How a small community bakery with big dreams beat the lockdown for with digital tools. Feature for Guardian Labs / Google.
Category: English
Welcome to the Mansion on Wheels
When Mercedes-Benz needed always-on content for its grand, new GLS SUV, I lent a hand writing the script for influencer and businessman Oskar Hartmann. Very much incorporating Oskar’s authentic voice, the script incorporates all of the car’s stand-out features and attributes – structured like a walkaround at a dealership. With Looping Studios.
Eurowings Destination of the Month
For Eurowings Destination of the Month campaign, I joined Ink Global’s smoking hot social media team to research the most inspiring destinations and activities in the featured Destinations of the month, writing post copy in English and German for Facebook, Instagram and the campaign’s landing page.
German poet Goethe was scandalised by the nudity of Palermo’s “Fountain of Shame”. Thankfully, we’re less uptight these days and appreciate the Pretoria Fountain in all its beauty.“Das geht gar nicht!, meckerte Goethe, als er die nackten Statuen an Palermos “Brunnen der Scham” sah. Heute sind wir lockerer drauf und finden die Fontana Pretoria einfach schön.
A chat about Behavioural Investing
Investment expert Jane Coffey on biases and emotions in Behavioural Investing
We all like to think we are rational investors, but how close is this to the truth? Investor Coach Jane Coffey reveals to Alfred Rinaldi how emotions play a bigger role than we think.
When it comes to investing, we like to think that we are perfectly rational agents, dispassionately analysing each position on its merits in a market that perfectly reflects all available information in its prices.
Comforting though this classical world-view may be, it’s far from the truth. If investors are so cool-headed, how to explain those bouts of “irrational exuberance”, which have occurred since from the 17th-century Tulip Mania right up to the sub-prime mortgage boom and bust? According to Jane Coffey, Investor Coach and Head of Equities at RLAM, such market anomalies can only occur because investors are led by emotions and biases at the expense of the underlying facts. And the solution, according to her, is to admit we’re all emotional animals. Once we acknowledge our limitations, we can deal with them – and so let reason enter.
Good investing feels terrible
“We do what feels good rather than what is good”, explains Jane cheerfully. “The basic theory of investment should be buy low, sell high. That feels terrible. When you’re buying low, you are buying when everything around you is telling you that this is really dangerous, because there’s lots of negative news around the investment. When, on the other hand, you buy the fund that’s done best in the market, you feel great, but actually, chances are you’re buying high instead of low. Understanding this emotion and refocusing on the underlying rationale for an investment decision helps us overcome this handicap, and that’s what Behavioural Investment is all about.”
The key to understanding why we act in different ways lies in the study of the human brain. Far from being a homogenous thinking machine, our brains consist of three parts. The oldest part is the reptile brain, which makes instant decisions based on instinct and reflex: fight or flight. The mammalian brain can feel and process emotions such as joy, anger and fear. Finally, the rational brain has self-awareness and can solve abstract logical problems.
According to Nobel-winning economist Daniel Kahneman, this results in two thinking systems: System 1 – instinctive and emotional – is fast, and System 2 – rational and logical – is slow. The trick is to train ourselves to use System 2 when investing.
“It’s not a question of good versus bad”, says Jane. “We need fast thinking and emotions. If we had to painstakingly weigh up every single decision we make, we would not get very far.
But when it comes to investing, emotions are undermining rational thought. So if you can recognise what your emotions and biases are, then you can look at ways to stop them influencing you in a negative way.
Even highly intelligent investors can be fooled by feelings: “IQ does not protect against investment losses”, explains Jane. “Isaac Newton invested a bit in South Sea Stock and exited the market happy, having doubled his investment. But then the stock rose even further. Newton saw his friends get rich as the bubble expanded. Newton re-entered with a lot, the bubble burst and Newton exited broke.”
For the rest of the great physicist’s life, no-one in his presence was allowed to utter the words “South Sea”.
The same irrational tendency is clearly visible in years when stocks go down. “People don’t take their ISA allowance when markets are falling – which is exactly what they should do. Instead, this is when you see the biggest outflows from equity funds”, says Coffey.
“The challenge for a private investors is to overrule the uncomfortable-ness when equities are very volatile and have gone down a lot, realising that the biggest danger they face long-term is that they sit in cash for way too long.”
Awareness is the key
“To be a good investor, you have to be conscious of the process. Keeping an investment journal helps. Record why you buy or sell a position, then review what happens. That way, you can identify your biases and incorporate learnings into your process. The herd instinct is a powerful bias. To counter that, instead if looking at the market, look at a stock’s intrinsic value – its price to book or price to earnings. Then, periodically review your decisions: when the facts change, the decision should change.
