2026-04-04 15:00:00
What would you do with the hours you spend reading the news every day? I found out this year. In the first three months of 2026, I finished 19 books, which is almost as many as I read in the whole of 2025. Turns out, staying informed is expensive.
Last year, I was writing a blog post after every quarter covering books, movies, TV shows and games. This year, since I read so many books, I decided to just write about the books I liked after each quarter. You are reading the first one of this series.
I enjoy reading about history, especially when it opens my eyes on a very specific topic. Against the Grain by James C. Scott was that kind of book. Most people think of agriculture as a natural step forward in human history and as the foundation of how human society developed. But when you read this book, you see that agriculture was not something people really wanted to do. It required too much work and led to the birth of states, which meant paying taxes and working in other people’s fields. You even learn that the walls built around those early states were not only to protect people from enemies, but also to keep the people living nearby inside so they would work the fields and pay their taxes.
Another thing I liked about this book was how it challenges the common idea of barbarians. When we think of barbarians today, we only think of negative things. But those people were actually the real rebels who did not want to live under the rule of those early states or spend their days working on farms. They simply wanted freedom, without being forced to work and pay taxes. Since history was written by the people living inside those states, we never got to hear the barbarian side of the story. We still see them as the enemy.
If you are interested in history, this one is hard to put down. You will also never look at a loaf of bread the same way again.
When I first heard about this book, I was surprised that most people around me had already read it and I had somehow missed it. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is about the author’s own experience in the concentration camps. I have watched many documentaries about the Second World War and I know about the horrible things that happened during that time, but what I read in this book was on a completely different level. The author is a psychologist, so he does not just write about his feelings but also about his observations as a psychologist.
The second part of the book focuses on logotherapy, which is a school of psychotherapy that sees the search for meaning as the central driving force in human life. That part resonated with me a lot, because finding meaning in my life is something I think about often.
It is very short but emotionally quite heavy. If there is one book on this list that I think everyone should read at some point in their life, it is this one.
Since I have been living in Germany for a long time, I wanted to learn more about German history and ended up with Blood and Iron by Katja Hoyer. History books can be quite boring, but this one was very well written. The book mostly focuses on Otto von Bismarck and his role in German unification. I knew a little about him since there is a very tall monument of him in Hamburg. I always wondered what made him worthy of that kind of honour, and now I know why.
After covering German unification, the book shifts to the political environment and social life, and how the empire slowly built a nation. You even discover things like the origin of why all shops are closed on Sunday in Germany. A lot of the things I observe here started to make more sense to me after reading this book.
At the end, you also see the beginning of the First World War and how things developed over time, including all the lives sacrificed by the Kaiser while he enjoyed a peaceful life even after the war ended. It left me with a strange feeling, knowing that some of the patterns from that era are not as distant as we like to think.
Last year, I noticed I was not reading much fiction, so I wanted to change that. Based on a recommendation from a friend, I started On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle. The book is about a woman who is stuck living the same day, the 17th of November, over and over again. It is a fascinating story, but what I liked most about it is that because she lives the same day every day, she starts to notice every small detail of life. From the movement of clouds to the sounds her husband makes at home.
While reading this series, I noticed that I also started to appreciate the small details in my own daily life, from birds to the behaviour of people around me. That shift in attention felt like an unexpected gift from a book about someone trapped in time. I have already read the first three books of this seven book series and the fourth one is coming out very soon.
I heard a lot of positive things about this book from friends, so I gave it a try and could not stop reading it. Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen focuses on a scenario where North Korea fires a nuclear missile at Washington, and what unfolds right after it is detected. The author interviewed many people to get things as accurate as possible, so while reading the book you are both horrified and surprised by what would actually happen if a single nuclear missile were fired today.
What stayed with me after finishing it was not the scale of the destruction, but how little time anyone would have to make decisions, and how many of those decisions are already made in advance by automated systems. I hope the scenario in this book never happens, but when I look at what is going on in the world, I always feel there is a small chance it could.
A friend pointed out that I had never read anything by Ursula K. Le Guin, so I decided to start with one of her most well known books, The Dispossessed. It is about a scientist who travels to a sister world after making a scientific breakthrough. That world has a completely different political system from his own. I would not be wrong in saying that while his world leans more toward communism, the world he visits leans more toward capitalism. But unlike most books that would take one side, this one perfectly shows the flaws of both systems, as well as the role of women in each world.
I already ordered another book by Le Guin before I even finished this one. That should tell you enough.
