Recent content in Home on Roel van der Ven
Someone drops a link in a chat: “I made a WhatsApp group for this, join here.” A school project, a street party, a daycare parents exchange, yet another neighbourhood initiative. Within a minute fifteen people are in, photos are flowing, and the thing basically organizes itself. I get it. WhatsApp is super easy. You install it once, it finds everyone you know, and it removes almost all…
Our youngest is six and deep in the phase where letters are magic. She fills pages with experiments: her name, words she’s sounded out, invented spellings that are almost right and somehow more charming for it. Reading is clicking into place in real time and it’s one of those things you can’t quite believe you’re watching. We started doing word search puzzles together. She…
For a while I was doing what most people do: one AI assistant, one big context window, everything in one place. Convenient on paper. In practice, it’s a bit like asking the same person to be your chef, your accountant, and your personal trainer. The context bleed alone makes everything worse. I’ve been running a different setup for a few months now and it’s holding up better than…
Finally re-watching the Star Wars series with Teun. Incredible how the movies are still holding up 45 years later. So much fun!
I self-host Planka on my homelab and use it to manage everything from software side projects to household finances to recurring chores. It’s open source, it’s fast, and it does what I need without the bloat. What I wasn’t happy with was the friction of keeping it in sync with what I was actually doing. Every time I finished a task, I’d context-switch to a browser tab, find…
Every time I ask an LLM to draft something for me, there’s a version of the output that reads like it was written by a committee of consultants who all attended the same TED talk. You know the voice: punchy, agreeable, decorated with em dashes, and somehow both confident and saying nothing at all. That’s the default. And for a while I accepted it, because editing AI output into…
Last updated: April 2026 This is a /now page. A snapshot of what’s going on, what I’m thinking about, and what I’m enjoying. It changes. That’s the point. Life Pollen season has been brutal this year. I don’t know if it’s the climate, the birch trees, or just my imagination, but everything hit harder and earlier than usual. The good news: it should be almost…
Cillian Murphy so we must watch it. No regrets. Those drone shots were impressively architected to remind you of the ROLLERCOASTER of emotions your riding in this film. What a gripping telling of this beautiful story. Also, I think this movie probably hits different when you’re a parent. Those kids and the love for them, it hurts man.
January was very cold, the lake was frozen, I ran on it.
It’s been a while, but I still got it. Flour, water, salt. With flour from Wolter .
Here’s a thought experiment I’ve been using in conversations lately. Imagine you have unlimited resources. You can assemble any team you want and you have unlimited tokens. Would you launch a brand new product in two days, built entirely by AI? Most people say yes, or at least a confident “probably.” Now change the frame. You have a product with 500 million users, half of…
La Haine deserved a rewatch. What a ride.
We went for a kayak trip with neighbours. It was cold, but amazing. We should do more of this.
Vacationing in Skåne, Sweden. We’ve had a great time! This is Noortje and me at sunset.
I’ve rewatched The Andromeda Strain again. This is one of the best hardcore sci-fi movies there is. The story is good, it’s even science based (!) and the visuals are just gorgeous. Highly recommend this one if you haven’t seen it yet. Look at this shot!
In recent years, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has seen tremendous progress, particularly in the area of natural language processing. The development of powerful language models like GPT-3 has made it possible for machines to generate human-like text at a scale and speed that was previously unimaginable. This has led many to believe that we are approaching a tipping point where the…
The idea of something being “old-school”, “retro” or even “cyberpunk”, exists because we attach a feeling of nostalgia to it. I’ve been fascinated recently by this because culture sometimes reaches back in time to (re) experience something, or at other times might even be ahead of its time! Tape Last month Taylor Swift released her latest album Midnights…
In a distributed workplace it can be challenging to understand each other as a whole person, so I’m trying to share some personal things about myself with anyone I might collaborate with. I hope this will frontload the trust-building somewhat, and so far I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback. By being open and upfront about who I am and how my brain ticks, I hope to build transparency…
While some of us might feel comfortable with working from home, there might be others who don’t. There are plenty of resources available now on what tools, frameworks and other tips to help improve or maintain productivity, but between those it can feel very disruptive to suddenly find yourself at home alone without the structures you have in the office. I’ve found that we mostly talk about being…
Tony Sojka made this picture of Roel after visiting tape.tv for a coffee. Check out his Instagram for more.
In June 2018 I’ve participated in a Vipassana 10 day meditation course. After having processed most of it, I feel the need of articulating my thoughts and feelings here. The below is only a summary of my own experience. There is no guarantee you will experience similar things. If you have been considering participating in a course, I hope my experiences can help make up your mind. I’m…
There is something missing on the internet, but I can’t build it myself. Usually I would try to hack something together, but one of my 2018 goals is to not start any new side projects . Instead, I decided to publish my thoughts here, perhaps someone else will like this free product idea and build it! Product Perspective As a product manager, I often look at screens, user flows and websites…
Ever since @marcohamersma pointed me to Going to the Store , I’m hooked on this kind of 3D art. I can’t explain why it’s so mesmerizing to me, as it makes many other people quite uncomfortable. I was very happy to have found some more lately, and even more so to collect a bunch of those videos here to show you. Here it is, a list of my favorite uncomfortable, hyper-realistic,…
The internet became a terrible place. It seems that today we need to give our data, content and attention to others in order to receive a virtual form of social affirmation. This is my answer to that. Attention as a currency I don’t like this. I have trouble managing my attention and I noticed I started to develop several nervous habits. I am a child of the internet, a true early adopter.…
Roel van der Ven is an experienced Senior Product Manager with more than a decade of experience in product management, software development, and strategic consulting. He has worked for companies such as Spotify , SoundCloud , Last.fm and General Assembly and has consulted for various small and medium-sized businesses and startups. Roel has a proven track record of building successful product teams…
Phil in Berlin After moving to New York, Phil visited Berlin and met up with me for a beer at Kasck. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTPaF8yA0pL/
My son loves trains, this was his first real train ride! Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BLA4icgDobvcP6FMATjsbIzcinG74qfJGb4um40/ .
