You’re quite the philosopher, aren’t you?

This I have heard often in life. It is right though, you’ll hear me having thoughts about much ‘deep’ stuff, without having had any active interest in philosophy itself.

‘With Oli, no thing has ever been just simple.’, dad reflects. And yes, even my apprenticeship as a software developer was anything but a walk in the park.
Many of my gifts of perception, noticing patterns and rules I could make use of, but with the pressing question of ‘Why?’ I seemed not to pursue the right direction.

I have always wanted to get to the bottom of things, wanted to know how it works, which rules really apply, where I can be absolutely sure. Books, role models and patient, trustworthy people and a sound image of the world always were of aid in the process.

The Why of it all

We all love it, not to have to think about everything from scratch.
To accomplish that, we make use of premade solutions and concepts. Language constructs, ethic convention, also laws and tradition tend to ease everyday life.

While humans mostly wander the level of ‘taking the things as they are’, I find myself on another platform entirely per default:
The deeper meanings hold the most value for me, only after those I can think about all the more obvious things.
When the others went out partying, I was thinking about why you should even go party and why everybody behaved how they behaved and why I should take part in it or if I should even be able to do it. While others just watch movies for the fun of it, I much rather like to dive into the making of them. While in primary school simple sentences had to be read, I was pondering what that should do. When the others were finding mates, I was just trying to figure out how that whole thing actually works. Others practice sports, while I just think about what would be the most effective and universally applicable physical activity for me. The same with nutrition, for the household, with family.

Curse or Blessing?

The answer of why I do something decides over how I feel about that thing and how much strength of will is involved. Moreover, the soul crushing uneasiness will be unbearable, when I would get into something without a good Why at hand.

Without the realisation of what is behind the thing, I can’t really live well. Without a plausible narrative – mind you, that one can change far too quickly – I feel like my world will end.

This approach and talking about it (to ‘philosophise’) made many things possible for me and has brought me quite far, but ever so often it divides me and my fellow humans.

But be at ease: I am very lucky to have raised a sound philosophy or at least a personal explanation for most areas. Especially for the supreme discipline of human communication. My answers are at times so well put, that my way of life may inspire and enrich others. For that I am deeply thankful and that is the greatest reward!

Further more: Thanks to my gift of being able to master verbal expression, I may share this multitude of philosophies, theories, algorithms and visible-to-me underlying concepts and write them down.

So, the heft of philosophy is one that might be wholesome and helpful for the human, but will also leave significant traces when perceived constantly…