A month is around, and here is the collection again. Here is a roundup of the most clicked and my favourite snippets, up to 6 per week. Thank you so much for your support! ❤️
Unpublished extras
Here is a YT video with a couple of tricks on how to hang your artwork. Useful, especially for wall galleries.
A cool read on 24 things Ryan Holiday wishes he had done sooner. Don’t be afraid of quitting a book.
When did people stop being drunk all the time? show how much alcohol people drank in the past. Wild!
🤝 If you are into Döner’s, look no further, this is THE Instagram account for you(🇩🇪). I would prefer a website with a search function, but these guys know what they are doing. You can at least navigate with the highlights.
🚌 Another fact: 99,4% of Berliners live a maximum of 600m (Bus) or 1200m (Train) distance from a public transport station with a minimum of 28 departures per day.
🚙🚗 This is in German, but someone was blocked by someone’s car, and a Reddit user had some, hmm, detailed advice. In sum, you could: 1. Call the Ordnungsamt for the wrongly parked car. 2. Report potential damage to the other's insurance or even file a complaint for coercion by deliberate parking.
😶 Jake Seliger, a blogger I like to read, is dying of cancer and his wife wrote a powerful essay about “What it’s like to be married to a dying man”. And it is “it’s like gaining enormous, terrifying clarity. The moment when you realize the right path, the yes or no answer, the end of the debate. Clarity might sound great— don’t we all want clarity? But clarity is cruel, too.” Clarity, indeed, is cruel.
🎪 tipBerlin has a list of 12 “hidden” treasures of Berlin that tourists usually miss. Starting with Checkpoint Char…. just kidding. Märkisches Viertel, Britzer Garten, Uferstudios and the likes.
Career advice: A small study, but still: Back-to-back meetings cause stress build-up and reduce engagement and taking short breaks between meetings decreases stress, boosts performance and helps maintain focus. Try 25-min meetings for a positive impact, but of course, you need to then engage in an even more focused way.
🤮 The worst food in Berlin? Risa appears often, closely followed by Que Pasa. I can add Vamos at Winterfeldtstraße (although the company was amazing ☺️).
☕️ Besides occasionally drinking the Slovenian version of Turkish coffee, I mostly made instant coffee in Germany. I know. I finally upgraded to Aeropress, and I am impressed by the product quality. By accident, I also found this thread about coffee. Summary: 1) wait 90min before having one; 2) no coffee ten hours before sleep; 3) take 48h off every week). Not sure about point 3.
😱 On the other hand, WeWork's survival is in question; once valued at $47B, it was only worth $470M after the meme-stock surge on Friday (down 95% over the past year). They say they are “going concern” and had -3% in memberships and 72% occupancy. I wonder how The Factory, The Office Group, Workaround, Regus, Charly and other competitors in Berlin are doing?
r/berlin choice of the week is this thread of What are some of the good traits that you like/respect about Berliners? which is outside of the usual Berlin bashing on parts of the subreddit. I’ve said it before: I have not experienced rudeness here. For me, the “Schnauze” is more irony or sarcasm, which I sort of like… hold on. Am I the Schnauze? Because once in Stuttgart, my good friend explained, “Nooo, he did not mean it in a bad way; it was a joke… It’s Igor.” 🤭
📚 Looking for an English bookstore? Look no further; here is the crowd wisdom of Reddit at work again.
💔 Avoid phones/screens when with your loved ones: “Using a sample of 145 adults, James Roberts and Meredith David found that “phubbing” (prioritizing one’s phone over people) among romantic partners leads to greater relationship dissatisfaction.“
📣 Did you know who is the voice in the U-Bahn? (🇩🇪, Instagram) Me neither. It’s Philippa Jarke. It took her over 100 hours for 4500+ different recordings.
♻️ To learn more about separating trash in Germany and the related benefits, read this thread on r/germany. Related 15min video, The recycling myth: What actually happens to our plastic. 38kg of plastic per person, huh.
🤦🏻♂️ Whenever someone tells you to touch your hand for steak doneness, tell them lol, bro/sis, get the f*ck out or something nicer. If you don’t believe me, check here.(comment on Reddit)
💸 Here is an opinion about real estate prices in Berlin: Nick Mulder from Hypofriend says they will go up 3-4% annually. If true, a purchase is a no-brainer. But read the comments before you jump to conclusions. Meanwhile, mortgage rates hit 7.09%, in the US, the highest in over 20 years. Also related: From Jan-Jun 2023, Berlin saw 8,132 approved residential permits, a 1.7% drop from last year. 91% are in new buildings. (St. BB)
🌯 Because of @doenerguidesberlin I am tempted to try more Döners. They recently held a community voting, and the top 3 were: Hasir Kreuzberg, Rüyam Schöneberg and Eddy's Gemüsekebap Rudow.
