Land value and the Somebody Else’s Problem paradox
‘The Somebody Else’s Problem field can be run for years on a single torch battery. This is because it relies…
The roundabout is a symbol of British liberty
In my last article, I introduced you to the ‘paceometer’, which shows how the relationship between an extra unit of…
Why driving at 80mph won’t save you time
The device you see on this page is called a ‘paceometer’ and was devised by behavioural scientists Eyal Peer and…
The rise and rise of the ‘tantric sector’
For the past 25 years I have commuted to London from Otford, a delightful village outside Sevenoaks. I do this…
In defence of the Trump playbook
The standard explanation for why charges for plastic bags reduced waste is economic. People were reluctant to pay 10p for…
A challenge for the electric car sceptics
I once heard of a couple who were teachers in their mid-fifties. Having pooled the proceeds from selling both their…
How emotions shape our decision-making
Ask any estate agent: most potential house buyers arrive with a detailed list of criteria for their new home, only…
Texas is the perfect holiday destination
Business travel isn’t quite the perk it is cracked up to be. For one thing, you have no say about…
The unsayable case for cars
Rob Henderson is justly famous for coining the phrase ‘luxury beliefs’. These are opinions which are unshakeably held irrespective of…
Why the restaurant world hates beer drinkers
I’ve always thought working in hospitality is like getting a free MBA – but one rooted in the real world…
What’s the point in spending a fortune on a wedding?
I follow the YouTube postings of a maverick young economist called Gary Stevenson, author of The Trading Game. Whatever you…
The case for a daily limit on social media posts
A few years ago, my old school magazine featured a pupil’s brief account of a geography field trip. Before the…
How to get your husband to do the vacuuming
This column nearly didn’t happen. Just as I sat down to write, disaster! My dishwasher lost its connection to the…
Has email destroyed decision-making?
The discourse around ‘flexible working’ has degenerated into a narrow debate over whether people come into the office on three…
The case for ‘Areas of Outstanding Natural Ugliness’
I was leaving the car park of my local shop yesterday – a manoeuvre which involves a hair-raising reverse on…
In defence of BA’s new loyalty scheme
One of my favourite cartoons shows a couple sitting in luxury at the front of a plane, the wife peeking…
What’s really killing business
Late in the evening six months ago, my wife and I were driving back to our hotel in the dark…
The Ginger Rogers theory of information
I had a friend whose approach to entrepreneurialism was to take two separate things that seemed stupidly popular and somehow…
Why forcing a return to the office won’t work
The Romans never invented the stirrup. What we call a ‘chest of drawers’ was unknown before the late 17th century…
How to buy a house that isn’t on the market
There are many, mutually reinforcing causes of the property crisis: it is too easy to borrow; there are too many…
Why the young are fleeing to Portugal
The legendary music producer Rick Rubin once asked me why I had never moved to the United States. The answer,…
Beware the ‘sourdough effect’
As the joke goes, there are two ways to become a top judge. You can study law at university, then…
The Mad Men theory of drunk decision-making
In electing this government, we seem to have picked the worst of both worlds: higher taxation combined with austerity in…
Is protest counterproductive?
If I had my life again and was asked to choose a superpower, I’d like to come back as one…
Lucy Letby and the problem with statistics
First Fred West, now Lucy Letby. At this rate, it won’t be long before Herefordshire has produced more serial killers…
