Search, Copy And Paste

Cover of CHIP Magazine

It started with The Register's Retro Week. Later, around this time last year, when I received a (printed) copy of a magazine on the 30th anniversary of the Commodore C64, it came with a USB thumb drive which contained the PDF version of the very first issue of the (German) CHIP Magazine. Flipping through the virtual pages I became quite nostalgic, even though I have to say that I haven't been aware of the whole matter back in 1978. But that changed only a couple of years later.

 

I still have quite vivid memories of a German distance learning TV series that has been aired back then called Telekolleg. (The program still exists but is different today, of course.) They had a set of episodes during which they covered what was called computer basics. They explained the computers' core components and functional units in theory (based on the von Neumann architecture, if I am not mistaken) and later programmed a simple computer that was based on this design. Programming meant flipping switches and running a program made some LEDs blink. Back then, this was amazing, and it still is pretty cool when you think about it! (Note2self: get a copy of those episodes.)

Talking to (more often than not younger) colleagues about "computers and stuff" can be quite interesting. The junior developer I work with, for example, was born when the C64 became publicly available. The guy missed those "early years" completely. He only knows PCs as boxes with exchangeable components, expansions, running some kind of "highly sophisticated" operating system, well hidden underneath a graphical user interface. And for some reason he, like many others I know, have no interest at all re learning about what is under the hood, what makes things tick.

Well, I have no idea yet why the junior developer is less curious about the tools he is actually working with, but obviously the "entry levels" for those joining the field of computers today are different from those I found when I did. Which makes me wonder what that could actually mean. What are possible differences between how young people are getting to know computers these days and how my generation got in touch with this kind of machines, while what we have in common is that we are interested in this technology?

Thinking back, what comes to my mind first is that only few things were ready. If you were lucky enough to be allowed to work with the equipment at school (or even luckier because your parents could buy it for you) you found almost "naked" machines. For quite some time getting a computer wasn't easy, but getting informations on them and examples or ideas where and how to start with was pretty hard and time-consuming, too. There was no Internet, well not the kind we take for granted today. There were only BBS', and you could cosider yourself lucky if you had the means and allowance to connect to one.
Apart from teaching each other, over the years magazines and books opened new horizons: making the machines work meant coding, meant understanding this computer thing as a whole. The printed media provided lots of listings, and working with those listings meant reading them, typing them in and understanding them. And when the last typos had been removed and the whole thing finally did what it was meant to do, starting to change parts of it was the way to go, thus gaining an even better understanding the (basic) concepts and ideas. It was quite an adventurous time.

So, what is so different today? First off, most things are ready to go. Which on the one hand is great as it makes consuming stuff pretty easy. Unbox it, set up the cabeling and you are done. There is a full-blown operating system taking care of almost everything, coated with some kind of graphical user interface, and all you have to care about are applications. And most of the times those are as easy to get as the loads of information you might feel you should look for: the Internet and a variety of search engines are at your service.

Talking of which, the skills of doing good searches have become very important. But with all that information and data at your fingertips it is tempting to solve problems by just doing a search, copy and past the results. Still not what is needed? Another search might fix this! For people like "my" junior developer there was and is no real need to deal with basics, learn elemetary electronics or coding.

Of course, those who have a significant level of curiosity will always try to find out what is under the hood. And there are lots of curious people, which is a good thing! But I still think that today, folks can (and do) start on a completely different level, which in a way resembles driving a car than anything else: it might be helpful to understand some of the machinery, but you can drive a car without that knowledge. (If you have what it takes to be a "good" driver, that's a different story.)
The whole universe of computers has become so normal and so "userfriendly" that you don't have to learn things the hard way any more. You can reach almost every goal and create amazing (sometimes even highly complex) solutions with amazing little in-depth knowledge and experience. If you are good at search, copy and past, some might think of you as a wizard.

In the end it is a question of the personal mindset, a question of (personal) curiosity and a question of means. Those who don't want to just solve a problem, but are aiming at providing a really good solution will always try to find out more, will try to get the bigger picture, will try to use the tools at hand in the most creative way possible. Maybe it makes them feel more complete, maybe it is simply satisfying to have learned about the details and knowing that one doesn't have to take care of them at the moment, maybe it is just for the fun of it. Either way, it is a level those who are masters of search, copy and past will never reach.

