…and about humanfactor.blog

We, humans, are cultural animals. Animals – based on our biological nature. Cultural – based on our symbolic nature. We contain this dual-self complexity. Each of the two “selves” has its needs. This blog is dedicated to the needs of our symbolic “selves” – that which philosophers have called the human condition.

My name is Natalija Cera, and I started this blog in August 2019 to explore the topics I love, capture my reflections on them, and exchange with others who would like to connect based on shared interests.

What kind of topics can you expect on humanfactor.blog?

  • Questions around our human experience of meaning and purpose (main need of our symbolic “self”, in my opinion)
  • My reflections on relevant books, articles, movies
  • Insights into historical events, personalities, and traditions that influence human culture and our way of thinking (mostly in the Western tradition)

Ever since childhood, I have always loved history and philosophy. Perhaps strangely, my academic and professional path until recently has been in the areas of business, finance and law. As a teenager, I treated my interests seriously enough and frequently read books and watched documentary movies on historical, cultural and philosophical topics. I remember even trying to learn to read and understand ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. During my university years and the beginning of my working life, however, I neglected these interests more and more, although my passion for them did not disappear. So it was that for many years my focus was mainly on my career growth in international corporations. Then, after more than a decade of dedication to the material world of finance and law, I noticed a growing feeling of incomprehensible emptiness and diminishing motivation. The neglect of my own deeper values and interests had started to make itself felt. After a couple of years of searching for a solution, during which I read a lot of self-help style books and even did a coaching course, I finally decided to go “back to basics”. To my deeper values and interests.

This is how humanfactor.blog was born. It is my attempt to manifest the act of “going back to basics” in real life. Using it as a platform for exploration and expression, I hope to acknowledge my authentic values and interests and connect with others to mutually share, inspire and broaden our horizons.

Stay tuned and keep exploring!