The Wiki Man
What’s really killing business
Late in the evening six months ago, my wife and I were driving back to our hotel in the dark…
The Ginger Rogers theory of information
I had a friend whose approach to entrepreneurialism was to take two separate things that seemed stupidly popular and somehow…
Why forcing a return to the office won’t work
The Romans never invented the stirrup. What we call a ‘chest of drawers’ was unknown before the late 17th century…
How to buy a house that isn’t on the market
There are many, mutually reinforcing causes of the property crisis: it is too easy to borrow; there are too many…
Why the young are fleeing to Portugal
The legendary music producer Rick Rubin once asked me why I had never moved to the United States. The answer,…
Beware the ‘sourdough effect’
As the joke goes, there are two ways to become a top judge. You can study law at university, then…
The Mad Men theory of drunk decision-making
In electing this government, we seem to have picked the worst of both worlds: higher taxation combined with austerity in…
Is protest counterproductive?
If I had my life again and was asked to choose a superpower, I’d like to come back as one…
Lucy Letby and the problem with statistics
First Fred West, now Lucy Letby. At this rate, it won’t be long before Herefordshire has produced more serial killers…
The myth about electric car owners
Every time I write about electric cars, there is an explosion of hostile comments online in which readers angrily denounce…
Nothing beats a 1980s brick phone
In the late 1980s, a story entered advertising folklore. A group from an ad agency had boarded an evening train…
The myth of collective wisdom
After 250 years of American independence, a nation home to many of the smartest and most talented people in the…
How Elon Musk could solve the housing crisis
People sometimes ask me why I don’t go into politics. Why on earth would I do that? No, if you…
How to hack your summer holiday
Since it’s June, here is your cut-out-and-keep guide to hacking your summer holiday. One possibility. Don’t bother. Unless you have…
Why being anti-car is a luxury belief
It happened six years ago on a flight back from the United States. ‘Sir, I’m pleased to say you’ve been…
Harris Tweed, the miracle fabric
To understand the development of technology, you may be better off studying evolutionary biology rather than, say, computer science. A…
How to solve ‘range anxiety’
In ‘The Adventure of Silver Blaze’, Sherlock Holmes mentions ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’. ‘But the…
Louis XIV would envy your life
Some things in life acquire an outsize popularity which defies all common sense. The outlandish appeal of such things cannot…
There are three sides to every story
The psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who died last month aged 90, was perhaps most famous for his dictum that: ‘Nothing in…
