Justus Bruns Blog

Design, politics, photography and ideas.

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Zit in de trein naast een jongen van 16. Heeft toeslag vergeten te betalen. Wist de jongen niet. Direct betalen kost 5 euro. Geen cash bij zich. Dus blijkt dan 40 euro te moeten betalen. De Nederlandse conducteur/treinchef van trein 105 (DB/NS) bied ik aan voor hem te betalen. "Nee" zegt de man, "Ik ben al aan het schrijven." Ik vraag wat zijn naam is. "Treinchef" kan even iemand bij @ns_online hier nu iets aan het doen. Het gaat om de trein van 8:05 naar Basel. Delen pls.

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I’m a bit fed up with headers like these

7 things you should do before you go to bed

This is the man who’s keeping everybody buying things they don’t need.

How to have better sex.

Why people click on links they normally won’t click on?

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Family picture: My great grandfather (middle left) and grandfather (middle right), in St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1932. Aren't they looking funky?!

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We have sacrificed the old immaterial Gods, and now we are occupying the temple of the Market-God. He organizes our economy, our politics, our habits, our lives and even provides us with rates and credit cards and gives us the appearance of happiness. It seems that we have been born only to consume, and to consume, and when we can no longer consume, we have a feeling of frustration and we suffer from poverty, and we are auto marginalized.

What the world needs: president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica. Watch the full interview.

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This movie got me by my throat. What's your meaning of life, it asked me. I felt sad, miserable and relieved.

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This is Michail Oustamanolakis' work. Michail is a Greek artist and designer based in Hong Kong as of a month and a half ago. On Friday we've talked hours about art, politics and design.

What Michail's work so strong is that it is so well thought out, so deep (many layers) and yet has so simple. His work is politically engaging but also design wise very functional and clear. It takes a whole lot of thinking to make something like this.

I like to be surrounded by these kind of people. Spread it.

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I am in love with the sea side and with nature in general, peace and good food, what else you need to create?

The truth by Carlo Maria Morsiani, my former roommate

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"Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net," noted Paul Krugman, admiringly. Iceland, he found, had demonstrated the "case for letting creditors of private banks gone wild eat the losses".

From http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/06/iceland-financial-recovery-banking-collapse

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Carrying

We carry stuff,

to buy stuff to carry

from one place to another.

Life doesn't makes sense, does it?

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I'll tell you the solution: Get rid of 90% of the editors that now exist, and start promoting editors that you can't control.

Pulitzer Prize winner, Seymour Hersh, explains how to fix journalism

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When bankers make money it's theirs, when they lose money it's ours, we taxpayers. Capitalism doesn't work unless you have liability.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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Why we shouldn't blame Barack Obama

We, and especially I, have been blaming all things on Obama in terms of the US administration (drones, Gitmo, Syria, NSA scandals,...) I realize that's wrong, I think we should say: "Look we believed in you [Obama] and we still do. We want you to know that we got your back."

Because if we continue as a public to blame Obama, it will be only more likely he will get closer with those who are pushing him to go into war with Syria, to use drones, to convict whistleblowers,... So we should say: we're here for you if you still believe in your original path. A brighter day will come.

What are your thoughts about this?

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Zuckerberg said the government had done a "bad job" of balancing people's privacy and its duty to protect. "Frankly I think the government blew it," he said.

Is this a turning point? Are the American people finally pushing back the United Stasi of America? I really hope so.

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Here's to the doubters: how to live your life the way you want.

Take a sheet of paper and a pen

Draw three (big) circles (make sure they all overlap each other)

Write in the first circle all the things you love, this can be dancing, but it can also be cracking foil of a Nutella jar, it can be sleeping, eating, biking from a hill, going to theaters,... ANYTHING!

Second circle you write all things you are good at: skiing, joking, solving disputes, writing,... (the more the better!!);

Last and third circle is everything you can make money with, your skills basically e.g.: being a bartender, serving food, designing, writing, ...

You write so long till you can't find anything else;

Then you DO what overlaps, and that's the thing you're going to do best, with love and on the highest level (quit your job, and do that);

Really just start doing that. Because life is short. I'm not kidding you better live it.

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The true spirit of conversation consists more in bringing out the cleverness of others than in showing a great deal of it yourself; he who goes away pleased with himself and his own wit is also greatly pleased with you.

Jean de La Brùyere

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Last week, my colleague at my design company Bruns & Niks, Thijs sent over this clip. It's about leadership and why some leaders succeed better than others. I encourage you to watch it.

It all comes down to one simple thing: you need to know why you are doing something. You need to be clear about your belief in your mission. Then follows how you're achieving it and then finally after that: what you are actually doing/making.

With the Times Square Art Square Foundation I realize it all comes down to that we have incredible people on our team that working hard for nothing: it is a passion project. But just because they are there because they believe in just the same things as the rest believes in, they work with excitement and endless energy. That is just what always makes Art Square the winning team.

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Is privacy the next unique selling point? Three projects that lead the way.

For the third time in weeks I stumbled upon a three four fundraising campaigns for products that stress on privacy. I had to write a quick post about it...

Heml.is

"Heml.is The Beautiful & Secure Messenger" the people behind the new app call it. It's co-founded by one of the Pirate Bay Founders that promises not sell any of your data to corporations. Well I think if he would ever do that, we would live in a fairy tale.

OFF Pocket

A privacy accessory for mobile phones to block all signals. Currently active on Kickstarter. I like it a lot, however for someone who needs to be able to be actively online or nearby a phone, it's not very convenient.

Plug

Another project that currently runs on Kickstarter is Plug. What I love about Plug, is it's simplicity and the fact you own your data anytime anywhere. The makers describe Plus as follows: "Plug makes your computer bigger. Make your devices one. Keep your content private. Meet instant file sending."

What's actually quite funny, is that they actually reference to Prism on their Kickstarter page:

If you happen to find any other soon to launch products that play in on recent privacy scandals let me know!

Mailpile

A self hosted email client that claims to make email free again. It looks very promising.