If you are confused, like I am, about the growing inequality in the world and the rise of far right parties, this book might help. I first heard about The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J. Sandel from Olaf Scholz, the former chancellor of Germany, in an interview. The book focuses on meritocracy and how it divides people into two groups: the educated and the non-educated. Over time, politicians started praising meritocracy and pushing the idea that everyone should study, not just for a bachelor’s degree but all the way to a PhD. Of course, not everyone can do that, and the ones who did started to form their own class, separate from those without higher education, and began to control many aspects of life. On top of that, they do everything they can to make sure their children have the same advantages.
Even though the book mostly focuses on the US, you can see the same patterns in European countries and in Germany too. It covers the last four decades and shows how the makeup of political parties changed. In the past, you would see workers in parties like the Social Democrats or the Labour Party. Today, you mostly see people with PhDs. This creates a big problem: since only a small group of highly educated people are running things, those without higher education feel left behind. People with PhDs often cannot relate to the problems of everyone else, so they fail to come up with solutions that work for most people. In the end, those who feel ignored look for alternatives, not because they believe those other parties can fix their problems, but because they have lost hope in the established ones.
I especially recommend this one if you already consider yourself highly educated. It is a little uncomfortable in the best possible way.
2026-01-28 16:00:00
If I have to pick my favourite German word, I would probably pick “neugierig” because it describes me very well. It means curious, but that is not the literal meaning. Like many German words, it comes from two parts: neu and gierig. Neu means new, and gierig means greedy. So the literal idea behind neugierig is being greedy for new things. That fits me well.
I really enjoy learning new things. That is why I read a lot, watch documentaries, and explore different topics. I am greedy for new information. This also includes what is happening around the world.
For years, I followed the news to keep an eye on what was happening in my country, in the world, and in the tech industry. I curated a list of sources that matched my taste, from international newspapers to YouTube channels, Reddit, and tech-focused websites. Every day, I checked these sources through their websites or my RSS reader to stay up to date.
At the end of last year, I had some time to reflect on my habits. I thought about what makes me happy, what makes me stressed, and how the things I do every day contribute to my goals.
When I looked at the time I spent reading the news and how I felt afterward, I realised it was not helping me at all. Most of the time, I felt more stressed than informed. I also noticed that almost every source focuses heavily on negative stories, simply because those attract more attention and clicks.
When it comes to world news, I started to see the same patterns repeating. A lot of headlines about political figures, conflicts far away, and problems I have no control over. I asked myself how much of this actually affects my daily life, and I could not come up with a good answer. Many things are happening in the world, but they rarely change anything in my day-to-day routine. That made me question why I was following them so closely.
The same applies to tech news. Most of it revolves around big personalities, constant AI updates, startups getting acquired, people becoming rich, hardware I will probably never buy, and rumours about products that may never be released. In most cases, none of this has any real impact on my life. New technologies are usually easy to learn when they become relevant, and it is hard to know which ones will still matter in a few years.
After thinking about whether I really need to follow the news, I decided that I do not. This does not mean I do not care about the world or the tech industry. I am just not interested in following daily updates that do not add much value to my life.
One thing I am still interested in is what is happening in my city. For that, I recently discovered a newsletter from Die Zeit called Elbvertiefung. Every weekday at 6 AM, they send a short newsletter about what happened in Hamburg, and sometimes they also recommend a book or a new restaurant or cafe. I start my day by reading it. Since it is in German, it also helps me improve my language skills.
For the rest of the news, I am considering subscribing to a magazine that covers important events in Germany, the EU, or the world every few months. This kind of format filters out short-term noise and fear-driven stories. These publications usually make money by selling the magazine rather than ads, so they tend to focus more on quality. (If you have any recommendations, feel free to reach out.)
At the beginning of this year, I decided to stop following the news. As a result, I started reading more. Last year, I finished 20 books. This year, just in January, I finished 7 books. I still satisfy my curiosity and learn new things, but I just changed the medium. And I feel much better because of it.
2026-01-22 16:00:00
When I first encountered the internet and began spending hours online, the people I interacted with were mostly nerds in the best sense of the word. They had niche interests, deep curiosity, and a genuine willingness to help others who shared their passions. Technology felt like a playground for people who enjoyed building things for fun, learning obsessively, and solving problems simply because they could.
As time passed, consumer tech products began to take off. Personal computers, the iPod, and later the iPhone didn’t just change daily life, they accelerated the entire tech industry. More people became interested in technology, often inspired by the same principles that guided its early pioneers: building things out of curiosity and nerdiness, and only then figuring out how to make enough money to keep going.
