New Phaistos

Does knighthood mean anything nowadays? Pop culture and modern history have a special place for knights. We all know the legend of King Arthur and his sword Excalibur and his heroic defense of his people. Other figures, like the honourable maid Joan of Arc and the valiant William Wallace pop up in movies as defenders of the meek and beacons of inspiration. But is knighthood only something to be relegated to the past and perhaps sometimes fantasized about in cinema and art? I think not! A moral compass Simply put, knighthood is timeless. Not necessarily in the martial sense, but rather in the moral code that was associated with knights. You see, with great power comes great responsibility. Knights in medieval Europe were essentially elite warriors (power) that owned land (even more power). The laws of chivalry can be interpreted as the framework a knight has to follow to make his power excess tolerable by society. A brutish lord demanding obedience and taking what he can get away with i...

A Greek Easter feast As this post goes live, your host and author is most likely indulging in the joys of Easter Sunday. In Greece, where I come from, Easter is the biggest holiday of the year. And, as you might expect from a culture famous for its love of food, the Sunday feast is a central part of the celebration. The meal varies by region and family tradition, but one thing remains constant: roasted lamb. It symbolizes the sacrifice of Jesus, and it's always the star of the table. If you're reading this on Easter Sunday, there’s a good chance I’m savoring some leftover lamb while you scroll through these lines. Now, let me tell you—preparing this feast is no small feat. Roasting the lamb and getting the rest of the meal ready is a coordinated effort, usually involving many helping hands. To make sure everything is done in time for the classic Greek lunch hour (around 14:00), the tasks must be broken down and distributed efficiently. This is where the real planning begins....

Why Smart People Still Choose Alternative Medicine? (And What That Tells Us About Modern Healthcare) Reason, logic, and evidence are the foundational elements of our world. These values have shaped the moral compass that brought humankind into modernity. And this is something that everybody should acknowledge—especially when it comes to something as crucial as our health. Or so I thought. In recent years, I’ve had many conversations with friends and colleagues—people with degrees, people I consider highly intelligent—and discovered that, to varying degrees, they also follow alternative medicine. How can that be? Modern medicine is built on stable foundations. It incorporates our knowledge of anatomy, biology, and chemistry. This understanding is combined with a systems perspective on the human body. Add to that an enormous pool of accumulated experience, vast resources, and cutting-edge technology. And most important of all, the bedrock of modern medicine is the clinical trial: eve...

The question Working in research projects is always a rewarding experience. You get to tackle more ambitious challenges than in typical intra-company work, and you’re exposed to a mix of working cultures from other organizations and people. This kind of cross-pollination is incredibly valuable—it forces you to reflect on your own company’s legacy, culture, and assumptions. In my role, I’m fortunate to frequently participate in such research projects. After one particularly successful in-person meeting, I found myself riding home with a few non-European colleagues. Naturally, we had many interesting conversations about work and life. But one question stuck with me: "Why are there so many aerospace start-ups in the Netherlands? It’s such a relatively small country, and most of the big European clients aren’t even based there." That question really got me thinking. I hadn’t explicitly noticed the trend before, but my colleague had a point. And as I turned the idea over in my ...