So much of our modern world tells you that you’re a failure if you don’t optimise everything. But, as I explain here, that’s not just the pathway to a miserable life; it’s also a surefire way to destroy resilience and create catastrophe, from individual lives to complex social systems.
Deeply strange entering middle-age at a time in world history where things are getting measurably worse. Just a continual psychic struggle of “is this fogeyism or are things just not what they used to be?”
www.canarymedia.com/articles/off...
Perhaps offshore wind and the lobster industry are actually natural allies?
A lot of positions would be better off being filled by lottery among people who meet a certain minimum standard (higher for more difficult positions), as this allows more opportunities to find unusual talents that may not be well documented on paper.
Especially in university admissions.
Was Michael Gove right? There's a brave question to start a thread about my latest post... But in the current turmoil it might help liberals to think through the limits of 'expert-led politics', which is but one branch of liberalism. 🧵1/n
benansell.substack.com/p/politics-w...
Umberto Eco once wrote that Europeans are vaccinated by centuries of conflict on their continent.
One of the most important things in today’s Europe is to call out those who doubt the efficacy of this vaccine.
We have anti-democratic forces in our midst, now is the time to stand up against them.
Rebel technocrats start to disentangle Syria’s corrupt state - on.ft.com/41uI6Mm Great read, not just for the official whose job was "flags"
A chart in three parts showing data on child mortality to make the points that "The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. All three statements are true at the same time."
The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better.
All three statements are true at the same time. Understanding this is key to solving big global problems.
We believe data & research can help us understand both the problems we face & the progress that’s possible. 🧵
Oscar Piastri after contact with Max Verstappen: "Yep. Move of a World Champion, that one."
Business historians have a lot to contribute to the study of business power. I look forward to reading this forthcoming Special Issue in th journal Business History, edited by Maiju Wuokko and Susanna Felman:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reflecting on Starmer’s comments on the CS yday and on the response it’s got in Whitehall since.
If there’s any piece of advice I’d give Starmer - and at this fragile juncture I want to shout it from the rooftops - it would be:
‘Blame the system, not the people’.
🧵
Completely. I feel like it must have become “un-normalised” at some point…
None of this is really filling me with great confidence. As an ex-HMT person I see where this is coming from but the public infrastructure in this country is in a state of collapse.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
No idea Nick Crafts had passed away! Always worth listening to.
Seeing as there are so many new accounts here now, reposting this thread (of 50, not 100). Posted one a day until I ran out of steam.
Thomas Chaney and I updated our working paper on "Trade and the End of Antiquity" (which recently got some airtime on twitter). A short re-cap: 1/n
Drought, famine & Japanese occupation killed 1.8 million in Java 1944-45 & reduced births by 1.5M. Population declined 4%, according to a new OA paper by Pierre van der Eng in the Asia-Pacific EcHR. Further Losses 1946-49 were comparable!
📉📈🗃🏺📗 📜 😷 🛟 #history #AcademicSky #demography #Java #edusky