Eventually, the people building these products (whether software or hardware) started making serious money. Not necessarily because they were creating proportionally more value, but because their products reached a massive, non-technical audience. A small group of company owners suddenly found themselves extremely wealthy. With the rise of social media, they began to showcase their lifestyles: luxury homes, exotic travel, expensive hobbies. For people outside the industry, this was eye-opening. Tech no longer looked like a space for curious nerds, it looked like a fast track to wealth and status. This shift is something I’ve watched from the inside, not as an outsider looking for villains.
This realisation triggered a new wave of people entering the tech industry. Unfortunately, many of them lacked the curiosity and enthusiasm of the early builders. They weren’t interested in technology for its own sake or in improving people’s lives. They were primarily interested in money, rather than in the technology itself. This was the breaking point for me. I increasingly encountered people who spoke confidently about technical topics without understanding even the fundamentals. They acted as if they were “changing the world,” imitating figures like Steve Jobs, but without the substance behind the performance. It became easy to identify them. Around that time, the term tech bro emerged to describe this new archetype: confident, performative, and often detached from any real technical depth.
Meanwhile, the early entrants to the industry became unimaginably rich. Figures like Sergey Brin, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates reached levels of wealth that are difficult for ordinary people to comprehend. Like many early builders, they started as nerds but extreme wealth eventually translated into unchecked power. Elon Musk was perhaps the first to fully realize this. Instead of limiting himself to technical subjects like rockets or electric cars, he began publicly weighing in on social and political issues.
He was clearly under the brain-rotting drug (“Their financial success all too often convinces them that they’re uniquely brilliant, able to instantly master any subject, without any need to consult people who have actually worked hard to understand the issues.”), but neither the public nor the new wave of tech workers recognized it. Instead, they elevated him to a messianic figure. Much of what he said was treated as unquestionable truth by his followers. Once other tech leaders saw Musk’s influence and loyal following, they followed the same path. This wasn’t just about personalities. Venture capital incentives, social media amplification, and winner-take-all markets rewarded loud confidence over competence, and provocation over substance. Ideas they once avoided expressing became central to their public personas. They moved beyond their campuses, directly engaging with governments and political discourse.
At the same time, their personal lives took darker turns. Many divorced the partners who had supported them early on. Some publicly pursued much younger partners; others were accused of harassing female employees, and in a few cases, far worse behavior later came to light. The motivation of the new tech elite shifted from building things, to making money, to exerting influence, to indulging every excess made possible by power and wealth.
We went from criticising Steve Jobs for rejecting his daughter to celebrating Elon Musk’s ever-growing number of children. Today, opening social media often means seeing startup and mid-sized tech CEOs and executives eagerly praising, defending, or desperately seeking the attention of Elon Musk. It has become very difficult to work in tech without encountering leadership that is openly racist, sexist, or aligned with white supremacist ideas.
At some point, the industry stopped being nerdy, curious, and hopeful and became something deeply disgusting. It didn’t rot by accident. It rotted because we rewarded the wrong things and continue to do so.
2026-01-02 04:00:00
In today’s world, especially with capitalism, many of us are always wanting more. We’re told to buy more stuff, go on more trips, and collect experiences to be happy. Ads everywhere tell us that buying this or traveling there will make our lives better.
If you grew up in a developed country and are healthy, you might not really see how others live. Sure, you can travel and visit different places, but you don’t truly know what people’s everyday lives are like. The more I look around, the more I see people who have everything they need yet are still unhappy. They constantly look for new things to make them feel better. I think social media plays a big role in this.
Social media shows us more than just the lives of our friends. We end up comparing ourselves to strangers too, and somehow, we’re always seeing people who seem to have more, like bigger houses, nicer cars, fancy vacations. When we see these things, we start to want them, and we focus on getting them. But even when we get them, we just end up wanting more. It’s like an endless cycle that’s hard to break. Some people work more hours or even go into debt just to keep up with this pressure.
One thing I’ve been noticing more lately is how people are getting surgeries to change how they look, whether it’s for aesthetics or dental work. People are trying to look “perfect,” but sometimes they end up looking weird or unnatural. And with things like Botox or fillers, if you stop getting them, your face can look even worse than before. I find this incredibly dangerous because people are changing their bodies permanently to feel better about themselves, but the reason they feel bad is often because of how others treat them, especially strangers.