The reason why people hang on to stock that should be sold is because we don’t want to feel the pain of realising a loss. Losses are felt more keenly than gains: this ‘loss aversion’ is an emotional bias that can keep investors trapped. A stop-loss rule of say 10% can help to force a review.”
“This is not to say we should be quick to sell. Overtrading is costly and has an impact on performance. Generally, the less trading you do, the better.”
Similar rules apply to more detached investors, who entrust their money to a fund manager.
Long-term safety
“Investors usually invest for the long-term, yet short-term oscillations in their investments scare them more than they should. That’s because we have a natural tendency to focus on the short term known as the ‘recency bias’. The trick is to overcome this uncomfortableness and realise that the longer-term you are, the safer it is to be in the market. The facts are that it’s been impossible to lose money over any 10-year period over the last 100 years. So the thing is to consciously counter this fear of ups and downs by keeping your eyes on the horizon.”
Pound-cost averaging is another simple but effective strategy to overrule emotions and biases. By investing a set amount each month no matter what, investors can take advantage of the troughs, when prices are cheap, as well as enjoying the feel-good factor of investing when the market is doing well (but unit cost is high). Over the long-term, investors reap the stock market’s risk premium.
“Likewise, instead of demanding that investment managers follow the herd, allow them to stay the course even when the market is behaving irrationally. Remind yourself, this behaviour is what I expect from a financial manager, and this is how I should react to it.”
This is all very well, but keeping one’s own biases and emotions in check is difficult. Professional investors are governed by rules designed to counteract biases, and regularly challenge each other on their decisions in a spirit of helping each other eliminate emotional blind spots.
Counteracting biases
As individual investors, we have to do without such institutional support. Instead, we may be subject to advice from friends and family which exacerbates rather than reins in our emotional and biased responses.
For those who’d like a qualified sounding board for their decisions, Jane offers bespoke investor coaching: it’s a service that’s designed to identify patterns in people’s mistakes and suggest improvements. Every once in a while, she gathers a group of avid investors to a luxury villa in Italy or the Caribbean, where she offers Physical and Financial Fitness retreats partnering with a fitness instructor.
“Even without a coach, you can use structures and strategies to get a rational overview of emotional reactions.
Use the data in your journal to look at what you have done. Why did you buy something? What happened? Would you make the same investment today?
Looking to the future, there is a temptation to seek comfort in complex forecasts and models. But ultimately, we all make assumptions about the future, so it makes sense to be conscious of what they are, and test them. To which degree are these assumptions based on our personal traits? Bringing the subconscious into the conscious, we can act more rationally.”
Thinking so much about how irrational we all are, shouldn’t that deter us from putting our money into a market so prone to misjudgement?
“Not at all”, says Jane. “It depends on whether you look at short term ups and downs or the long haul. Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, put it very well: in the short run, the market is a voting machine – but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.”
So, the system is not so mad after all? That feels quite reassuring.
Tiny house, huge freedom
I try living in a tiny home for one day.
Micro homes are one solution to the increasing lack of metropolitan living space – and Van Bo Le-Mentzel’s One Square Meter House takes this trend to its logical limits. The open-source design offers room to eat, work and relax. But what’s it actually like to spend a day on such a minimal footprint?
With Berlin bathed in seemingly permanent sunshine, many office dwellers yearn to swap their cubicle for the great outdoors. And myself? I simply stay at home, in the perfect spot near a Prenzlauer Berg metro stop, reading a book with my door open.
Okay, my current abode might be a tad unconventional. It’s the ultimate tiny house at a footprint of a single square metre. The man behind it all, socially-minded architect Van Bo Le-Mentzel, has designed this little wonder and made the blueprint available for free download. Expect to spend about €250 worth of material and a day to put this micro marvel together – a total of 200 screws are involved.
So, it sounds like the perfect temporary residence for figuring out what defines a home. Does it require a fixed address? Does everyone really need more and more space? After all, the average German now occupies twice as much living space (42.7 m²) as in the 1960s, tendency rising.
My One Square Meter House forces me to focus on the essentials. A poster on the wall, a small plant, my work surface, a book and a laptop – that’s all I need for a fully furnished place to sit, work, eat, read, play and relax. Many passers-by smile when they spot me: Who wouldn’t like to stop and check in with themselves right in the midst of a busy city?
“Huh, what kind of chicken coop is that supposed to be?” a passing local teases. After almost half a year in the German capital, I’ve made my peace with the infamous Berlin bluntness. “If you’re going to say chicken coop, then at least make it organic!”, I feel like shouting back, since organic farming allows six hens per square metre, which probably translates to humane conditions for a single journalist.
