Wuppertal, Germany. I had seen pictures of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn before, but standing underneath it is something else entirely. It opened in 1901, which means people here were travelling through the city in a suspended railway two years before the Wright brothers made their first powered flight. Somehow, after 125 years, it still looks slightly…
By Manfred, Germany. What years of software development taught me about quality, curiosity, ego—and knowing when to try another path. Imagine installing a software update by asking a robot to chisel the new code into a stone slab. My first thought is simple: the chisel will break. It sounds ridiculous, but it reminds me of…
The Human Bit, by Frank Peters. Last week my wife flew to the UK. Shortly after arriving, her phone received a message pointing her towards a French government service that could warn her about security risks while travelling. Apparently Britain has become a very dangerous place. She survived the airport. The message itself was perfectly…
By Fabrice, France. The world once pulled me towards unfamiliar countries and dangerous work. These days, adventure can be much closer to home—but I still need something that takes me beyond the routine. There are places in the forest near my home where you can sit down and hear almost nothing except the animals and…
Labskaus is one of those dishes that you should probably taste before you judge — although, to be fair, the appearance does not always make this easy. A Northern German Sailor’s Dish. Labskaus is an old seafaring dish associated with northern Germany, particularly Hamburg and the coastal regions. Its origins are practical: on long sea…
By Ismar, Brazil and Ritesh, India. From shared schoolbooks and battery radios to AI companions, Ritesh and Ismar trace what happens when finding an answer becomes easy—and judgement becomes the harder part. There was a time when finding an answer could mean walking for an hour, asking an older relative, waiting for a newspaper, listening…
By Alexander, Germany. After a 4–1 win, an offside thought experiment and a difficult team discussion, one question became harder than it first looked: when is a rule useful, and when are we simply used to it? On Monday morning, I was not really ready for difficult questions. Everything hurt. My head was still somewhere…
By Ralf, Germany. For me, curiosity can begin with a smell, a beautifully made object or one clever piece of engineering. Then the picture starts forming in my head — and after that, it can be very difficult to leave the idea alone. I have really done this. I am standing at the supermarket cashier,…
A Fruitloop University Thingy, created by Fruitloop and made weirder by The Mayor. Fairy tales with software problems, a dragon with a defective toaster, Dom Pérignon at the customer-service desk, and Fruitloop asking the sort of questions that make a perfectly serviceable brain wander off without permission. Fruitloop had warm South African winter weather. I…
By Alexander, Germany. Sometimes the easiest way into another world is to arrive without much of a plan and see what happens. For once, I did not really prepare. We were going to Croatia for a week with about fifteen people. Somebody else had organised the house. I knew some of the group well, some…
