The Weakest Link

The Weakest Link

Would you ever hack someone’s Facebook account? What if they’re grooming underage students and you need evidence to convict them? This is the story of how I helped catch a criminal. — I remember when the internet used to sing. Explaining it to someone unfamiliar with…

The Cow Survival Guide

The Cow Survival Guide

After the last weekend, I’ve been compelled to write a cow attack survival guide. I couldn’t find one, so I have to presume it’s because there haven’t been any survivors up until now. Below is a story on getting charged at by a cow and how I lived to tell the tale….

Glow in the Dark Teeth

Glow in the Dark Teeth

Western media is pretty mischievous. You can see it in the UK, but it’s clearer in America. Ordinary looking people are brushed under the carpet, so centre stage can be given to those with a perfect sort of beauty. At its extreme, its the pursuit of perfect beauty…

Thinking Slow With HQ&A: Take Better Notes When Reading Non-Fiction (Pt 1)

Thinking Slow With HQ&A: Take Better Notes When Reading Non-Fiction (Pt 1)

The 21st century is an information fire hose. Being able to adjust, filter and turn information into insights has become a basic expectation. We must think deeply on a deadline.

The classic note-taking techniques haven’t caught up with the times. That’s why I’ve created two new techniques: the Highlight, Question and Answer (HQ&A) technique and Jump Notes.

Kindling and a Spark

Kindling and a Spark

Note: Names have been changed for the sake of privacy. It’s been a decade since a letter arrived inviting me to the place that inspired Hogwarts. The messenger of good fortune was not an owl, but a dutiful postman. He crunched his way through the snow that frosty…

Scoping: Creating Your Exam Success Guide

Scoping: Creating Your Exam Success Guide

Exams always make me incredibly nervous because I’m always unsure if what I’ve been revising is actually going to come up. Do you have any advice on how to overcome this? And could you add some hints on how to get 100% in an exam?

Rocks and a Wise Professor

Rocks and a Wise Professor

To tell this story, I have to tell you another one first. It’s about some rocks and a wise professor. ‘Can anyone tell me what this is?’ A boy in the back called out, ’It’s a mason jar, Sir’. ‘Yes! Exactly. A mason jar.’ The professor dipped his hand inside his breast…

The Art of Happiness

The Art of Happiness

Con-artists make up the bulk of the self-help genre. Their words offer us a sugar-high of hope. As that high fades, we see that we’ve pegged our promise for a better future on some magic beans. Self-hate or self-denial follows, as you either disavow the entire…

Replying To A Friend

Replying To A Friend

What a pickle. I know you’ve been searching for a cause to sink your teeth into. It’s a maddening task, trying to decide which fire to fight when you’re standing there with only one hose, and it looks like the world’s ablaze. Then there’s the tragedy that follows…

Life Is Crunchy

Life Is Crunchy

Have you met this person? They can grab a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, spill it onto the floor, and place all the pieces perfectly. No. Because that’s not how puzzles work. With experience and some luck, we can get faster, but we still have to go through the cognitive…

Falcons and Assassins

Falcons and Assassins

On weekends, The City of London is ripe for socially distanced strolling. On a typical workday, the population swells to half a million people before the tide goes out and the commuters flow back down ‘The Drain’ to return home, leaving a residue of 9,500 residences….

Just Keep Singing

Just Keep Singing

The request was in Italian, so we let our inquisitive smiles hang while our friend listened and translated the lady’s words into English. She was asking if we could repeat our performance from the top, so she could film it. The triad was born in 2016 in the seaside…

Pleasure in the Pathless Woods

Pleasure in the Pathless Woods

As a child, hearing the call of nature during the middle of the night felt life threatening. My imagination had decided that vampires were lurking in the dark, and not the sparkling sort that would have boys and girls swooning come the twilight of the new millennium,…

What Have Cartoons Ever Done For Us?

What Have Cartoons Ever Done For Us?

Jamie Miles’ message to TEDxKazimierz 2016 is to ask whether lessons, wisdom and principles in our culture – from Plato to Pokémon – can inspire people to tackle one’s ambitions. Transcript Hello, during my time at Oxford, working at Google and running my YouTube…