I have plans to visit my parents this weekend. Maybe I should rake the attic for my old Commodore VC-20. And there are some small unfinished projects based on my Raspberry Pis waiting for me. All good fun - and it might include some search, copy and paste, too.

Red, Red Eyes

I'm not sure why it happened. I cannot say what triggered it. But when I started to cry I couldn't stop for a while. And I cried quite violently.

I felt angry, I felt alone. I felt strangely trapped. I felt betrayed, I felt – empty.

And this emptiness was quickly filled by a kind of world-weariness. My mind started spinning around while tears streamed down my cheeks. The salty taste is special.

I thought about my parents and how little time will be left to be shared with them. For some reason I hate the idea that parents witness their children leaving this world.

I thought about all my plants and that they need someone to look after them. They cannot survive on their own, at least not for long.

The only living beings that depend on me: my parents and my plants. An interesting mix, to say the least. And like a wave, I could feel it, running through my body, towards my eyes, and I cried even more.

Something to live for, something to die for. I tried to focus on that, but failed to do so. I could still feel the tears running down my cheeks. It sounds weird to hear yourself sob.

I don't know how long it lasted. I think I don't want to know. Somehow I calmed down.

When I managed to get up and walked around my flat, I passed a mirror. And looking at my face, all I could see were my red eyes. It has been a while.

Maybe it is time. Time to move on. Time to start something new. Time to – get some sleep.

Red eyes. They hurt.

Sitting Under The Tree, Part 5

Oh, hello! Welcome! How are you? Isn't it a beautiful tree, with its leaves starting to change their colour. Come on, sit down, don't be shy. Didn't you offer do bring tea and cake? No? Oh, well, sit down anyway. Wait, what's that? Ah, you are checking for news on Twitter. And Google+. Are you going to send an update to Facebook, too? Don't forget to take a picture (not of me, the tree, silly) and send it to Instagram. You are now mayor of what on FourSquare? Anyway.

Over the last years, a multitude of social network services has become available. They offer easy ways to share short messages and pictures with the rest of the word, letting everyone know where we are, what we are up to, what consumes or mind at the moment. They have introduced new ways of getting (and staying) connected on professional levels, as well as on private ones. And while some people can't make head or tail of this social networking bric-a-brac at all, others can't wait to sign up with yet another service of that kind as soon as it is becomes available.

Personally, I really do find some of those services sort of usefull, or at least entertaining, and for some of them I am actually aware of what could be called serious use cases. Maybe it is exatly what confuses so many people: apart from guidelines on how to exchange data and use the interface of the service itself, the providers leave it to the users to figure out how the service could be used, and what it could be used for. It is left to the personal creativity of those who take part in it to shape it the way they think it works best for them.

Now, let's step back, let's try to get a bit more of the bigger picture. It really is an impressive number of services, isn't it? And that brings me to a serious question: can it really be possible to handle all this, is there really a way to actively take part in serveral of these online social networks? If it is possible, what would be a reasonable number of services to use? Is there a number that, when reached or crossed, would render real life activities (work, of course, but meeting people, too) impossible to take part in?

You may interject that there are no universal answers those questions, and I agree. We may work in different jobs, we have (if any) different affinities for online services, and we have developped different ways and preferences on how we like to socialise. Those and many more aspects may influence how we tend to deal with offers like social network services in general, as well as how much time we are willing to invest in this kind of virtual interaction.

Maybe you can remember when everyone was making fun of those "poor creatures" who felt the constant urge to check their e-mail inbox. Fiddling around with something like a BlackBerry in public? What a poser! Actually, we had a lot of fun with those weirdos.

Poser. Weirdo. Really?

No, I am not going to ask you to have a look into the mirror and tell me what you see there. (Hopefully, you would at least see your reflection. If not, well, you may be in trouble for completely different reasons.) But seriously, have a look around you: in the city, on the platform - just think of some public spaces and places. What did you see there a couple of years ago? What can you see there now? People, holding their phones, quite likely, but not only holding those devices up to their head to make (or take) an actual phone call.

Sometimes I get the feeling that, for many people, having access to the Internet, almost everytime and everywhere, is no longer an optional feature, something that is nice to have. Always online, always connected, always ready to interact. Text? E-Mail? Basics for the digital nomads, not even worth mentioning any more. Surfig the Web, updating blogs, watching some videos online? Now we are coming to a point.

