Weekly LOG
On a mission towards openness and sharing the process this is the weekly documentation on the progress of PRESENT and the life of its founder.

Get the Log and  monthly updates in the Newsletter:
December 2022
Week 52

Beautiful but quite an intense Christmas break. Felt good afterwards to have a few days all by myself in my Dojo in Berlin before New Years.

Long calls with friends. Long runs in the snowy rain. Continued to write and assemble the 8th issue of my Newsletter — and finally sent it out on the 31st. In the last afternoon before the New Year.

Looking back at the year, one thing I’m happy about is that I jumped over my shadow more than once, silenced the “monkey brain” and got started on tackling new projects. I see this year in many ways as a foundation year for the upcoming one.

I continued to write my answers for a long upcoming interview with an international magazine. This always takes me quite a while!

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you all a fulfilling 2023. Health and strength to get started on whatever it is that will make you happy in the longterm. I believe in you🤍

Present Post: Imagine this year as a blank slate for your life. What would you want to change?

Watched Emily the Criminal
Watched Kill Tony (it’s a weekly live podcast/comedy show and I love it)

Week 51

Feeling better again! Seems like even the last bits of the annoying cold are gone. Now I’m trying to give it all in the last days before the Christmas break.

Worked on portfolio updates that I want to share in the upcoming Newsletter. Worked on adding new works and building the timeline/archive section.

Wrote for the upcoming Present Newsletter. It always takes me quite an effort and time, but it’s important for me to do it. And I want to send it out this year still. Went on two Christmas markets and to the cinema with Sarah.

Designed the UI for our app store on the new version of the Newsafe wallet for Newfoundation. Good, longer calls with Sofiane.

Took the train to Cologne. Worked on the whole train ride. Group zoom call for my friend Taylor’s birthday, who’s in Sicily right now. Went to go to Manufaktum und Muji for some last minute gift shopping. I’m in a great mood. Looking forward to Christmas and family!

Glühwein and bar with my old buddies from my neighborhood. And I was DJing at Jaki club for our annual Christmas Groove party.

Present Post: Insomnia 2 (1997) by Massimo Vitali from PRESENT Issue 2

Watched WeCrashed

Watched All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Week 50

I got sick, like everyone around me in Berlin. Always the worst feeling. Hate it so much. The first day I was still trying to work, the second day there was no chance. Spent an entire day in bed.

On Wednesday I felt a bit better. Foggyness is mostly gone. Thankful. Only forward.

I packed myself with so many things to do before Christmas, I had to backpedal. Need to focus and put a few things to January and tackle them with fresh energy! Now I’m back to the feeling of: I’d just love to freeze time. To be able to have more time for finishing all my shit.

Lots of work for Newfoundation. We’ve launched nco.newcoin.org, among others.

I organised a Christmas dinner at my place with some good friends. Jasmin was cooking phenomenally. It was beautiful. I wasn’t back at 100% but happy we could do it at all!

On Saturday we spent the day at my sisters place with a bunch of friends. Baking Christmas cookies and watching a bad romcom ~ cozyness! Saturday afternoon I watched the worldcup final with Sarah. What a ride. What an amazing game!

Watched: Triangle of Sadness (great!)

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self." ~ Ernest Hemingway

Week 49

Still figuring out the podcast setup. More work than expected. Borrowing equipment from my sister. Buying additional new (used) equipment. Cameras, Microphones, Lights, Cables. My buddy and DOP extraordinaire Julian Schmitt came over for coffee and to give me some tipps.

Feeling a bit exhausted mentally these days. Stressing myself because I want to get so much done before Chrsitmas. But it feels simply too much right now. Too many open options and tasks, struggling to focus. This week the pressure seems to make me feel stressed and creates sadness.

In the middle of the week I was seriously asking myself: Where did my joy go and how do I get it back? I will find back to joy if I have less tasks, very clean priorities and plan, and then finishing the right things.

Some powerful sprints and good longer calls with Sofiane and the Newfoundation team. Thankful for the positive feedback I got. Updated the UI of a bunch of apps, mainly the Newsafe wallet and its upcoming App Store.

Had a few quick run’s in the dark and in the rain this week to counter stress.

Dinner at my place with my buddies Matze and Basti. We got deep into a rabbit hole discussing the recent AI development and tools, which are simply game-changing…

On Saturday we celebrated the whole my friend Carlo’s birthday and I was on the turntables until late…

Week 48

In our last days in Bangkok we visited the Reclining Buddha, went up the Maha Nakhon (tallest building in Thailand and highest I’ve ever been to). Rounded up by enjoying the Jodd Fairs at night with my friend Karl, who’s living in Bangkok since several year.

Back in Berlin and feeling surprisingly fresh after the long flight. Next day: a lot in my head. Trying to make clarity…

Can’t deny a strange gloomyness on my mind these last days. Why is that? Too much pressure? Too many things I want to do until Christmas? Or simply the contrast from sun/beach/thailand to cold/grey/berlin?

Went to the Rosalía concert with Sarah and Berin. Amazing show. Such an amazing artist, I was blown away. Bliss! Thanks to Sarah for making it happen <3

Input: The Art of Fermenting Great Ideas
Watched White Lotus (such good entertainment!)
Watched Happy Old Year

November 2022
Week 47

Thailand is treating us well. Thankful for the phenomenal food and my daily beach runs.

That’s it for now for this week :)

Reading Stillness is Key by PRESENT contributor Ryan Holiday. It’s a perfect vacation read, highly recommended.

Week 46

Lots of communication with Present contributors. Send the mediakit to more potential partners. Also worked intensily on launching the updated Newcoin website.

Felt under pressure because I want to get so much done before my travels...

I worked tirelessly those last months. Hope to be able to recharge in Thailand🇹🇭

We woke up very early on Wednesday to head to the airport and fly to Bangkok. It was a long flight, but I found it enjoyable :) Got a lot of reading done.

Mission now: relax and enjoy. Bye for now!

”Find out WHO you are. Not what you do, not what you are, or where you want to be. It took me way too long to realize who I am and what I want out of life. Explore and push your boundaries. Try new things and learn what you like. Meet new people, challenge your own beliefs and understanding, walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, and then share your knowledge with others. Become YOU.” ~Unknown

Week 45

Energetic start into the week. Designed decks and graphics for a series of Newfoundation events at gallery and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London this week.

Finished the new PRESENT mediakit and started sending it out to potential partners. Excited for that. It was a lot of work, but a useful challenge.

We recorded an interview with Tareet, one of our favorite upcoming fashion designers from Marseille, who we will feature in the next issue.

