Jürgen Schweizer

“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”
– J. W. v. Goethe

As a young man I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to become a philosopher, writer, painter, or scientist – among other things. It so happened that I did a Ph.D. in Mathematics. But whatever I do, my other interests always come bugging me.

I believe that the world is grey and that black and white are idealizations we make up because we do not want to deal with the messy states in between. I believe that it is our failures more than our successes that make us who we are. I believe in the liberating effect of the scientific method. And I believe that science can’t tell us everything – hence philosophy, art, and literature – among other things. I believe that nothing will ever be perfect, which is why we need to keep moving; or as Leonard Cohen put it: “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

I never wanted to become a leader, but came to believe that this dislike might be a prerequisite for being a good one. Ideas from Buddhism – especially of the Tibetan and Zen kind – help me to stay centered and weather rough times. I typically get into things way over my head; sometimes I need to retreat; sometimes I succeed.

After I left university I started Cultured Code to work on my “Sea of Information” project, a personal information management software. I was in over my head – and this time around – needed to retreat. I created the web design tool Xyle scope instead. The functionality it provided and more now comes standard with the Safari web developer tools. Later I created the to-do list app Things in an attempt to move closer to my original Sea of Information idea.

In April 2012 I left Cultured Code to start Semantical.