The Outside Thinker

Hi, my name is Zsolt. Here are a few words about this page.

In the harsh, loud, and polarized world, the quiet truth gets lost.

My experiences so far have layered in a way that taught me to take the position of an observer. Every human experience is unique; everybody has their own story. But at some level, we can find objective truth that can be a stable reference point or even a great equalizer. I put real effort into keeping a balanced overview of the world with varying success. With that, I can hope that my reality won’t get distorted by forces that want us to be dragged into the daily outrage or the emotional rollercoasters that nowadays define public conversation, mainly online.

I was originally trained as an agri-economist, and later rural development studies led me to rural sociology. I’ve spent years between Hungary and the Netherlands, two European worlds with different assumptions about freedom, community, and how life should be organized. This double perspective shapes how I see patterns others might miss. As my worldview broadened professionally, I also went deep into personal exploration: breathwork, running, meditation, understanding stress, and learning how the body and mind respond to both natural and modern environments. This combination gave me a multidisciplinary lens I can’t switch off anymore. As an anthropologist/ethnographer-like guy, I am constantly observing and monitoring human existence, which ultimately led me toward the topic of human–nature connection. The rural revival happening in many countries today, conscious people gravitating toward the countryside somehow confirms the hunches and interests I’ve carried all along.

So being The Outside Thinker is about observing the world as it unfolds, from my unique perspective.

As the name suggests, I am trying to think outside of the box. But the name also implies the outside as the countryside or simply the outdoors, which provide physical contact with nature and its elements.

In a world where extreme specialization dominated the last decades and still dominates, I always felt the urge to broaden my thinking and connect the dots. For a long time, I felt a bit lost, unable to fit into a single niche. After listening to tons of Alan Watts recordings, I realized that this broad curiosity wasn’t a weakness; it was actually close to how thinkers operated for most of history. Philosophers observed the world, the human condition, and nature in a way that feels surprisingly similar to how I’ve been doing it instinctively for years. The horse archer Lajos Kassai once noted that traditional Hungarian peasants mastered 6–8 different trades as part of their everyday reality, multidisciplinary thinking wasn’t just academic; it was simply how people lived.

This way of thinking can feel complex, sometimes overwhelming, but I enjoy it deeply. That’s simply how my mind works. Ironically, as a walking ethnographic data-collection sponge about humans and nature, AI tools help organize and refine my thoughts, so in a way, I am actually philosophAIzing.

Still, I don’t have the answers, and please don’t follow me in any traditional sense. I’m just someone who pays attention to the deeper patterns beneath everyday life, human existence, and the nature of reality, and loves to run occasional thought experiments.

If you’re interested in objective thoughts and observations, this might be a good place to check in from time to time.

Thanks for being here.

Let’s keep an eye on the world together, from the outside, where the view is clearer.


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