Refuge as a talking point
However, that feeling when you come home, shut the door and finally feel sheltered and undisturbed is elusive in the One Square Meter House, since – sooner or later – someone will knock on the door to catch a peek inside the odd micro cabin. I seem to have become an Insta motif for tourists: #strangedude #crazylittlehouse.
Maybe it’s time to move somewhere a bit greener? Thanks to my domicile’s rollers, a change of scene is (almost) no problem: Moving the house takes a little power and practice – and strict avoidance of all stairs or cobbled streets. In a quiet side road, I find enough peace and quiet to pick up my novel.
Hans Fallada’s “Kleiner Mann, was nun?” (Little man, what now?) follows a young family desperately searching for a home in late-1920s Berlin – and for a job to pay the ensuing rent. Would Fallada’s protagonists have thrived in a larger version of my one-square-metre house? Somehow, I doubt it. So, is it nothing but a gimmick, then?
Affordable DIY living
“I designed the One Square Meter House so people don’t have to sleep outside”, Van Bo Le-Mentzel reveals on the phone. “Together with a group of homeless people, I built four or five of them and took them on the metro. In the end, we even set up a spontaneous settlement at Mauerparkat, a public linear park in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district. It was raining and we made pancakes. Sure, the house isn’t incredibly comfortable, but it’s a home of your own.”
The open source design is an integral part of the concept: Anyone should be able to build a domicile with their own hands and modify it the way they want, Van Bo adds. People shouldn’t have to accept the dictate of the housing market. “I call it constructive empowerment, since my kind of empowerment is about building and construction.”
It has always been Van Bo’s mission to give people a roof over their heads, irrespective of their situation in life. After all, the son of Laotian refugees knows what it’s like to have no home. In 2015, at the height of the refugee crisis, he spontaneously approached Berlinreception camps to turn bunk beds into two-story homes that added at least some sense of privacy and security.
His latest project, the modular 100-euro flat with its own bath and kitchen, is a “co-being”concept where flats can be docked or ditched depending on current circumstances. His long-term vision involves a world where nobody needs to pay rent anymore – thanks to a car that turns into a home, transformer-style. A bold dream, but why not?
Home is where the love is
By now, my cabin has started to heat up. If I don’t want to risk scoliosis, I need to head out to stretch my limbs for a bit. I could also use a matcha latte, so I park my tiny house at a nearby café.
Living without local limits or too much dead weight feels really liberating. I’m surprised that what started out as a little joke has led to some pretty profound thoughts.
How many things do I need to be happy? To me, home is no echoing loft, but my cat stretching on the floor to get petted. It’s all-night board game sessions with friends. And it’s a place where I can be exactly who, what and how I am – it’s a safe harbour in a crazy world. The square metre premium for this? Is probably priceless.
Sustainability, the gourmet way
Ryan Chetiyawardana – Mr. Lyan to his devotees – was crowned the World’s Best Bartender in 2015. His sustainable ethos and signature flavors can also be found in Cub, his first restaurant. Our author takes a trip to London’s East End to sample the future.
Cub is half cocktail bar, half restaurant. Drive down London’s unassuming Hoxton Street, and it’s easy to miss: in fact, only the “Super Lyan” neon sign gives a clue that one of London’s hippest, most exciting dining experience beckons behind the unmarked door.
Keen to see what the hype is all about, I arrive a tad early. As I illicitly push open the door, I bump right into Mr. Lyan himself descending into his eponymous cocktail bar below, crate in hand. I apologize and wait until two minutes later, a cheerful Ozzie waitress declares the joint open, ushering me into the ground-floor restaurant, taking my coat.
The interior is stylishly minimalist, dotted with visual witticisms. There’s a large magnetic plate behind the bar to which a jug and an array of metal utensils stick, a conic flask straight out of a chemistry lab has been repurposed to serve as a decanter of beaujolais (with a large golden ball as a stopper), and heading to the restrooms, I find that the cubicle doors and flush-buttons are illustrated with whimsical doodles.
Creative drinks – no antics
The layout is reminiscent of a diner: a row of seats lines the bar and kitchen counter, whereas most patrons sit in hip-height yellow-leather booths.
Ryan mans the bar next to an assistant chef, and if you didn’t know it, you’d have no idea that the bespectacled dude with the gentle smile is none other than the boss himself – no master-chef histrionics here, or crowd-pleasing bottle-juggling antics. Instead a comradely, industrious buzz emanates from the team, accompanied by an eclectic soundtrack of hip hop and jazzy grooves.
