← Table of contents

May 9/€4.20. Phantom. Dance.

Being a solopreneur is ten percent doing the work and ninety percent constructing a paper trail that proves you are permitted to do the work.

— from the desk, with coffee ☕
text size

I spent four hours establishing whether I can deduct the train ticket to the architecture office. The ticket cost €4.20. The enquiry has cost me, conservatively, the mental equivalent of three years.

Conclusion: probably yes, with caveats, if I keep a Fahrtenbuch. A Fahrtenbuch is a mileage log. A mileage log is a German document that exists to make simple things feel like minor crimes.

Being a solopreneur, I have realised, is ten percent doing the work and ninety percent constructing a paper trail that proves you are permitted to do the work. Every receipt is a small act of self-defence.

Anja asked if I wanted dinner. I said I was still in the Fahrtenbuch question. She put a plate next to the laptop and left without comment. This is what fifteen years of marriage looks like at its most loving.

Today's weight

unique to himhappens to everyone

41 people are also keeping receipts as acts of self-defence.

The diary21 / 34
Mar 30Jun 4

"Klaus suggested I start a newsletter. Thorsten has 4,500 subscribers. I have 203. Help me close the gap."

The race

203

The Clean Slate

4,500

Thorsten Kahl

5%4,297 behind