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In his song ‘Turning 30’ Bo Burnham laments:               When he was 27, my granddad fought in Vietnam              When I was 27, I built a birdhouse with my mum              Oh, fuck (oh), how am I thirty? (oh) I have had this fear a lot: am I on track? I find it hard to believe BoContinue reading “The Power and Weakness of the Invisible Hand”

Picking where to go on holidays has always been a challenge for me. With only four weeks available per year and so many hikes I’d like to do around the world, there will inevitably be some that need to be culled. There is a sense of loss every time a different destination is rejected inContinue reading “The Reduced Opportunity Cost of Trying New Things During Lockdown”

I have been through two ruts in my life. If I am almost 30 years old right now, at my current rate in my adult life of one every eight years, I will go through five or six more. I do not want that, so it’s worth delving into their causes to avoid them happeningContinue reading “Getting Into and Out of a Rut”

I don’t make my bed. I completed the analysis years ago and the results showed that for me it is not worth it. I’m sorry Jordan Peterson. I’m sorry to my roommates who have requested I close my bedroom door so that the ‘bad energies’ don’t spread throughout the house. The effort taken is notContinue reading “The (Negative) Marginal Value of Overthinking”

Lots of interesting discussion with friends and family came out of the previous blog post, here are the highlights: We should specialize in the form of help we give others. What is the helper role you provide? Are you the comforter? The interrogator? The distractor? Then friends and family can come to you and knowContinue reading “Follow-up to the ‘Market for Help’”

During lockdown I have had an overwhelming urge to help people, which hasn’t felt like a conscious decision but something compelling from deep down. It happened at the start of lockdown 2020 as well, before a subsequent bout of malaise took over, preventing the compulsion being acted upon. This lockdown, so far, has been different.Continue reading “Adverse Selection in the Market for Help”

In his 1962 Nobel Prize winning speech John Steinbeck said: The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement. Furthermore, the writer is delegated to declare and toContinue reading “Introducing the Blog”