A New Kind Of University

I’ve written previously about interdisciplinary mindsets so was interested to read about a new breed of university in The Times (paywall unfortunately). I’m a product of the UK educational system; A levels at grammar school, university degree via maths/physics modules and then a doctorate in high energy physics. This lead on to further academic research

Misinformation

Such a good graphic…attribution top left.

Doing What You Say

“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.” – Paulo Coelho

Figuring Out Whether You’re Happy

Here’s a fascinating TED Talk by Daniel Kahneman, the famous psychologist who got the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002 for his pioneering work on the role of behaviour (such as irrationality) in economics. The talk deals with the duality and conflicts between experiencing things and remembering things. He points out that we have two

Making An Impact

It’s interesting how images can be so evocative and lead to many thoughts. The ones below are from Gaping Void who regularly publish new ones on their blog. The Jobs quote below is instructive, on having a large number of dots and reflecting on possible nonlinear interconnections. There are a number of variations on a

The Interconnectedness of Things

Recently, as I had time to kill and was a bit bored, I took a look at an action film from the 70s featuring Zeppelins in WWI (see above). The plot was a bit far-fetched and revolved around an especially advanced Zeppelin flying to a castle in Scotland to steal or destroy key historical documents

Why Is It So Hard To Listen?

When I became involved with ‘knowledge management’ in a large science and technology organisation (over 10,000 staff), the subtle role of conversations became apparent. Sometimes even little asides or passing comments could lead to unexpected and interesting connections and occasionally even opportunities. Persuing this topic further, it’s helpful to distinguish between discussions and dialogue (see

Insight Versus Experience

“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a lifetime’s experience.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jnr (American jurist)

Beauty and Patterns

I was interested to read on the School of Life site that one approach to beauty was to classify it as the sweet spot between order and chaos. It’s main thrust was architecture, something that affects us all. Too much order and things look boring whilst a chaotic situation (say a heavily built up main

Grand Challenges and Anticipating the Future

I met up with a colleague recently who works in the transport area and she recommended I take a look at a couple of articles including (for general context) the UK Innovation Strategy. The document detailing this (published in Nov 2017) can be found here, including: “As well as setting a path to improved productivity,