I hate being the bearer of bad news but if you haven’t already noticed young people worldwide are having a pretty shitty time. Education fees are through the roof, jobs are few and far between and our stagnant schooling system is still training young people in clerical skills for jobs that no longer exist. So you’re probably wondering what all this has … Read More
The Curse Of Being Cushty
Most people go to work every day in denial. A recent survey revealed that 19% of employees said they were satisfied with their jobs, meaning a staggering 81% of people willingly accept a state of dissatisfaction. Last year, a friend of mine took the whole year off travelling after he was made redundant. He returned home with wide eyed optimism … Read More
The University Killer: Online Peer–to-Peer Learning
According to a recent YouGov SixthSense report, the debt of UK university students adds up to nearly £20bn. Students starting university this year could end up paying a whopping £60k for their education. Having graduated myself just a few years ago, the prospect of paying three times the amount my Mum paid for her first home may have been enough to … Read More
Calculating Scarcity – What Do You Stand To Lose?
Whenever the news announces heavy snow in London everybody goes into panic mode. The local supermarket shelves are quickly emptied, petrol stations run dry and suddenly everybody gets super productive before the white blanket arrives. Psychologist refer to this phenomenon as the “Romeo and Juliet Effect,” when we know something is going to be unavailable it suddenly becomes more attractive, … Read More
Why You Should Be Leading From The Bottom
From the moment we leave the womb we enter a world in which our survival relies on our ability to comply with those in authority. First it’s our parents, then it’s our school teachers and finally it’s the boss. It then comes as no surprise that questioning authority is a trait that most of us feel ill equipped and so … Read More
5 Things Graduates Can Learn from Tree Roots
When I graduated from university to pursue a career in television the first thing the manager of a well-known production house told me was, “We don’t hire people with media degrees.” Having just spent the best part of £21,000 and now having to sign on to Job Seekers Allowance you can guess I wasn’t feeling too great. This summer, thousands … Read More
Reducing Stereotype Threat in the Digital Age
There is no group in society stereotyped more than young people. You can’t open a newspaper without reading a story about the young being unemployed, uneducated or depressed but other than making convenient news filler could all this negativity be causing longer lasting damage on our countries young minds? Psychologist have found that negative preconceptions of social groups can have … Read More
Upgrade Your Thinking
Every year technology companies spend millions of pounds updating their operating systems in order to stay in the game. Microsoft recently brought us Windows 8 and Apple, OS X Mountain Lion but when was the last time you did an upgrade on your own system? Too many people accept their old way of thinking even when they haven’t been getting … Read More
Flat packs and the New Economy
This weekend I spent a lot of my time building IKEA furniture whilst helping my girlfriend redecorate her bedroom and it got me thinking… A lot of what we’ve been doing for the last century has been boiled down into an easy to follow, step-by-step guide to a life of mediocrity just like flat pack furniture. Fortunately/unfortunately for young people, … Read More
Why schools aren’t producing superstars.
In Russia, the Spartak Tennis club has produced more top-20 women players than the entire United States. Its key philosophy is that technique is everything and so students spend 3 years learning how to hit the ball correctly before ever competing. Spartek Tennis Club has three key learning principles; 1) Slow it down – Training in slow motion. 2) Imitate … Read More