68: Rules Aren't Real 📐
Dispensing with the status quo is the key to escaping mediocrity.
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67: Not all that glitters 🪩
In one morning I came across three stories that made me think twice about the ‘metaverse’. It’s not some abstract future dystopia—it’s already here. Many of us already inhabit mini-metaverses full of personalised algorithms, and few of us are ready to take off the headset. The first...
66: Win the small hill ⛷
Sometimes in order to win the game you're optimising for, you must lose the ones you've been told were important.
65: What you want for dinner 🍽
How often do you revisit ideas you believe to be common sense? When thinking of possible ways we could develop our thinking or improve our lives we naturally gravitate to new ideas instead of investigating existing patterns. When you start thinking from first principles, a lot of things you might...
64: Constraints and consistency 🎲
People become great by being creative within the boundaries and persisting when others might quit.
63: Nobody cares 📵
Sometimes you will be out in the field, pushing the limits of expectation, on the verge of changing the world, and not a single soul will care. The masses often sleepwalk through innovation. You can only make great things if you’re willing to be ignored and unafraid of going...
62: The hard thing about hard work ⚒️
Brandon Sanderson is one of my favourite authors. If he writes something I’m going to eat it up. But not immediately. Because Brandon likes to write big beefy books that could double as self-defence weapons or stools for small cats. He writes a LOT. He recently surprised his entire...
61: It Sounds Better Over There 🎋
Whenever words are carried by saltine winds over vast expanses of water, they somehow gain the magical property of resonating clearer in our minds. This is why we seem to fall head over heels in love with wisdom from faraway lands. It explains our obsession with Ikigai. It’s why...
60: The Sum of our Parts 🧩
No one human knows how to make a pencil from scratch despite it seeming like a fundamentally basic thing - something every child can use. To construct something as simple as a pencil takes mining graphite, cutting wood, shaping metal, and figuring out whatever modern erasers are made out of....
59: Greener Grass
The Sword of Damocles has become synonymous with imminent danger and the threat of sudden calamity - but that’s only half the story, and perhaps the wrong half to focus on. If you’ve never heard of Damocles before, you’re in for a treat! The story of Damocles...
57: The Power of Impostors 👻
What the heck is an impostor anyway? Someone who is not supposed to be there. An impersonator. A copycat. A covert intelligence gatherer. Uninformed. Uninitiated. Uninvited. Maybe that’s you. It’s definitely me—but maybe there’s power in that. The ones who are different I am not supposed...
A Tree in the Woods
If the cameras turn off, do the Kardashians still exist? People are designing their lives and actions around black camera lenses, hoping that an audience will exist on the other side. People stand alone in rooms swinging their arms violently and making faces at the wall, because TikTok promises their...
56: Finding your passion 🔮
People spend their lives chasing passion. We have dreams of what life should be like. What it could be like, once we find the magic that's missing. We all want to get paid to do something we love. And we want to be paid well for it! To...
55: Almost Invisible 👻
We quickly get used to the sound of alarm bells. My smart watch keeps vibrating, every single hour, reminding me to stand up. I turned on the feature because I know sitting for too long is unhealthy. And when I say I know, I KNOW. I know it in my...
54: A glass half full 🥃
Is the glass half empty or half full? Apparently, your answer indicates whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist. I think that’s silly. It’s a question of orientation, not optimism. Are you picking it up or putting it down? What’s your motivation in the scene? Are...
Cancer research and infinite monkeys
As humans, we're constantly trying to optimise for success and make the most of our time. But have you ever stopped to consider the role that time itself plays in our actions and decisions? I’d propose two types of time to consider: 1. Finite time, which is...
🎙️ Race, Climate, and Health Inequities with Layal Liverpool
David speaks with Layal Liverpool, an author and science journalist with expertise in biomedical science, particularly virology and immunology. She worked as a biomedical researcher at University College London and the University of Oxford in the UK. Her writing has appeared in Nature, New Scientist, WIRED, the Guardian, and elsewhere,...
Why we copy
Ever notice how you slowly start talking and acting more like the people you spend the most time with? This phenomenon, known as "behavioural contagion,” can shape our actions and habits in powerful ways. But why do we feel the urge to copy others? One theory is the chameleon...
The sweet dream behind NyQuil
I hate being sick. When you're feeling under the weather, the last thing you want is to be kept awake by a hacking cough or a stuffy nose. That's when you might reach for a product called Night Nurse, otherwise known as NyQuil. This over-the-counter medication...
The journey is the reward
As an astronaut, Chris Hadfield knows firsthand that the journey to space is a long and unpredictable one. But most of an astronaut's journey isn't spent among the stars. During his twenty-one year career as an astronaut, Hadfield spent just six months in space. Fortunately, according...
🎙️ The Secret Weapons of Colonialism with Charles C. Mann
David speaks with Charles C. Mann, a journalist and author, specializing in scientific topics. He is the author of the bestselling books 1491, which won the National Academies Communication Award for Best Book of the Year, 1493, and The Wizard and the Prophet. He is the co-author of four books,...