Triying to get everything done before my trip to Thailand next week! Feeling pressure to finalise unfinished things before, trying to push!

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” ~Charles Kingsley

Input: The Diary Of A CEO with Scott Galloway

Week 44

At the start of the week I needed to first get rather unexciting things out of the way (taxes, admin work), but combined it with more joyful errants afterwards (getting new plants for my Dojo).

Finally carved out some time to get back to designing new Present Products and merch ideas. Challenge: too many ideas floating around. More focus needed to make decisions. But it will happen!

Quick simple thing helping me at the moment: Setting a Daily Highlight. Each morning, ask yourself "What's the most important thing I want to do today?" and then make sure you do that thing. (Or at least get started!)

Trying to get everything ready for the podcast recording, figuring out all equipment needed. Taking more time than expected. I know I shouldn’t be too perfectionistic about it, but I will do video as well, so this adds complexity to the whole operation.

Met with one of my oldest friends from Cologne for running and intense late night football practice at the pitch by the canal to counter stress.

Friday evening ritual: sending a thorough audio message about my week to my friend Carlo. This is a good habit. Afterwards for dinner to Sorrel with Sarah and Matthias, later we ended up at Bar Sway. Good night, great talks <3

Sunday for recharging. Took a walk with Sarah, we watched The Humans and Agnes Varda’s The Gleaners and I which I thought was really great!

“This is all you need in life: a computer, a camera, and a cat.” —Agnes Varda

Present Post: Log: Week 43

October 2022
Week 43

Good start into the week with a good Present team call. Cherishing the conversations with Sarah and Paz! They are both amazing. I’m thankful for them and for the chance to open up this project more and more.

On Tuesday I had a feeling that I need a real break soon. I felt real overwhelm with everything. Too many tasks on my plate and on my mind. And it stressed me out. But this was then a chance to recalibrate. A chance to clean.

On Wednesday I was much better again. Maybe I just needed more sleep. The power of being well rested. I reduced and reprioritized and put myself into monk mode…

Finally got started on the next Present Newsletter. Hopefully ready to ship it soon. The mediakit proceeds slowly. Got a tough time finishing this one. Have to let go of perfectionism. It’s never going to be perfect, so just get it done. Still working on integrating Memberstack onto our website. My head was steaming from navigating all possible options, but getting there!

Went with Sarah to the vernissage of our friend Felix Rank in collaboration with Apartamento. Met some friends there and ended up at Tom Król and Klara’s new place where we had some glorious pasta! Good times.

Friday we spent the night with our friend Lesha Berezovskiy who was visiting from Kiev. Thankful to hear all his stories. He is a great guy and great photographer. He is also volunteering in the war in his home country. I’m impressed and heartbroken and thankful for people like Lesha. Respect.

Saturday we were at the 60th birthday of Regina Schilling, one of the coolest and kindest women I know. Afterwards a Halloween party with the gang, which was a fun, wholesome, and drunken reunion. A long Sunday run in an attempt to cure my foggyness and hangover, but felt blessed for the last days and for my friends and family.

Week 42

After last weeks’ slight under-the-weatherness I’m back to life. And back to cold showers. This core habit makes me feel alive, alert and powerful. Several energizing runs this week to have a clearer mind.

Present: Drafting, planning, making. Research and communication with contributors. Happy to have received some really great content! Can’t wait to share it with you. And we’re organizing our first online live event. And I’m currently researching and testing how to build the upcoming membership login and dashboard for the website.

I got excited towards the end of the week when I brainstormed and took action on the upcoming Present Podcast. I finally got around taking the first step and secured the first guest. I was procrastinating on this project for a while now, because it scares me. But I know that once I take the jump it will be worth it and I know will be glad I did.

Rediscovered the afternoon nap. 20 min is usually already enough. Makes a huge difference: better energy and more positive mindset afterwards.

I went to the opera with Sarah to see LAB_WORKS | Half Life by Sharon Eyal. It put me in quite a meditative state. It was the second piece I’ve seen from her, and I loved it again.

I visited my friend Marius who is a masterful craftsman and got myself a fresh haircut. Those visits are always combined with deep conversations and I feel thankful for that.

On Saturday we went to Siegessäule and participated in the big demonstration: Jin-Jiyan-Azadî. It was good to be there.

Present Post: Breathing Techniques by Shuaitong Zong

Input: The Playlist gripping series on the birth of Spotify

Week 41

Rising brutally early to get everything done. It’s a battle at the moment to have a day job and trying to push my passion project to the max.

I’m fighting my way back. In need of fresh motivation. Cleaning up. Starting again and again. Everyday is a new attempt to get important stuff done and achieve more clarity.

Worked out a new timeline for Present. Trying to make all tasks more visible to my team to allow for more support. We are getting more structured with our operations via Notion. Feeling thankful to have Sarah and Paz’s support and fresh ideas!

I’m still working on the mediakit. It’s much more directed now to what we actually need and looking for. We are still trying to figure out the Community Space. The aim is to make this public as soon as possible for Present Members.

Friday we went to the newly opened Bar Sway, which was fantastic. Felt lucky to have such an amazing new spot in my neighborhood. We connected with the great Anna Santangelo there and that was really nice!

New rule: Alcohol is fine, but just don’t get a hangover. I had enough hangovers in my life. I’m drinking conciously, so I can enjoy it, and also enjoy the next day.

Felt fresh on Saturday morning. Spontaneous visit from Carlo. Brainstorming on future magazine and publishing ideas … fun! Sunday we cooked brunch at my Dojo with our good friend Matthias. Afterwards we walked at the canal, then ordered pizza and finally watched Kwaidan, the 1964 classic from Masaki Kobayashi.

Input: Rick Rubin in Conversation with Lex Fridman (Podcast #275)

Week 40

Last week was intense and I woke up on Monday physically tense. Pretty much under the weather. Put up the fight to not get sick.

This was the first week in a while that was not so great. Because I didn’t feel fully healthy. And it frustrated me. I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. Towards the end of the week it became a bit better.

Got me some new and needed early-rising motivation via Jocko content (go through the motions) and thanks to an old principle of mine: You’ll never regret having risen early.

Great call with Nea-Kosma and afterwards with Paz and Sarah for PRESENT. I was giving in to my vulnerability. Sharing doubts and dreams with full transparency.

Newfoundation action: Newforum website updates, documentation website start, new brand kit, new pitch decks for next funding round.

Sarah’s brother Anthony was in town for the weekend. We went on a kanu tour in the Spreewald. Lovely! Afterwards dinner with our friends Sebastian und Klara. Later we went to Phantom, a new bar from my buddy Silvan, who’s also running Bar Brutal, another favorite spot.

