About

I’m Niels, and I can’t stop asking why people do what they do, especially when the official story doesn’t match reality.

I write about incentives and systems. About the gap between what we’re told works and what actually works when you’re building something real. About trust, identity, and who gets to control what in our digital infrastructure.

By day, I run mintBlue. For the past 4 years, we’ve built data infrastructure for complex, multi-stakeholder systems (governments, enterprises, and projects where 15 departments need to share data without violating laws or compromising each other’s trust). By night, I write to process the patterns I see.

Recent example: The Dutch Ministry of Justice asked how to verify someone’s identity without an ID card. Most teams jumped to facial recognition and biometric databases. We asked: Can we do it without accidentally building surveillance infrastructure?

That question (how to solve the problem without creating a worse one) shows up everywhere I look.

What You’ll Find Here

I write primarily about data systems, trust infrastructure, and incentive design. But I also write about surfing, minimalism, what I’m learning from raising a kid, and why I’m making kimchi at 2 AM.

The through-line isn’t the topic; it’s the lens. I look at everything through systems thinking and economic reasoning. Why do people make the choices they make? What are the hidden incentives? Where’s the gap between theory and reality?

Sometimes that’s technical. Sometimes it’s personal. Sometimes it’s about the small decisions that compound into your whole life.

I’m sceptical of hype, allergic to bullshit, and convinced that most interesting questions don’t have clean answers. I’d rather examine one thing deeply than skim the surface of ten.

I write for people who ask “why?” a lot. Those who want to understand how things actually work, not just accept the official story. Those who appreciate economic reasoning over moral grandstanding. Those who value real examples over theoretical hand-waving.

If you’re comfortable with ambiguity, interested in systems thinking, and prefer depth over breadth, we’ll probably get along.

A Bit More About Me

I live in Amsterdam with my partner, our kid and our cat, who runs the household.

I play guitar badly but enthusiastically. I surf when I can get to the ocean. I’m drawn to minimalism, both as an aesthetic and a way of thinking. Fewer things, clearer thoughts.

I’m figuring out what it means to build a company, raise a tiny human, and stay intellectually honest all at once. Some days I’m better at it than others.

This newsletter is part of that figuring-out process. I write to think, and I share it because sometimes someone else is thinking about the same things.

What are you trying to figure out that no one else seems to be asking about?

If that sounds like you, welcome. I publish every week with deep dives on systems, incentives, and what actually works when you’re building in complex environments.

Subscribe to get these insights in your inbox: no fluff, no hype, just clear thinking about hard problems.

Working on multi-stakeholder data challenges? If you’re dealing with government compliance, enterprise data sharing, or systems where trust is the bottleneck, reach out. That’s what we built mintBlue to solve.

Niels