A man's search for meaning

I have recently drastically ramped up the number of books read, with my pipeline being compiled from recommendations in the media or from friends. With the two sources being at times insufficient, AI turns out to be a (not flawless) source of inspiration.

Not a long ago, prompted by recurring thoughts on how to arrange my life, if the fate does not bring a chance to raise a family, I asked chatGPT to recommended readings on searching for a sense in life. The item which popped up as a first non-philosophical book was the one by Victor E. Frankl.

The author was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, but above all, a concentration camp survivor. He wrote the first version of his work in 1946, as the memories of shirking annihilation were still fresh. As he quotes the statistics, ex-post odds to come out alive of a concentration camp, were 1 to 28. Those who survived until "liberation" (whatever evil you may say of the Soviet army, prisoners of Nazi concentration camps were saved from death by them) were not lucky, nor of extraordinary stamina, nor had much lust for life. As Mr Frankl pointed out, they kept seeing deeper sense of their suffering and chased dignity in places where it was downtrodden.

The experience of concentration camp survival laid foundations for logotherapy, a therapeutic approach which is uncommon these days. Note the book, though augmented twice, the last time in 1984, might appear outdated today, as human life and relationships have been deeply reshaped over the last decades. The second chapter of the book, written sometime between 1946 and 1984, concisely and approachably summarises basics of logotherapy, which I dare to interpret below.

According to the author, the basic driver of a sense of meaning in life is a pursuit of a mission being accomplished. Be it inventing a cure for cancer, raising a family, constructing bridges or helping orphans as a volunteer - life must a have a defined goal, which either is chased indefinitely or offers deep self-fulfilment when achieved.

The mission pursued lifts a human out of two states into which humans inevitably plunge and between which they then swing - boredom and despair. In early industrial times, when physical labour was took up 50 - 60 hours a week and running a house and a raising a multi-child family occupied most of the time, little time was left for boredom, so the despair prevailed. In post-industrial era, with shorter working hours and several appliances taking mundane duties off people in developed countries, boredom takes over. Although life seems easier now, lifting oneself from boredom is more problematic than overcoming despair a century ago. Despair comes up when life overwhelms you. Boredom creeps up when you lack resources to fill the void.

The meaning of life has three dimensions:
1) work or action - either as part of your vocational duties or voluntarily you create something, which brings you some benefits or prompts positive feelings,
2) relationships and experiencing - draw on the concept no man as an island and interactions with fellow humans add much value to our lives, however taking pleasure in nature, art or exploring new places to bring delight to our senses also may be a goal to be pursued,
3) suffering - is not a compulsory element of searching the meaning, but once life confronts you with illness, pain, bereavement or loss of wealth, it gives you a chance to be reborn and to redefine your dignity.

Upon reading the book I am pretty sure the fate has a plan for each of us. I also approach the future, no matter how not bright it might be, with more humility and faith things will shape up.

Góry Świętokrzyskie for a weekend

Spent the last weekend away, yet not far away from Warsaw in Góry Świętokrzyskie, a hilly area closest to Warsaw, which does not deserved be named mountains. Ventured there with almost the same circle of friends, all current or former volunteers in Szlachetna Paczka with whom I took a trip to Sardinia three years ago.

The quite short time spent in a group of seven people reminded me I had got used to travelling on my own or in a couple. Or maybe it just highlighted divergencies between my friends and me (where the six of them are quite similar to one another). Travelling with my girlfriends, optionally also with their friends seems a whole lot easier.

With my friends for a long time I have noticed two major moot points. Firstly - sleeping habits. I am the only early bird in this group, while others prefer to sit up late (which I don't mind, but get up early next morning anyway). Secondly - eating. I am the one who eats to live, not the other way round and do not take delight in dining. Besides, I eat a large breakfast and a proper lunch and then take up little until going to sleep. They in turn all adore tasty food and a dinner is their main meal over the day. I like their company, but each time I am surrounded by them for more than a few hours, I repeat to myself I am not marrying them, hence my frustrations are useless.

Now a few snaps from the trip. On Saturday we climbed a short trail to Święty Krzyż church. Had I travelled on my own, I would have reached the peak by 10:00 a.m. With my friends we got there in full heat at 1:00 p.m.

The church has a viewing tower (entrance charge: PLN 10), which lets visitors behold splendid panoramas of nearby hilly landscapes. I am fond of looking at the world from above, hence joyfully forked out a tenner to take delight in it.

