What is it about?

Aiming for completeness and consistency is honorable but futile - Gödel's is a newsletter about interweaving ideas and making decisions under uncertain conditions. I talk about knowledge management, mental models, and supporting Tools for Thought.

Why is it called Gödel's?

Kurt Gödel was a mathematician, philosopher, and logician. I first heard of him as a teenager when I discovered the book "Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas R. Hofstadter.

During my studies, I was allowed to deal intensively with his incompleteness theorems, and it taught me a lesson for life.

Who am I?

I am 47 years old, married, and have two children aged 16 and 18. I was born in Germany, spent the first ten years in Bielefeld, and then moved with my family to Cologne, where I still live.

I graduated from high school, did my community service in an environmental institute, and then studied computer science with a minor in business administration at the University of Bonn. I focused on computer security, networks, and finite-state models during my major. I wrote my diploma thesis in cooperation with Fraunhofer about a Europe-wide computer security system.

Since then, I have worked in different roles (expert, project lead, executive) in the financial industry. First in information security, later in architecture and quality assurance. 

I'm a knowledge worker, so I've long been interested in strategies, methods, and tools for efficiently storing, searching, and networking information. 

In early 2020, I became seriously ill with Covid-19. I was in a coma for more than four weeks and had to be kept alive in ICU with ECMO. After waking up, I could not stand, walk, or even open a water bottle. It took me months to recover. That was certainly the most drastic experience of my life. 

"Tools for Thought" have helped me find my way back to life.

I am quite active on Twitter, if you like, feel free to follow me there. If you want to contact me, don’t hesitate to write an E-Mail.

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