Saturday: Pizza pop-up by my buddies Taylor and Raoul (Bubble Crew) and afterwards Beuster Bar. Sunday: long walk through Kreuzberg, ending on Tempelhofer Feld, then checked the Jon Rafman and Anna Uddenberg exhibition at Schinkel Pavillon. Cooked and watched Bullet Train.

Rather than choosing a life in which you do nothing for fear of making a mistake, choose a life that improves through failure and pain. And shout out loud to your struggling self, “I love you so much!”  Haemin Sunim (from: Love for Imperfect Things)

September 2022
Week 39

This week’s tactic against Toomuchness: strict 5min-timer-sprints to battle procrastination and hack my overthinking brain.

PRESENT website: working on new content to be published soon. Plus experimented with new design directions for a future version. Lots of planning and drafting for funding: still building the new media kit to reach out to potential partners soon.

I took more walks to clear my thoughts. Too much in my head. Running against Brain Fog. Some goals and timeline realignments.

My old homie Felix Bold came to visit from Cologne and I met my friend Oskar Lingk for lunch. Was really nice to reconnect with both!

Friday I took a train with Sarah at 6:00 in the morning to go to Mandel where we spent the weekend at Glow Glow wines with the Baumberger family. Level 1 on our journey of producing our own PRESENT wine! Harvesting in the steep wine slopes in stunning nature. It felt so good to do outdoor work in sunshine and in rain. We also helped with bottling, labeling and packing of this year’s stack … and gave it all at Karaoke :)

Sunday evening back in Berlin: time for burgers and watching Blonde.

Present Post: Present Readers

Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the guru.Charlotte Joko Beck

Week 38

Wave of thankfulness at the start of the week. Grateful for last week and the weekend. So much love! Feeling blessed.

Thinking a lot about how to scale all PRESENT operations, in general. There is simply too many ideas and goals to pursue, and I feel I need to open it up much more and allow for more outside help.

Started designing a new edition of the PRESENT mediakit to accelerate my funding efforts and to sharpen up the overall mission and vision. Plus more brainstorming on additional contributor’s briefings for PRESENT Issue 3.

Clarity and Simplicity is Power. Finally took some time to clean up some of my core lists, visualisation and work files, and general priorities. This always gives me a boost of energy. New clarity!

This week I noticed once again how most “hard tasks” we tend to procrastinate on, are usually only a matter of a (often surprisingly) small amount of effort — once we finally get around to do them. Also, hard tasks tend to suddenly be really not hard at all once we tackle them in the morning after a good night’s sleep and with renewed energy.

I designed and developed the next iteration of the upcoming Newfoundation website and had some great calls with my colleagues on various topics and side missions.

Monday: Cooked my favorite soul-food: Pasta Puttanesca🍝 Thursday: Pizza and beers with Sarah<3 And for the first time in years I went to the football pitch alone, just to “train” by myself, getting blissfully lost in shooting, juggling, dribbling. Felt real good.

Friday I went to Cologne for one night to celebrate the birthday of my friend Mitch. Good times :) On the way back I watched the Julia Child documentary, which I enjoyed and recommend.

Present Post: Tricia and Terry Jones interview (Read it here!)

Week 37

Lots of juggling this week. Working my ass off to get everything done in time and with the utmost quality.

I started my week with preparing for the official launch of the new Salomon logo I redesigned. Super pumped to finally share it! Launched it on Tuesday (1,2,3,4) and was really grateful for all the nice reactions. Felt relieved and happy!

Recorded my first podcast with my colleague Jordan Duclos, Shuya Gong and Selim Imoberdorf for Newforum. I also worked on the upcoming platform Newocean, and a website for all documention of Newcoin.

Friday night I cooked at my place for Sarah<3, and my sister, and my old friend Luisa who’s visiting Berlin. Sebastian Peter joined as well and we all played We’re Not Really Strangers which is always intense but always good:)

My homie Carlo convinced me to go to his spinning class with him in on Saturday morning. I had a blast. It was one of the most exhausting activities I’ve done in a while and I felt great afterwards. Really energized. Talked about our habits and inspirations afterwars, grateful for this!

In the afternoon we went to the ARMA block party, organised by my buddies from NoService. The great Niklas Wandt was playing in the afternoon I took over afterwards and we had a proper dance! I was in heaven. I had such a good time mixing! Need to do it more again…

What is something wonderful about your life that you rarely appreciate as much as you should?

Week 36

Thankful for the productive last week and the beautiful weekend!

But now: pretty restless sleep the last nights, still figuring out why. I guess I have too many open task, too much unclarity on certain challenges. Gotta fix that asap.

Excited about our great call with wine makers Pauline and Carl Baumberger and Johannes from Frohnatur to discuss our upcoming collaboration 👀

Working on the next Present online contents. Happy to be able to give the website some love again. And for Newfoundation we’ve soft-launched the new Newforum website!

Friday night I went with Sarah to the exhibition opening of our friend and PRESENT contributor Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg

Another highlight of the week was a conversation with my friend Mubi from Yemen about the island of Socotra, the history of the Arabic language and the discovery of coffee, which I’m fascinated by since I watched Michael Pollan on a podcast.

Building habits in the present helps you to do more of what you want in the future. —James Clear

August 2022
Week 35

Rough start into the week. Gotta push through. Struggling to get to bed earlier. So many projects and balls to keep in the air. And more work for my archive experiment. (Hope it’s worth it.)

Pushing our experimental Community Space but realizing I need different onboarding strategies. Had a good call with Paz and Sarah how to tackle it. More work on our timeline and upcoming contributions and collaborations.

I met with Dennis Buck to gave him some back issues for research, he’s going to work in Italy for the next weeks and starts his upcoming contribution from there.

Long calls with Sofiane and Madelaine regarding all ongoing Newfoundation projects. (Finished a new identity for NF and continued finalising the upcoming Newforum website.)

Went for Schnitzel at Obermaier with some old friends, afterwards to Ricarda’s birthday, which was very lovely.

Played football with my homies for the first time since a while. My feet were a bit fucked afterwards but I felt great overall. Planning to do this twice a month now.

Went to Chateau Royal a new hotel and restaurant in Berlin, ran by my friends. It was a really nice night. And the next day: Wedding of my buddies Lea & Ricky on the countryside: big fun!

Present Post: Present People

Input: The Rescue (Simple incredible. Moved me to tears.)

