Back in July last year I was contacted by Brigid Delaney, an Australian journalist with an interest in mental health and well-being. She interviewed me for a feature about the philosophical concept of ataraxia for The Guardian, and it was great to exchange ideas with her. The secret to happiness in uncertain times? Give up pursuing it ore than a year into the pandemic, many of the usual paths to happiness are blocked. We can't always rely on the…www.theguardian.com

Abstract Art — Then & Now — What do you see in this painting? There’s a fine line between abstract art and mere decoration, and Jackson Pollock’s Number 32 (1950) skates that line. It’s neither meaningful nor meaningless, neither expressive nor expressionless. It says a great deal about western art to the person trained in art history. To many people who aren’t, it’s a…

I loved this article in the New Yorker about mechanical keyboard obsessives. It’s more than a feature, it’s a historical odyssey into the perfect typing experience, spanning the first Remington typewriters to custom-made keyboards of millennial enthusiasts. It’s a love letter — typed, of course — to American engineering of…

I got you, didn’t I? But how am I going to keep you? If you’re reading this, you’re probably a writer in some shape or form. Have you ever felt disheartened by the response you get for your work? You put a lot into your writing, I’m sure. You spend…

To Navigate Misinformation You Need to Stay Humble — The parents of a six-year-old child murdered in a school shooting were sent hate mail and death threats. This is after Alex Jones, the founder of the ultra right-wing Infowars website, is reported to have claimed that the Sandy Hook massacre, in which twenty children and six adults were murdered…

Life, Love and Death in Highgate Wood — What times in your life do you love the most? I’ll cherish the weekend mornings spent with my baby daughter in Highgate Wood as among the happiest moments of my life. The London wood is a sanctuary from…

How does a soap bubble end up in that perfect spherical shape? Even if you blew a soap bubble through a non-circular aperture, the sphere will eventually form if the conditions are suitably calm. It’s surface tension that forms the sphere — the particles of soapy liquid are attracted to…

How We Create Meaning in Our Lives — At every waking moment we are faced with decisions to make. Decisions are guiding my hands as I type right now — what words to use next. Our decisions are a result of deliberations. We consider alternative possibilities and project those into the future before we settle on one course…