New Phaistos

 Logbook entry #6 - Too big to fail As almost anybody with some tech. knowledge these days, I have considered to enter the investment arena. I conducted a brief research and tapped into my friends for advice. It quickly became apparent that the most value for time idea is to invest in the S&P500. So what is the S&P500? As far as I understood, it is the collection of the 500 best performing US stocks. This includes the infamous big tech squad of FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google), a grouping of companies that are known for abusing their power to establish and maintain monopolies. Is there a potential conflict of interest here? I think so. Assuming Kantian ethics, and that we all act in the same way investing in S&P500 we will be effectively be strengthening big tech. They will have even more power, even less incentive to actually provide good products and even more power to lobby. More importantly, we would as involved investors want our governments to h...

 Logbook entry #5 - Why research? Company events rarely are the place for epiphanies and new thoughts. There is usually this lukewarm feeling of shallow careering and surface level networking. However this time, while attending an event meant for our cross site R&D department I actually became inspired. The source of my inspiration was a statement of our VP for Technology "R&D is, literally, the future of this company" he concluded. It sounds a bit of a truism, and it absolutely is, but nonetheless it emphasizes what is really important. The future of all organizations depends on what they invest in tomorrow, and research is all about innovation and carving new paths. This got me thinking: doesn't the same apply to our governments a well? Shouldn't research be a strategic priority, and innovation and education be treated like top priorities? Thankfully the world seems to slowly rediscover the power in investing in free thinkers. I suppose then the next questio...

  Logbook entry #4 - Childhood heroes Something that has been consistent with me since I was a kid was my love for history. I was always fascinated by understanding our past as humanity and learn our struggles and ways of coping. I especially had a soft spot for heroic knightly figures: defenders of the common folk against all odds. Among those heroes I counted El Cid, Alexander Nevsky, Charles Martel and most of all the roman general Belisarius. I always particularly sympathized with the general: undeniable loyalty to emperor, country and wife, extremely resourceful proven by his record of conducting campaigns on paper thin budgets, inspiring to his troops displaying true leadership and a brilliant tactician with a career that could have easily been a Hollywood movie featuring the restoration of the old Roman borders. Doing much with little and being loyal to the bitter end, where even your superiors are bitter of your successes and cast you away in jealousy appealed to my romanti...

Logbook entry #3 - Time for democracy The year 2024 is a special year for democracy. Countries all over the globe go to the polls to elect new representatives. This also applies to my ideological home of the European Union, where EU citizens are called to vote in 720 members of parliament in these strange times.   Strange times indeed. It seems the rosy world of the 90's, 00's and 10's with globalization, multiculturalism and relative peace and prosperity (at least for the "west") is over. Industrial policy, subsidies and trade wars are back on the menu. This is not the world that the current EU system has optimized for and we run the risk of being strategically deadlocked between the competition of the two big global players and regional adversaries. This means that the EU more than ever needs cohesion. No single country member can adequately defend itself, regulate big companies or compete in the technology arena. Pulling our resources together is the only way ...

 Logbook entry #2 - My kingdom for a phone! And so I was in a train station, just having returned to my home city after a visit to a friend. While thinking back to a Saturday well spent, my mind wandered a bit too much and my phone fell from my hands. This proved to be the final straw for my trusty workhorse. Having served me for more than 6 years, my old phone was now dead. Well, mostly dead that is: it's screen had cracked (even through the screen protector) and roughly 20% of its pixels had died. It could still turn on, receive calls and play videos but I decided I had reasonably used the phone to its full extent and was now the time to treat myself. As with all my purchases (and especially the tech and fashion ones) I want to buy European. Not only I trust European developers to a certain level of craftsmanship and design but I also want to invest in our shared economy. After all, this money is inevitably going to return back to me and my family and friends. Naturally, my first...