Always online, always connected. Constantly looking for more friends, more followers, more updates, more likes. More influence, maybe? Could be. Afraid to miss something? Absolutely! It is all about being important. The news? No, of course not! The people are! Or at least they think they are, entangled in their narcissistic dreams, or maybe just caught in their efforts to receive some respect, respect they think they deserve.

But with all this engagement in networking, sending and receiving all kinds of updates, it takes me wonder how it is possible for, at least some, people to get any work done at all, to have what is called a life? They seem to be on-line 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And then you learn that they have just joined another social network. Why did they do it? Because it is all hip and new and possibly trendy, too?

They have become slaves to social networking. Their minds revolve around the next update. They laugh about all the other ones, who are "parts of the corporate machine". But who are they kidding? Apart from all the shameless self-promotion they are doing, aren't they just parts of yet another machine, the social network machine? And they are so very happy to give away even the last, most private bit of information, just for the sake of... Hm, for the sake of what?

What do you think? Please, feel free to share your thoughts on that with me!

But for now, come on, let us enjoy sitting under this beautiful tree, watching the leaves and listening to the wind. - And you are sure you didn't say you wanted to bring tea and cake?

All These Scars Are Mine

Personally, I don't believe that there are days of the week or months that are predestinated to be good or bad ones, holding good or bad luck. But I do believe that that life is an ongoing, daily challenge, and while some days are easy ones to make it through, others are quite a fight, from the moment the alarm goes off in the morning, until I finally manage to fall asleep at night somehow.

Don't get me wrong: I don't intend to complain. Far from it! As a matter of fact I know people who would have every reason to to complain, to whine, but most of them don't. No, they just don't do it. I have great respect for them, as every day of their lives is a struggle. I do what I can to help them, of course, but most of the time my humble efforts to support them only make both of us feel worse, but at least they make their lives a bit easier to deal with.

What I find interesting about it is, that while those people seem to have mostly memories of good times and enjoyable moments of their lives, for me it sadly seems more easy to recall situations, days and events that left me with bad feelings. I am aware of the fact that it is mostly a question of the personal mindset. I had the chance to discuss this with psychologists, and they convinced me that this is a sensible way to think of it.

Fighting personal demons means to confront them. It doesn't matter what it is that scares us, it doesn't matter what we are running away from. If we want to bring on a change, if we want to take back control of our life, we have to stop running away. We have toturn around and face what is frightening us. The demons may not go away, but as soon as we know them, as soon as we name them, they become less powerful, less important, and we may get back what could be called inner peace and a normal life.

For me, September has brought to me some of the most significant changes to my personal life ever. Even while I am writing these lines I am not sure whether I really should share this with the rest of the world. Well, if you can read this, my decision was obviously to finish the draft and publish this text, and I am about to share some personal bits of my life with you, which left quite some scars running across both, my heart as well as my soul.

Three years ago my to-be ex-wife had just moved out of the place we had shared for years. That semidetached house became quite a weird place to live in, even more so as I only spent the weekends there. Finding yourself abandoned, facing the remains of what was meant to be a part of the future, isn't the easiest life situation to deal with. To me, it was even harder as I had to clean up the place and prepare my own move, finding myself questioning many of my decisions, again and again. Learning that the significant other had decided to leave me was by far the worst experience I had made so far at that point in my life. Literally watching things falling apart took it to the next level, and I felt sick of life back then. Obviously, I chose not to use a quick exit.

Last year I had just hit the ground, going down in a spiral of what the doctors (later) referred to as burnout. At that point, I didn't expect that it would take me only half a year to get up on my feet again. Only few things kept me going, again I considered the ultimate exit strategy. Luckily, I managed to ask for professional help and support. That I had to give up my job, well, it was an absolute necessity. That I had to move again was an inevitable decision, which I did even welcome. It was one thing to discover that I had reached a dead end in my life; to even start making the needed U-turn was a completely different story. I didn't expect it to work out for me. Today, I am happy it did.

Those incidents were like a slap in the face that made me think a lot. Both were wake-up calls, but somehow I didn't really get up the first time. Thinking and writing about those chapters of my life still hurts. I never seriously considered a relationship ever since, but this may change. I found a new job which I like very much. Taking a step back and looking at my current situation, my life from a distance, I tend to say that things look a lot better now, and I am grateful that I (somehow) managed to get my life back, even though there are some scars left to remind me.

But all these scars, they are mine.


PS: Some of you may have realised it that this post's title is a line taken from the lyrics of a song by INXS, 'The Gift', which is one of my all-time favorite songs.