This is one of the main reasons I don’t use apps like Instagram or TikTok. It’s hard to avoid the feeling of missing out when you’re constantly seeing others with shiny new things, experiences, or looks.
I believe true happiness comes from being grateful for what you already have, not from having more. If you’re healthy and have your basic needs met, you should appreciate that. There are billions of people who don’t have those things, and it’s enough to make you feel happy.
You don’t always realize how important those things are until you lose them. When you get sick, you stop caring about stuff, you just want to be healthy again. When you don’t have access to things like clean water or air, those become your only wishes. When you can’t even go outside to hang out with friends, a vacation seems like a distant dream.
So, as we enter a new year, I just want to remind myself to be grateful for what I already have. I don’t need more to feel happy. What I have right now is enough.
2025-12-28 16:00:00
The last quarter of 2025 offered me a bit more free time, which I mostly spent unwinding and working on my apps. While I didn’t dive deep into entertainment, I did manage to read a few books, watch some TV shows, and play a handful of games. Still, there weren’t many standout favourites this quarter.
If you’ve been following the tech industry for over a decade like I have, you’ve probably noticed some pretty significant shifts, especially over the last five years. Post-COVID, it seems like tech CEOs have become more involved in politics, pushing certain ideologies that weren’t as prominent before. Back in the day, tech felt more like a space for nerdy innovation, creativity, and problem-solving. Now, it often seems driven by profits, with tech moguls increasingly disconnected from society and the consequences of their actions. There’s a growing presence of influential figures whose opinions and moves dominate the conversation—people like Ray Kurzweil, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Nick Bostrom, and Marc Andreessen.
In More Everything Forever, Adam Becker delves into these changes within the tech industry. He highlights how these prominent figures are shaping the future with their personal ideologies, often at the expense of public well-being. The book reveals how their focus isn’t on improving life for ordinary people, but rather on generating fear, promoting controversial ideas (like Mars colonization or transhumanism), and increasing their wealth.
If you’re in the tech world or even just curious about what’s really going on behind the scenes I highly recommend this book. It’s a wake-up call to critically evaluate the actions and motivations of the billionaires steering our digital future.
Another thought-provoking read was Status and Culture by David Marx, which really opened my eyes to the concept of status and how it shapes human behavior. I hadn’t spent much time thinking about status before, mostly because I don’t encounter people who constantly chase it in my daily life. However, in the age of social media and consumerism, understanding the pursuit of status becomes essential. From why people buy certain things to how they behave when interacting with others, this book explores the motivations behind these actions.
Marx does an excellent job breaking down how people seek higher status and the societal shifts that influence these pursuits. He also discusses how cultural trends in the U.S. evolve, with once-exclusive trends eventually trickling down to lower status levels, leaving high-status individuals to chase new trends. While the book is mostly focused on American culture, it offers valuable insights into how status plays out globally, though some of the cultural references may feel unfamiliar if you’re not acquainted with U.S. society.
This documentary, Mr. Scorsese, about legendary director Martin Scorsese surprised me in the best way. Initially, I thought it might be a bit dry, but once I started watching, I couldn’t stop. The documentary features scenes from Scorsese’s iconic films, with the director himself explaining the stories behind them. While I hadn’t seen many of his older films (Taxi Driver was probably the oldest), I was completely hooked as they dived into more recent classics like Gangs of New York and The Departed.
One thing that really stood out was how resistant Hollywood seemed to be to new ideas, even for a director of Scorsese’s stature. He shared how, at times, it was a struggle to get his vision onto the screen and even harder to secure funding for his projects. It was eye-opening to realize just how difficult it can be, even for the most influential filmmakers.
I had never watched Acapulco, even though it had already wrapped up four seasons. I’m not sure why I never gave it a chance, but when I finally did, I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be one of those feel-good shows that’s easy to watch and fun to get lost in. The series tells the story of a wealthy Mexican man reflecting on his rise to success, starting as a pool boy at a luxurious resort in Acapulco. The story unfolds through flashbacks, as he tells his niece about the pivotal moments of his life. It’s charming, light-hearted, and full of humor. If you enjoy comedy-dramas, I highly recommend it. While the fourth season didn’t quite measure up to the first three, the series did a great job wrapping everything up in the final episode.
Pluribus was a bit of a mixed bag for me. There’s a lot of buzz around it, especially since it was written by Vince Gilligan, the mastermind behind Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The show follows a woman who writes romance novels and, in a post-apocalyptic world, is one of the few people unaffected by a virus that has connected everyone’s minds. The rest of the world feels constant happiness, while the protagonist struggles to adjust to this new reality as an unhappy person.
