The Wiki Man

This is what every menu should look like

18 July 2015 9:00 am

The appallingly bad photograph below was taken on my mobile phone about 15 years ago. It shows the menu layout…

The presentation of choice

16 July 2015 1:00 pm

The appallingly bad photograph below was taken on my mobile phone about 15 years ago. It shows the menu layout…

A better way to be charitable: just give money

4 July 2015 9:00 am

Seven years ago I wrote here about a site called Kiva.org. I had met the co-founder of this charity when…

Just giving

2 July 2015 1:00 pm

Seven years ago I wrote here about a site called Kiva.org. I had met the co-founder of this charity when…

The trick that makes self-checkouts almost tolerable

20 June 2015 9:00 am

I spent the last few days in Deal and Folkestone with Professor Richard Thaler at Nudgestock, Ogilvy’s seaside festival of…

A lightbulb moment at the self-checkout

18 June 2015 1:00 pm

I spent the last few days in Deal and Folkestone with Professor Richard Thaler at Nudgestock, Ogilvy’s seaside festival of…

In praise of the ‘Don’t know’ voter

6 June 2015 9:00 am

I am scraping the edges of my memory here, but I am fairly sure that opinion polls in my childhood…

In praise of the ‘Don’t know’ voter

4 June 2015 1:00 pm

I am scraping the edges of my memory here, but I am fairly sure that opinion polls in my childhood…

The importance of selective inefficiency

23 May 2015 9:00 am

Readers of a certain age may remember choosing a cassette player in the 1980s. In theory the process was simple:…

The importance of selective inefficiency

21 May 2015 1:00 pm

Readers of a certain age may remember choosing a cassette player in the 1980s. In theory the process was simple:…

Why the internet hasn’t killed estate agents (and what might)

9 May 2015 9:00 am

I don’t like to make business predictions, but — barring some apocalypse — I suspect there will be plenty of…

Why estate agents aren’t dying out

7 May 2015 1:00 pm

I don’t like to make business predictions, but — barring some apocalypse — I suspect there will be plenty of…

Sod hard-working families: let’s have a four-day week

25 April 2015 9:00 am

Whenever I hear the phrase ‘hard-working families’ a little voice in my head asks ‘what about the lazier, chilled-out families?…

Let’s rethink the working week

23 April 2015 1:00 pm

Whenever I hear the phrase ‘hard-working families’ a little voice in my head asks ‘what about the lazier, chilled-out families?…

Why plane crashes are getting weirder – and if we’re lucky, other problems will too

11 April 2015 9:00 am

In the late 1980s, the parks service in the United States were concerned about the deterioration of the stonework on…

Why plane crashes are getting weirder

9 April 2015 1:00 pm

In the late 1980s, the parks service in the United States were concerned about the deterioration of the stonework on…

A lesson in decision-making from the world’s worst road sign

28 March 2015 9:00 am

Driving from Dover on the M20 a year ago I missed the turning for the M25. A month later I…

Looking for answers you can’t see

26 March 2015 3:00 pm

Driving from Dover on the M20 a year ago I missed the turning for the M25. A month later I…

How to make Ukip supporters love green policies

14 March 2015 9:00 am

Few people know this, but hidden within the FedEx logo, between the E and the x, there is a small…

Is that Green or red?

12 March 2015 3:00 pm

Few people know this, but hidden within the FedEx logo, between the E and the x, there is a small…

Want more diversity? Hire groups, not individuals

28 February 2015 9:00 am

If I were to give you a budget to choose your perfect house, you would quickly have a clear idea…

Going the wrong way one step at a time

26 February 2015 11:30 am

If I were to give you a budget to choose your perfect house, you would quickly have a clear idea…

From Umbrella Man to the Coughing Major, the truth is often very strange

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Are you sitting comfortably and wearing your tinfoil hat? If so, open YouTube and watch a full-screen version of the…

From Umbrella Man to the Coughing Major

12 February 2015 3:00 pm

Are you sitting comfortably and wearing your tinfoil hat? If so, open YouTube and watch a full-screen version of the…

How consumer habits are subject to the law of unintended consequences

31 January 2015 9:00 am

Some time in the 1960s, a group of people in an advertising agency (among them Llewelyn Thomas, son of Dylan)…