So, as we all know, self-control is good, and important, and the strongest predictor of children’s success in later life, and all of that. But sometimes it’s good to lose control too. Nietzsche knew that it’s not all about the self-controlled virtues of Apollo. Sometimes you need a bit of Dionysus too. Here are my Read more…
Friday, 25 February 2011
Friday, 12 November 2010
The phrase ‘disruptive technologies’ usually refers to the way new inventions can completely transform, disrupt and even destroy traditional markets. But it’s true not just of markets, but of communities, conventions, traditions, and traditional ways of behaving, interacting, working, and even making love. Take, for example, the invention of the pill, or the Combined Oral Read more…
Sunday, 19 April 2009
I’m in Faro tonight, on the south coast of Portugal, staying the night in a hotel on the harbour, after a great wedding of my friend Mike and his bride Anna. It was in a town called Serpa, about two hours north from the coast, where Anna grew up. It’s a fairly small town, only Read more…
Friday, 17 April 2009
…in no particular order. 1) Am reading Brighton Rock, by Graham Greene. If the closest parallel for what the UK will be like in an era of climate change and scarcity is war-time London, then I figure we should all be reading Greene, particularly Brighton Rock and The Third Man. Why? Because an era of Read more…