Vice Chairman, Ogilvy Group The Spectator's Wiki Man.
Sevenoaks and Deal, Kent
Joined February 2007
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Rory Sutherland retweeted
I’ve become convinced most of the desire to “work from home” is mislabeled. It’s really an issue of work anywhere EXCEPT the office. Companies need to admit they’ve made offices hellish places for employees.
What Is Jev? The AI Model That Doesn't Generate Text - it's based on DK's System One.
youtu.be/YGgNBcIgI4s?si=j4yN… via @YouTube – at Winthrop, MA
Rory Sutherland retweeted
What an absolute honor learning from @rorysutherland and @ElfriedSamba on their podcast… thanks for having me! youtu.be/dy67wMCcEZw?si=vnz7…
Rory Sutherland retweeted
Optimised screen-based work is pretty immiserating.
As for a Dennis Thatcher style brightener at lunch - a fading memory
This is a brilliant post. The way I describe it is you have savoir faire, but you also have faire savoir. Sometimes you act on your knowledge, and sometimes you learn from your actions. – at Boston, MA
A related element is Effectuation
See this old blog of mine
geraldashley.blog/2021/01/14…
I don't think this has anything to do with working from home. I think it's simply because most employers only have two modes of operation: cost-cutting and regulatory paranoia. There is nothing else left. – at Winthrop, MA
Rory Sutherland retweeted
Commuting is a pain. But the camaraderie in a good work environment is often what makes our sometimes under-challenging work palatable.
Working from home is convenient, but for a lot of people leads to terrible loneliness which is reflected in surveys like this.
British workers have become more disengaged from their jobs in the past decade, according to data that also shows job satisfaction has plunged to its lowest level in the survey’s 35-year history ft.trib.al/EPjMBj3
ALT Commuters cross London Bridge during morning rush hour, with City of London skyscrapers visible in the background. Text on image reads: ‘Quiet quitting’ is real and may be hitting UK productivity, analysis claims (Credit: Toby Melville/Reuters)
This is a really important issue. The gap between 40 hours a week at the minimum wage and starting to pay tax at the higher rate is now merely £20,000. The minimum wage continually goes up. The higher-rate tax threshold stays the same. You end up with 10 million people all earning not quite enough money.
John Oxley: Low wages may be rising but wage compression is the problem everyone ignores
conservativehome.com/2026/10… via @conhome – at Winthrop, MA
Rory Sutherland retweeted
Speaking as Frenchman, the unrealistic part is the elaborate plan.
He’d already have a mistress, everyone would know, and Christmas lunch would still start on time.
This is 100% bang on the money. By the way, one of the fundamental assumptions of mainstream economics is that people already know exactly what they want and can define it in advance. – at Boston, MA
In the French version of Home Alone, the father would bribe Kevin to pretend to be ill so that he could find an excuse to stay home and smuggle his mistress into the house. – at Boston, MA
Rory Sutherland retweeted
I would pay to see a British version of Home Alone where Kevin dies.
What's strange to me is that in the U.S., it's the Super Bowl, in the UK, it's Christmas retail ads. The Super Bowl rewards funny, where Brits tend to have an advantage, and Christmas retail tends to lean heavily on sentiment, where Americans are much better. If Home Alone had been made in Britain, the child would have died at the end.
Interestingly, Bletchley Park in World War Two followed exactly this approach. They didn't hire people for a role. They hired interesting people and allowed them to find out what they were good at. – at Boston, MA
Rory Sutherland retweeted
i’m going to say something brave.
talent pipelines should die. not every career needs a feeder school, feeder job, etc. people should be able to try things, learn on the job, and change direction as they grow.
we’ve optimized the serendipity out of professional life.
Rory Sutherland retweeted
Pablo Escobaa
Man caught in car with £14k of drugs as a lamb ate chips in the back seat avoids jail bbc.in/4im0eQs
Incrementalism is totally cool, except when the opportunity costs exceed the money you save, which is probably most of the time. – at Boston, MA
Amidst all the controversy over Shaun's model (who cares), I think this is a key point.
Private equity tends to be focused on incrementalism.
Cutting costs. Growing with existing customers. Adding new, similar customers. Gaining wallet share.
These aren't bad; they make sense. They just aren't step function, exponential.
The focus on what you can underwrite may raise the floor, but it also limits the ceiling. That's their model.
"The models that dominate all human decision-making today are duly heavy on simplistic logic, and light on magic – a spreadsheet leaves no room for miracles."
-@rorysutherland
This seems be especially true with AI. I am seeing a lot of PE guys very skeptical of ROI on AI. But the experimentation and giving some room for "magic" could lead to exponential improvement.
It's not a criticism of PE, it's just not their model. They need hard data on ROI for every dollar they spend.
That's the delta between the two groups - PE needs to underwrite every single expense and VC is trying to find exponential outcomes.
Most success in business is fat-tailed and probabilistic. Most effort in business is dedicated to pretending that it isn't.
Amidst all the controversy over Shaun's model (who cares), I think this is a key point.
Private equity tends to be focused on incrementalism.
Cutting costs. Growing with existing customers. Adding new, similar customers. Gaining wallet share.
These aren't bad; they make sense. They just aren't step function, exponential.
The focus on what you can underwrite may raise the floor, but it also limits the ceiling. That's their model.
"The models that dominate all human decision-making today are duly heavy on simplistic logic, and light on magic – a spreadsheet leaves no room for miracles."
-@rorysutherland
This seems be especially true with AI. I am seeing a lot of PE guys very skeptical of ROI on AI. But the experimentation and giving some room for "magic" could lead to exponential improvement.
It's not a criticism of PE, it's just not their model. They need hard data on ROI for every dollar they spend.
That's the delta between the two groups - PE needs to underwrite every single expense and VC is trying to find exponential outcomes.
Jingles never stopped working. They just became unfashionable. Also true of long-copy press advertisements, direct mail, radio advertising. The list goes on.
Rory Sutherland retweeted
A look inside the command center of the world's largest miniature railroad installation.