The pernicious power of social comparison, and the grounded way to free yourself from it — “Comparison kills creativity and joy.” — Brené Brown What is this thing? This ennui we carry around with us? This fruitless comparison with others, which leaves us envious and jealous? Think about it. Your home — happy with it? Want a slightly bigger one, like your colleague has? Want more…

Humanity? The meaning of life? Reality? It’s all here in these texts, yet often overlooked by their Hollywood adapters — Science fiction has always been close to my heart. To me, it represents what is best about humanity — the sense of wonder, of questing, of opportunities and unexplored futures. But I really struggle to turn people on to the genre. I don’t think I always ‘sell’ it very well…

Why To Treat Lockdown 3.0 Like It Will Never End — “Oh my God, is it still January?” I was just having this conversation last week with a colleague. Anyone else feeling it? That feeling of “I have had ENOUGH of this” In Europe lockdown 3.0 has been the lockdown-when-everyone’s-sick-of-lockdowns. I’m finding that people are so fatigued by the whole thing…

Contrary to the doom-mongering news coverage, three reasons to celebrate 2020 and welcome 2021 — It’s a grim January 2021. Most of us will be in some sort of lockdown. No-one dares book a holiday. We’re on our millionth Zoom call. But as Florence says, “it’s always darkest before the dawn”. I believe we may be on the brink of a better future. A new…

You’re not being weak: you need to give yourself a break and accept some help — “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” ― Robert Jordan, The Fires of Heaven Resilience. Very nearly every self-help article on LinkedIn, every podcast, every trending Instagram #tag is about resilience and how to develop more of it. Especially during a…

Why has the fight for gender equality stalled inside our heads (and at the box office)? — Kaffee: I want the truth! Jessep: You can’t handle the truth! — Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. “A Few Good Men” Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin What’s the most dangerous trend in the fight for gender equality…

Why we find ourselves incandescent with rage and how to beat it, with help from Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ — When I look at my studies, my life, my career, if there’s one thing I really could do without it is getting angry. So, I turn to Jane Austen. Not an obvious choice, I know. But it always cheers me up to know how great figures of literature are as…

EM Forster’s seminal novella was already hailed as prescient…but now it’s downright freekin’ creepy — E.M. Forster wrote ‘The Machine Stops’ in 1908/9 and for years people have marvelled at its remarkable predictive ability – of the internet and global communications. But few thought we would be soon living, like Kuno and his mother Vashti, a life of complete self-isolation. I’m feeling a little horrified…

A tsunami of coverage is dedicated to minute-by-minute COVID-19 updates but little is focusing on the longer-term effects of pandemic management. So I’ve had a go. — Right now, most Western economies are into full heightened ‘isolation’ mode, hoping to delay, reduce or even contain the virus. But what happens next? What will 2020 look like in terms of the length of the isolation, and the impact? I’ve found the coverage frustratingly short-termist, and so thought I’d…