Today I Learned

NASA found water on Mars
The whereabouts of all the water on Mars rendered scientists clueless for years.
There was already enough evidence that there once was water on our little neighbour, but what happened to it?
NASA's InSight lander finally solved the mystery. Its mission was to investigate Mars' seismic activity, heat flow, and internal composition by looking beneath the crust.

What they found is astounding: There's a massive underground reservoir of water so large that it could cover the whole planet with an ocean almost 2 kilometers deep.

AI model recognised genetic disorder with 98.5% accuracy
In a pilot study (new tab), researchers took a total of 672 facial images of people with and without a genetic connective tissue disorder, Marfan syndrome, and trained a neural network to diagnose the condition.
They used 80% of the data for training and the remaining 20% for testing and the results were remarkable. It diagnosed Marfan with 98.5% accuracy.
I also have a similar genetic disorder causing similar symptoms, so this was especially interesting to me.

Lungfish have the largest genome of all animals
The marbled lungfish, Protopterus aethiopicus (new tab), has more than 130 billion bases of DNA and therefore the largest genome of all animals. That's more than 43 times bigger than the human genome.

Checkmate originates from persia
In old persia, people said "Shah Mat" which literally means "the king is dead".
The German translation "Schachmatt" resembles it even closer.

Migraine incidence correlates with temperature
A new study found that an increase in temperature leads to a higher risk of headaches for people with migraine.
According to the data, every 5°C increase in temperature resulted in a 6% increase in occurrence of any headache.

Ash is an excellent fertiliser during crop rotation
Regular ash is an a great fertiliser with a great NPK ratio of 0-1-3.
The only downside is that it's very alkaline and therefore deacidifies soil.
Use a ph-test to make sure your soil can take it.

A 1 euro cent coin costs 1.75 euro cent in production
Due to coins being made of metals, they can actually cost more in production than what they're worth. In contrast, a 10 € bill only costs around 5 ct.

Gastrointestinal issues and mental health issues affect each other
Studies found that gastrointestinal illnesses such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) can cause anxiety. Anxiety on the other hand can fuel those issues creating a vicous cycle.

There's a birth control pill for women that works without hormones
Saheli is a pill based on Ormeloxifene which blocks the function of estrogen without messing with the hormon system itself. It only needs to taken once per week and is just as effective as common birth control pills.
Unfortunately, it's only available in India right now.

The woman photographed on the "Maggot Brain" album cover is Barbara Cheeseborough, who was one of the first Black supermodels in the late 60s / early 70s. Her husband William was a fashion photographer.

44% of all humans have a MTHFR genetic mutation
Almost half of all people on earth have some variation of this genetic mutation which can result in health issues such low levels of folate and high levels of homocysteine in your blood.
I learned about it after both my dad and I had elevated homocysteine levels.

The oldest koi fish was 226 years old
Hanako, which translates to "flower girl", was born in Japan in 1751 and died in 1977 at an incredible age of 226 years.

The first diet was invented by a funeral director
Funeral Director William Banting (new tab) invented the very first diet in 1863. People used to say “I am banting” when they were on his diet.

Most men have spontaneous desire while women usually have responsive desire
I think this fact causes more problems in sex life that it needs to. Besides fresh couples, women are less likely to just spontaneously want sex.
It usually requires build-up and is much more responsive. Men can feel undesired after a while and eventually get frustrated about not having enough sex while all it might take is a little tease in the morning.

Love is kind, but not blind
Heard this quote from a women on a podcast that I can't actually remember, but the quote stick for a reason.
There definitely is something about e.g. occassionally dressing up for a date. Not even for the sake of dressing up for your partner, but also for yourself.

All plants contain all amino acids
There's this never-ending debate whether vegans can get enough protein and whether said protein provides the full spectrum of amino acids.
Turns out, all plants contain all amino acids, including the 9 essentials.
The only real difference is that their levels vary slightly. Generally speaking, beans have less methionine and grains have less lysin. Hence, as long as we eat a good mix of plants, we most likely get all important amino acids in adequate levels.
If you want to be sure, try to eat an extra 0.1 - 0.2 g protein per kilogram body weight.

Flaxseeds should be grinded right before eating
Whole flaxseeds may pass through your intestine undigested leaving all the omega-3 fatty acids and phytochemicals unabsorbed.

Chocolate and peppermint relax the esophageal sphincter
Another one I learned during my SIBO therapy.
There are a couple of foods that relax the esophageal sphincter which can increase acid reflux, especially chocolate and peppermint.

Starchy foods retrograde while cooling down increasing their resistant starch content
Starches are made up of long chains of glucose which are the main building blocks of carbohydrates. Your body breaks them down into glucose resulting in blood sugar spikes.
Resistant starch on the other hand is also a carbohydrate, but also considered a type of fiber. They are resistant to digestion and thus pass through the intestines without being broken down.
By cooling down starchy foods, those normal starches retrograde into resistant starches, making it a more healthy meal overall.

One should limit water intake shorty before and after meals
Drinking too much shorty before, during or shortly after meals can influence your digestions and lower nutrition absorption.

