“ After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world .” -- Philip Pullman A famous and...

“Humans think in stories rather than in facts, numbers, or equations, and the simpler the story, the better.” — Yuval Noah Harari Is the...

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” - Unknown (often attributed to...

'It was the best of times; it was the worst of times' - Charles Dickens I hesitated before writing this. Who am I to generalise, to...

“People care a great deal more about appearance and reputation than about reality.” - Jonathan Haidt , The Righteous Mind Are beliefs the...

“Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work.” - Albert Einstein Where to go next? It feels in the day that Amazon can get a product to...

Blaming others is a common response to not feeling happy Too good to be true usually means too good to be true." – Richard Branson We...

This is the book cover This week, I have not been able to spend as much time writing as I would have liked to, and that is largely...

“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”  – Bruce Lee Outsize outputs come from a small group in inputs. If...

"Focus is the art of knowing what to ignore" - James Clear What to focus on this year? Dear readers thank you for joining me in this...

It's time to have a grown up conversation around free speech... What's the real story of free speech today? Free speech was back in the...

"The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence—it is to act with yesterday's logic." - Peter Drucker If someone had...

"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough." – Frank Crane We need to talk about...

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."  – Lao Tzu My biology teacher used to joke, "A pessimist is a man...

Bs is everywhere. We know what it is when we see it, but how do we define it, spot it and avoid it? Today's blogs takes the smelly tour...

"The plural of anecdote is misinformation" - Dr. Jonathan Stea Did a policy work? Voters are in the mood for radical policies. Radical...

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it means to sit down and listen” - often misattributed to Churchill...

"Narratives are the primary way in which we make sense of our lives" - Jacqui Stedmon What are narratives?   In most situations there is...

There was recently a survey from a right wing magazine which stated that the bottom quarter of the US had the same or worse outcomes to...

"We can neither endure our vices nor their remedies." - Livy about the Roman Empire Whether it is riots, strikes or feelings of...

Today's short blog is on a subject that seems so obvious, but we often fall into logical fallacies around it. Popular does not equal...

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - Evelyn Beatrice Hall Increasingly we are hearing of...

'It has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried' - Winston...

"Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world."- Sharon Salzberg This year 2024, has...

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes." What would a modern public square look like?...

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people." - John Adams Imagine the cacophony of information that is...

Why hadn’t I heard of the concept of "charity" in critical thinking?.... maybe because it’s a lost art. Have you come across the idea in...

"The challenge is that the internet has created a place where misinformation just flourishes. We have to think about these systems more...

Free speech has its limits. We need to work out what they should be. Freedom of speech is venerated by us as an essential right within a...

Our public square is broken. For the first time since records began, more Americans say they have no trust in the mainstream media than...

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you." - Anne Lamont There are at least two problems with...

"The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you." – W. Somerset Maugham I was probably the anti-example (if that...

I seek out short books to read. Short books might lack the snob-value that War and Peace or the Count of Montecristo has but these short...

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”― Lemony Snicket. You can only read a book front to back, right? Wrong....

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” ― René Descartes The average time an...

“We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” — Whoopi...

“Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson I was a lousy mentee. A really lousy mentee...

"Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction" - John C. Crosby I used to enjoy a podcast called...

If there is one thing you take away from today's blog, it should be that to beat the market you need to understand the consensus and then...

Last week's blog on second order thinking was an introduction into how people beat the market. This week we are covering risk management...

Dear readers, I am so excited to be starting 2024 with you and hope we have some great discussions. Today's blog (#90) is relevant for...

“I feel I change my mind all the time. And I sort of feel that's your responsibility as a person, as a human being – to constantly be...

Thank you. Thank you to all readers of the blog. Your comments, questions and follow-on discussions on the topics have been amazing and...

Ray Dalio: "The biggest mistake investors make is to believe that what happened in the recent past is likely to persist." John Templeton:...

“Investing is a funny business. It's really easy to be average. Just buy an index fund. It's really hard to be above average.”- Howard...

'Money does not buy you happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery.' - Daniel Kahneman Welcome to blog 85, which will be the...

Welcome to today's blog (number 84!). My sources are some of the smartest people I know and have distilled the tactics many people use. I...