Why "Der Osten" Matters On Constructed Realities

Dirk Oschmann's book demolished something I took for granted: "the East" as a real place with real characteristics.

It's not. It's an invention. The West created it.

"Eastern efficiency," "Eastern mystique," "Eastern values" these aren't objective truths. They're stories the West told itself.

This hit hard while building globally. I realized I was carrying these stories without questioning them.

A German colleague and I were working on localization. I suggested "Eastern European needs this feature differently." My colleague laughed: "Which East? Which Europe? You're creating categories that don't exist."

He was right. I was collapsing 500 million people into a single invented category.

Berdahl's core insight: whenever you see a category ("the East," "the West," "tech people," "business people"), ask who invented this? Whose interests does it serve?

In tech, we do this constantly. "Developers think this way." "Business users want that." We're inventing categories to simplify complexity. Sometimes useful. Often limiting.

The book taught me intellectual humility. The world is more complex than my categories. And noticing that makes you a better builder.