Apple Health sleep data is showing false values
In my recent Year in Review: 2023 post, I shared that I had an average of 7:58 hours of sleep.
Eventually I got suspicious because that felt a bit high so I checked the values per month and it turns out the average is actually only 6:37 hours.

Nutmegs are not nuts
Another one of those cases where the naming makes no sense.
The word nutmeg comes from the Old English nut, meaning hard seed or fruit, and meg, which is a shortened form of muge, meaning musky.
Nutmegs are acutally the dried seeds of the nutmeg fruit.

French kids used to get wine at school
Learned this bizarre one from a tweet (new tab) by History Vids (new tab).
Until 1956, french children attending school were served wine in their lunch break.

30% of couples don't have sex after 2 years of being together
I've been reading a lot about relationships and intimacy lately and this fact stuck me off guard.
Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing if all parties are happy, but usually it's a sign of disfunctional partnerships.

Our stomach acid can dissolve metal
This one really blew my mind. Everyone knows that our stomach acid is very acidic and thus quite strong, but never did I imagine that it would actually be able to dissolve metal.

Never miss a habit 2 days in a row
The so called 2-day rule says that one should never miss a habit 2 days in a row.
It's said to increase consistency and likelihood of true habit formation. I have tried it for the last 2 months and I have to say, it really increased my consistency a lot.

Slow eating has multiple health benefits
I've always been on the fast eating side, almost swolling foods without chewing at all. I knew that slow eating is a common mindfulness practice, but little did I know about the health implications of fast eating at that time.
Amongst others, eating slowly and chewing your food properly increases fat digestion and absorption of vitamins. It also reduces the likelihood of acid reflux and releases more insulin for better glucose control and therefore less glucose spikes after a meal.

My writing method is called the Hemingway bridge
I'm not only writing technical articles, but also a fantasy novel in my leisure time.
In the beginning, I often struggled to get started, because I didn't really know how to. However, once the first couple of sentences were written it slowly started to flow again and I would find myself writing several pages in one sprint.
When I realised that, I started to do something that might feel odd at first: I would stop writing in the middle of a scene. That way, I could immediately continue writing, whenever coming back to my manuscript.

Just today I learned, that this method was also used by Ernest Hemingway (new tab) and is refered to as the Hemingway bridge.

Rock, paper, scissors is not actually pure luck
Research by Besty Levy Paluck (new tab) shows there actually exists a gender bias with two crucial findings.
Men tend to start with rock while women prefer scissors more often. On top of that, men repeat the same figure more often while women prefer switching up.

Humans can't store protein
Learned it from Stanford's Professor Christopher Gradner (new tab).
At the end of the day, any excess protein is being turned into carbs and fat by taking off the nitrogen. This means, as long as we get enough protein through our diet - which actually is almost always the case - there's really no reason to take additional protein e.g. via protein shakes.
Apart from wasting money, it usually doesn't harm you though, as the nitrogen is turned into ammonia and then excreted by our kidneys.
But, if you already suffer from kidney problems, you should be cautious!

6 is the number people tell you when they're unhappy
Read about this in the article Numbers To Know For Managing (new tab) by Stay SaaSy (new tab).
This one changed my perspective on company surveys and numerical feedback. As a manager, I frequently use scales to rate things and get feedback.
A typical example would be a question like "How satisfied are you with your role" where the individual can choose a number between 1 and 10.
I used to be very naive about the results, thinking that everyone above 5 would be fine, while only everything below is really worrysome. But it seems to be quite different. People usually choose everything from 7 to 10 if they're actually satisfied. A rating as high as 6 could already mean that they're preparing to quit.
I wouldn't agree that it's always the case, but definitely something to look out for.

One does not need a booster vaccination for tetanus and diphtheria
This is a weird one, but I recently realised that my last tetanus shot was over 11 years ago and I remembered that I was told to get a booster after 10 years.
As someone who's outside a lot - be it gardening, hiking or something else - I'm at high risk of getting a tetanus infection, so I was really keen to get my booster as soon as possible. But before wasting my time going to a doctor just to figure out I was wrong, I quickly checked the web and saw that the WHO changed their recommendations.
New studies found (new tab) that as long as you've had the full basic immunisation as a kid, the protection lasts a lifetime. The same is true for diphtheria.

Reverse-engineering the interview process
Heard about this practice on the Managing Up (new tab) Podcast.
Hiring great people is a challenging task. It already starts with the job ad. Turns out it's not as straightforward as it might seem to figure out what one is searching for. What skills should a candidate bring? What values are really important to us?
Instead of trying to figure that out from scratch, there's a much simpler solution: Reverse-engineer the process by looking at the people that already work with you. What is it that makes them great colleagues?

Name it to tame it
Learned this in Josh Tichauer (new tab)'s blog post The power of empathy in software development leadership (new tab) about emotional intelligence.
He starts by talking about how important emotional intelligence is as a manager and later recommends a technique to develop it.

He recommends the "Name it to tame it" technique to develop emotional intelligence and it's quite simple: You name the emotion you are feeling which helps to regulate the amygdala, the area responsible for processing emotions.
This technique allows you to respond to challenging situations with clarity and compassion, rather than being controlled by your emotions.

