Author Archives: Richard

How to do nothing

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Richard

I’ve got sod all on at the moment (thanks Coronavirus!) so I’ve started to read How to do nothing in the greenhouse by Jenny Odell. No…the book is called How to do Nothing… I’m reading it in the greenhouse…got it? … Continue reading →

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Stop spreading the news

Posted on March 6, 2020 by Richard

Given my ongoing experiments with what I call retrospective reading (i.e. reading ‘news’ when it’s several weeks, if not months, old) I thought this was interesting. I haven’t stopped reading newspapers altogether, but I have certainly cut down very significantly … Continue reading →

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Scenarios for the impact of pandemics

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Richard

A scenario matrix from my friend Nick Turner at Stratforma. His explanation below. The framework is built on the axes of two critical uncertainties: The nature of global coordination; “slow and inadequate” vs. “fast and efficient” The nature of public response; “panicked” vs. “disciplined” When … Continue reading →

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I’m supposed to be flying to Sydney, but…

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Richard

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Something from the archive

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Richard

From issue 22 of What’s Next (June/July 2009). We’ve had Spanish flu (1918-19), Asian flu (1957) and Hong Kong flu (1968-69). Then we had SARS, bird flu and recently, swine flu. There is also seasonal flu, which appears every winter … Continue reading →

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Friday Fun

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Richard

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Information Pandemic

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Richard

It’s interesting to me to see how the media, and hence the public, are responding to Coronavirus (I think that’s the correct way around, but it’s hard to say who’s leading who sometimes). The risk of death is remote (a … Continue reading →

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Found in the road

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Richard

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Word of the Week: Mooch

Posted on February 18, 2020 by Richard

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The Future of Computers (from 1981)

Posted on February 13, 2020 by Richard

And another little gem…from 1987.

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