My Obsession: The Digital Life

I'm an information technology enthusiast.

I love to try, test, and tinker with new hard- and software, I religiously follow news on technology websites and I listen to expert podcasts whenever I can.

During the years of diving into anything IT-related and doing Mac-centered IT consulting I have become fluent in the language of information technology and learned about so many things—some immediately useful, some not.

Have you ever wondered why YouTube videos were never longer than 11 minutes until VP8 came around? What a daemon is and what the word originally meant? What the /etc/hosts file does? How to secure your data using encryption? What Fitt's Law is and why Apple and Microsoft changed the way their "Apple" and "Start" menus worked?

What motivates me most to continue my exploration of the IT world is user experience (UX) and beautifully complex systems. I am fascinated by well-designed software like Things or OmniFocus and great services like Dropbox or Squarespace, and how both can change everyday human-computer interaction.

I am not sure where my interests will lead me eventually, but they have already influenced the way I work. Efficiency does not only depend on cognitive streamlining, but also on the tools you use, and I strive to use the best tools available whenever I can.

Obviously, using tools that require you to rebuild your cognitive working model frequently are a great way to learn about change; as well as following an industry where 3 years are an eternity.