Week 34

What can I achieve this week? Working on website updates. Building a PRESENT People sub-page to finally properly have all contributors and team united. More e-mails to more potential contributors and collaborators. Also good progress on building the upcoming Newforum website for Newfoundation.

Working on a new way of showing my work archive: I’ve beta-launched @officehugohoppmann 👀 I will continue to post more of my work on there for the rest of the year.

I’m getting dangerously close to toomuchness — again. I’m thinking a lot these days about how I can manage to make everything I want to make still until the end of the year…

On the weekend I went to Cologne, which gave me new energy. On Friday we celebrated my sister’s birthday, on Saturday I was playing records on the Alaaf and Kickin’ boat with my old gang. We had such a blast, there were just so much friends and family around, I had to shed tears of joy <3

Relationships are the currency of life.

Present Posts: Sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself

Input: How Action Bronson Conquered Media By Being His Most Authentic Self

Week 33

Another fresh week. Feeling thankful for being alive and healthy. Let’s go!

Now that it’s beta-launched I’m working on how to make our new PRESENT Community space alive. We’ll see how it goes. I’m still a bit nervous wondering if the people are actually as much up for it as much as I am…

Working on pushing on all fronts and projects for Newfoundation. I love the variety of tasks I have there as Creative Director and Head of Design: from research and consulting, to branding and strategy, to logo and icon design, to mentoring and briefing, to website design and development. And it’s flexible and remote so I can still work on PRESENT. I took on this job as I think both projects can feed each other in a really interesting and powerful way.

Present Posts this week: Standard Clothing, Doing things that scare you will make you happier

Week 32

Back in Berlin! On Monday I launched the PRESENT Community by inviting ~15 beta testers aka good friends. I’m a bit nervous if this works as I envisioned it. Keep calm and carry on.

This week I’m aiming to make solid progress on my missions for Newfoundation. Priority 1: building the Newforum website, then improving Newlife.

Besides, big push for PRESENT Issue 3: Writing more e-mails, make more layout tests, talk with Sarah about some new ideas I had. And: Preparing and shipping the next posts for Socials.

I’m currently (finally) reading The Power of Now by Eckhard Tolle. And I’ve finished reading Viktor Frankl: Man's Search for Meaning.

Quick note on tools: Highlighting book passages in the Kindle app, connect to Readwise, get a weekly e-mail with 5 past highlights. Loving this.

Watched Touching the Void: **“You gotta make decisions. You gotta keep making decisions, even if they're wrong decisions. If you don't make decisions you're stuffed.”

My dad came to Berlin for a few days. I cooked dinner for him, Sarah, Marina and David. Bliss!

Present Posts this week: Ben Roth: Enchanted Embodiment

Watch: Preposterous, Poignant, Dubious | Harry Mack Freestyle

Week 31

We are at the end of the holidays. We’ve just been to Seravezza for two days to interview Cynthia Sah and Nicolas Bertoux of ARTCO for the next PRESENT issue. My sister Marina came by to make portraits. It was really fun!

Random tip: Il Fuso from Ciacco in Lucca: one of the best sandwiches I've ever had :) 🥪

Tuscany was so dreamy. What crazy beautiful spot on earth. So grateful for having made this trip with Sarah <3

What I wrote down this morning: Let go completely. Let your ego pass. Fully relax. See your truth. Be. Fall into being.

Present Posts: Ryan Holiday, MY DOJO Hannah Kuhlmann, RIP Issey Miyake

Video: Rick Rubin - Advice on How To Stop Overthinking

July 2022
Week 30

I’m sitting in bar in Florence, having a cold beer, after I walked for two hours in 37 degrees around town. This is my next attempt to start maintaining my LOG again. Everthing just got in the way. But it’s like meditation: the goal is to notice you’ve drifted, and to simply start again.

I travelled with Sarah to Tuscany a few days ago for a two week trip. Wine and Olive Oil and Pasta. We rented a small car and travel from town to town. It’s crazy hot (no day below 37°) but it’s glorious!

July 26: Another hot day in Florence. We visited the Uffizi Galleries. Strangely, only a few works really touched me. A great spot in Florence for a drink at the end of the afternoon is the rooftop bar of Hotel Palazzo Guadagni. In the night we watched Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri, Oggi, Domani).

It’s hard for me to switch off. I somehow want to be productive, even in my holidays. I just feel so much drive in me and/or pressure to deliver what I promised myself to.

We watched Human Traffic (so good!)

Present Posts: Ghost Dog

Video: Evolution of the office desk

Article: When the Money's Just Too Damn Good

Week 29

I’m still trying to get the Present Forum beta launch off the ground. I’m pondering a lot if it should be build on Circle or Discord. I decided for Circle (for now).

I’m currently reading Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday:Being present demands all of us. It’s not nothing. It may be the hardest thing in the world.

I’m also currently reading Someday by Matthew Dicks.Make every decision count by looking ahead at the one-hundred-year-old version of yourself and asking that version of yourself for some wisdom and perspective. Stop making decisions for the current version of yourself, and ask your future self what they want from you.

Present Posts: Open Call, Makers Portrait Mathis Eßer

Video: A powerful message from Paddy the Baddy

Week 28

An insight: Just really be present: best “trick”. ever. always. This project is really my reminder. Of what I need most.

I have a deep long for emptiness. Everytime I feel closer to emptiness a rush of contentment comes over me. I feel satori.

Growth is often uncomfortable. Whether it’s getting up in front of an audience, processing tough emotions, or pushing your physical limits: embracing discomfort can boost motivation and strengthen resolve. The next time you feel that resistance, lean in. Or as David Goggins put it: embrace the suck.

Week 27

Thankful for my new place in Friedelstrasse. It feels so good. It is such an upgrade to where I’ve lived and worked before!

Prepared the image selection of the upcoming DOJO of David Zilber. And more Issue 3 planning. And a call with Johannes von Frohnatur, a nature wine company from Cologne, for a potential collab.

I went to Kadewe with Sarah to document her being on the massive billboards! Very proud of her.

Long calls with Sofiane and Madeleine for Newfoundation/Newlife and Marina for Newmoon. Finished and launched the new Newmoon website. (Built it with Webflow and had much fun doing it! Love this tool.)

Had a few nice runs this week. (Follow me on Strava😎)

The longer you wait to take that step, the shorter the future will be when you get there. ~Brooke Le Blanc

Week 52
Dec 26 – Dec 31, 2022

Beautiful but quite an intense Christmas break. Felt good afterwards to have a few days all by myself in my Dojo in Berlin before New Years.

Long calls with friends. Long runs in the snowy rain. Continued to write and assemble the 8th issue of my Newsletter — and finally sent it out on the 31st. In the last afternoon before the New Year.

