The Sydney Opera House Perhaps the most famous example of the planning fallacy is the Sydney Opera House. Located on Bennelong Point on the banks of Sydney Harbour in New South Wales, the Opera House was designed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon and opened to the public in 1973. It is one of the […]
Mental Models and the Long Way to Liverpool
Mental Models We all rely on mental models to guide us through life. They are our maps of reality and we use them to get the best outcomes possible. But where do those models come from and who is to say they are right? A family wedding A few years ago I went to a […]
Sweat the Small Stuff
TED Talk Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland points out that big, strategic, expensive initiatives don’t always work. There are a myriad of small projects that are just as powerful. Although big important people like big important projects, the money that they throw about is often wasted. Rory urges us to figure out what the small inexpensive […]
It Stands to Reason…
Books or concrete? Imagine you are on the board of an educational charity. You are trying to improve the standard of education in Sub-Saharan Africa. How should you invest the charitable donations? What would be the most effective way to spend the money? In his book Adapt, Tim Harford tells the story of the Dutch […]
Better to Be Approximately Right Than Precisely Wrong
Spurious accuracy Thirty years ago I sat in a factory office with my head bowed low, looking at the dirty grey lino floor. My boss, a middle-aged, overweight man wearing a white coat smeared with ice-cream was berating me in a broad west country accent. Apparently I was wasting both my time and his. I […]
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