Happiness according to Daniel Gilbert

I decided to go back to Daniel Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness.

Shortly, we think about what will make us happy in the future basing on the situation now. When future happens, we (or situation etc.) have changed so much that we no longer can be happy with what we expected would make us happy.

Literary magazines dumped

I dumped several dozens of literary magazines in the street paper recycling bin yesterday. I  had bought them over 20 years ago and I had meant to read them later. They survived a couple of moves to  my new places and one major house redecoration. In the meantime, I settled and started a family, changed profession three times, got through 5 or 6 major interest changes.

When I began a major spring basement cleaning a couple of days ago I decided that they needed to go. Time to move on uncluttered.

Black Swans

From The Black Swan blurb:

"A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random and more predictable, that it was."

Nassim Taleb's Fooled by Randomnes, The Black Swan and Antifragile have been on my permanent list of reading since the first of them was published.

These are books that I read and reread — because bewitched by everlasting biases I keep falling for the illusion of order and preplanned reality.

Basically, we do not  realize how important are accidental and unexpected events and actions. We tend to assume that reality is a result of logical progress. We ignore all blind alleys that are long forgotten. Fooled by narrative bias and history and post factum explanations we think that everything is accounted for.

It seems that Nassim Taleb made pursuing the role of unexpected/random the goal of his life, I am sitting in a large auditorium of his staunch fans...

Bhutan-Polish meeting on Berlin-Gdynia train

When getting aboard the Berlin Gdynia express train I did not expect meeting someone from Bhutan... The second passanger who entered the compartment was a man in red checkered flannel shirt who was apparently of Asian origin. A bit later a high school girl sat on the seat next to the door, who busied herself working on her homework and a lady with a little dog which settled for cosiness of its travelling bag.

As the conversation with sitting next to me cotraveller unwinded, I was handed his business card and a leaflet about his travelling office in Bhutan. A moment later I learnt that Bhutan is the only place in the world, where the wealth of the country is measured with Gross National Happiness instead of Gross National Product. The population of Bhutan is about 643,000 people. The country is located between India and China and its symbol is "Thunder Dragon". Bhutanese are mainly Buddhists and sacred shrines dominate the country landscape.

Bhutan economy is based on hydro- and solar energy which is exported to power starved India. The forest covered area (70%) offers the toursts glimpses of undisturbed wilderness. However, you cannot just dive into the wood on your own as happiness oriented Bhutanese won't let you risk your life blazing a new trail. But you may satiate your hunger for sight seeing with the assistance of local guides.

My curiosity has definitely been awakened. I hope to meet Sonam Peljore in Bhutan -- hopefully sooner than later :) 

More details:
Sonam Tshoey Travel

A March weekend in Berlin p. 3

Charlottenburg 

Palace

I decided on a minimalistic program on Sunday. The place that I stayed at was close to Schloss Charlottenburg and the weather was great, so I took my camera and my Kindle and went there.

I was quite surprised that the palace, which looks so genuine had to be reconstructed after the war. Charlottenburg seems so calm and peaceful now and the war so far away.

Park

My pocket guide pointed out that the park is a partly in a geometric clean cut French style and partly in English "natural" style. My attention, however, was attracted to birds, which clearly showed to everyone willing to watch and listen that the spring really came.

People

The clean paths of the park were frequented by bikers, joggers or people savoring the morning walk.

A March weekend in Berlin p. 2

Having accomplished my goal of Berlin visit I could start slow return stroll. The impeccable blue sky was ornamented by the Die Welt balloon, which ascended with yet another group of tourists watching the German capital from the balloons view.


I wanted to see the Branderburg Gate and Reichstag, so I took Eberstrasse. On my left I saw the eastern edge of Tiergarten. On the right there was an area on which a slowly rising hill of dark grey concrete blocks appeared. The Holocaust Monument. The theme of the monument is somehow mitigated by the toursts posing for photos and trying even to jump across the cubes. (A watchful woman guard did not allow it).

The next point -- the Branderburg Gate -- another structure that became a symbol of reunited Germany. When I looked at it I remembered Barbara Klemm's black-and-white photos of immense crowd of overjoyed Germans waiting for the opening in December 1989. Now the place is so colorful with multicultural crowd.

It is after 4 pm and it seems that everybody is on a walk, taking advantage of early spring sun. Although the lawns have not recuperated after winter, there are groups of people basking in the mild sunshine in front of the Reichstag.

The sun was slowly getting down, when I decided to call it a day and slowly treaded to my airbnb Berlin shelter. On my way back I could admire the modern, rectanguar shape of Bundesamt building.

The Spree is not a majestic huge river, but it has its charm, which shows the best at the sunset.

Good night, Berlin...

Barbara Klemm in Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin

I visited Martin Gropius Bau to see Barbara Klemm's photos on March 8. I expected good photos, but the exhibition provided much more. It was a sizable chunk of modern history frozen in hundreds of pictures. When contrasted with today's reality they seemed sometimes to come from another long gone century, not just 30 or 40 years ago. There were pictures showing the late sixties and seventies that would not surprise on 19th century paintings. Similar bleak and gloomy scenes.

Klemm, being a photojournalist, does not spare neither her own German compatriots nor other nations. The social contrasts are shown explicitly on the snapshots from the Western countries, poverty hardly imaginable to citizens of "developed worlds" shows on the Third World pictures.

Also she perfectly catches the excitement that overwhelmed Europe when the communist block crumbled. Metaphorically with the onset of glasnost and Polish Solidarity and literally when the Berlin wall was destroyed. The joy that accompanied the moments when Germany reunited.


The black and white pictures are perfectly composed and very well defined. A very good and impressive collection. I wonder what will happen with it after the Berlin exhibition is closed.

This was my main reason to come to Berlin on the March 8-9 weekend and it was really worth it.