Generation "Guidebook"

I have to make a confession: I still buy books at bookstores. Well, at least some of them. But apart from getting some new reading material there, I like walking around and having a look at all the stuff in the different sections. It is quite interesting to see how they change over the years, watching some of them grow, some of them disappear.

I may be late on this one, but because of some conversations I had recently I realized the considerable increase of a specific genre of books. Even though I am not sure whether it actually is called a genre or not, I will stick to that term. So, when you get the chance to go to a bookstore, look around and you will find them quite easily.

I am talking about guides. Guidebooks on this, manuals on that, how-to books on, well, almost everything. We all know the user guides that come with consumer electronic or kitchen devices. Some of you, just like me, have to work through user manuals and how-to guides on a daily basis. But it is not them I have in mind. It is not about guides for any kind of device. It is about guidebooks to different areas of our lives.

They are everywhere, and their number increases every hour, maybe every minute. Guides on building a successful business, manuals on how to lead a happy life. People offering their help to improve our sex life, while others are trying to make us better parents. And while some are showing what they think are ways to simply make us better human beings, others are trying to (literally) sell us a shortcut to attain real enlightenment. Fortunately, there are less serious publications too.

Facing this massive (and continously growing) amount of how-to manuals, guides and companions I am wondering how mankind managed to survive and come this far without them. As far as I am concerned, the mere existence of this vast amount of guidebooks to "everyday life" is what irritates me most.

Of course, we all need some help before we make decisions, and we all need some reassurance now and then whether the path we have taken is the "right one". We consult our family, our beloved and/or trusted ones to obtain some advice, some insight, a different point of view. But have those books taken over their part and role in our lives? Have they become more important, more trustable for us than the feedback of people we actually meet and know?

When looking for advice in those how-to and companion books, aren't we (wrongly) assuming that we are all playing by the same ruels? Think about it. What are the chances that what worked for someone with roots in a different culture, in a different socienty could work for us, too? Have our lives become so exchangeable, are they really that compatible? And more important: have we really become completely incapable of making decisions on our own? Or are we looking to shift responsibilities on someone else by using those books?

Maybe we are simply trying to avoid learning things the hard way. Maybe we are desperately looking for ways to learn things life would have tought us, without going through life's lessons. Maybe we are afraid of making mistakes. Maybe we are afraid of being hurt, afraid to be laughed at. The fear to fail has become quite a driving force. We are trying to make everything perfect, right from the start.

Those guidebooks may convey the impression that there are universal answers to almost everything. But why are there multiple books on the same subject then? Just lean back and think about it for a moment.

Don't get me wrong: I am not trying to tell you that those books are superflous. Far from it. They are a great resource when it comes to getting a different point of view on a subject. They are a good way to share ideas and concepts that seem to work for some. But they don't offer the one and only, the universal solution. And I am afraid too many people think that this is exactly what those books are about.

Have we become a generation that puts more faith in books, theories and second hand experiences than in real life and its unique, personal lessons? Have we become a generation that has lost the faith in common sense and our ability to solve problems ourselves? Do we really need how-to manuals and companion books to live our lifes?

Personally, I don't think so. How about you?

Left Behind

Eight weeks ago, a dear friend texted me early in the morning. "Hey. Sorry to make your morning start with this but I wanted to let you know that my mom died last night. I'm on my way to the hospital. Take care! Love - T." Quite a way to start a Friday morning, indeed. We met on the following Sunday and had a long talk.

Since then I learned a lot about the ways or society deals with death and, more important, how the ones who lost someone are treated. And what I learned was quite irritating, it made me very sad.

Over the last decades death has become a taboo subject. Within the modern lives we lead and the related lifestyle we have adopted, there is no room left for death any more. Those who lost someone better get over it quickly as they are expected to function properly, just take back their place within the corporate machine and do their job. Those who are left behind better do their mourning in their spare time, at home, without bothering anyone else.

In addition to the loss, people find themselves in a world of broken promises, abandoned by many, too many so-called friends. Those who are supposed to take care of their inferiors fail completely on doing their job by completely ignoring the individual's need to grieve. All they care about are their own aims they may fail to reach if someone simply isn't able to perform at 100% for a couple of weeks.

