It is a sad fact of modern life that we are surrounded by people who will take advantage of us, given half a chance. Sometimes this is deliberate, like the many scam calls and emails that we all get every day, but often it is unconscious, as others keep expecting a little bit more from us without apparently recognising how much we are already doing, or do not realise the cost to us of meeting…
Yet again, autism is under attack. Setting aside the dubious (to say the least) claims being made about the cause of autism, implicit in the message being given is that autism is a problem to be solved and a sickness to be cured. Autistic people are, apparently, undesirable, and the sooner we are eliminated, the better. Now, don’t get me wrong, being autistic is no bed of roses. There are aspects of myself which are…
We all make many assumptions every day. It is impossible not to. We have busy lives in a complex world, and it is impossible to start every single process or task by going back to first principles. Indeed, much human progress is based on standing on the shoulders of others and building on their work rather than starting from scratch. If every scientist and engineer had to start from nothing, we would still be living…
Photo by Brittani Burns on Unsplash I cannot believe that I am having to write this. I really thought we had moved to more enlightened times, where diversity and inclusion were high on the agenda just because it was the right thing to do and because it helped everybody, not just those previously disadvantaged and discriminated against. I thought we were finally moving to a situation where people were recognised for what they could do…
I have always been fascinated by the concept of time. While I enjoy physics, I am not nearly clever enough to understand the most recent breakthroughs in this area, but I have always been fascinated by concepts such as moving clocks running slow, and time and space being linked. My current obsession is the suggestion that time exists only in our heads as a way of ordering the world around us, but that one is…
Yesterday morning was a bit different for me. I had an early meeting, which in itself was fine. Some of the participants were in time zones ahead of mine, so early morning for me made it work for everyone who needed to be there. However, it meant that much of my morning routine was disrupted, and this had a ripple effect throughout the day. I felt tired from having to make conscious decisions on when…
The modern world is a very loud place. Some of this is unavoidable – noise from vehicles taking people to places that they need to get to or factories making things that we need, for example. Some is down to behaviour that is just plain thoughtless and antisocial – the modern trend for playing music or other content out loud on your phone on public transport, for example. However, a significant portion of the noise…
Take a moment to think about the best leaders and managers that you have worked for. What makes them so good, and what makes you less thrilled about others? While experiences and preferences will vary hugely, I can confidently predict that for most people, their favourite leaders were the ones who really cared about those whom they led, and not those who were happy to trample on anyone and everyone for the sake of their…
I love a good shark movie. Even the really low-budget ones can be extremely entertaining as you speculate which characters will make it out alive in the end (spoiler: one or two at best, always!) I also enjoy documentaries about these enormously misunderstood creatures, and have learned that, like many other areas of science, there is still a great deal about sharks that we do not know or understand. For example, we do not know…
Imagine you are out for a stroll in the park, and you come across a young child who has climbed to the top of a high wall, is wobbling as they stand on the top, and there is nobody else in sight. Would you just keep walking? Setting aside the sorry state of our society that means that if you are a man on your own, you have to immediately consider child protection issues and…