On Sunday we scrambled up Łysica, the highest hill around, mere 612 metres above sea level. We marched up just past a rainfall, so the ascent, though short, was a bit of nasty. Predictably, droves of tourists on rocks on top.

Later on we drove to Zagnańsk to pass by apparently the oldest tree in Poland, oak Bartek, whose age is estimated at between 700 and 1,000 years. The very tree needs to be fenced off and solidly propped up to retain its monumental nature 

The area is abundant in several tourist attractions and we could have seen more of them, had it not been an overly lazy weekend ;-)

Warsaw climate statistics

A seemingly cold and wet weather in July this year has prompted some brain-devoid denialist to call into question an only accelerating global warming. In fact the previous month was not cooler nor wetter than 1991-2020 average. Mean temperature in July 2025 reached +19.9C, vs. long-term average of +19.7C and total precipitation reached 54.4 millimetres, vs. long-term average of 82.2 millimetres.

Although there is little chance I convince conspiracy theorists, I resolved to take little autistic delight in playing with numbers and compiling chart showing how the climate in the capital of Poland has evolved since 1951. In my analysis I fully rely on resumed and revamped Meteomodel page, which in turn has brilliantly processed raw data available from the Polish Met Office (IMGW).

First comes a standard temperature by month chart, with three lines representing 30-year averages in three measurement periods. They illustrate climate change dynamics in the perspective of two decades. You can clearly see winters and summers are "most affected" periods, while in spring and autumn average temperature increase at a slower pace.

From this chart on, I begin to illustrate long-term trends with rolling 10-year and 30-year averages. The outcomes clearly indicate mean yearly temperature in Warsaw has risen by more than 1 Celsius degree over the last 40 years and the warming has speeded up over the last decade.

Looking at winter months only (note 0 on the horizontal axis stands for 0C), we see harsh winters are the thing of the past, the last such one was in 2012/13. The recent winters with mean temperatures above 0C do not even meet the formal definition of a winter.

For summer months, the temperature incline trend is even clearer. Today one forgets summers with average temperature below +17C were quite prevalent in 1960s and 1970s. Note the 10Y rolling average has gone up by 3 Celsius degrees over merely four decades.

One of the biggest reasons to worry about the impact of the climate change are heat waves. The number of days defined as hot back in the second half of the twentieth century ran at 5 a year on average. In recent two decades it skyrocketed. Hence summer 2025 with 4 hot days so far is perceived as mild.

But quite often temperatures only nears +30C and this is captured by the chart showing number of days with day-time high above +25C. Here the trend is also clear, however less disturbing.

Heat waves are periods of misery not because of hot afternoons, but due to nights which do not bring relief. A few decades ago heat was more bearable than these days, as dawns with minimum temperature above +20C were an absolute rarity. The stats however, do not capture several nights with temperature dropping for a few minutes barely below +20C. Counting them would require lots of manual work, which at the moment is none of my priorities.

The number of days with frost declines, yet here the tendency is much slower than for warmth-related figures. A few decades ago a frost in May was quite usual. These days ground frosts in May happen, but two metres above ground temperature stays positive. Half of 10 recent Octobers were frost-free, while there has been no frost-free April so far (the earliest last frost reported on 2 April 2016.

The number of days with no thaw in turn decreased more dramatically, especially in recent years, heralding a demise of proper winters. Winters in Warsaw may soon have a through-zero pattern, with snow or sleet falling and melting and slippery surfaces being a plague.

A few decades ago Warsaw saw around 20 days with double-digit frost in mornings. Looking at the last decade such number dropped close to 5, with some winters with all-season lows above -10C. And within last 13 years temperature dropped below -20C only once, on 18 January 2021. Before 1990 such harsh frosts were observed every second or third year.

If winter, then snow. Here numbers bring even more ample evidence of winters retreating. The 10Y average number of days with snow cover peaked in 1971 close to 80, while in 2025 it fell to little more than 30. Here of note are mild winters from late 1980s and early 1990s which for a while gave way to proper winters, the last proper one ending in April 2013. It was all downhill since then.

Hope you've enjoyed the read to the same extent to which I've drawn pleasure from compiling this bunch of charts and accompanying comments.

Not a posting next week (off to Góry Świętokrzyskie).