This complete lack of respect towards those you lost a beloved one, the lack of understanding of and for their situation, and the lack of care and support for those people makes me very sad and angry. Why do we, as a society fail so miserably in taking care of the mourners? Why has it become so beyond the pale not to be on top of everything each and every day?

It is a well-recognised fact that those who lost someone go through several stages of grief. Whether you think that it takes three stages, as defined by Dr. Roberta Temes, or that five stages are needed, like Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross has put it in her book, or even more, it doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that it takes time to return to a kind of normal life. And as we are individuals the amount of time each one of us needs to make it through those stages of grief will differ. On top of that, sympathy and support is needed.

We are never really prepared to lose someone. Maybe things were different back then when death was omnipresent and people were simply used to face it every day. But when we take a closer look a lot more has changed. The smallest known social communities, our families have changed a lot, too. A family can support us, offer us the possibility to retreat, give us some sort of shelter. Further more, a family can offer the environment to let us be the way we are, the feel the way we feel, offering some sort of safety and security, no matter what.

With families breaking up and falling apart, we find ourselves left to our own devices most of the time. With our work becoming a more important part of our lives, it is becoming a challenge to stay safe and sound, physically as well as mentally. At work, only few are accepted they way they are. For the majority the opposite is true, forcing them to create and maintain a masquerade, which consumes a lot of time and a lot of energy.

During a time when most of our energy is already consumed be the grieving we do, too many people want us to focus on their needs, help them to achieve their goals, support them and be there for them. It sounds terribly wrong - welcome to the real world. A world that is becoming a place for the self-involved and greedy, more and more, day by day.

I just had a break and am back from the phone. I called my friend T. and we have been talking for about an hour. We didn't solve any problems but we talked. And while we were talking I could hear in her voice that she started feeling a bit better, a bit lighter. She simply needed some honest, well-deserved attention and reassurance. I am glad I could help her, just a little bit. She lost her mother eight weeks ago and it is obvious that she will need some more time to deal with it. I will be there for her, no matter how long it takes her to come to terms with her loss, and she knows that.

Maybe you know someone who might need your help, your support. It may be because of the death of a beloved relative, it may be because they came out of a relationship. Anyway, it is a loss. They may need you. Be there for them, be different. Show some respect and accept them the way they are.

They are the ones who find themselves left behind.

What Makes Things Tick

Last night, I finished an interesting book. Well, it didn‘t sound that interesting at all, to be honest, when @hansdorsch mentioned it three weeks ago on Twitter. But as I still had to try the Kindle app on my iPhone back then, I decided to give both of them, the book as well as the app a try.

Program Or Be Programmed by Douglas Rushkoff isn‘t all about computer programming, at least not in the literal sense. As its title already suggests, it is more about the choices we made since we started using computers, especially but not necessarily networked ones, and the consequences our behaviours related to those modern media bring on to our life these days.

No one would have expected that I would agree with all of the ideas an thesises Mr Rushkoff postulates throughout of his book. But he makes some good and valid points that made me think and kept me awake quite some time. It wasn‘t exactly like looking into a mirror while reading the lines, but I realized that there really is a growing lack of interest in how things work and why they work the way they do. Furthermore, people jumping to conclusions without even starting to reflect about what they are doing has become so popular that it really scares me.

We are living in a world of tools and support. Because there is always someone who can help us we take their help for granted. And while we find ways to use the advanced tools of the world we are living in, we have so little interest in what makes them tick and what the consequences of using them are. On top of that, while taking so many things and people for granted, and somehow ignoring the changes of the ways we interact with the world around us, we fail to see the impact our lack of understanding really has on us ourselves and the world around us.

I consider myself lucky that I grew up during the decades where many of the foundations of our modern, interconnected world were layed. Seriously, I am grateful that I was raised with a good amount of curiosity and support of my interests, especially those in electronics and computers. And while I think that it is great that everyone focuses on different part of our lives and the world that surrounds us, I sense that it is quite special to have more than just an idea of what helps us to connect these days - and how it works.

On the other hand, I can understand why people prefer their tools to just work. Who needs to know how exactly this hammer and these nails where made when all you want to do is hang up some pictures on the wall. (Wow. There is something like a good way to hold the hammer handle and the nail that would make work easier and reduce the risk of injuring yourself? Weird!) Who needs to know how a cars are built, how the engine, the streering and the brakes work, as long as they do. (Crazy. It isn‘t enough to put petrol in the car‘s tank? And why would you call a car a weapon? This driving license isn‘t a license to kill, is it?)