Since a couple of months we’ve been anxious, excited and proud. A new human was about to be born, but most importantly; it would be our human. We quickly learned that the old-school Dutch name “Teun” is a little complicated to pronounce for non-Dutch speakers. Luckily we could do something about that. Borrowing some code I’ve previously wrote on Music Hack Day projects,…
We like to make funny faces, when someone pointed a camera at us we didn’t stop. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/9QToWTSlZVi7nmQ1yzuEyKazgb2Yjp_O6y9TU0/ .
Fabian and me in the sun on a Berlin rooftop. Photo by Jens . Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/3eipE_kfMC/
It was a great evening when we surprised Connor for his birthday at Lokal Photo by Jens . Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/1TAAgGEfLG/
My early learnings as an online media consultant still seem valid. As the current market is changing at a maddening pace I thought it relevant to write a retrospect. In 2007 I had my first job at a publisher, Techmedia. It was a small company (±6 people) and we worked with a network of freelancers to publish a young brand called Bright . We worked on a magazine, weblog, video podcast and even a TV…
It’s past midnight in Berlin, happy new year! I was ill, we were at home but we went out to see the fireworks. Here’s to a new year! Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/xSmyFVEoPt/
I like Post-its As a product manager, you work with Post-its a lot. Jakob took a photo of me. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/tk3dc8JBcs/
Roel and Noortje being happy campers on their bikes. Amsterdam we missed you. We stayed with Rolf and Linda, they lend us their bikes and made us happy! Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/w6qaglkoAo/ .
I’ve always been fascinated by stories and what they do with us. Our thoughts, our characters, our experiences. Stories shape who we are and who we’re becoming. I was really inspired by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who opened my eyes with her talked on the danger of a single story. A single story emphasises on how we are different, rather than how we are similar. I think that’s a brilliant phrase to…
After moving in, we fed a hungry crew with these 1 meter pizzas from across the street. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/uL_LU9ylVyfEMnSM5X1yNpISimR50O-ortKP80/ .
We went for a walk when it was raining, but we had to reach the sea. Soaking wet but lots of fun. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/s8CdFbSlQ3P5R6GRcTXrWoLIgiMwH-m0_owyY0/ .
It was dark outside and we are taking a little trip. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/rzJD6OSlUELcPQpKIh_sZT2sEQ3BnW1H3ytNg0/ .
On summer days we’d go on bike tours out of town. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/q9mX4hSldH0rfdwAk27vDS13hmx535gUt0pUc0/
Technology and music are two of the most important things that keep me inspired. The people behind Blogotheque have been my heroes for a long time, but no they made a leap into the future by filming the band ALB with a drone. The whole video is shot in 1 take, which reduces the chance of “catching your breath”. Without switching context your brain keeps processing what it sees, thus keeping you on…
I haven’t been able to post anything lately because of a new and interesting adventure. I’ve joined http://tape.tv , more about that later. This post is about Run River North, who released an amazing music video with their new song called Excuses. Every once and a while you see and/or hear something what makes you think: “Yes. This is it”. Well, this is it. The video combines a lot of ideas that…
You can still hear the echoes! Noortje and I did some urban exploring and found ourselves on the Teufelsberg mountain to inspect the abandoned NSA spy station from the Cold War. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/mtHF_NkoCI/
After a splendid Music Hack Day London in 2011 we were lucky to be invited to a small tour in the National Physical Laboratory of London. Ian Butterworth was so kind to show us around and illustrate the impressive effects of the acoustic chambers they use for testing. These recordings have been sitting around on my SoundCloud account for ages and I am finally posting them here for you to enjoy.…
Photo by Ian Hooper Ian, Carsten and Roel went climbing at Bertha Bloc in Berlin. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/kbszxhqtjI/
A photo of Roel’s sweater with the Star Wars logo. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/jyZKYHylQuUVT7v3TOzrOrftPjhTtN1f6pV6g0/
We rented a moped and explored the island together. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/iYvxGzSlc2iflzdFMICn7AHVs86Cdl6uVxuSw0/ .
This cat is named Apie. When he is happy he drools on you, true story. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/g8vugXylf3YvY0xQO98ghjev2IdBm_nnMCHT00/
Yesterday Atoms for Peace released the music video for their track “Before your very Eyes”. Mister Thom Yorke can be a music industry defeatist all he wants, but I’ll be inspired by his works forever. Enjoy.