Essays, interviews and ideas from New Philosopher.
Signals are information worth attending to. Noise is interference you ought to ignore. When I’m talking to you on the phone, the sound of your voice is the signal, while the static hiss of the line is the…
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Around the turn of the twentieth century, an Italian physics teacher and meteorologist named Tito Alippi undertook a curious piece of citizen science. He…
It’s difficult to say when and how my children first became aware of the concept of a prison. It was certainly very early, well…
The Continental adventure was not going to plan for John Polidori. A young English doctor dreaming of literary acclaim and resentful of his father’s…
"No one wants to pass this way unnoticed – they really don’t, even in a negative way." Acclaimed photographer Harry Benson discusses Bobby Kennedy,…
We tend to assume that wisdom accumulates naturally with experience. Time passes, mistakes are made, lessons are learned, and judgment improves. This belief is…
Wisdom is a word that features in book titles in the ‘Self-help’ section of bookshops, but not so much in the ‘Philosophy’ section (where…
“Over a certain wealth level, particularly if you are Bill Gates, if you have several dozen billion dollars, you know it’s not very useful…
In the lead-up to the general election in the UK, everyone was talking about property. In the crowded south of our archipelago, it’s an…
Ellen J. Langer is a social psychologist, writer, and Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, widely regarded as the founder of the psychology of…
To celebrate the publication of our 50th edition, we're giving away 50 prizes to subscribers, with first prize a 50-edition subscription (up to our…
Award-winning wildlife and landscape photographer Michael Poliza Zan Boag: You have spent many years of your life on the road, moving from one…
Over the last few years Scott had vacationed to countries like Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia and other destinations in Asia. He hunted out new vistas…