Category: Insights
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Capacity for Adaptability
Whilst watching a documentary about reindeer herders in the Siberian Taiga, the narrator said that the nomads have a ‘high capacity for adaptability’. It might just have been a throw-away comment, but it made a lot of sense and I wondered about it afterwards. Was it true? It was more than being adaptable. What was…
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Journeys to the Ends of the Earth – Trading in East Africa
In a delightful episode of this series (Journeys to the End of the Earth), the photographer, David Adams, joins a crew of dhow sailors as they sail along the East African coast trading from port to port. They have no compass nor maps to rely on, and sail without motor and electricity – just using…
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Some Problems sort themselves out
Not every problem needs to be dealt with straight away. Sometimes, they don’t need to be solved or sometimes some dithering is no bad thing. I remember once when my daughter was very young. We needed a gate to put on the stairs to stop her crawling and falling down the stairs. I was round…
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Some perspective
I remember my father told me a story about when we lived in India many years ago. Somebody in the village was collecting stories from the local village girls and translating them into English. It seemed to be part of some kind of scheme or charity to help these girls rebuild their lives. Somehow or…
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Inefficiency, optimization & timelessness
I sent a question out to Tobias Mayer and he kindly responded: Q. The best things in life are all inefficient. How do you reconcile inefficiency and ‘optimization / lean / agile’ in your life and maybe even commercial work? And to what end? I haven’t really figured it out but found a clue in…
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Antifragility and World Championships
Very interesting to see Duncan Scott reference #Antifragility in his withdrawal from the Worlds – and followed by some Latin! Couldn’t believe it. Antifragility is a concept a few of us have been exploring, and swimming is something I know more than enough about. I was wondering why he mentioned #antifragility. There must be a recognition that the…
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Strategy = Language + Risk Taking
Starting about 300,000 years ago language was used by a group of early human males to overthrow the alpha male bully. According Richard Wrangham, primate alpha males bully lesser males and get what they want (food, females) through force and bullying. Typically a group of primates has an alpha male with subordinate males. Early humans,…
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‘The Anarchy’ – A Summary of Piracy, Strategy, Tea and the East India Company
I remember once reading in a book where an Indian character says to the other: do you know how the British built their Empire? One teaspoon at a time. I’ve just finished reading the Anarchy by William Dalrymple. The expression is true, it was one tea spoon at a time, but there were a couple…
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The Workshop is a Dream Come True
“The workshop is a dream come true. A place to solely create.””The main thing is systemization. When something is systemized, it brings true revolution”Ferran Adria – considered one of the greatest chefs ever – seems to have sussed out two things:– Right space (the space is the tool)– Right language (clarity + patterns)Then:The dream comes…
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Taking Risks to Advance Your Cause
“Seven Years in Tibet” – which I thought was going to be an account of one man’s friendship with the Dalai Lama – actually begins with the lengthy tale (65 chapters!) of Heinrich Harrer trying to escape war imprisonment in India and trekking through Tibet. Only one purpose – to be free – guided his…