The premise had a lot of potential, and I liked the concept of exploring what it means to be left out of a collective experience. However, the pacing was incredibly slow, and not much seemed to happen episode to episode. With the next season not arriving until 2027, I’m honestly unsure if it’s a show I’ll be eagerly awaiting. It’s a slow burn, and I’m still on the fence about whether it’s a story I want to keep following.
It had been a long time since I tried a game from a completely new genre, but ARC Raiders immediately caught my attention. It’s an extraction shooter set in an apocalyptic world where robots (called ARCs) have taken over the surface, forcing humans to live underground. Each session begins with you heading topside through tunnels, where you explore ruined environments, complete quests, gather loot, and try to make it back safely via metros or elevators.
What makes the experience truly tense is the presence of other players. You can either cooperate to take down ARCs or end up killing each other for loot. That unpredictability is easily the best part of the game—every run feels different, and it’s hard to get bored.
I’ve spent over 30 hours in ARC Raiders, and overall, I really enjoyed it, even though getting killed by other players can be frustrating. The variety in each session keeps things fresh, but the quest design felt a bit dull and not particularly rewarding. Another downside is the downtime after dying: reorganizing your stash and crafting new gear can take quite a while before you’re ready for the next run.
That said, the game shines when played with one or two friends. I’ll definitely keep coming back to it over time.
I previously played Anno 1800 and loved its setting and progression, so when Anno 117: Pax Romana was announced—set during the peak of the Roman Empire—I was immediately interested. I finally had the chance to play it during the Christmas holidays. Anno 117 is a city-building strategy game where you create and grow settlements on islands. You start with basic worker classes and gradually upgrade them by meeting their needs. Each new class introduces more complex demands, which means careful resource management is essential. On top of that, you also need to consider happiness, fire risk, and public health.
Overall, I had a great time with the game, much like I did with Anno 1800. Once I started playing, I was completely hooked—spending more than 10 hours in a single day wasn’t unusual. From that perspective, the game is very engaging. However, once I reached the late game, things started to feel repetitive. There wasn’t much left to do beyond routine tasks like unlocking everything in research or setting up additional settlements on new islands. While you technically have the freedom to expand endlessly, it eventually starts to feel like chore work rather than meaningful progression.
I played the game via a Ubisoft+ subscription (€18) because I wasn’t sure it was worth paying the full €60. In hindsight, I’m glad I did. The game doesn’t introduce enough new ideas compared to Anno 1800 to justify the full price. If you’re interested, I’d recommend waiting for a discount rather than buying it at launch price.
2025-12-01 18:30:00
Before diving into what a city super app is, let’s first explore the concept of a super app itself and why it’s becoming essential in modern digital life.
Super apps are not a new concept. They’re more common in Eastern countries, which is why you may not be as familiar with them in the West. In Southeast Asia, for example, the most well-known super app is WeChat in China. On WeChat, you can access social media, payment tools, online shopping, ride-booking, travel bookings, and food delivery — all within a single app.
The success of WeChat inspired many startups in the West to explore the super app concept. While no app has reached WeChat’s level of integration, several are heading in that direction:
Some argue that this model benefits companies because they don’t have to spend much to acquire users for new services, and they can gather more data. It’s also convenient for users since they can access many services from one place.
However, others warn that when users stay within a single app, they might miss out on better services or lower prices available elsewhere. If one service within the app fails, users could lose access to several other services they rely on, such as their bank account.
I’m not sure if this model will work in the long run, but I do believe that the core services these apps were originally built for will suffer over time. As companies focus more on adding new features and growing their user base, they may stop improving the services they were originally known for.
Now that you understand what a super app is, you can probably guess what a city super app might be. It’s an app that brings together everything about a city. But what exactly do I mean by everything? That’s the exciting part — it can include anything that’s related to the city.
So, what makes a city a city? It’s not just the buildings and streets, but its legal status and how it’s governed. I live in Hamburg, which is a city-state, so elections are an important part of civic life. This would be a good starting point for a city super app. You could access information on local parliament members, find out how to reach them, ask questions, check past election results, and view upcoming election polls. These features help you engage with your community and participate in your civic rights.
But why would you need an app for your city? The goal is to make city life easier. Maybe you enjoy long walks and want to find public toilets or water stations without searching around. Or maybe you need to charge your electric vehicle or find a pharmacy at night. A city super app can bring all this information together in one place. Sure, you can find this information on separate websites, but that’s the problem. You have to search for it, verify the data, and wade through ads or poorly designed pages. All you want is to find a place to pee or charge your car.
