do you still care or is it "good enough"?

I finally did another deep dive based on the 2025 Salary Trends Report, this time for general software engineers. The numbers only include individual contributors.

Where not to eat in Pankow/Prenzl., a recurring post on r/handpickedberlin from now on.

Why do Ausländers leave Germany? The primary drivers are social and emotional factors around acceptance and belonging. I wonder how it is in other countries.

Sifted is maintaining a list of European unicorns. Germany currently has 28, the same as France and 16 less than the UK. Berlin has 16, Munich 8 and Chemnitz, Frankfurt, Cologne and Hamburg one each.

Berlin plans Olympic bid with four other states for sometime between 2036 and 2044. "Berlin+" concept highlights existing venues across regions. Business groups support it for economic benefits, while critics question the costs and are already planning a referendum. The decision for which games to apply will be made in 2026. Related, Berlin also wants to host Expo 2035.

June is here. What to do in June? By The Berliner. And in German by Mit Vergnügen. Don’t miss Karneval der Kulturen, which moved its traditional parade (8th of June) to Friedrichshain.

Career: I’ve previously advertised startups looking for founding engineers and this Reddit thread might help anyone considering it: "How much should a founding engineer ask for?” Based on what I hear, what matters the most is the quality of the founders.

Career: Related, I attended a product engineering meetup at Langfuse, where several speakers presented how they merged engineering and product management. “Product engineer” might be the new big thing, but the question is how many engineers want to herd cats and how far product managers can get with vibe coding.

Career: Does AI have a bias towards female candidates? They do. “All LLMs consistently favored female-named candidates when selecting the most qualified candidate for the job”. I recommend to at least read the conclusion before you allow ChatGPT to decide who to hire.

Timeless: A great essay on The Who Cares Era. I do care and still know a lot of people who do. I think it’s worth it.

Bad news: McKinsey -10% (is AI starting to impact consultants?)

Stats: Berlin has around 6,000 homeless people. You can donate male clothes today and tomorrow at U-Innsbrucker Platz.

Flix ordered up to 65 high-speed trains (230 km/h) from Talgo/Siemens for €2.4B to challenge Deutsche Bahn, expanding from 13 to potentially 78 trains. They plan cross-border European routes.

Tin foil hat people Querdenkers had a demo last Saturday and expected 10,000 people. Finally, 850 too many appeared.

PayPal rented 2000 m2 in Kranzler Eck, and seems to be moving from Kleinmachnow to Ku’damm.

Uber launched Uber Courier, you guessed it, a courier service, in Berlin and several other cities in Germany.

Trade Republic now also has accounts for kids. It’ll be transferred to your kiddo when they turn 18.

The landlord of an office building in Berlin-Reinickendorf has filed an eviction lawsuit against the AfD after they held an unauthorised BBQ in the courtyard and projected their logo on the building façade during an election party.

Deep Tech Awards finalists have been announced. The five winners will get €10k each.

Reddit: Some street wisdom for your next trip: Direct flights from Berlin that make sense.

Instagram: Gotta love 20 Percent Andrew’s latest reel.

Reddit: "Studies /../ show playing Tetris right after a traumatic event can keep your brain from having more trauma."

Automotive Artificial Intelligence | Berlin | Autonomous driving simulation and development | $25M | No careers.

Ubica Robotics | Bremen | Autonomous mobile retail scanning robots | €1M+ | Careers.