Fall of Civilizations

The collapse of society on Easter Island is an oft-repeated cautionary tale of man-made ecocide, which blames an ignorant indigenous population for deforesting the island out of an obsession with stone statue building and greed, leading to societal collapse. But author Paul Cooper’s new book Fall of Civilizations makes a compelling case […] Read More

Writing for Busy Readers

We’re all busy people nowadays. We’re busy churning out reports or emails or text messages. We skim through incoming messages, reading the ‘important’ ones and disregarding the rest. And so, we have all missed important messages or requests from time to time. Or failed to get the desired responses from our own […] Read More

The Overstory

Read it! One of the best works of literature I have encountered. The Overstory by Richard Powers follows nine individuals with disparate backgrounds who, to greater and lesser degrees, get connected to each other over the course of the novel. The connective force is Trees. The novel starts with the backstories of […] Read More

Natural Hydrogen

Over the last three years alone, more than forty countries have developed a Hydrogen Strategy which aims to decarbonize energy emissions while providing a boost to their local economies. All of the strategies are based around the concept of manufacturing hydrogen or using manufactured hydrogen. This strategic position is underpinned by the […] Read More

The Art of Explanation

Explanations are relevant to many aspects of our lives. Think of business presentations, writing essays, interacting with your doctor, job interviews, writing emails, talking to your tradesman and the list goes on. If done well, explanations can inform, get things done and save you and others lots of time. Good explainers are […] Read More

Corporate Bullsh*t

Are we being deliberately confused or tricked by corporate narratives? Entrepreneur turned philanthropist Nick Hanauer and his co-authors think so. They argue that political or corporate elites resist reforms in order to preserve a skewed status quo that serves their interests. In their book Corporate Bullsh*t, they present the Six Big Lies […] Read More

History! Read it and weep!

History gifts us many lessons, but our direct life experiences, which span a mere seventy years or so, limits our capacity to learn them. Ray Dalio’s book The Changing World Order amply demonstrates what can be learnt by studying the last five hundred years and beyond. And those lessons provide guideposts for […] Read More

Our Fragile Moment

In his new book Our Fragile Moment, Professor Michael Mann goes back in time and examines all the critical climate-changing events in our planet’s history. He shows what lessons can be learned from each one, and more importantly what lessons can’t be drawn from these events. One of the most important lessons […] Read More