Society
Plato did not write The Republic as an instruction manual. He wrote it as a warning. The philosopher sat down in the ruins of Athens' democratic experiment, having watched his mentor drink hemlock at democracy's behest, and tried to answer a question that has never stopped being
Society
Two new studies confirm what anyone paying attention already suspected. AI chatbots are systematically flattering us into delusion, and we love them for it. Somewhere, a product manager is smiling. There is a particular kind of genius involved in building a product that makes people measurably worse off and then
Technology
There is a distinct class of modern astonishment that deserves to be bottled and sold as a novelty item. It tends to appear whenever wealthy executives, draped in the language of innovation and disruption, are seen sidling up to political power in ways that feel, how shall we put it,
Geopolitics
The most politically significant event of January 8th, 2026, was not broadcast on television, did not trend on social media, and was not reported by wire services for several hours. It was visible, in real time, only to a small number of people staring at network monitoring dashboards, and what
Technology
Gather 'round, children, and let me spin you a yarn. A tale not of dragons or valiant knights, but of algorithms and billionaires in regrettable hoodies. We're talking about a certain strain of "engineering prowess", a particularly virulent strain, mind you, that has, much like
Imagine, if you will, that you discover your neighbour's front door is held shut by nothing more than the optimistic application of a bit of Blu-Tack. Being a decent sort, you knock on their door, explain the situation, and suggest they might want to invest in an actual
Stories
I am, and I cannot stress this enough, profoundly humbled to announce that I have, after eighteen months of relentless iteration, finally automated my morning routine. Not merely optimised it. Disrupted it. Using a proprietary AI-powered stack built on a no-code platform, a Notion template I purchased for £47, and
Data Science
A Cautionary Tale About Fraud, Maths, and Why You Should Never Let a Raccoon Manage Your SIEM Reggie was elbow-deep in a bin outside a Pret a Manger on Farringdon Road when his pager went off. His pager. Not his phone, his pager. Reggie had strong opinions about phones, most
Geopolitics
Right now, as you read this, whether you're arguing with strangers on social media, transferring money to your landlord, streaming a television programme about the end of the world, or simply checking whether it will rain on Thursday, your data is almost certainly travelling through a cable thinner
Technology
Silicon Valley's pride and joy is about to meet its match on the Old Kent Road. There is a particular kind of announcement that arrives from Silicon Valley with the energy of someone who has just discovered something the rest of the world has been doing quietly for
Anthropology
What The Net, Enemy of the State, and Hackers understood about the future, and why nobody listened. There is a particular kind of humiliation reserved for people who laughed at something that turned out to be correct. It is subtler than being wrong, being wrong is at least honest. This
Society
One would like to think that democracy is a robust old oak, weathered by centuries of world wars, plagues, and the occasional questionable royal succession. But as we stagger through early 2026, it turns out the democracy is less like an oak and more like a high-end sourdough starter: temperamental,