The invention of the bicycle

In 1815 the volcano Tambora, in Indonesia, began erupting bringing about an unprecedented crisis throughout the northern hemisphere. Tens of thousands of people succumbed to hunger and disease. Horses, the standard form of transportation at that time, were not luckier, as their owners couldn't afford the luxury of feeding them appropriately. Karl Von Drais, the famous German inventor, realized that this crisis represented an opportunity. He discovered that the laufmaschine, one of his most recent inventions, was the means to go from place to place that the situation required. Today this machine is known as the bicycle. The Covid-19 crisis has made it evident that we are facing one of the most serious challenges we have experienced as a society. Faced with a situation that nobody could have foreseen, there's no choice but to give the best of ourselves, demonstrating our capacity to come to grips with it. With this mindset of living with adversity, Jordi Nadal encourages us to take on the challenges that the future holds, with a measured degree of alarm, with the aim of getting round these difficulties as best possible.

Jordi Nadal was born in Lliçà d'Amunt (Barcelona) in 1962 and graduated in German at Barcelona University. In 2007 he set up Plataforma Editorial. He is co-author of Meditating management and Life (Plataforma Editorial, 2012) and author of Book Therapy (Plataforma Editorial, 2017), among other books.