📉 I previously thought cannabis startups could be promising with the upcoming legalisation. But then I read this great piece from Cate that “80% of Germany's medical cannabis startups set to die a painful death.” Cantourage, one of them, reported a 90% sales increase in 1H 2023, earning €11M from medical cannabis.
💬 Briefly:
According to Handelsblatt, Gorillas is struggling with paying its suppliers. On the other hand, Picnic, which teamed up with Edeka, is expanding and also coming to Berlin. “We learned a lot, but it was expensive.” —a made-up quote from an instant delivery founder or a VC
💬 I published a PDF of my 40+ questions for your next job interview. (LinkedIn) Get it if you think it can come in handy; please like it/repost it. Of course, feel free to connect with me as well ☺️
🍦 FYRE of food festivals? A reader sent me a report of a disastrous organisation and misleading advertisement of the Ice Cream Festival by Duo Sicilian Ice Cream. Someone clearly underestimated and/or underpriced the event (reports here and here). Be careful with these types of events. This reminded me of Thai Park at Jules B where we waited one hour to end up empty-handed (ok, at least we had some beer). I can imagine how disappointed the kids were. Sad.
👩🏼💼 Career: Here is a good thread on Hacker News about red flags during the hiring process. Most are extreme, but a nice reminder not to allow much bullshit. What would you do, for example, if a recruiter is not responsive? Does this say something about the company? Drop it in the comments.
🧂 I enjoyed this collection of seven expert opinions that most people disagree with. I was especially surprised by the “learning styles aren’t real” and that “children don’t learn languages faster than adults.”
🤖 AI hype is REAAAAL! LinkedIn has seen a 21x increase in global English-language job postings mentioning new AI technologies like GPT since Nov 2022. Also interesting is that they have seen a 75% monthly increase in members using keywords like “GAI”, “ChatGPT”, and “Prompt Engineering”. I wonder how many with several years of experience. 😅 Full report.
Funded in Berlin & Germany
Likeminded | Berlin | Provides personalized mental health support for corporate employees | €5.9M | Careers.
dao | Berlin | Uses AI to optimize rental processes and ease renters' lives | €1.5M | Careers.
VoltStorage | Munich | Expands the production of cost-effective stationary energy storage | €30M | Careers.
Bind-X | Martinsried close to Munich | Specializes in weed management in agriculture | €10M | Careers.
Hologate | Munich | Offers immersive extended reality experiences | €8.3M | Careers.
Nextwind | Berlin | Aims to modernize old wind parks and boost green electricity. | $750M | No Careers?
Deepset | Berlin | Focuses on open-source software for Natural Language Processing. | $30M | Careers.
Kraftblock | Saarbrücken | Stores waste heat with high-temperature storage systems. | €20M | Careers.
Stabl | Munich | Enhances battery storage with innovative inverters. | €15M | Careers.
sewts | Munich | AI software for precise robotic material handling. | €7M | Careers.
NeoTaste | Osnabrück | App expansion with a reservation system and restaurant benefits. | €5.9M | Careers.
Sereact | Stuttgart | Automates pick-and-pack in warehouses with AI. | €5M | Careers.
Lykon | Berlin | Personalized nutrition concepts based on certified blood/DNA tests. | €2.5M | Careers.
Mercanis | Berlin | Software firm aiming at research, product development, and AI applications. | $10M | Careers.
Arttrade | Düsseldorf | Digitizes investments in valuable collectibles, particularly the art market. | €2M | Careers.
SureIn | Berlin | InsurTech aiming to bridge the insurance gap for SMEs. | €4M | Careers.
Anytype | Berlin | A peer-to-peer web builder designed to restore our digital freedoms. | €12.4M | No careers.
HOLY | Berlin | A healthy soft drinks startup. | €10.5M Series A | Careers.
Schüttflix | Gütersloh | Aims for efficiency in the construction industry through innovative solutions, reducing waste and emissions. | €45M | Careers.
Aily Labs | Munich | AI-for-enterprise company | €19M | No Careers.
Wirelane | Munich | Distributes charging stations with integrated credit card terminals. | €11M Series B | Careers.
Clinomic | Aachen | Developed a medical device to improve patient care in intensive care units. | €16M | Careers.
beeOLED | Dresden | Developing new, efficient emitters for electronic displays. | €13.3M Series A | Careers.
Qualifyze | Frankfurt | Offers end-to-end compliance solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. | $12M | Careers.
Accure | Aachen | Developing a prognosis system for batteries. | €7.2M | Careers.