Life offers many complex situations. Therefore we cannot have one simple rule for every situation. Sometimes we choose between two or more rules, sometimes we make a combination of rules, and then again we might also make an exception to a certain rule. Just like secret police often lies to protect their country. Saving lives is more important in this case than adhering to the rule: ‘Thou shalt not lie.’ The only people who always adhere to one rule are, in my opinion, fanatics. The key ingredient of a fanatic is, I believe, not thinking, always deciding the same way. This may make our live...

I have a pretty harsh inner critic in me, a voice telling me I am not good enough. I read that this comes from my childhood, from too conditional love from my parents. In the sense: “We will love you, if you are good.” Now I am asking myself: How else are parents supposed to raise a child? A human being cannot do anything one pleases, because there are other people on the planet and there have to be some rules. In order to teach the child the rules, one has to motivate her or him. You promise the child to be treated nicely, if the child is good. It dawned on me in this respect that if you have...