No, seriously, we simply cannot know how everything that surrounds us and every tool we use works. And that is just fine. But someone should. And it better be someone you can trust. Lies and wrong answers can cause a lot of serious trouble. In the end, you want to solve a problem when you ask for support. You don‘t want to create another problem instantly, do you? - That is why everone is good at something. Yes, I really do believe that. In a way.

What really irritates me is when someone claims to be interested in something, wants to learn about something, but then shows no interest at all when it comes to what really makes the things tick, what goes beyond the very basics of the group of themes. It really irritates me when people are content with easy and short answers when they say that want more than just scratch the surface of a matter. And I am really worried when this someone is an apprentice or a student.

I have been in charge of training apprentices two times so far. (Insert famous Yoda quote here.) One of the reasons I really enjoyed it every time is that I like to share my humble knowledge and experience as well as the challenges that arise from the interaction with young and curious people. Sadly many young people have lost their curiosity already, and the ability to be avid for something is an abortive one. The good thing here is that many doesn‘t mean all.

Nina was the first apprentice. This young woman was quite clever and she was never shy to ask questions. She loved to learn more and she didn‘t like short answers. When it came to walking that extra mile, she was up for it. It didn‘t take her long to work independently along with my colleagues and me, and soon she became a reliable member of or team. Her interest in the matter grew far beyond the official training schedule and it was a challenge as well as a pleasure to teach her. By the end of her training period she was more than qualified to do her job and even more important: she was eager to learn even more, she wanted to know how those things she was asked to work with and take care of worked and learn about the bigger picture.

Philipp was the second apprentice. He was quite clever too, but unlike Nina he was easily satisfied with facile and general answers, by just making things work somehow. As soon as it took him a second or a third go to solve a problem or to find an answer, he tended to give up and blame someone or something for the missing progress. While Nina was aware of the fact the she knew little but wanted to change that, Philipp thought he already knew more than enough and that it would be sufficient to pass the exams. He did pass them and he knew how to use the tools at work. Everything else? Just exhausting or boring.

I have the feeling that many, too many people are like Philipp: they just decide to stop and not make that one step ahead that could open a new world to them. They think they know the world that surrounds them well enough, they are simply not interested in anything more than this. They prefer being told what they have to do, they prefer to have decisions made for them by others, they prefer consuming what they are served. Create stuff and share it with others? Why? What for? Isn‘t there someone (more) qualified to do it on my behalf?

Program or be programmed. Create or consume. Use your brain or just do what you are told. Blue pill or red pill. The decisions are up to each and every one of us. I, for one, prefer to learn about what makes things tick, what things mean and what they will or may lead us to.

How about you?

Project 'Roasted Bean'

'1500?'

The potentially conspiratorial message via IM is actually more of a project meeting request. A quick check with the current work and the open topics on the to-do list, a recount of the small change, a glance at the clock at the lower right corner of the screen - an almost imperceptible smile and a deep breath.

'1500.'

We call it 'Projekt Braune Bohne', which would turn into utter nonsense if I would try to translate it literally. That is why I took the liberty to pick the more loose translation for the project name, so from now on I will refer to it as project 'Roasted Bean'.

Let me present to you project 'Roasted Bean' in more detail. First of all: it isn't exactly a project. Yes, I have to admit that we made it up - for the fun of it and to make it at least sound somewhat important. Truth be told, project 'Roasted Bean' has become more of an (almost) confirmed habit or maybe a ritual than a project. But it is a funny, geeky name and that is why we stick with it.

Another detail: there is no agenda. This may sound quite confusing, which is absolutely understandable. At least it is because I haven‘t told you about the very nature of our project meetings. While there are lists and agendas all day long there is no room for anything like that when attending those meetings I am talking about.

In simple terms: project 'Roasted Bean' is a break. But it isn‘t just another break. It is more about making sure that the participants make it safe and sound through the last hours of the working day. And there are some interesting reasons why this break is well-deserved. Sadly there is no way to leave the place to have the meeting in a cafe just like creative people. We have a cup of coffee anyway. And we talk. As a matter of fact that is one of the most important reason why we are keeping project 'Roasted Bean': it is a kind of strategic work break for us.

Those who take part in the project meetings are more often than not members of different groups (of the same department). So one goal is to discuss problems and exchange ideas at a far less official level. Maybe it is because of this inofficial nature of the meeting that it is very likely to get some serious results. Yet the better part of this break is dedicated to subjects that are all but work-related.