Looking back at the year, one thing I’m happy about is that I jumped over my shadow more than once, silenced the “monkey brain” and got started on tackling new projects. I see this year in many ways as a foundation year for the upcoming one.

I continued to write my answers for a long upcoming interview with an international magazine. This always takes me quite a while!

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you all a fulfilling 2023. Health and strength to get started on whatever it is that will make you happy in the longterm. I believe in you🤍

Present Post: Imagine this year as a blank slate for your life. What would you want to change?

Watched Emily the Criminal
Watched Kill Tony (it’s a weekly live podcast/comedy show and I love it)

Week 51
Nov 19 – Dec 25, 2022

Feeling better again! Seems like even the last bits of the annoying cold are gone. Now I’m trying to give it all in the last days before the Christmas break.

Worked on portfolio updates that I want to share in the upcoming Newsletter. Worked on adding new works and building the timeline/archive section.

Wrote for the upcoming Present Newsletter. It always takes me quite an effort and time, but it’s important for me to do it. And I want to send it out this year still. Went on two Christmas markets and to the cinema with Sarah.

Designed the UI for our app store on the new version of the Newsafe wallet for Newfoundation. Good, longer calls with Sofiane.

Took the train to Cologne. Worked on the whole train ride. Group zoom call for my friend Taylor’s birthday, who’s in Sicily right now. Went to go to Manufaktum und Muji for some last minute gift shopping. I’m in a great mood. Looking forward to Christmas and family!

Glühwein and bar with my old buddies from my neighborhood. And I was DJing at Jaki club for our annual Christmas Groove party.

Present Post: Insomnia 2 (1997) by Massimo Vitali from PRESENT Issue 2

Watched WeCrashed

Watched All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Week 50
December 12 – December 18, 2022

I got sick, like everyone around me in Berlin. Always the worst feeling. Hate it so much. The first day I was still trying to work, the second day there was no chance. Spent an entire day in bed.

On Wednesday I felt a bit better. Foggyness is mostly gone. Thankful. Only forward.

I packed myself with so many things to do before Christmas, I had to backpedal. Need to focus and put a few things to January and tackle them with fresh energy! Now I’m back to the feeling of: I’d just love to freeze time. To be able to have more time for finishing all my shit.

Lots of work for Newfoundation. We’ve launched nco.newcoin.org, among others.

I organised a Christmas dinner at my place with some good friends. Jasmin was cooking phenomenally. It was beautiful. I wasn’t back at 100% but happy we could do it at all!

On Saturday we spent the day at my sisters place with a bunch of friends. Baking Christmas cookies and watching a bad romcom ~ cozyness! Saturday afternoon I watched the worldcup final with Sarah. What a ride. What an amazing game!

Watched: Triangle of Sadness (great!)

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self." ~ Ernest Hemingway

Week 49
December 05 – December 11, 2022

Still figuring out the podcast setup. More work than expected. Borrowing equipment from my sister. Buying additional new (used) equipment. Cameras, Microphones, Lights, Cables. My buddy and DOP extraordinaire Julian Schmitt came over for coffee and to give me some tipps.

Feeling a bit exhausted mentally these days. Stressing myself because I want to get so much done before Chrsitmas. But it feels simply too much right now. Too many open options and tasks, struggling to focus. This week the pressure seems to make me feel stressed and creates sadness.

In the middle of the week I was seriously asking myself: Where did my joy go and how do I get it back? I will find back to joy if I have less tasks, very clean priorities and plan, and then finishing the right things.

Some powerful sprints and good longer calls with Sofiane and the Newfoundation team. Thankful for the positive feedback I got. Updated the UI of a bunch of apps, mainly the Newsafe wallet and its upcoming App Store.

Had a few quick run’s in the dark and in the rain this week to counter stress.

Dinner at my place with my buddies Matze and Basti. We got deep into a rabbit hole discussing the recent AI development and tools, which are simply game-changing…

On Saturday we celebrated the whole my friend Carlo’s birthday and I was on the turntables until late…

Week 48
November 28 – December 04, 2022

In our last days in Bangkok we visited the Reclining Buddha, went up the Maha Nakhon (tallest building in Thailand and highest I’ve ever been to). Rounded up by enjoying the Jodd Fairs at night with my friend Karl, who’s living in Bangkok since several year.

Back in Berlin and feeling surprisingly fresh after the long flight. Next day: a lot in my head. Trying to make clarity…

Can’t deny a strange gloomyness on my mind these last days. Why is that? Too much pressure? Too many things I want to do until Christmas? Or simply the contrast from sun/beach/thailand to cold/grey/berlin?

Went to the Rosalía concert with Sarah and Berin. Amazing show. Such an amazing artist, I was blown away. Bliss! Thanks to Sarah for making it happen <3

Input: The Art of Fermenting Great Ideas
Watched White Lotus (such good entertainment!)
Watched Happy Old Year

Week 47
November 21 – November 27, 2022

Thailand is treating us well. Thankful for the phenomenal food and my daily beach runs.

That’s it for now for this week :)

Reading Stillness is Key by PRESENT contributor Ryan Holiday. It’s a perfect vacation read, highly recommended.

Week 46
November 14 – November 20, 2022

Lots of communication with Present contributors. Send the mediakit to more potential partners. Also worked intensily on launching the updated Newcoin website.

Felt under pressure because I want to get so much done before my travels...

I worked tirelessly those last months. Hope to be able to recharge in Thailand🇹🇭

We woke up very early on Wednesday to head to the airport and fly to Bangkok. It was a long flight, but I found it enjoyable :) Got a lot of reading done.

Mission now: relax and enjoy. Bye for now!

”Find out WHO you are. Not what you do, not what you are, or where you want to be. It took me way too long to realize who I am and what I want out of life. Explore and push your boundaries. Try new things and learn what you like. Meet new people, challenge your own beliefs and understanding, walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, and then share your knowledge with others. Become YOU.” ~Unknown

Week 45
November 07 – November 13, 2022

Energetic start into the week. Designed decks and graphics for a series of Newfoundation events at gallery and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London this week.

Finished the new PRESENT mediakit and started sending it out to potential partners. Excited for that. It was a lot of work, but a useful challenge.

We recorded an interview with Tareet, one of our favorite upcoming fashion designers from Marseille, who we will feature in the next issue.

Triying to get everything done before my trip to Thailand next week! Feeling pressure to finalise unfinished things before, trying to push!