I have opted for the food and drink menu, booze-free tonight: It’s an affordably-priced nine-course affair in which outlandish dishes alternate with strange and imaginative drinks, all bearing the signature of the restaurant’s founding team.
Apart from Mr. Lyan, there’s chef Doug McMaster, the man behind Brighton’s zero waste restaurantSilo.
I start with a Superfly: a melon-based, slightly fizzy cocktail with jasmine and olive oil. At the bottom of the high-stemmed glass is a jellied capsule full of flavor that explodes in an entertaining final flourish. Over the next two hours, I am treated to a succession of textures and flavors that surprise and expand my culinary vocabulary with unlikely combinations.
Almost veggie
Paying homage to the zero-waste, sustainable ethos, the almost-veggie menu makes use of “volatile cheeses” that would normally have been thrown away, whey – a by-product of making cheese – citrus husks discarded by Super Lyan, “ugly gooseberries” and feta made by a Greek family in North London.
The team at Cub combine this with honest-to-God staples such as the most delicious home-made bread and home-made butter. The chicken broth is made from discarded chicken bones and – by some unknown magic – combined with seaweed-flavor. Who knew that such odd bedfellows could create such a pleasing result?
From chervil root that usually lands in the bin to tender Apple slices frozen and then thawed for a baked texture (having been immersed in a vitamin C bath), the list of novel ingredients is ever-changing. On the drinks-side, the highlight must be a delicate palate cleanser made of white tea with plum, followed by an absolutely delicious Square Mile coffee, translucent, dark caramel in color.
If modern art could be ingested, it would look and taste like this – not surprising, perhaps, as Ryan once studied at London’s prestigious Central Saint Martin’s art college.
Sustainability without sacrifice
The final, delicious praline – made of molasses from leftover bits of fruit – leaves me both sated and enthused. “Sustainable living doesn’t have to be about sacrifice,” says Ryan, “and luxury doesn’t have to be about waste.” In creating a daringly new dining and drinking experience, the team around him has more than lived up to this vision.
Gone are the days when a good conscience came at the expense of enjoyment – when sustainable products were, in some way, inferior. Cub is the embodiment of new, solution-oriented thinking, a new approach to luxury.
Click here for more information on Cub.
Hello London: do I know you?
After almost a quarter of a century, it sometimes feels as if I’m personally acquainted with every lamp post, traffic light and newsagent. How wrong I was! Covering Yonda, London’s new innovative sight-seeing tour, for smart magazine I gleaned all manner of interesting nuggets on our fair city – and fell in love all over again.
After almost a quarter of a century, it sometimes feels as if I’m personally acquainted with every lamp post, traffic light and newsagent. How wrong I was! Covering Yonda, London’s new innovative sight-seeing tour, for smart magazine I gleaned all manner of interesting nuggets on our fair city – and fell in love all over again.
Blog: Why I love magazines
Ok, I’ll admit it: I love magazines. That doesn’t mean I’m some kind of dinosaur enamoured with unfashionable print – although print still has an impact and role all of its own. What I mean is that I like the idea of a magazine: a place for information, ideas, thoughts and entertainment all centred on a particular subject, or aimed at a particular community.
Because they focus on a shared interest, magazines have a personal, warm tone of voice. They’re authentic and human – at their very best, their readers will love and connect with them with an emotional depth other forms communications rarely inspire.
All of these principles apply to online just as well as to print. When I edited the Engine Room, I approached editorial planning just like a magazine editor would. The ability to share and engage are strengths unique to online. But without a narrative, a strong concept and editorial direction, there’s a risk that bits of content merely dissipate in the ether.
This is where a great content strategy comes in. It’s the strategy that defines the over-arching message, groups it into themes, then identifies individual stories to hang off them. If these stories are told in a consistent tone of voice, the resulting content will be instantly recognisable. Add craftsmanship and creative flair, and your audience will love hearing from you and your brand.
Bavarian beast
The beast springs to life, revving up menacingly before settling into an ominous burble reminiscent of a 1980s rally quattro. It’s the growling timbre of Audi’s famed five-cylinder turbo-charged powerplant – as unmistakable as that of a whisky-voiced rock star warming up his vocal cords before his next performance.
A new iteration of a legendary Audi, a delightful and justly renowned photographer in Steffen Jahn, and a deserted proving ground all to myself – the day I got a preview of the 400hp Audi RS3 will stay in my memory for a long time to come.
Read the feature here: Audi RS3 first drive
Content and copywriting. In English and German. 