Hello Reader, Bring to mind a disagreement you've been trying to resolve for a while. Not a one-off argument. The kind that keeps coming back whether with a colleague, a family member, a friend, a partner. The kind where you've laid out your reasoning more than once, and they've laid out theirs, and somehow neither of you has moved. Got one in mind? Sometimes, when a disagreement won't resolve, it isn't because someone is being stubborn. It's because both people have been trying to persuade...
9 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, I have some exciting news. My designer has put together some initial cover ideas for The Zero-Sum Illusion, and it is time to put them to a vote. I want this book to feel authoritative, clean, and optimistic - a genuine toolkit for changemakers. I have narrowed it down to a few distinct visual concepts, but I need your eyes to help me pick the winner. Could you do me a quick favour? Please head over to the survey here: https://forms.gle/nDoXRyaBDkDnbWhP8 I would love to know...
12 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, Think of one person you've been quietly frustrated with this week. Not a person you're in open conflict with. The other kind: the colleague whose tone in that email rubbed you the wrong way, the family member you've been short with, the friend whose silence you've been reading something into. The low-grade frustration you've been carrying around without naming. Got someone in mind? Here's an exercise, and it takes five minutes and a piece of paper. Step 1. On the left side of...
23 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, Have you ever been in a meeting where a critical gap is identified, and you can almost feel the invisible wall go up? In my years of consultancy, I have seen it often. No one actually says the words - especially in a professional UK environment, where we tend to be more reserved - but the shift is palpable. People lean back. They check their phones. They suddenly become very interested in a different part of the spreadsheet. It’s the "unspoken opt-out." It’s the feeling that...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, I had a moment this week that I suspect many of you might recognise. I was scrolling through LinkedIn - a quick "check-in" that turned into a ten-minute descent into a specific kind of professional gloom. Have you ever had that experience? That sudden, uninvited sense that everyone else is winning a game you didn't even know was being played? We’ll come back to that in a moment. But first, before we dive in, I have a small update on the book's progress. Beta readers get...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, Yesterday, the weather here in London was precisely the way I like it: bright sunshine and cold. We went for a long 4-hour walk through Joyden's Wood, in Bexley, which is in southeast London. Amidst the trees and the quiet, we stumbled on the remains of a massive earthwork called the Faesten Dic. A nearby notice board set the scene: 1,500 years ago, the Roman Empire had collapsed, and the Saxon farmers in Kent felt their homes were no longer safe. The Romano-British of London...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, It is Sunday evening here in London, and the rain is settling in. It has been a productive, if slightly exhausting, weekend - a mix of revising the manuscript for The Zero-Sum Illusion, squeezing in a Parkrun, and catching those all-important moments with the family. As I sit here at my computer, I’ve been thinking about the "transactions" we all made over the last 48 hours. Whether you were pushing for a personal best on a 5km run or negotiating who stacks the dishwasher, your...
4 months ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, The Winter Olympics is an incredible display of the best that humanity has to offer. However, it is also a cold, calculating laboratory for a problem that I've given a lot of thought to lately: The struggle between Agency (our ability to affect the outcome of events) and Reality (the laws of physics governing the world we live in). It's a topic I discuss in Chapter 2 of the Zero-Sum Illusion. Just hours ago, we witnessed a tragic illustration of this issue with US Alpine skiing...
4 months ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, I’ve been listening to a fascinating interview by Sam Harris on his Making Sense podcast (#446) with Michael Plant. Here's a link to the full episode (it is generally behind a paywall, but I think you can access this specific episode in exchange for your email address). It is well worth it. The discussion is about the philosophy of happiness and effective altruism. Michael Plant is the Founder and Director of the Happier Lives Institute, where he and his team use well-being...
4 months ago • 5 min read