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” ~Charles Kingsley

Input: The Diary Of A CEO with Scott Galloway

Week 44
October 31 – November 06, 2022

At the start of the week I needed to first get rather unexciting things out of the way (taxes, admin work), but combined it with more joyful errants afterwards (getting new plants for my Dojo).

Finally carved out some time to get back to designing new Present Products and merch ideas. Challenge: too many ideas floating around. More focus needed to make decisions. But it will happen!

Quick simple thing helping me at the moment: Setting a Daily Highlight. Each morning, ask yourself "What's the most important thing I want to do today?" and then make sure you do that thing. (Or at least get started!)

Trying to get everything ready for the podcast recording, figuring out all equipment needed. Taking more time than expected. I know I shouldn’t be too perfectionistic about it, but I will do video as well, so this adds complexity to the whole operation.

Met with one of my oldest friends from Cologne for running and intense late night football practice at the pitch by the canal to counter stress.

Friday evening ritual: sending a thorough audio message about my week to my friend Carlo. This is a good habit. Afterwards for dinner to Sorrel with Sarah and Matthias, later we ended up at Bar Sway. Good night, great talks <3

Sunday for recharging. Took a walk with Sarah, we watched The Humans and Agnes Varda’s The Gleaners and I which I thought was really great!

“This is all you need in life: a computer, a camera, and a cat.” —Agnes Varda

Present Post: Log: Week 43

Week 43
October 24 – October 30, 2022

Good start into the week with a good Present team call. Cherishing the conversations with Sarah and Paz! They are both amazing. I’m thankful for them and for the chance to open up this project more and more.

On Tuesday I had a feeling that I need a real break soon. I felt real overwhelm with everything. Too many tasks on my plate and on my mind. And it stressed me out. But this was then a chance to recalibrate. A chance to clean.

On Wednesday I was much better again. Maybe I just needed more sleep. The power of being well rested. I reduced and reprioritized and put myself into monk mode…

Finally got started on the next Present Newsletter. Hopefully ready to ship it soon. The mediakit proceeds slowly. Got a tough time finishing this one. Have to let go of perfectionism. It’s never going to be perfect, so just get it done. Still working on integrating Memberstack onto our website. My head was steaming from navigating all possible options, but getting there!

Went with Sarah to the vernissage of our friend Felix Rank in collaboration with Apartamento. Met some friends there and ended up at Tom Król and Klara’s new place where we had some glorious pasta! Good times.

Friday we spent the night with our friend Lesha Berezovskiy who was visiting from Kiev. Thankful to hear all his stories. He is a great guy and great photographer. He is also volunteering in the war in his home country. I’m impressed and heartbroken and thankful for people like Lesha. Respect.

Saturday we were at the 60th birthday of Regina Schilling, one of the coolest and kindest women I know. Afterwards a Halloween party with the gang, which was a fun, wholesome, and drunken reunion. A long Sunday run in an attempt to cure my foggyness and hangover, but felt blessed for the last days and for my friends and family.

Week 42
October 17 – October 23, 2022

After last weeks’ slight under-the-weatherness I’m back to life. And back to cold showers. This core habit makes me feel alive, alert and powerful. Several energizing runs this week to have a clearer mind.

Present: Drafting, planning, making. Research and communication with contributors. Happy to have received some really great content! Can’t wait to share it with you. And we’re organizing our first online live event. And I’m currently researching and testing how to build the upcoming membership login and dashboard for the website.

I got excited towards the end of the week when I brainstormed and took action on the upcoming Present Podcast. I finally got around taking the first step and secured the first guest. I was procrastinating on this project for a while now, because it scares me. But I know that once I take the jump it will be worth it and I know will be glad I did.

Rediscovered the afternoon nap. 20 min is usually already enough. Makes a huge difference: better energy and more positive mindset afterwards.

I went to the opera with Sarah to see LAB_WORKS | Half Life by Sharon Eyal. It put me in quite a meditative state. It was the second piece I’ve seen from her, and I loved it again.

I visited my friend Marius who is a masterful craftsman and got myself a fresh haircut. Those visits are always combined with deep conversations and I feel thankful for that.

On Saturday we went to Siegessäule and participated in the big demonstration: Jin-Jiyan-Azadî. It was good to be there.

Present Post: Breathing Techniques by Shuaitong Zong

Input: The Playlist gripping series on the birth of Spotify

Week 41
October 10 – October 16, 2022

Rising brutally early to get everything done. It’s a battle at the moment to have a day job and trying to push my passion project to the max.

I’m fighting my way back. In need of fresh motivation. Cleaning up. Starting again and again. Everyday is a new attempt to get important stuff done and achieve more clarity.

Worked out a new timeline for Present. Trying to make all tasks more visible to my team to allow for more support. We are getting more structured with our operations via Notion. Feeling thankful to have Sarah and Paz’s support and fresh ideas!

I’m still working on the mediakit. It’s much more directed now to what we actually need and looking for. We are still trying to figure out the Community Space. The aim is to make this public as soon as possible for Present Members.

Friday we went to the newly opened Bar Sway, which was fantastic. Felt lucky to have such an amazing new spot in my neighborhood. We connected with the great Anna Santangelo there and that was really nice!

New rule: Alcohol is fine, but just don’t get a hangover. I had enough hangovers in my life. I’m drinking conciously, so I can enjoy it, and also enjoy the next day.

Felt fresh on Saturday morning. Spontaneous visit from Carlo. Brainstorming on future magazine and publishing ideas … fun! Sunday we cooked brunch at my Dojo with our good friend Matthias. Afterwards we walked at the canal, then ordered pizza and finally watched Kwaidan, the 1964 classic from Masaki Kobayashi.

Input: Rick Rubin in Conversation with Lex Fridman (Podcast #275)

Week 40
October 03 – October 09, 2022

Last week was intense and I woke up on Monday physically tense. Pretty much under the weather. Put up the fight to not get sick.

This was the first week in a while that was not so great. Because I didn’t feel fully healthy. And it frustrated me. I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. Towards the end of the week it became a bit better.

Got me some new and needed early-rising motivation via Jocko content (go through the motions) and thanks to an old principle of mine: You’ll never regret having risen early.

Great call with Nea-Kosma and afterwards with Paz and Sarah for PRESENT. I was giving in to my vulnerability. Sharing doubts and dreams with full transparency.

Newfoundation action: Newforum website updates, documentation website start, new brand kit, new pitch decks for next funding round.

Sarah’s brother Anthony was in town for the weekend. We went on a kanu tour in the Spreewald. Lovely! Afterwards dinner with our friends Sebastian und Klara. Later we went to Phantom, a new bar from my buddy Silvan, who’s also running Bar Brutal, another favorite spot.

