guess what — nothing! Not one little hole in my denture to spoil the glory:


I borrowed the X-Ray image for those of you who complain that I don’t smile often enough. Thanks to padme for making a contact print and scanning it!

Note that above image is copyright by me and I explicitly disallow any form of copying, reproduction or use other than viewing it on this blog - Although I strongly believe in open source and creative commons, I am not willing to provide data about my body to anyone currently.

Beautiful Code - grausame Sprache?

[This is a German post]

Auf der Web2.0 Expo Berlin verteilte der O’Reilly Verlag Heftchen mit Auszügen aus der deutschsprachigen Übersetzung von “Beautiful Code“. Darin habe ich gerade folgenden Satz gelesen:

Wir sahen (oder glaubten zu sehen) ähnliche Probleme beim Nachhalten committeter Targets während der Übertragung von Änderungen vom Client zum Server, bei der Fortschrittsanzeige für den Benutzer während Update- oder Commit-Operationen und in verschiedenen anderen Fällen.

Aah, ja. Ich fände es doch angemessen, die Schönheit von Code in einem Druckwerk eines namhaften Verlags auch mittels halbwegs vernünftiger Sprache zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Oder bin ich nur von der Grippe zu sehr geschwächt, um den Satz auf Anhieb zu kapieren?

Generell bemerke ich in letzter Zeit ein besorgniserregendes Absinken der Qualität von Lektorat und Übersetzungen, auch bei Verlagen die es sich leisten können (sollten). Was kann man dagegen tun? Wenn ich mich, gelangweilt und frustriert von der teils katastrophalen Qualität der Sprache in online Medien — ob “user generated” oder professionell — einem Druckwerk zuwende, möchte ich dort eigentlich nicht wieder mit der selben Schludrigkeit konfrontiert sein.

Procrastination

I have heard the term Procrastination for the first time only a few months ago (I think it was in the very recommendable PhD Comics). Since then, the word keeps popping up more and more often on my radar, and so it was no big surprise (although worth a smile) to hear a session on the topic being announced at bar camp Berlin this morning. Of course you have experienced procrastination, everyone has I guess — and it can be frustrating at times. But is it really a call for self-discipline or productivity management techniques, as commonly suggested, or should you not rather listen carefully and even give in from time to time to the alarm signs of your brain that just doesn’t seem to want to work on the tasks you (or someone else) are trying to force it to?

One of the main reasons for procrastination that were mentioned in the session was distractions by a never ending bombardment of emails, bog posts, tweets, calls and alerts. But distractions like these are not the reasons for procrastination but mere artifacts, things that your brain is looking for in its under- or overwhelmedness with the “important” tasks assigned. I am writing this blog post without constantly checking my email or twitter now, because I am really involved with it and I want to get it right.

My claim is that if you procrastinate regularly, there is something wrong. Deeply wrong. Try listening to yourself — if your brain needs idleness, go home or go for a walk. Be brave and do it, even if you are supposed to work! Neither you nor your boss will profit from continued procrastination and the unhappyness and frustration that comes with it. If you constantly think about other things to do, you are most probably bored. Then you should think really hard if what you do — or what you are supposed to be doing — is really worth it. Do I really need this job? Do I really want to do a PhD? Do I really have to get christmas presents for my family? What is worth spending your time on in your life? Think deeply. Now. No matter how you decide, if you decide honestly, everyone will profit — also the people you think you are doing a favor by keeping those tasks on the list.

I am not saying that complete drifting and laziness should be the goal of our existence or that procrastination cannot take pathological forms, but it always astonishes me how obsessed people are with “success” in the very narrow definition of accomplishing tasks, often other people’s tasks, and they take that definition of their success from sources that are either manipulated (media) or far more powerful and in a better position to exploit them (their bosses), without thinking about what would make their lives really successful.

Overcoming procrastination is certainly not a matter of deciding between boring to-do’s or twitter or cleaning — it’s a decision between what really matters in life and what doesn’t. We are a substitute society, and procrastination is our name for our addiction to substitutes. Feeds for adventures. Cleaning up for feeling at home. Tweets for love and friendship. Next time, step back for a minute, think about what you are missing and choose to make a real change, instead of trying to trick yourself back into the treadmill.

P.S. I want to share with you the hilarious video shown in the session: