About

Everything started with my teaching at Oxford, where I created and ran a course called ‘The Intellectual Tool-Kit’. It ended up semi-mandatory for all new postgraduate students in the social sciences.

That led to working with Royal Dutch Shell’s Scenario unit, helping model economic futures; also working with the future planning unit at the World Economic Forum (Davos).
After that there was an international study for the UK Treasury on the future of High-Frequency Trading; work with the British government on developing hi-tech hubs in Lebanon and Dubai; with Facebook's virtual reality projects; with Airbus and others.

I give a lot of talks: about how to navigate uncertain futures; about creativity; about how fairness helps businesses succeed.
The venues have ranged from inner-city schools to the Royal Institution; from small start-ups, to large, established firms: Adobe, Anglo American, General Dynamics, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Mischcon de Reya, Ogilvy, Unilever and others.
It’s hard to pick favorites, but here’s a sampler of my talks, crossing a range of fields; here’s a brief one on two personality styles; also a bit on how I write.

My books have met with considerable success, with the rather unoriginally named E=mc² (2000) selling over a million copies and published in I think 24 languages – it was made into a PBS/Channel 4 drama-documentary, and turned into a ballet that had its London premiere at Sadler's Wells in 2010, winning the Southbank award for best dance in the UK. A work on the introduction of new technologies – Electric Universe – was the Royal Society’s Book of the Year.
A later work on the Enlightenment scientist, Emilie du Châtelet – Passionate Minds – was BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week; a return to Einstein and the struggles he went through – Einstein’s Greatest Mistake (2016) - was named ‘Science Book of the Year’ by the Sunday Times, and also widely translated.
My latest book – The Art of Fairness: The Power of Decency in a World Gone Mean – was published in the UK in November 2020, and received an exuberant full page review in the Sunday Times; and other nice write ups in the Financial Times and the Economist among others. It's out in the US in September.

I much enjoyed a series for the Financial Times in 2020, looking at: a good way to guide teams; how the humble committee can do outstanding things; the knight’s move in chess, and in life; also – one of my favorites – what to watch out for when resetting our societies, and our selves.
Older articles quickly get dated, but there are a few that I think hold up: how slowly society changes; when a city is at its creative peak; also – sadly apt, once again – the age-old struggle between science and politics.

When not on the road or slumped in front of a laptop, I spend an unreasonable amount of time at Britain's premier kick-boxing gym – 'Paragon' in east London – where success is highly variable...but sometimes there are moments when old judo tricks save the day.