Saturday: Pizza pop-up by my buddies Taylor and Raoul (Bubble Crew) and afterwards Beuster Bar. Sunday: long walk through Kreuzberg, ending on Tempelhofer Feld, then checked the Jon Rafman and Anna Uddenberg exhibition at Schinkel Pavillon. Cooked and watched Bullet Train.

Rather than choosing a life in which you do nothing for fear of making a mistake, choose a life that improves through failure and pain. And shout out loud to your struggling self, “I love you so much!”  Haemin Sunim (from: Love for Imperfect Things)

Week 39
September 26 – October 02, 2022

This week’s tactic against Toomuchness: strict 5min-timer-sprints to battle procrastination and hack my overthinking brain.

PRESENT website: working on new content to be published soon. Plus experimented with new design directions for a future version. Lots of planning and drafting for funding: still building the new media kit to reach out to potential partners soon.

I took more walks to clear my thoughts. Too much in my head. Running against Brain Fog. Some goals and timeline realignments.

My old homie Felix Bold came to visit from Cologne and I met my friend Oskar Lingk for lunch. Was really nice to reconnect with both!

Friday I took a train with Sarah at 6:00 in the morning to go to Mandel where we spent the weekend at Glow Glow wines with the Baumberger family. Level 1 on our journey of producing our own PRESENT wine! Harvesting in the steep wine slopes in stunning nature. It felt so good to do outdoor work in sunshine and in rain. We also helped with bottling, labeling and packing of this year’s stack … and gave it all at Karaoke :)

Sunday evening back in Berlin: time for burgers and watching Blonde.

Present Post: Present Readers

Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the guru.Charlotte Joko Beck

Week 38
September 19 – September 25, 2022

Wave of thankfulness at the start of the week. Grateful for last week and the weekend. So much love! Feeling blessed.

Thinking a lot about how to scale all PRESENT operations, in general. There is simply too many ideas and goals to pursue, and I feel I need to open it up much more and allow for more outside help.

Started designing a new edition of the PRESENT mediakit to accelerate my funding efforts and to sharpen up the overall mission and vision. Plus more brainstorming on additional contributor’s briefings for PRESENT Issue 3.

Clarity and Simplicity is Power. Finally took some time to clean up some of my core lists, visualisation and work files, and general priorities. This always gives me a boost of energy. New clarity!

This week I noticed once again how most “hard tasks” we tend to procrastinate on, are usually only a matter of a (often surprisingly) small amount of effort — once we finally get around to do them. Also, hard tasks tend to suddenly be really not hard at all once we tackle them in the morning after a good night’s sleep and with renewed energy.

I designed and developed the next iteration of the upcoming Newfoundation website and had some great calls with my colleagues on various topics and side missions.

Monday: Cooked my favorite soul-food: Pasta Puttanesca🍝 Thursday: Pizza and beers with Sarah<3 And for the first time in years I went to the football pitch alone, just to “train” by myself, getting blissfully lost in shooting, juggling, dribbling. Felt real good.

Friday I went to Cologne for one night to celebrate the birthday of my friend Mitch. Good times :) On the way back I watched the Julia Child documentary, which I enjoyed and recommend.

Present Post: Tricia and Terry Jones interview (Read it here!)

Week 37
September 12 – September 18, 2022

Lots of juggling this week. Working my ass off to get everything done in time and with the utmost quality.

I started my week with preparing for the official launch of the new Salomon logo I redesigned. Super pumped to finally share it! Launched it on Tuesday (1,2,3,4) and was really grateful for all the nice reactions. Felt relieved and happy!

Recorded my first podcast with my colleague Jordan Duclos, Shuya Gong and Selim Imoberdorf for Newforum. I also worked on the upcoming platform Newocean, and a website for all documention of Newcoin.

Friday night I cooked at my place for Sarah<3, and my sister, and my old friend Luisa who’s visiting Berlin. Sebastian Peter joined as well and we all played We’re Not Really Strangers which is always intense but always good:)

My homie Carlo convinced me to go to his spinning class with him in on Saturday morning. I had a blast. It was one of the most exhausting activities I’ve done in a while and I felt great afterwards. Really energized. Talked about our habits and inspirations afterwars, grateful for this!

In the afternoon we went to the ARMA block party, organised by my buddies from NoService. The great Niklas Wandt was playing in the afternoon I took over afterwards and we had a proper dance! I was in heaven. I had such a good time mixing! Need to do it more again…

What is something wonderful about your life that you rarely appreciate as much as you should?

Week 36
September 05 – September 11, 2022

Thankful for the productive last week and the beautiful weekend!

But now: pretty restless sleep the last nights, still figuring out why. I guess I have too many open task, too much unclarity on certain challenges. Gotta fix that asap.

Excited about our great call with wine makers Pauline and Carl Baumberger and Johannes from Frohnatur to discuss our upcoming collaboration 👀

Working on the next Present online contents. Happy to be able to give the website some love again. And for Newfoundation we’ve soft-launched the new Newforum website!

Friday night I went with Sarah to the exhibition opening of our friend and PRESENT contributor Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg

Another highlight of the week was a conversation with my friend Mubi from Yemen about the island of Socotra, the history of the Arabic language and the discovery of coffee, which I’m fascinated by since I watched Michael Pollan on a podcast.

Building habits in the present helps you to do more of what you want in the future. —James Clear

Week 35
August 29 – September 04, 2022

Rough start into the week. Gotta push through. Struggling to get to bed earlier. So many projects and balls to keep in the air. And more work for my archive experiment. (Hope it’s worth it.)

Pushing our experimental Community Space but realizing I need different onboarding strategies. Had a good call with Paz and Sarah how to tackle it. More work on our timeline and upcoming contributions and collaborations.

I met with Dennis Buck to gave him some back issues for research, he’s going to work in Italy for the next weeks and starts his upcoming contribution from there.

Long calls with Sofiane and Madelaine regarding all ongoing Newfoundation projects. (Finished a new identity for NF and continued finalising the upcoming Newforum website.)

Went for Schnitzel at Obermaier with some old friends, afterwards to Ricarda’s birthday, which was very lovely.

Played football with my homies for the first time since a while. My feet were a bit fucked afterwards but I felt great overall. Planning to do this twice a month now.

Went to Chateau Royal a new hotel and restaurant in Berlin, ran by my friends. It was a really nice night. And the next day: Wedding of my buddies Lea & Ricky on the countryside: big fun!

Present Post: Present People

Input: The Rescue (Simple incredible. Moved me to tears.)

