Karl's Notes

How Zalando uses AI to make your shopping experience better

How Zalando uses AI to make your shopping experience better

Zalando is a European company based in Berlin, Germany, that is equal parts fashion retailer and a tech startup. What started as an online shoe store in 2008, is now the continent's biggest wholesaler, delivering items to 23 countries and 49 million customers, from more than 5,800 brands. The

Interesting borders around the world

Interesting borders around the world

In a recent post, I wrote about the importance of defined territory for the legitimacy of countries around the world. Sovereignty starts and ends within international borders...

Montbell: the outdoors company where 'function is beauty'

Montbell: the outdoors company where 'function is beauty'

In 1969, 21-year-old Isamu Tatsuno stood at the bottom of the Eiger mountain overlooking Grindelwald, Switzerland. By then, he had two main goals in life - to climb the Eiger, and found a company related to mountaineering. He did both by the time he was 28 years old. After travelling

Snap's increasing focus on utility AR

Snap's increasing focus on utility AR

Snap has been quietly working on expanding development of its utility AR tools and experiences, making it easier for users to enhance our physical world through digital addons.

The 2022 General Election - Malta

The 2022 General Election - Malta

On 20th February 2022, Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela asked the President of the Republic to dissolve parliament, so that a general election can be held on 26th March.

An African Superstate: the East African Federation

An African Superstate: the East African Federation

The fastest growing region in Africa is also the site of an ongoing political experiment that aims, in the coming years, to have members of the East African Community band together and form the East African Federation - a single African superstate.

https://www.fugger.de/en/fuggerei/unparalleled-worldwide-for-500-years

Fuggerei: the world's first public housing

In 1521, a German merchant and banker called Jakob Fugger, known as 'the Rich', a descendant of the famous Fugger family of Augsburg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg], took it upon himself to fund and build the first social settlement in the world. Known as Fuggerei after its founders'

The towns built by Mussolini and their political legacy

The towns built by Mussolini and their political legacy

At the end of the 19th century, a Prussian officer had an idea to build a water collection system beneath the mountains in modern-day Latina Province, very close to Rome, Italy. The idea was to collect the water before this settles down and prevent it from stagnating in what are

What you have to go through to travel to Malta during COVID-19

What you have to go through to travel to Malta during COVID-19

Updated February 2022 The Health Authorities in Malta have been promoting the use of the ‘ traveltomalta.gov.mt [http://traveltomalta.gov.mt]‘ website for those wishing to travel to the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both nationals and non-nationals are encouraged to visit the website to confirm that they can

A Hacker News-inspired aggregator built with Softr.io

A Hacker News-inspired aggregator built with Softr.io

Hacker News has been a fascination of mine since I discovered it several years ago, and today it has become part of my morning routine. Through the site, I discovered countless interesting articles and ideas, and the most read article [https://karlsnotes.com/ikea-and-the-future-of-living/] on this site also owes its

Tim Ferriss and the Art of Online Conversations

Tim Ferriss and the Art of Online Conversations

Over the past few years, you might have noticed an increase in the popularity of podcasts and the creation of audio-based content. Producing a podcast today is considered an essential networking and promotional tool. Major news networks, entrepreneurs, and politicians all want to be on podcast shows to deliver their

Micro-level History

Micro-level History

I was recently having a conversation with a Spanish friend about the Spanish Civil War of the 1930’s. While I was interested in better understanding the bigger picture of this historical period – how the civil war was fought, who won or lost, how did it start and why, I

Challenges to creating a Network State

Challenges to creating a Network State

This is a review of the ‘How to Start a New Country’ [https://1729.com/how-to-start-a-new-country/] piece by Balaji S. Srinivasan, which highlights possible pathways to a country founded and built online, and later also owning physical territory. I call this ‘the Reverse Estonia’, as the country has been on

Maltese Political Parties' Share of Parliamentary Seats, 1921 - 2017

Data Visualisations

Maltese Political Parties' Share of Parliamentary Seats, 1921 - 2017

In a recent post [https://karlsnotes.com/first-count-votes-in-parliamentary-elections-in-malta-1921-2017/] , I visualised the number of first count votes received by Maltese political parties since the 1921 national election. This time, I created the above visualisation to show the composition of the Maltese Parliament immediately after every election for the same 1921-2017 period.

