I dug this book and its author's voice. It's a blast to read - witty, funny, and breezy, as well as grabby and well-organised with lots of mini-case studies and tips broken out - and profoundly insightful and most especially inspiring....   (read more)

Welcome back, after a long hiatus, to TEDification Wednesday. Amongst all the other good reasons to listen to TED presenters is that they don't typically get to be TED presenters by being stupid, uninsightful, or unsuccessful....   (read more)

"Bliss - a second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious - lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom." - David Foster Wallace...   (read more)

My purpose is to suggest a cure for the ordinary day-to-day unhappiness from which most people in civilised countries suffer, and which is all the more unbearable because, having no obvious external cause, it appears inescapable....   (read more)

realised in a flash that I could conceivably take the narcissism, self-absorption, and exhibitionism that are so startlingly inherent in vanity web sites in general, and blogs in particular, to great new uncharted depths . . . a brave new nadir of self-promotion and life minutiae documentation. I realised I could photo- (and/or video-)document virtually every moment of an average day of my life....   (read more)

I saw my first poppy today, while running around the edge of Trafalgar Square. I saw three poppies on my run. The first roasted chestnut vendors are also out, as of last week....   (read more)

"The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity . . . It was the deep knowledge - and pray God we have not lost it - that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest."...   (read more)

I left the office shortly after 6pm - an hour after the last civil servant had melted away - and walked the streets of Soho. I headed north then west, bouncing pinball-like through the brilliant rectangle of Soho...   (read more)

Since I became, on 18 September 2003, a legal resident of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island, London has hardly left me two free minutes to rub together - much less to properly dispatch. ...   (read more)

How many times do you really face a choice in life? How many times will you get the benefit of arriving at a crossroads, where you don't have to fight the tug of rolling inertia, and your choice isn't going to hurt someone you love?...   (read more)