Week 34
August 22 – August 28, 2022

What can I achieve this week? Working on website updates. Building a PRESENT People sub-page to finally properly have all contributors and team united. More e-mails to more potential contributors and collaborators. Also good progress on building the upcoming Newforum website for Newfoundation.

Working on a new way of showing my work archive: I’ve beta-launched @officehugohoppmann 👀 I will continue to post more of my work on there for the rest of the year.

I’m getting dangerously close to toomuchness — again. I’m thinking a lot these days about how I can manage to make everything I want to make still until the end of the year…

On the weekend I went to Cologne, which gave me new energy. On Friday we celebrated my sister’s birthday, on Saturday I was playing records on the Alaaf and Kickin’ boat with my old gang. We had such a blast, there were just so much friends and family around, I had to shed tears of joy <3

Relationships are the currency of life.

Present Posts: Sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself

Input: How Action Bronson Conquered Media By Being His Most Authentic Self

Week 33
August 15 – August 21, 2022

Another fresh week. Feeling thankful for being alive and healthy. Let’s go!

Now that it’s beta-launched I’m working on how to make our new PRESENT Community space alive. We’ll see how it goes. I’m still a bit nervous wondering if the people are actually as much up for it as much as I am…

Working on pushing on all fronts and projects for Newfoundation. I love the variety of tasks I have there as Creative Director and Head of Design: from research and consulting, to branding and strategy, to logo and icon design, to mentoring and briefing, to website design and development. And it’s flexible and remote so I can still work on PRESENT. I took on this job as I think both projects can feed each other in a really interesting and powerful way.

Present Posts this week: Standard Clothing, Doing things that scare you will make you happier

Week 32
August 08 – August 14, 2022

Back in Berlin! On Monday I launched the PRESENT Community by inviting ~15 beta testers aka good friends. I’m a bit nervous if this works as I envisioned it. Keep calm and carry on.

This week I’m aiming to make solid progress on my missions for Newfoundation. Priority 1: building the Newforum website, then improving Newlife.

Besides, big push for PRESENT Issue 3: Writing more e-mails, make more layout tests, talk with Sarah about some new ideas I had. And: Preparing and shipping the next posts for Socials.

I’m currently (finally) reading The Power of Now by Eckhard Tolle. And I’ve finished reading Viktor Frankl: Man's Search for Meaning.

Quick note on tools: Highlighting book passages in the Kindle app, connect to Readwise, get a weekly e-mail with 5 past highlights. Loving this.

Watched Touching the Void: **“You gotta make decisions. You gotta keep making decisions, even if they're wrong decisions. If you don't make decisions you're stuffed.”

My dad came to Berlin for a few days. I cooked dinner for him, Sarah, Marina and David. Bliss!

Present Posts this week: Ben Roth: Enchanted Embodiment

Watch: Preposterous, Poignant, Dubious | Harry Mack Freestyle

Week 31
August 01 – August 07, 2022

We are at the end of the holidays. We’ve just been to Seravezza for two days to interview Cynthia Sah and Nicolas Bertoux of ARTCO for the next PRESENT issue. My sister Marina came by to make portraits. It was really fun!

Random tip: Il Fuso from Ciacco in Lucca: one of the best sandwiches I've ever had :) 🥪

Tuscany was so dreamy. What crazy beautiful spot on earth. So grateful for having made this trip with Sarah <3

What I wrote down this morning: Let go completely. Let your ego pass. Fully relax. See your truth. Be. Fall into being.

Present Posts: Ryan Holiday, MY DOJO Hannah Kuhlmann, RIP Issey Miyake

Video: Rick Rubin - Advice on How To Stop Overthinking

Week 30
July 25 – July 31, 2022

I’m sitting in bar in Florence, having a cold beer, after I walked for two hours in 37 degrees around town. This is my next attempt to start maintaining my LOG again. Everthing just got in the way. But it’s like meditation: the goal is to notice you’ve drifted, and to simply start again.

I travelled with Sarah to Tuscany a few days ago for a two week trip. Wine and Olive Oil and Pasta. We rented a small car and travel from town to town. It’s crazy hot (no day below 37°) but it’s glorious!

July 26: Another hot day in Florence. We visited the Uffizi Galleries. Strangely, only a few works really touched me. A great spot in Florence for a drink at the end of the afternoon is the rooftop bar of Hotel Palazzo Guadagni. In the night we watched Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri, Oggi, Domani).

It’s hard for me to switch off. I somehow want to be productive, even in my holidays. I just feel so much drive in me and/or pressure to deliver what I promised myself to.

We watched Human Traffic (so good!)

Present Posts: Ghost Dog

Video: Evolution of the office desk

Article: When the Money's Just Too Damn Good

Week 29
July 18 – July 24, 2022

I’m still trying to get the Present Forum beta launch off the ground. I’m pondering a lot if it should be build on Circle or Discord. I decided for Circle (for now).

I’m currently reading Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday:Being present demands all of us. It’s not nothing. It may be the hardest thing in the world.

I’m also currently reading Someday by Matthew Dicks.Make every decision count by looking ahead at the one-hundred-year-old version of yourself and asking that version of yourself for some wisdom and perspective. Stop making decisions for the current version of yourself, and ask your future self what they want from you.

Present Posts: Open Call, Makers Portrait Mathis Eßer

Video: A powerful message from Paddy the Baddy

Week 28
July 11 – July 17, 2022

An insight: Just really be present: best “trick”. ever. always. This project is really my reminder. Of what I need most.

I have a deep long for emptiness. Everytime I feel closer to emptiness a rush of contentment comes over me. I feel satori.

Growth is often uncomfortable. Whether it’s getting up in front of an audience, processing tough emotions, or pushing your physical limits: embracing discomfort can boost motivation and strengthen resolve. The next time you feel that resistance, lean in. Or as David Goggins put it: embrace the suck.

Week 27
July 04 – July 10, 2022

Thankful for my new place in Friedelstrasse. It feels so good. It is such an upgrade to where I’ve lived and worked before!

Prepared the image selection of the upcoming DOJO of David Zilber. And more Issue 3 planning. And a call with Johannes von Frohnatur, a nature wine company from Cologne, for a potential collab.

I went to Kadewe with Sarah to document her being on the massive billboards! Very proud of her.

Long calls with Sofiane and Madeleine for Newfoundation/Newlife and Marina for Newmoon. Finished and launched the new Newmoon website. (Built it with Webflow and had much fun doing it! Love this tool.)

Had a few nice runs this week. (Follow me on Strava😎)

The longer you wait to take that step, the shorter the future will be when you get there. ~Brooke Le Blanc