In 430 BC, the second year of the Peloponnesian War, Greek general Pericles led a fleet of over 100 ships towards the enemy island.
As they were charging ahead at full speed, suddenly, a solar eclipse cast the entire fleet into darkness.
Unaware of the scientific nature of this unexpected and shocking event, panic befell the soldiers and sailors. But not Pericles.
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“You are all a ‘génération perdue!’,” the garage owner shouted at the young mechanic, who couldn’t fix Gertrude Stein’s car fast enough.
“That is what you are. That’s what you all are … all of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation.”
Stein later told the story to her dear friend, Ernest Hemingway, who’s largely responsible when historians today refer to those born between 1883 an 1900 by said name.
What Hemingway alluded to in The Sun Also Rises isn’t lost in the sense of gone, missing or forsaken, but “disoriented, wandering, directionless — a recognition that there was great confusion and aimlessness among the war’s survivors in the early post-war years,” as Samuel Hynes points out in A War Imagined.
When I look at my generation of fellow millennials, I can’t help but feel as if history is about to repeat itself.
Hence, this open letter.
Read More10 minutes, ha! I’m going to show you not one, but six things that will change your life — and we’ll do it with time to spare.
After this, you’ll feel calm, prepared and ready to take on the world, like this:
Let’s go!
Read MoreI don’t have to teach you to think like a genius. You already are.
A genius is by definition someone who’s wrong a lot so they can be very right about one, usually extremely specific thing, way before everyone else is.
But what if that’s not a special trait of geniuses? What if we’re all geniuses?
I mean, you and I are wrong a lot, aren’t we? And sometimes, we get to say “I told you so” to our friends.
All we do when we call someone a genius is elate them to this status in hindsight.
But in order for us to be able to do that, a genius has to do one thing first, and it’s the only thing that really makes them different: when they know they’re right, they speak up and do something about it.
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I’m a writer. As such, I’ve always written to the best of my ability and with the purest of intentions. You might think that’s the most natural thing in the world, but just recently I learned that many writers don’t consider these two items – which are really just the right thing to do – part of their job description.
As part of my quest to learn more about writers, who inspire me, I decided this year I would get all books from one author I like, read them in chronological order, and look at how they and their style have evolved. I started with Ryan Holiday.
People hate their jobs because they don’t know they’re the ones supposed to bring meaning, passion and fun to them.
They think: “If only I did X instead of Y, then I would finally be happy.”
But you’ll often find people who hate their current job will hate their next job also. And the next one. And the one after that.
Because it’s not about what you do. It’s about how you choose to do it. The truth is every job offers you the chance to do it with meaning, be passionate about it and have fun along the way.
Read MoreIn 2014, I took an official IQ test by Mensa in Heidelberg (Germany). I just had to know. Here’s a picture right before the test:
About a week later, I got my result: 131. Just above the requirement threshold to be eligible for a Mensa membership, which corresponds to the highest IQ category in most ranking systems.
That immediately gave way for a follow-up question: If I’m so god-damn smart, then why the fuck am I not rich and successful yet?
Three years later, I think part of the answer is this: Intelligence isn’t just about logic. It’s about emotions, too.
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Last June I bought a Garmin Vivosmart HR activity tracker, primarily for two reasons:
While I happily would’ve shelled out 125 € for just those two features alone, there are a few other perks to wearing one of these around the clock. One of them is sleep tracking.
What I’m about to say as a result of it is not going to be popular and it’s definitely not politically correct. At the very least though, it’s food for thought.
For the past five months, I’ve been sleeping less and I think it’s the right choice. Let’s put that into context.
In 2001, my biggest dream came true: I used my Christmas money to buy the brand new PlayStation 2.
It wasn’t a dream come true because it was new, or because of the latest games. I was excited because it meant I could finally play all of those old PlayStation 1 games I used to play at my neighbor’s house or sit next to and watch.
One of the first games I bought was, of course, Tomb Raider III. I got a used copy, because it was cheaper.
When I opened the case to take out the CD, a little piece of paper fell out, with some weird scribblings on it. It looked like this:
Read MoreUpbringing.
No matter how rich you are, money can’t buy you a good upbringing.
This is my family:
For the past 4 years, we’ve taken a Christmas family picture. It’s becoming a tradition. I’ve been incredibly lucky to be born to such great parents.
Everything I am proud of can be credited right back to them. Being brought up well is priceless, because it equips you with many other things you also can’t buy, like:
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