Inspiration plays a big role in my life. Nothing I do is completely unique. I get ideas from others and pass on some of my own. In the end, it’s impossible to say where the concepts of the others end and mine begin. And I like that. Ownership is overrated.
I get a huge kick out of it when I can take some ideas from different sources or mindsets, deconstruct them, mix them up, add some expertise of my own and pass the enhanced idea on to someone else who might do something brilliant with it. That’s why I sometimes describe myself as a ‘thought follower’ (instead of a ‘thought leader’).
I get most of my inspiration from observing (or ‘following’ in the 2.0-sense of the word) people, not just reading articles, magazines etc. I get the deepest insights from “the stuff in between” because I always go for the holistic approach of understanding.
Here is a growing list of people (friends, acquaintances and complete strangers) that have influenced my current way of thinking and my worldview:
Adam Greenfield, Alain de Botton, Axel Quack (binary is death), Ben Hammersley (Wired UK), Bruce Mau, Bud Caddell, Charlene Li (Altimeter), Chris Messina (Google), Cindy Gallop (IfWeRanTheWorld), Dan Hill (Arup), Daniel Ehniß (DEPONE), David Armano (Edelmann), David Noel (Soundcloud), Debora & Florian Hofmann, Don Miller, Emily Chang, Florian Krakau (pl0g), Gerald Hensel (Blast Radius), Gina Trapani (Smarterware), Heiko Hebig (Hubert Burda Media), Igor Schwarzmann (Wired Vanity), Jason Fried (37signals), jeffstaple, Jerri Chou and Mike Karni (All Day Buffet & Lovely Day), Jill Fehrenbacher (Inhabitat) & Peter Rojas (gdgt), Josh Spear, Kai Müller (Stylespion), Malte Christensen (kopfbunt), Maria Popova (Brainpicker), Mark Reichmann (Mateno), Mark Scandrette (ReIMAGINE), Markus Albers, Markus Reuter (BetterTasteThanSorry), Matt Gierhart (Ogilvy), Matt Biddulph (Nokia), Matt Jones & Matt Webb (BERG London), Merlin Mann (43folders), Micha & Dorle Schmidt (Motoki), Michel Gondry, Michelle Thorn (Creative Commons) & Peter Bihr (The Waving Cat), Mike Arauz (Undercurrent), Peter Gregson, Piers Fawkes (PSFK), Richard Reynolds, Rob Bell (Mars Hill), Rob Pepper, Russell Davis (Newspaper Club), Samuel Kleske, Sara & Marc Schiller (Wooster Collective), Sascha Lobo, Sebastian Grünwaldt, Steven B. Johnson, Stowe Boyd, Tara Hunt, Timo Arnall (Touch), Tom Coates, Tyler Brûlé (Monocle), Veronica Belmont (Tekzilla) & Ryan Block (gdgt), to be continued.
