Category: Effective living

No one else is going to tell you what to do

I am speaking to more and more people who are disillusioned with their work. Often what is in the balance is a purpose-led career versus job security and…

HS2, Seneca and the art of persuasion

  Persuasion is an important skill for designers: to convince the audience of an idea is it to allow it take root and evolve. Unfortunately, I never have…

Dan Lepard, my first loaf, and the value of fail-safe instructions

My highlight of the Guardian Festival yesterday was Dan Lepard, regular baking columnist for the Saturday Guardian. In a packed room he gave five golden rules for successful…

Notes on ‘The Art of Doing Nothing’ by Tom Hodgkinson

This post is for the Front Row gang (you know who you are). Since we were talking about the concept of Fun for Free at the last Front…

Resisting Ikea – preparing for Monday’s sustainability conference

I spent most of last weekend preparing for a sustainability conference that we ran on Monday (post about that event appearing shortly). I know from experience that the…

Excited about resource scarcity

I just found myself getting quite excited about resource scarcity. Not the fact of depleting the earth’s resources, but that the subject is relevant to three things that…

Belly dancing, Charleston and keepy-uppies – civic participation in action

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gooD14xRh4&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1] This morning I was delving further into Bowling Alone (more notes to follow); by this evening I found myself performing at the Charity Gala, Oak View School…

Social capital – Reading Bowling Alone No.1

The concept of Social Capital came up during my research for Expedition Think Up Mondays. It was in the midst of a conversation about values. The individuals in…

A few quotes about cities

I am currently preparing a presentation about the density of cities and in particular, how housing should be organised. Here are a some snippets gathered here for my…

Reducing electricity consumption in homes to become as addictive as checking your blogstats?

The UK government has recently passed new legislation requiring electricity suppliers to fit free real time electricity price monitors in homes in a plan to massively reduce electricity…

Zen and the art of building maintenance

  I am in the throws of reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Persig. In my view it is a philosophical book that challenges…