Markets are clever precisely because people are silly
A month ago I wanted to travel to Bath for a 60th birthday party. From Kent, this either involves a…
Silicon Valley’s weird ideas on how to improve human life
Which is more diverse: London or Devon? That’s not a trick question. London is much more diverse than Devon. But…
Watch out comrade: big business is turning communist
Is it me, or is business becoming a teeny-weeny bit Stalinist? Common features include 1) Paranoia about political ideology; 2)…
Why data doesn’t always reveal the truth
In late 1973 the graduate admissions department at UC Berkeley discovered that for the forthcoming year it had awarded places…
There is nothing that makes you more anxious than being rich
H.L. Mencken once said that a rich man is anyone who earns more than his wife’s sister’s husband. The anthropologist…
When it comes to new technology, we’re all Luddites at heart
When I saw my first jogger in Wales in the early 1970s, I assumed he was running away from the…
It doesn’t matter how hard you work – just how busy you look
The behavioural scientist Dan Ariely once found himself chatting to a locksmith with a curious problem. The better he became…
Is taste all in the mind? Louse crap says it is
An Iranian friend of mine recently brought me some gaz from Isfahan. Commonly known as Persian nougat, gaz is perhaps…
Why human nature means most economic models are doomed from the start
History records many well conceived and apparently logical grand plans for the betterment of mankind. Sadly such ideas almost always…
London Bridge station: Netwór Krail’s £1 billion experiential artwork
In the shadow of the Shard, not far from Borough Market, is a £1 billion public artwork, an allegorical sculpture…
Forget your data – it’s your DNA privacy you should be worried about
Nearly ten years ago, a lorry driver known only as ‘Michael Harry K’ adopted an extreme response to combating what…
Could an Owl make video conferencing take off?
When I was ten, the two things we all expected to enjoy by 2020 were flying cars and videotelephony. What…
Where’s the internet revolution they promised us?
At the risk of sounding like Jean Baudrillard, I would like to suggest that the internet revolution has not yet…
Had 533 people voted differently, the Tories would have a full majority
Nine years ago, before Cambridge Analytica existed, I caught wind of a research project at Cambridge involving the online measurement…
ISA and pension limits discourage ordinary people from saving
The maximum amount you can save in an ISA for the tax year 2017-2018 is now £20,000. The maximum annual…
Why I’m not on board with quiet carriages
Every now and then I try to invent a new scientific unit. I’ll never come up with anything as good…
Reducing activities to their core misses the point
There may be a very simple evolutionary reason why water does not really taste of anything, as I learned from…
Let’s face it: the Presidents Club was on to something
There exist in the annals of salesmanship certain ideas that are both highly immoral and wickedly clever. Before P. T.…
A nice, cuddly NHS would be bad for us
Recently the NHS postponed a large number of non-urgent operations to cope with what is known as the ‘annual winter…
How to make economists fight like ferrets in a sack
One of the funniest passages of writing I have read in the past few years appears within the pages of…
Design everything for the disabled and you can’t go wrong
About 30 years ago, BT introduced a telephone handset with enormous keys. It was intended for people with serious visual…
The inventions (and Welsh rarebit mix) that will change your life
At last. And just what you’ve been waiting for. The official Wiki Man guide to the best gadgets and gizmos…
What we need is a Freedom of Uninformation Act
One dietary fad that never made sense to me was the campaign against the consumption of eggs. Now call me…
How to stop the Grenfell Tower disaster from happening again? Ask the air industry
It took a spate of air disasters in the late 1970s, in particular the Portland crash of United Airlines Flight…
Perception vs objective reality
I hate to tell you this, but every time you watch television you are being duped. In fact there are…
