Ilona Borsos
Product manager
What is this place?
I created this website to develop, translate, analyze, describe, and share various things that interest me and that I want to learn more about.
This digital garden is my personal collection of various elements of the world I live in, which I explain to myself in order to better understand them - and through that, to be able to experience the world in increasingly richer ways.
Work
I’ve always been interested in many different things, and I found myself best at the intersection of different topics - as someone who ultimately brings them together and leads to the creation of something new.
I love learning new things and observing how the combination of seemingly unrelated topics creates new ideas - and how concepts and theories from one area can become a lens through which completely different ideas can be analyzed.
Organizing various events or projects also comes naturally to me - and this is exactly the direction my career has taken so far. During my studies, I worked in student government, in my early working years I founded the Kraków Tableau User Group meetup, and currently I work as a product manager at WP Engine.
Interests
Learning processes and thinking tools - due to my work, I encounter completely new situations almost every day and the need to learn new things (usually quickly and efficiently). Additionally, I currently live in Budapest and learn Hungarian in my spare time. This situation (combined with my concentration problems) made me interested in mental models and various types of tools for thought - techniques and tools that support learning. I assume that a large part of the content of this place will focus on exactly this.
Photography - I became interested in photography in high school, when my friends and I organized makeshift “photo sessions” in the basements of our homes or in nearby forests or fields. Currently, I’m in a honeymoon phase with analog photography (I own a Konica T3 Autoreflex with a Hexanon AR 50/1.7 lens) and I’m preparing for an experimental photography course at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. My style is greatly influenced by Hungarian photographers such as André Kértesz, László Moholy-Nagy, and Szilvia Plachy.
Religious studies - I’m interested in various topics related to religion and mythology, which I usually listen to in my free time. From mysticism in Judaism, through the family tree of Christian denominations worldwide to an eight-hour iceberg of traditional Catholicism. I would like to better understand the history of the beginnings of Christianity.
Art - especially the art of Central and Eastern Europe. Maybe I’m not so much interested in it that I would diligently study its history and theory, but rather it’s a source of more or less intense experiences for me. I run an account @artofcentraleurope, where I publish works that inspire me from this part of the world.
Life vision and work vision
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans in their book “Designing your life” recommend starting the process of consciously designing your life by writing down your views on what life is and what work is. Of course, these views will change over time (and should be refreshed from time to time), but they constitute a necessary foundation for any further action.
Life vision
Date: January 2, 2025
I believe we are here to live fully - to intensely experience everything that life brings - its most beautiful and most frightening elements. At the center of this experience is love for the world, for others, and for ourselves. I believe that the ability to love others is closely related to self-awareness.
The meaning of life for me is the process of self-discovery and creating a life consistent with one’s own nature. This is the path to individuation - becoming a self-aware individual who realizes their talents and through this realization multiplies fulfillment and love - in themselves and in other people. Healthy participation in society requires self-awareness and active engagement in the process of one’s own development.
The environment in which we were born and all the privileges associated with it are a matter of chance - they should not be treated as something deserved or unchangeable. It is important to approach what we received from previous generations - material goods, traditions, wisdom - critically but with respect, and to try to understand where they came from.
I believe in the existence of a transcendent force that created the world, and I see its element in everything that is created. I think that good is a natural effect of love, and evil is an element of human nature that one should be aware of and actively work on. I believe that joy, peace, and love are not something to wait for passively - we can actively generate them through conscious participation in life.
I believe that currently the greatest threat facing people is not living life - settling for observing it due to fear of fully immersing oneself in the experience.
Work vision
Date: January 1, 2025
Work is for me a way of active, useful participation in social life and creating value. I derive satisfaction from the process of creation - from observing how my energy and time transform into concrete results. Through work, I want to solve important problems in a way that really improves the quality of life of other people.
I define good work as clearly defining goals and effectiveness in achieving them, not by the effort put in alone. I value efficient, uncomplicated processes and teamwork in pursuing common goals.
Work is for me a source of financial security - I earn to provide stability for myself and my family, and also to be able to buy what I value most: time. If I didn’t have to work for money, I would still want to create - introduce things into the world that weren’t there before. I believe that passion can be found in any task. However, I don’t engage in activities that I would prefer to see less of in the world around me. I believe there are infinite ways to have a positive impact on the world and it’s important to choose those that align with our natural talents.
I find satisfaction in observing my own development - how tasks that previously caused me difficulty become easier and easier. I find fulfillment in creating valuable solutions, both through my own ideas and coordinating the work of other people so that they dedicate their effort to something meaningful. Personal development, creative action, and positive impact on the world and other people makes my work take on deeper meaning.