It is hard to improve the world even when it should be obvious that the world needs to improve. When things look bad it may be helpful to look at history to observe people fighting injustices that most of us can, thankfully, only imagine. Campaigners in history saw plenty of occasions when it seemed like…
Category: Management Theory
Intuition Can Be Good Or Bad
Gerd Gigerenzer has made some important contributions to the study of decision-making. As someone who has been educated in the US system (at least for my PhD) I find it interesting that he largely rejects that approach. He, often correctly, makes the point that a lot of tests of decision-making set those being tested up…
Believing In Responsibility And Systemic Problems
It is popular, particularly in left-wing circles, to note the presence of systemic problems. When you know a bit about how humans behave this makes a lot of sense. We tend to adapt to the situation we are in. Economic models help drive action. Similarly, you will often see organizations “dictating” the way people in…
Ambition To Improve The World
Rutger Bregman’s book, Moral Ambition tells us to aim higher. Why not have an ambition to improve the world? People have achieved amazing things in the past and there is no reason why we can’t make stunning progress again. Ambition Isn’t Bad In making the world better it helps to have ambition. That ambition needs…
Leapfrogging Towards A Better World
One concern that people who care about the environment typically have is that developed nations tend to create massive harm to the planet and life on it. That concern is often hard to argue with. A valid concern has led some — let us call them the shitty wing of environmentalism represented by Paul Ehrlich…
Being Part Of A Big Team
I have a confession to make. I think it is a bit odd when people click their fingers in appreciation of a comment. In some ways I get the basic notion — you don’t want to disrupt the speaker making the point. Still, making a meaningful show of support is what we have clapping for….
Strong States Help Markets To Thrive
Rebecca Henderson, a Harvard business professor, writes about the need for business to become better than it is currently. She has a great book from 2020 on this. (The book is well worth a read, apart from a strange metaphysical bit at the end which was badly in need of an editor to say, “no…
Cliches About Disruption Aren’t Public Policy Advice
In my last post I noted that I worked at the Labour Party during Tony Blair’s time. He is easily the best UK prime minister of my lifetime, so I really wanted to be positive about his institute’s report on climate change. The approaches outlined are quite sensible, but the overall report is just plain…
What To Do About Climate?
I was Finance Director of the Labour Party when Tony Blair was Prime Minister. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, it was a more optimistic time. There were notable problems of course; but at the least the mood music was positive. The Labour Party was proudly European, it wasn’t trying to…
It Isn’t Good Enough To Be Just Against Things
Ezra Klein‘s and Derek Thompson‘s Abundance tackles how those who believe that the world can be better have to achieve more. It isn’t good enough to be just against things, i.e., stopping things getting worse. To make the world better, you need to be for positive progress. What you want also needs to be deliverable on a…