Thinking of the brain as some kind of muscle, project 'Roasted Bean' is mainly dedicated to easing its tension. Aware of the fact that we are walking the thin line between procrastination and being creative we talk about things we find more relaxing or more thrilling than those that we just left for a couple of minutes on our desks in the offices - just to get rid of the knots in our brains. And most of the time we succeed in doing so.

Of course there are some colleagues who simply don‘t get the idea of project 'Roasted Bean'. Some of them seem to be able to work for up to four hours, have their one hour lunch break, and return to work for up to four hours again before leaving the office. They find it quite suspicious that some co-workers dare to devide the morning and the afternoon at their desk in half. And spending time with fellow workers others than those from the lunch posse or from the same group of the departement - that appears to be some sort of blasphemy to them.

Please, don‘t get me wrong: just because I myself find it hard to spend more than about three hours sort of focused on one particular subject without at least leaving my desk and walk around for a minute, there is nothing wrong with people who are able to do otherwise. Far from it. They have their own special way of working and dealing with their needs to get their work done. In the end it is about becoming and staying creative and productive.

Which is exactly the point: everyone has an individual way of working, and everyone has found or has to find an individual way of relaxation and recreation while at work. The only limiting aspects are the rules which are given by the employer. In case they leave the liberty to the employees to do what they found works best for them, it is up to them to act wisely - because the few that abuse this freedom and bend the rules might be the ones who make the rest suffer one day.

It doesn‘t have to turn out the bad way. And because there is nothing wrong with it where I work we will keep project 'Roasted Bean' alive as long as possible. It is such a great  project, and I am happy to be a part of it, just like my colleagues.

What does your project 'Roasted Bean' look like? Tell me about it!

And - have a break.

OK, I Will Go And Have A - What?

Life is easy, isn't it? Getting some sleep, having some food from time to time, earn some money, go out and meet some friends - ad infinitum. At least that is what life is meant to look like according to most advertisements and at least some people I know (like my neighbor, but that is a completely different story).

I am almost embarrassed to say so but, well, I beg to differ. And this time it is not because I tend to have a point of view that is not exactly congruent with the public opinion. Maybe it is because I am worried easily, maybe it is because I ponder too much but somehow it never was that easy. I wonder why.

No, not really. I think I have at least an idea what is keeping me and maybe some of you too from living a life that easy. This is not to say that I hate my life, far from it. Obviously life really is what you make of it. Or more like what you achieve to build from the humble remains that are left at the end of the day. And the weekends of course.

So it turns out to be a fine art to live an easy life - or to have a life at all. Like with the arts there are limits, borders, rules one has to deal with, and even though the grass is always greener on the other side there is no trespassing. So, the point should be just to know (not necessarily accept) the limits and make the most of the room that is left. Quite easy, isn't it?

Many people have similar border lines in their lives. They have a nine-to-five job, which tends to be a eight-to-six job, commute not included, not to mention all the self-employed persons - or retirement pensioners. Some have families or a companion, maybe children who need (and sure should get) their attention. - Are these things really life's limitations? Or are they what really makes up a life?

Good question. What are the things that make up a life? The waves of promises and suggested wishes or secrecy desires the advertisements bring to us? Or the joyrides of all day long sun and fun? Is it about things or happenings at all or is it about the feeling we get (and keep) in the end, driven by the lot of our experiences and (sweet as well as sad) memories?

Well, I don't know. I am convinced that only few people really do because they found some answers. They foud *their* answers. And they live their life in their own special way. That said I think that this really is the key to it: their life, their way. So it is supposed to be your life you live your way - and my life I should live my way. (And for some reason a particular song by Mr. Sinatra comes to my mind... Anyway.)

In the end - or in the beginning - life is easy. It becomes just as complicated as you like or allow it to be. Sure, there are influences that are beyond our control. But at least there is no reason why one should let others dictate the way how to live a life and what to do with a life. As long as it makes you feel good and as long as hurting or annoying others is limited to a acceptable minimum everything is fine. Some like the life of a sweating squirrel with a mouth filled with nuts and trying to whistle a tune. (Special thanks to @lionape for this hilarious metaphor!) Other like to spend as much of their life as possible chilling and relaxing. Very well, just do it!

Life is easy. Go and have one - I will go and have mine. One day. Maybe.