Various exciting books are now out, or imminent. Steven Pinker's "Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce" is just around the corner, and as you might expect it is erudite, entertaining, and packed full of ideas (some new to me and some not). I'm doing an event...
I hope you've had a wonderful summer - or winter, if you're reading this in the southern hemisphere, or in early 2022. I've held off posting lots of August updates but now I'm back, and with a lovely little review of The Next Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy...
I'm speaking at the FT Weekend Festival (in a well-ventilated tent in Hampstead) - do come along! If you prefer your speeches online, you might enjoy this discussion with UCL economics students, in which we cover carbon taxes, thinking like a statistician, and the...
Oliver Burkeman’s wonderful (and alarming) new book is “4000 Weeks”. I wholeheartedly recommend it, despite the stress-inducing reminder that the human lifespan is 4000 weeks and I’m well past half way. Burkeman’s book is part Getting Things Done, part Being and Time,...
New questions have gone live on the Data Detective challenge on the Good Judgement Open website - check them out and test your skills! I’ve found myself reading four very interesting maths books this summer. Shape by Jordan Ellenberg – I’m speaking on a panel with...
I was delighted that the More or Less team was awarded the Royal Statistical Society’s excellence in journalism award for coronavirus reporting, and also very pleased to have been highly commended in the category of specialist journalist in the UK Press Awards....
The Possiblity Club podcast - I had a good chat to Richard Freeman at the Possibility Club podcast - listen in if you wish! Brief Q&A also with the Histocrats. Why do we work so hard? I was fascinated by James Suzman's interview with Ezra Klein recently. He said a...
I was interviewed by the EdSurge podcast on the subject of curiosity and misinformation. “It’s never been easier to fool yourself,” I said (apparently). “It’s never been easier to put yourself into a bubble, into an echo chamber. But at the same time, it’s never been...
The Financial Times Magazine published my cover essay on the joys and sorrows of spreadsheets. It was great fun to write, and occasionally sobering, as I delved into the origins of Excel, the struggles of 14th century Italian merchants, the eradication of smallpox,...