The whole week I was busy packing and storing things as I’m moving out of my place next week. This was exhausting. But also freeing! I got rid of lots of stuff and I feel much lighter overall.

We travelled to my hometown of Cologne for the weekend, where I was DJing at our yearly Alaaf and Kickin’ boat party. Shout-out’s to our wonderful guest DJs for this year Maendi and no:elia.

I’m working on new Present graphics and posters and still into editing two upcoming podcasts. Good things incoming! Reminder: Believe in your fucking self. Work on your fucking thing. Develop some good fucking habits. Wake up fucking earlier. Make a small fucking progress every day. Take a fucking break. Trust the fucking process. Get out of your fucking comfort zone. Support others as much as you fucking can. Keep fucking learning. Get enough fucking sleep. Take deeper fucking breaths. Stay fucking generous. Have fucking ambitious goals. Be fucking present.

This Week’s Wisdom from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

“There are two things children should get from their parents: roots and wings.”

This is one one of my all-time favorite sayings. I feel my parents did a great job with this, as I always felt massive trust and complete support in all endeavours.

It reminded me that this is what I want Present to be like: a platform that is both a support system, a safety net, a backup — and an inspiration to grow, to fly higher, an encouragement to fear less, to get started and go further.

Back in Berlin: Preparing my upcoming talk for Forward Festival on August 30 and wrote a long response on Failure and Dealing with Setbacks in our Present Community. I love that we have those kind of honest exchanges there.

My sister is currently renting a small datscha at a lake outside of the city and we relaxed there for a bit. Spumante for apéro with some friends and dinner with my uncle Andreas who’s visiting from Cologne.

I soft-launched a new version of the Present Website! I built it on a completely new framework and everything should be much faster and nicer to use. I still love making websites so much. Some areas are still in progress and there will be many more features added still. Big plans for it!

This Week’s Wisdom from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”

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✺ Wonderful conversation with one of my favorite designers Stéphanie D’Heygere in TheBoldWay with Adrien Garcia
✺ I watched the new Mr. & Mrs. Smith with the great Donald Glover and Maya Erskine: recommended!

Went with S to new fav Le Cornichon to commemorate our last night in Paris until we’ll be back for good in September!

On our way home I met a beautiful gang of friends from my good ol’ ECAL times and beyond and we went to beloved DiscoBar to spend the night together: Thomas, Margueritte, Etienne, Charlotte, Vincent, Héloïse: it felt amazing to reconnect <3

The next day I took the train to Brussels to speak at Synergy Is All We Need: a decentralised AI conference organised by my team at Newfoundation❋ during Eth_AI.

This Week’s Wisdom from Shonda Rhimes:

“Three words to live by: Just do stuff. Really, just do stuff. Do the things you want to do now. Take your chances. Live an interesting life! Live a full, vital life! Don’t live a life that’s ‘careful.’ A careful life is a life not lived.”

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✺ On Self-Respect by Joan Didion (Vogue, 1961)
✺ Biking & Wellness: What self-care looks like for rapper Central Cee

We went to check out the new Salomon store at Champs-Élysées, and it was exciting to see how my new logo is applied more and more. Deeply grateful that I could work on a childhood-dream-project like this!

Next stop La Bonne Pioche in our neighborhood for the Merrma Earth popup. Then to Marias, the wonderful Greek delikatessen by our buddy Theodoros’ mum and had a great time hanging out and exchanging with T and Adrian.

“La France est tissu de migrations” We celebrated France’s relieving election outcome at Place République, it was an incredible night for everyone.

This Week’s Wisdom from S. McNutt:

“Overthinking is the biggest waste of human energy. Trust yourself, make a decision, and gain more experience. There is no such thing as perfect. You cannot think your way into perfection, just take action.”

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✺ The new album Born to be Wild by the brilliant Tems is out and it’s amazing (Thank you, Sarah)

Back in Paris! We went to after8books for the Maxitype evening. It was great chatting with my old ECAL mentor David Keshavjee and congratulating Orlando Brunner on his Archeology of Consequent Forms project.

My sister Marina came to visit us for a few days and we went with her to Double Dragon, Paloma, Bourse de Commerce, Gramme11, Folderol, La Cave à Michel, and joined friends at the Pauluschkaa dinner. Picknick at Buttes-Chaumont with Alma, Sunny and Scott, and many rounds of pétanque in between:)

My interview with Georgia Graham was published, where we talked about graphic design, identity in fashion and Present.

This Week’s Wisdom from Georgia O'Keeffe

“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing, and keeping the unknown always beyond you.”

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✺ One of my all time favorite albums is Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Vol. 2: The New Reality from 1995 and I was listening to it this week while walking in the sun

We took the train to Valence to Sarah’s parents. The next day we picked up friends from the train station and then drove all to a house we rented in a small town called Viviers in the Ardèche region, where we celebrated Sarah’s 30th birthday: lots of love, food, and pétanque <3

The new EP New Worlds, New Horizons by my upcoming Present Podcast guest Kareem Ali is playing on repeat in the last weeks: our conversation is in post-production as well, looking forward sharing this one with you soon!

This Week’s Wisdom from Leonard Cohen:
“There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in” (Thank you to Matthias for sharing)

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✺ Podcast episode from A Millennial Mind with Israa Nasir: What You're Getting Wrong About Productivity (Thank you, Sarah!)
✺ Retiring from the pro tennis circuit in 1998 Shuzo Matsuoka began releasing a web series of motivational videos called For You (こんなあなたに) in the early 2000s ~ Are you just living day to day?:

I had a inspiring interview call with Georgia Graham for her brilliant newsletter Threads of Conversation, which I highly recommend! (Shout-out’s to my friend Ari Sawyers for connecting)

I met with my old friends Sunny and Scott at Café de la Poste who flew in from L.A. to be in Paris for a month. Those two are close to my heart and spending time together is always so wholesome. Sharing old memories from our time at 2x4 in New York and everything in between <3 

This Week’s Wisdom from Joan Tollifson:
“Awakening is truly nothing more or less than being right here in this moment, just as it is, and just as we are.” 

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✺ Music for Programming is a series of mixes intended for listening while working to focus the brain and inspire the mind
✺ A well-nourished mind and body make it much easier to have the energy to tackle your THING. I compiled a list of 6 ‘happy chemicals’ and what helps our bodies produce them

Porto—Paris. We went to the MATCH: When Sport Meets Design exhibition at Musée du Luxembourg, which I loved a lot. Highly recommended! It’s still running until August 11.

Currently working on an thoroughly updated Present website and online store which will make the whole user experience better and smoother. Much research and much making. Currently learning some new exciting new tools. This is something I could do for hours on end. Trust in the process.

My colleagues Sofiane und Franchesko were in Paris and we had some good workshop sessions for the upcoming app and more.

This Week’s Wisdom from Karl Lagerfeld:
“You have to like the present; if not your life becomes secondhand, if you think it was better before. Or that it will be better in the future.” 

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✺ I enjoyed the new Becoming Karl Lagerfeld mini-series portraying Lagerfeld from 1972 onwards, when he was 38, and a ready-to-wear designer still unknown to the general public 
✺ I also loved this snippet from an interview with Daniel Kaluuya: “You have this fear of being rubbish. Then, the realisation is that you have to be rubbish, it’s literally part of the process, and you just keep going”