mssv

  • Unbound: The Crowdfunding Cargo Cult

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    6–10 minutes

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    10 comments on Unbound: The Crowdfunding Cargo Cult

    (This piece may be appearing in The Telegraph, but I felt it would be useful to have it up soon given the recent interest in Unbound from places like The Economist). The Southwest Pacific islands of Melanesia are some of the most remote places on the planet. Until the Second World War, its inhabitants had…

  • You Have A Lucky Face

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    5–7 minutes

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    460 comments on You Have A Lucky Face

    I’d been walking back from a meeting in town when it suddenly began raining. I’m the type of person who packs an umbrella even at the slightest possibility of rain – in fact, at school my friends found it amusing how I always seemed to have an umbrella even in the middle of summer. Lately…

  • Policy Games

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    3–5 minutes

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    1 comment on Policy Games

    Ever since last year’s UK elections produced a hung Parliament and the current Conservative/Lib Dem coalition, I’ve been following politics with a keen eye – particularly the travails of the Lib Dems, who find themselves in (sort of) power after many, many decades. It’s been interesting to see the spirited debates on places like Lib…

  • Social Liberal Forum

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    1–2 minutes

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    No comments on Social Liberal Forum

    I’m going to the Social Liberal Forum in London tomorrow, a conference being run by the Liberal Democrats. I’m not a member of the Lib Dems and to be honest I’m pretty disappointed by them, but I feel it’d be an interesting and useful experience to go to a political conference, just to see how…

  • The UK is not the same as the US

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    1–2 minutes

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    No comments on The UK is not the same as the US

    In Louis Menand’s insightful article about why we have college in this week’s New Yorker, he highlights the increasing selectivity of private US universities (in contrast to the very accommodating nature of public universities) and reinforces his point by comparing them with Oxford and Cambridge: In 1940, the acceptance rate at Harvard was eighty-five per…

  • On Fun, Learning, and Craft

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    3–4 minutes

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    2 comments on On Fun, Learning, and Craft

    Last week’s show of Thinking Allowed had a solid-gold conversation between Prof. David Gauntlett, author of Making is Connecting, and Prof. Richard Sennett, a sociologist at NYU and LSE, on Craft and Community. It began as an exploration of David Gauntlett’s book about ‘modern craftsmen’ on YouTube and other online venues but quickly flowed into…

  • Does it Feel Like a Trial?

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    5–7 minutes

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    2 comments on Does it Feel Like a Trial?

    I’m not ashamed to admit it. When I play a game, I often mentally list all the things that are wrong with it, whether it’s clumsy dialogue, irritating tutorials, or unclear level design. It’s an incessant, niggling feeling that becomes particularly strong if the game is web-based, and ARG, or contains any storytelling – and…

  • University tuition fees, and private schools

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    3–5 minutes

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    No comments on University tuition fees, and private schools

    Here’s what the government is currently saying about the change in university fees: Allowing universities to charge students anywhere between £6000 to £9000 will create competition, leading to better value and higher quality education. These fees – which can’t be paid upfront – shouldn’t be considered like normal kinds of debt since they don’t need…

  • The Pursuit of Perfection

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    5–8 minutes

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    No comments on The Pursuit of Perfection

    Not only have the terms of success changed but also the very terms of life. For a person who can live within his illusions, the career has to be perfect, the wife has to be perfect, the children have to be perfect, the home has to be perfect, the car has to be perfect, the…

  • We don’t need your permission any more

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    2–3 minutes

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    1 comment on We don’t need your permission any more

    One of the most annoying things in life is asking for permission: permission to build an extension, permission to volunteer at a school, permission to start a business. It’s always irritating to imagine some distant bureaucrat with little interest or understanding of your life in control of your fate. Almost every sphere of life and…