Stefan Imhoff

Part I: The golden cage I still remember the well-paid freelancer sitting next to me in 2002, at my first job.

I have made expensive mistakes.

I have been watching German politics with growing contempt for most of my adult life.

If you’re reading this post via RSS, I encourage you to visit the website this time—you’ll find an overhauled design, refined information architecture, and a modernized tech stack.

People often ask how I can quickly remember and respond to so many requests or questions.

In January 2026, I finally subscribed to Anthropic Claude to use Claude Code.

I was laid off last week from XING (New Work SE) after 15 years working as a software engineer, as part of ongoing company‑wide restructuring since 2020.

I hadn’t planned to write another essay this year, but one topic has been on my mind for the past few weeks.

I have always been fascinated by keyboards.

In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, “The Strike” is the moment when the world’s producers—those who drive innovation, industry, and progress—withdraw their talents from a society that exploits and stifles them.

In “Atlas Shrugged,” the looters are depicted as politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen who exploit government power to seize resources from productive people to redistribute them, justifying their actions with collectivist rhetoric.

The Western world, particularly Europe, is facing a decline and a concerning shift towards bureaucracy, authoritarianism, collectivism, and socialism.

I’ve reached a breaking point.

I have been using the Zettelkasten note-taking method for a few years, and Obsidian since its initial release in March 2020.

format, genres, books, pages, options, } from "../../..

I enjoy reading books.

There are few applications that have improved my workflow as much as Raycast.

In his article The Day the Delusions Died,[^Kisin2023aa] British comedian and podcaster Konstantin Kisin discusses how the brutal massacre of 1,400 innocent people by Hamas shattered the worldview of many, leading them to become conservatives overnight.

After five months of hard work, I'm proud to present my new personal website, built with Astro.

I first came across the Japanese word shokunin (職（しょく）人（にん）) when I watched a documentary about the accomplished bonsai artist Ryan Neil, the founder of Bonsai Mirai outside Portland, Oregon.

Text-to-image generation needs a powerful NVIDIA GPU with at least 4 GB VRAM.

Another type of AI that captures the time and minds of people around the world for months is text-to-image generation.

GitHub Copilot The most prominent text generation model, used by over 80 commercial apps, is GPT-3 by OpenAI.

Abstract This is a four-part series of essays that investigates different aspects of AI.

People always ask me how I stay up to date with all those new tools, libraries, memes, jokes, industry or political news without getting overwhelmed.

As I mentioned in a previous essay I write a lot.

The Black Pill or the White Pill?

Science Is Fundamentally Broken I had shown in my last essay with the example of the humanities how corrupt parts of science are.

The Long March Through the Institutions Academia is one of the most worrying institutions to break down because the education system is the basis for everything that will happen in the future.

Internet killed the Newspaper Star Journalism and News Media are considered to be the “Fourth Estate” of a Democracy.

Changing Power Dynamics – Left and Right Politics have changed over the last 30+ years and people haven’t updated their model.

Corporatism It’s nearly impossible to separate, these days, Politics, and the Economy from each other.

I was never interested in politics and could barely recollect the names of the current political leadership team.

When using a note-taking system like Zettelkasten, it’s essential to always keep references somewhere (preferably separate from your notes).

After I finished my first template, I decided to create my second template immediately, based on the aesthetic style I used for my branding.

I write a lot.

things, rooms, categories, options, } from "../../..

Last night I dreamed of the “Old Normal”, the one we called previously life.

As I mentioned in my introduction, I use Vim for a long time.

Tools are what differentiates humans from other animals.

After my last poem interpretation for The Gods of the Copybook Headings, I saw a recommendation for another poem by Rudyard Kipling: If—.

I tended to have a more positive image of human nature than Thomas Hobbes, I believed in sharing, cooperation, and “The Wisdom of Crowds.”

In the last part, we will get our hands dirty and play with IPFS to publish a website.

Abzweigung am Weg nicht genommener Weg im Nebel Ich schaue nicht zurück.

The construction of the DWeb (decentralized web) is in full progress for a few years.

It’s been at least 25 years since I first used a modem to dial through the landline into “the internet”.

I recently rediscovered Readwise again.

When my daily routines were changed by the Corona crisis, I picked up a new habit: Walking.

I’ve been enjoying learning poems for a few months now.

With the release of the mobile versions of Obsidian last week, my note-taking workflow got even more comfortable.