Posts on This Hollow Earth

Test 34

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Super Humans and Super AI

I had an issue with my buttondown newsletter. I wrote to support. Got an automated reply telling me they got my mail, they are looking into the issue but since they only have limited staff, working in a US time zone, it might take a bit for a proper reply. Within 1 hour, Steph is in my inbox, kindly explaining the issue and how they would resolve it. I said thank you for the quick answer Steph and for being a kind human Steph and Steph said no problem arjen, we don’t like talking to chatbots, and we don’t want to make you all deal with them either. <3 (<- I got that one from the emoji museum).

Test 33

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Launch time.

Technology, Human Systems, Environment. I soft launched the new version of thishollow.earth today. New theme, new content, new streams, same me.

new landing page
familiar blog stream (this newsletter)
new products & concepts stream
new solutions page, outlining the 3 pillars (technology, human systems, environment), each with their own product show case CYNTHIA, BERT, WALTER
new about page with profile, expertise,experience and how to get in touch
new tech notes stream
long form essay stream (TBA, in parallel from medium)
scalpel stream (TBA)

It’s far from finished. It’s full of errors and mistakes and omissions. But it’s something, it’s good enough and it’s live. This is part of the bootstrapping ThisHollowEarth. After bootstrapping, I will start building the products, setup a Go To Market (GTM) plan, focus on branding, visuals and design, do optimisation / tweaking / security / legal / finance and then rinse and repeat.

Test 32

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Conference time.

Two conferences, serendipity, long form essays, the future.

I didn’t go to a lot of conferences the past few years. Let alone speak at conferences. But then I got invited to speak at 2 conferences last spring. Many good things came from both. I made a lot of notes but reviewing them I realised they don’t make much of a coherent story. But who needs coherence? Instead I present you observations, impressions and random thoughts.

Test 31

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I have notes, so many.

I have raw notes. I have useless notes. I have notes about notes.

I have too many notes. And there is no time.

But there is time!

The years go fast, the hours go slow.

There is time.

We’ve got snackbars, AI, books, Den Helder, more AI, essays, and a stroll in the evening.

Snackbar Maandag
When walking my dog in the evening I regularly pass by Snackbar Maandag (Snackbar Monday).

Test 30

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nothing is important

stahlhartes Gehäuse
Last time I mentioned Webers [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_cage](Iron Cage) and I do have to apologise.

Sorry.

I should have said stahlhartes Gehäuse of course. It’s a much more accurate and telling description. Because it’s in German. German is one of my favourite languages. Since German has poetry baked into the language. Every German is a poet.

Wir haben uns lange, lange nicht geseh’n
und es gibt so viel, so viel zu erzähl’n
Aber wir schweigen, wir schweigen fast schon laut
Das nicht gesagte beschreibt alles ganz genau

Test 29

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Today, I wrote nothing.

¯(°_o)/¯
The asymetric nature of change:

Humans change slow
The machine changes fast

“The machine” as systems of power (politics, technology, institutions, finance). They are self-reinforcing, self-interested, and largely autonomous from the individuals inside them. A banker, a politician, a programmer; each feels like they are making choices. But the system they inhabit has its own logic, its own momentum. The machine moves, whether or not any individual wills it.

Test 28

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Scanning the surface.

A preview edition.

More to come.

Always.

There’s always more to come.

And always later.

Interesting stuff 1
I got an email from one of our IT service suppliers about how they joined another company for scale and efficiency reasons and how they made some changes in management. So far so good. So far all generic text and reassuring language. “Nothing will change for you”, “you can be sure you receive the quality you deserve” or something along those lines.

Test 27

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Short one.

Gary doesn’t like Yann
AI flame war, Gary Marcus puts Yann Lecun’s fame in perspective.

An evening stroll
I was walking my dog the other day when we ran into the sphinx

“Good morning sphinx”, I said
The sphinx said nothing
“How was your weekend sphinx?”, I tried
The sphinx stared into the distance

My dog came up carrying a note in his mouth
I deciphered the note:

“The net serves to catch the fish; once the fish is caught, the net must be forgotten.
The snare serves to catch the rabbit. Once the rabbit is caught, the snare is forgotten.
Words serve to catch meaning; once the meaning has been caught, the words can be forgotten.
If only I could find someone who has forgotten the words, someone I could talk to for a while.”[1]

Test 26

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This one is about reading. And about life. La condition humaine.

And a bit about AI and IT.

And also a bit about the EO adoption cycle-curve-graph.

An evening stroll
I was walking my dog the other day when we ran into the bear

“Good morning bear”, I said
“I’m not a bear”, the panda said

“Alles blijft”
“Alles gaat voorbij”
“Alles blijft voorbijgaan”, the panda said

The panda stared into the horizon

Test 25

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why not have another edition of This Hollow Earth?

Here’s some random ramblings and thoughts that circled my brain while doing the dishes.

get rid of your dishwasher
Dishwashers are a source of stress. Do the dishes yourself instead: 30 minutes meditative work per day keeps the doctor away. Alternatively: buy a dog.

An evening stroll
I was walking my dog the other day when we ran into the kingfisher

Test 24

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We’re back.

“Arjen, what happened to your newsletter?”

Well, this happened. And this.

And now we’re back.

Let’s pick it back up slow and easy kids.

Science, research, conferences
The scientific community and their conferences can be a crazy bunch. My French friend Sonia went to this conference organised by a person who identifies as a pirate. Walks around the conference dressed up as a pirate. Very cool research though.

At the same conference, the, apparently, (in)famous Johan Rockström hang out (or maybe I mix up events). Never heard of the kind man (impossible personality) but he is (one of the) originators of the Planetary Boundaries Framework.