Tobi Lütke: preference

Transcript context

…Do you still read books in German? Occasionally. I must read one book in German a year as a self-policy, which I violated last year, which I was not super happy about. One thing which I find disappointing is when . . . Obviously, I take the opportunities when I want to go to something that’s originally written in German, but I try to read this in an original. Wittgenstein’s Tractatus is an example of this. The English translation is so much better because the translator asked for so many clarifications by Wittgenstein that it just ends up being readable. I found a book which was actually beautifully set — I think MIT published it — of the original German, the English translation, and a translation back to German from the English translation, all in three columns, and that was perfect. Sometimes the English translations get updated again, like for Kant or something like this. I’m actually a fan of rewriting books every — I don’t know — 25, 50 years for two generations down the line because they just get hard to access. Often you get that by reading the English translation. I feel like I lose opportunities to do this. In your opinion, where exactly is the dividing line between North Germany and South Germany? The people in Freiburg will say, “Oh, it’s Mannheim.” But that’s insane, right? Where is it for you?…

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