Psychology – Strangers on the Shore

Drive to Swindon and find inner peace

Sometimes – well quite often – I come across a little film or piece of writing that identifies something I’ve long felt and articulates it better than I could. This piece from the School of Life, on what some time behind the wheel on the open road does for you, encapsulates why I’ve come toContinue reading “Drive to Swindon and find inner peace”

Knocked non-conscious: Joanna Chrzanowska’s AQR webinar

This is a webinar Joanna Chrzanowska of Genesis Consulting did for the AQR (http://www.aqr.org.uk) last month. It piqued my interest for at least two reasons. Firstly, it’s an illuminating trot through the roots of qualitative research and its relationship with ideas of the sub-conscious, unconscious and non-conscious. Secondly, it maps out Joanna’s take on where qualContinue reading “Knocked non-conscious: Joanna Chrzanowska’s AQR webinar”

Breaking Bad: corroding a hole through the top floor of Maslow’s pyramid

I know Breaking Bad is finished but a late suggestion to creator Vince Gilligan – you really should have used this classic by The Nolans as the theme tune: I recently finished a month or so in which I watched all five series on Netflix. This multi-award-winning US drama, for those still unfamiliar with it, isContinue reading “Breaking Bad: corroding a hole through the top floor of Maslow’s pyramid”

Have you done the triangular ironing yet?

You can have it fast, good, or cheap. Pick two. Oliver Burkeman’s latest This Column Will Change Your Life piece for the Guardian Weekend magazine is about this formula, or “the iron triangle” as it is sometimes called. Oliver Burkeman in Guardian Weekend: Constraints Can Be Liberating. It encapsulates neatly the problem with imagining you can have itContinue reading “Have you done the triangular ironing yet?”

What we can learn from Carl Rogers annoying someone in the 1960s

I took part in an excellent Roy Langmaid training course a couple of weeks ago, on how qualitative research can use approaches derived from psychotherapy. As preparation, Roy had us watch films of three psychotherapists in the 60s, with contrasting styles, treating the same patient – a very game volunteer known as ‘Gloria’. You don’tContinue reading “What we can learn from Carl Rogers annoying someone in the 1960s”

Too much choice?

Peter Curran hosts an interesting debate on whether too much choice is actually bad for society, on the iai online tv channel. Making the case is Renata Salecl, opposing is Lou Marinoff and somewhere between them is Lynne Segal. Choice: debate from the Institute of Art and Ideas

Bitter-sweet at the Summer Solstice

Don’t forget, pagans and geography ‘O’ level-takers of Britain, it’s the Summer Solstice today. That is, the “longest day of the year”. Actually, I am a bit surprised we don’t all make more of this, one of the four big natural milestones of the year (with the Winter Solstice and the two Equinoxes). After all,Continue reading “Bitter-sweet at the Summer Solstice”

StickK: Odysseus on an electronic mast

I came across this site via a behavourial economist, Dr. Ivo Vlaev (thanks!), who was a co-collaborator on a rather large BE-influenced study I’ve been helping out on over the last year. It’s one of the many sites out there using BE principles to, it is hoped, help empower people to do things they wantContinue reading “StickK: Odysseus on an electronic mast”

Start The Week: on “big data”

Start The Week (Radio 4): Big Data Here’s a link to this morning’s Start The Week, discussing “big data” and mathematical modelling of data. Well worth a listen. Contributions are from James Owen Weatherall on physicists in finance, Marcus du Sautoy, Kenneth Cukier and sociologist Tiffany Jenkins. While there is an unstoppable logic to gatheringContinue reading “Start The Week: on “big data””