The Wiki Man
Make life easier and all else will follow
You can try to change people’s minds, but this is difficult. You can bribe people to change their behaviour, but…
Migration is complicated. Don’t pretend it’s not
I expect you’ve already noticed it, but in case you’ve been living in a cave or an economics faculty for…
Want greater diversity? Try being less fair
In its hasty dismissal of James Damore, Google showed a worrying disregard for one of the most important freedoms within…
Sutherland’s Law of Bad Maths
Imagine for a moment a parallel universe in which shops had mostly not yet been invented, and that all commerce…
The right kind of dumbing down
Thanks to meteoric advances in computational power, it is now possible to take abundant data from a wide range of…
To buy cheap art, buy architecture
Of the 375,000 listed buildings in England only 2.5 per cent are Grade I. Half are churches; many are otherwise…
Why driverless showers are key to the housing crisis
Although it is commonly assumed that faster-than-sound passenger travel died with Concorde, this isn’t quite true: it overlooks the Caledonian…
Universities should offer one-year courses
In every respect bar one, those bloody Corbyn-supporting students have a much tougher time of it than I did, what…
Don’t look for any merit in meritocracy
A few years ago, someone asked me how to fix social care costs for the elderly. One eventual idea of…
Why we need paper promises
When you get into a taxi, there’s usually a framed sheet of paper describing what you pay for your trip:…
The MBA idiocies that ruin everything
I rang a company’s call centre the other day, and the experience was exemplary: helpful, knowledgeable, charming. The firm was…
Fund a fisherman or finance a film
Crowdfunding is a promising idea, and has created useful products. The Canary home-security system I wrote about recently was funded…
All hail the new taxi-card revolution
From October last year, it was compulsory for all London black cabs to accept payment by card. London cabbies aren’t…
How I learned to love the airport bus
After landing at Gatwick, the plane taxied for five minutes or so and then came to a halt in the…
Technology and the winner-takes-all effect
I was exchanging emails with someone the other day and signed off with the sentence ‘let me know when you…
Technology and the winner-takes-all effect
I was exchanging emails with someone the other day and signed off with the sentence ‘let me know when you…
Thank God for overpriced lawyers!
When you buy a house in Britain, there is an extensive and well-established series of checks you must perform to…
Thank God for overpriced lawyers!
When you buy a house in Britain, there is an extensive and well-established series of checks you must perform to…
My alarm call for GPs
A few months ago I was stuck in traffic on my way to give a talk at the Royal College…
My alarm call for GPs
A few months ago I was stuck in traffic on my way to give a talk at the Royal College…
My alarm call for GPs
A few months ago I was stuck in traffic on my way to give a talk at the Royal College…
Vinyl madness
I was at home enjoying an online episode of Tales of the Texas Rangers when my daughter interrupted me, wanting…
Vinyl madness
I was at home enjoying an online episode of Tales of the Texas Rangers when my daughter interrupted me, wanting…
Making work for ourselves
In 1929 John Maynard Keynes predicted that by 2029 people in the developed nations could enjoy a perfectly civilised standard…
Making work for ourselves
In 1929 John Maynard Keynes predicted that by 2029 people in the developed nations could enjoy a perfectly civilised standard…