The Barack Obama technique for making tough decisions

The Barack Obama technique for making tough decisions

Over the past years, the definition of leadership has changed. We used to think of leadership as a trait associated with one’s title or hierarchical position within a company or an organisation. Today, we think of leadership as a social process that mixes individual desires and the group’s

How to start your own country in four steps

How to start your own country in four steps

On 16th June 2014, Jeremiah Heaton declared 2,060km2 of arid land in Africa as the Kingdom of North Sudan [https://www.kingdomsudan.org/], after promising his daughter that one day she would become a Princess. Heaton, a farmer from the US state of Virginia, had been looking for unclaimed

First count votes in Parliamentary Elections in Malta - 1921-2017

Data Visualisations

First count votes in Parliamentary Elections in Malta - 1921-2017

Malta is required to hold a General Election to elect Members of Parliament every 5 years. Elections are conducted using the Single Transferable Vote [https://www.um.edu.mt/projects/maltaelections/stvsystem/howmaltavotes] (STV) method, which is regarded as one of the fairest ways to transfer the wishes of the

How does a casual election work?

Data Visualisations

How does a casual election work?

General election candidates in Malta are allowed to contest in two different voting districts. If they are elected from both, they must resign from one of them and their seats are filled through a ‘casual election’ – ‘casual’ as in ‘not a regular thing’. Casual elections also happen when an MP

Do the hard things.

Do the hard things.

Back in 2014, I came across this [https://danwaldschmidt.com/2014-01-business-hard-things/] online post by Dan Waldschmidt on his Edgy Conversations blog. I saved it and still reference it when everything seems to be going the wrong way. You Have To Do The Hard Things You have to make the call

IKEA and the future of living

IKEA and the future of living

The keyword guiding IKEA’s history is innovation. Ever since its start in 1943, the name IKEA has been synonymous with minimal, cheap furniture that can be bought and assembled in one’s own home. Its first innovation is also its most famous one – the flatpack furniture. By introducing this

Analysing famous speeches using Metaranx - an AI no code platform

Analysing famous speeches using Metaranx - an AI no code platform

Update - Metaranx is unfortunately no longer operational, but there are several other platforms which can do this. I recently received an invite from Metaranx to try out their new platform, an AI no code tool which currently lets users analyse the emotional sentiment of text using pre-built AI tools.

Building a No code app for a friend's side hustle

Building a No code app for a friend's side hustle

One of my friends started baking and selling pizzas during the COVID-19 quasi-lockdown. His way of reaching people consisted solely of a Facebook page and sharing posts on his personal profile and a local Facebook group. People could either contact him on the page, directly on messenger or by calling

Do political stickers work?

Do political stickers work?

Go to any major European city and you’ll find dozens of stickers on road signs, bus stops and billboards. Each with a different message about the politics of a candidate, a political party or just a general pro or anti something message. I believe that in the US the

Monopoly: the board game

Monopoly: the board game

In 1903, Elizabeth Magie, a self-declared left-wing feminist, patented the Landlord’s Game, the forerunner of the now world-famous Monopoly board game. Today, Monopoly is more associated with capitalism than any left-wing ideology, but in the early years of the 20th century, the original goal of the game was not

A branding overhaul for Austria's ÖVP

A branding overhaul for Austria's ÖVP

In 2017, the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) had a slogan which said ‘Time for something new’, despite it having been in government for 30 years. That same year, its new leader Sebastian Kurz [https://twitter.com/sebastiankurz] rebranded the party as the ‘New People’s Party’ and changed its