‘Nice day to shake up the energy market.’ In all its irony, perhaps the first thing I ever wrote for Vandebron, was the best thing I ever wrote for it. It cut clear the let’s-do-this tone of the company, the go-green mission and the joie-de-vivre spirit. All after has been built upon that sunny day in March. And today, that […]
Notes
Moving ahead
“How many moves ahead do you think?”, a journalist once asked legendary chess player Garry Kasparov. Many in the room thought he’d come up with a ridiculously high number, which would make us all understand what made Kasparov such a great chess player, yet Kasparov simply replied: “There is no answer”, and continued: “The main thing […]
State of being
Last October, Above Average uploaded a video titled ‘First Person To Run A Marathon Without Talking About It’, in which a guy says: “The whole point of running a marathon is to tell people you’re going to run a marathon. Otherwise, who’s going for a long run?” It’s a parody on today’s society, about the goals we set […]
Torch
When I started my internship at JWT Amsterdam, early 2013, I saw advertising as a sport (I even wrote an article titled as such, back then). There wasn’t any morale for me, my motivation was just to sell as many products as possible. For the internship, I only had one goal: producing a television commercial. […]
Is ‘saving the world’ really a good argument?
Last summer, in the French town of Le Mans, the famous twenty-four hour race started. In the front of the field, the hybrids from Porsche, Audi and Toyota shot away into a big lead. After twenty minutes, the backmarkers, Ferrari’s and Chevrolet’s, were lapped, which means a disadvantage of 14 kilometers. Porsche went on to win, while […]
What do you see as the future for F1 Grand Prix?
Originally an answer on Quora to the question: What do you see as the future for F1 Grand Prix? I’m pretty sure that — despite the public disliking the new V6 engines and their sound — Formula 1 will go all-electric within the decade. Maybe at first there will be only an electric final drive, […]
Trying harder vs. trying smarter
On a Saturday in July 1891, in Paris, France, the American Luther Cary ran and won the 100 meter sprint final, setting the first documented record at 10.8 seconds. Fifteen years later, in 1906, Knut Lindberg from Sweden ran the distance in 10.6 seconds, and come 1956, Willie Williams from the United States, knocked off another […]
You’re the best writer
In response to Medium’s What’s the Best Writing Advice You‘ve Ever Received? Writing advice: You’re the best writer This advice, from a YouTube video from Chiron Holwijn, goes beyond the obvious writing advice that’s out there. It’s simple advice, arrogant even, but believing that you’re the best writer in the world’ is liberating. This belief tackles the […]
On good taste
Although I don’t admire it, I am amazed by the one euro hamburger; how does someone manage to turn a profit on this? There’s a gherkin (albeit small), bread (two pieces of them, with grains on top), ketchup and mayonaise (which in itself consist of many ingredients, too), and there’s the burger itself. There’s also […]
We have power
In the night of 29th to 30th October, 2012, Hurricane Sandy reached the isle of Manhattan in New York. Due to flooding, a transformer of Con Edison exploded on 14th Street, causing a huge power loss in Lower Manhattan. More than one million New Yorkers were left without power, some over eleven days long. For […]