Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web Why is the corporate welfare state so flawed – and how could it be made better? – NestaThe aim should not be one-sided welfare, but rather better deals in which both sides win. Groups of firms or sectors should be encouraged to engage with government andRead… Read more »
It’s history week at the Cabinet Office, a series of internal events designed to remind the current generation of policy makers both that there is always something to learn from history and that their work will become history in its turn. It being Cabinet Office, there are ways of emphasising history not open to everyRead… Read more »
It is the nature of radical new technologies that to anticipate them is to be a long way along the road to inventing them. John Kay, citing Joel Mokyr The post Aphorism 95 appeared first on Public Strategist. Original post
I had high hopes of The Blunders of our Governments. Its authors, Anthony King and Ivor Crewe have spent decades apiece observing the British political system. If they can’t make sense of what happens, perhaps nobody can. And that’s a worrying thought, because although their book is entertaining and very readable, it doesn’t leave usRead… Read more »
It’s time for a change. From today, the public strategist is becoming rather more public. The threadbare pseudonymity of Public Strategist has outlived its usefulness – the new About page tells all. There were two reasons for being faceless and nameless here. The first was distance. I wanted to be very clear that there wasRead… Read more »
The desk drawers are empty. The recycling bin is full. The last email has been sent. The coffee mug has been washed and put away. The farewells have been said. Time to move on. I am not going very far, just from one government department to another. A couple of hundred yards as the crowRead… Read more »
I was brought up to enjoy the look and heft – and smell – of books as well as to treasure them as repositories of knowledge. A house without books looks both uninhabited and uninhabitable. If you can’t browse a stranger’s bookshelves, how will they ever stop being a stranger? So I did not rushRead… Read more »
Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web WordsAt its heart, web design should be about words. Words don’t come after the design is done. Words are the beginning, the core, the focus. Start with words. Nate Silver on Finding a Mentor, Teaching Yourself Statistics, and Not Settling in Your Career – Walter FrickRead… Read more »
It’s quite common to see people on Twitter celebrating a milestone of the number of people following them, or to urge for themselves or for some deserving cause the attention of a few more people to push them over the next threshold. That is clearly a measure of something, but it’s not completely clear what,Read… Read more »
There is a difference – often elided – between a probability and a degree of confidence in a forecast. It is one reason why we are better at avoiding drizzle than financial crises. John Kay Original post