Tag: mindset

Universal Basic Income? Why?

A lot has been said about basic income. Let us for now put aside the question of how it can be paid for or whether or not it will destroy social security systems. Let’s ask a more existential question: should we give people an income for basically doing nothing apart from being alive? In our current...

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Can you get rid of the messiness of life?

Simple answer: no. You can’t get rid of all of it … there will always be some mess. Fact. It’s like when you move house – you try to pack everything neatly into boxes, but some things don’t fit and you have to carry them separately or tied up with string. And when you get...

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The nature of money – Part 4: The alternatives

The year was 1932 and the small town of Wörgl in Austria was caught up in the great depression, just like the rest of the world. When Michael Unterguggenberger (1884-1936) was elected mayor of Wörgl, the city had 500 jobless people and another 1,000 in the immediate vicinity. Furthermore, 200 families were absolutely penniless. The...

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I agree with Donald Trump

I would like you to stop and think for a moment. What thoughts are currently forming in your head? What kind of emotions are you having? Are you thinking: ‘This guy is crazy!’ or ‘Someone with common sense!’? Are you feeling exhilarated? Angry? Confused? Happy? Frustrated? Supported? Have you formed an idea of who I...

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The nature of money – Part 2: The hidden costs

Have you ever been asked: How does your work contribute to society? What values does your product support? What is your impact? When you want to start a new business or design a new product, one of the first questions you will likely get is: what is your business model? Or in other words, how are...

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Work, an endangered species

Work, for some a passion, for some a necessary evil, for some an illustrious prey that is hard to hunt down. When we think of work, most of us immediately think of paid work, although that’s not the only kind of work that exists. Think of all the volunteer work, the daily chores around the house, raising kids,...

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Changing the world is easy

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could...

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The truth about science

People who know me sometimes jokingly say that some of my typical quotes include “I’ve read an article about that” or “They’ve done research about that”. It’s true, you will regularly hear me say those sentences in random conversations. They reflect my interest and fascination with science. I’ve also met several people that seem to be...

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Perfect! The biggest roadblock to better

In the summer of 2012, while attending a Blue Economy summer school, I heard Gunter Pauli utter the quote: ‘Don’t let perfect stand in the way of better‘. It’s that quote that eventually led to this post. We’ve all encountered it multiple times in our lives. We have some great idea to solve an existing problem and one...

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