Humans have a mild version of mono-hemispheric sleep
And yet another one from Why We Sleep (new tab)
You might have heard, that some animals, especially aquatic animals and birds, are capable of sleeping with only one half of their brain while the other half stays active. This is called mono-hemispheric sleep.
Have you ever thought whether we humans can do that to? Sounds weird, right?
But actually, we have a very mild version too! Studies haven shown that when we're in a new environment e.g. in a hotel room, one half of our brain stays alert while the other is fully asleep.

Preindustrial humans slept biphasic
Another learning from Matthew Walker (new tab)'s book Why We Sleep (new tab).
I always thought humans have slept monophasic forever, but it turns out that we actually slept biphasic before the industrialisation. In fact, some tribes whose lifestyle pretty much didn't change too much in the last 10.000 years are still sleeping biphasic today.
But how actually do they sleep? While they also sleep for 7-8 hours during the night, they add an additional 30-45 minute nap at noon.

Letting someone go is much harder than fair salaries
Might sound obvious, but when we did the salary negotations, I wasn't really anticipating that I'd have to let someone go in the near future.
Needless to say, that it was one of the most challenging things in my career yet and most definitely the toughest thing as a manager.

Lay-offs suck.

Drinking coffee after noon drastically impacts your sleep
Matthew Walker (new tab), author of the book Why We Sleep (new tab) talks about caffeine's disruptive effect on your sleep on Dr. Ragan Chatterjee (new tab).
Caffeine has a halflife of about 6-7 hours and a quarterlife of around 12 hours.
Meaning, if you drink a coffee at noon, that means that a quarter of the caffeine is still in your system. That's equivalent to drinking a quarter cup of coffee right before go to bed.

PS: If you drink coffee purely for it's smell and taste, you might try some decaffeinated coffee next time. I switched over - for different reasons - and got happily used to it!

Suggestions from a powerful person tend to be followed
Today's learning comes from another book: The Culture Code (new tab) by Daniel Coyle (new tab).
It might seem obvious at first, but I had to experience myself first to fully understand what it means. In product-focused companies, it's not uncommon that cross-functional teams work on a specific part of a product, effectively owning all processes and decisions. Yet, there often is some kind of approval process that includes C-level executives, if not the CEO themself.
A team might have put a lot of effort into a feature, including research and data gathering, but sometimes a single comment from upper management can lead to a lot of uncertainty, stress and last-minute changes in the end. Most often it turns out that it wasn't even meant that way, but the suggestion is still followed. How would you possibly disagree with your CEO, right?
Turns out, you need to be very careful with whom you ask for feedback and powerful people need to be very careful with what they say, even if it's just a little comment on something, because - even if you don't like it - it might eventually be followed.

Grapefruits block enzymes that clear drugs
Another one from How not to die (new tab). This can be both positive and negative.
For example, if you use a painkiller, you can prolong it's effect by eating a grapefruit. But it's also very dangerous e.g. when you're taking multiple pills and they intefere with each other.

Chopping brokkoli 40 minutes before cooking preserves sulforaphane
I'm currently reading How not to die (new tab) by Michael Greger (new tab) and learned that brokkoli, which is super rich in sulforaphane, a substance that has many beneficial properties, needs to chopped 40 minutes before cooking in order to preserve it.

Graveyards can be beautiful places for mental retreat
I'm not a religious person and thus I never really had a strong urge to visit a graveyards. Actually the concept of visiting the burried remains of deceased loved ones feels super weird to me. To put it simply, I usually avoid such places.
However, I'm using my walks for self reflection a lot lately and thought I could check out the public graveyard of my hometown, Karlsruhe.
Within weeks it became my favorite place to spend time outside and I regularly plan it into my route. Not only is it the perfect place to calm down, but it also is probably the most beautiful site in the whole city. There are artifical water courses, thousands of different plants, bushes and trees as well as birds, squirrels and other animals everywhere.
It's probably a bit ironic, but in some way it's the most lively place in walking distance.

Fair salaries are extremely hard in remote tech teams
Let's be honest. Salaries are always a delicate topic. In my career, I already had quite a few different negotations from 1-1 with my manager to open team discussions.
Yet I was always on the employee side though. This year I'm facing my first full salary review as an engineering manager and to be fully honest again: I had no idea how hard it is.
For small teams where everyone lives in the same area and has the same currency it might be straightforward, but dealing with a distributed remote-first team with different local currencies and thus different exchange rates is such a tough task.
The goal for everyone is to have fair salaries of course, but what is fair?
Do you pay the same salaries, no matter where people are located?
Do you consider different tax rates and cost of living in general or is it purely performance based?
Do you use a base currency and calculate the rest with the current exchange rates?
How do employee salaries compare to consultant rates?
Would love to hear how others are doing it, feel free to reach out to me!

In addition to that, it doesn't help that we're facing a huge recession in the industry right now with tons of layoffs everywhere in tech.

Reflecting on one learning per day is great
I've done it in the past, but for some reason I never really kept up with it: Writing down one thing that you learned each day is a great way to reflect on your day and appreciate what you're doing.
Therefore, I'm starting this little page to remind myself to add those learnings from time to time.