Beyond these basic needs, a city super app can help you discover more about the city. Nature spots, playgrounds, bike routes, festivals, public libraries, coffee roasters, and more. You might know websites or Instagram pages for some of these, but they don’t offer a single place to explore everything without pushing products or promotions. A city super app solves that problem. Whenever you need something or want to discover a new part of the city, you can simply open the app.
A few years ago, I had the idea for a city super app. Thanks to my friends and colleagues, I’ve learned a lot about Hamburg. Over time, I met more people and realized not everyone knows as much about the city as I do. So, I thought: Why not create an app that collects everything I know about the city? I started by writing down everything in the Notes app.
I shared the idea with my friends, and they agreed that an app like this could be really helpful for many people. Over the past few months, I began developing the app. Every day, I’d work on a new section, sitting in a café for a couple of hours. By the end of October, I launched it. The response on Reddit and LinkedIn blew me away. People loved the app and the idea behind it! I guess I proved once again that people often don’t realize what they need until it’s right in front of them.
I named the app Franzbrötchen because it’s a famous pastry in Hamburg, made with cinnamon and sugar. It’s delicious, especially when you get it from a local bakery, not the big chains. People really liked the name!
Here are some of the categories in the app:
This list goes on. There are probably hundreds of things I could add to the app, but for the initial release, I focused on what would help people understand the concept. Over time, I’ve added more features, and many users have suggested new ideas I hadn’t even thought about. The app has even helped me discover things I didn’t know about my own city!
Now, I have a long list of features to add in the future, which will keep me busy for the next few years. It’s time-consuming, but I believe it’s my way of giving back to the community I enjoy living in. The app is completely free and has no ads. I don’t track any user data, and unlike most apps, I don’t focus on engagement. My main goal is to help people solve problems and discover more about their city.
When it comes to data, I’m lucky that there’s a law in Germany (Datennutzungsgesetz) requiring public offices to share non-personal data in machine-readable and open formats. This is where I get most of the data for the app. I also curated some of my own lists and linked to non-profit organizations’ websites when necessary. This combination ensures that the data in the app is reliable and verifiable. Of course, sometimes the data can be outdated because public offices don’t always update it regularly, but since things in the city don’t change that often, the information is usually up-to-date.
Before ChatGPT and other large language models, there were three main ways people accessed information online:
These channels have changed a lot in the past few years. Companies figured out how to manipulate them to make money. As a result, they started showing more ads, requiring accounts, and making the platforms addictive, so people spent more time on them and saw even more ads.
Then, in 2022, ChatGPT arrived. What ChatGPT did was scrape the entire internet and offer a new way to access information. Instead of searching for keywords, you could ask full sentences and get an answer right away. You didn’t need to wait for someone to respond or sift through multiple answers. It was like having a conversation with a knowledgeable friend.
But there’s a downside to ChatGPT. Since you interact by chatting and only get one answer, unlike search engines or forums, you might assume the answer is correct and not look for other options. ChatGPT generates responses based on what’s most commonly mentioned in its training data, but sometimes it can be wrong or even create hallucinations. That’s just how the system works.
So, what does this have to do with a city super app? Some people might think that ChatGPT could replace a city super app, but the problem I mentioned above still applies. While ChatGPT offers a more conversational way to access information, you can’t always trust the answer. For example, if you ask for your district representative’s name, ChatGPT might get part of the answer right, but not the full, correct answer. This is where a city super app integrated with a voice assistant could solve the problem.
Instead of Siri trying to answer questions about Hamburg based on its own model or the internet, it could pass the question to my Franzbrötchen app. Since most of the information in my app comes from official sources or non-profits that focus on accuracy, Siri could deliver a 100% correct answer.
The good news is that Apple is already building the system I’m talking about with App Intents. While it’s not perfect yet, when apps like mine integrate with this system and Siri gets its long-awaited update next year, I believe this will change how people access information on their digital devices in a couple of years.
You might be wondering how a city super app can be sustainable, given the amount of time and effort required to build it. Well, I believe these apps will either rely on donations from users (like mine) or receive public funding. Companies offering voice assistants might also pay apps based on the number of queries answered.
I don’t think any big company can create a city super app for every city in the world and guarantee reliable information. This is why I believe every city will need to create its own. A company based in California can’t create a better app or service for a city thousands of kilometers away. The locals know their city best. We’ll have to see how this all plays out.