Business · The lead essay
The Quiet Power of Boring Businesses
Skip hire, drainage, payroll: the businesses nobody dreams of founding are often the ones that endure. An essay in praise of the unglamorous firm.
Why Rebrands Fail
Companies keep spending fortunes renaming themselves, and keep discovering the problem was never the logo. An analysis of the recurring rebrand trap.
The Emergency Fund, Argued Properly
Everyone repeats the advice; few explain it well. What an emergency fund is really for, why the standard formula misleads, and how to size one honestly.
You Probably Don't Need a New Phone
The upgrade cycle runs on a feeling, not a fault. Why phones stopped improving enough to matter — and when replacing yours is actually rational.
In this journal
Search →- 01
The Case Against the Open-Plan Office
Business — Open-plan offices promised collaboration and delivered headphones.
- 02
In Defence of Rereading
Culture — In a culture that counts books finished, reading a book twice looks like falling behind.
- 03
A Brand Is Not a Logo
Brands — The most persistent confusion in marketing, untangled: what a brand actually is, why the logo is the least of it, and what small firms should build first.
- 04
Meetings Are a Tax. Here Is How to Cut It
Business — Every meeting spends the salaries of everyone in the room.
- 05
The Quiet Cost of Subscriptions
Money — Everything became a monthly payment while nobody was watching.
- 06
Password Managers, Plainly
Technology — The biggest security upgrade available to an ordinary person, explained without jargon: what a password manager does, the objections, and how to start.
- 07
What Loyalty Schemes Actually Buy
Brands — Points, tiers, apps and stamps: loyalty schemes are pitched as generosity.
- 08
Write It Down: the Case for an Operations Manual
Business — Most small firms run on what lives in the owner's head.
- 09
The Lost Art of the Lunch Break
Culture — The hour in the middle of the working day used to belong to workers.
- 10
Renting Versus Buying: a Calmer Framework
Money — The rent-or-buy question is drowned in moralising from both sides.
- 11
House Style: Why Good Brands Sound Like Themselves
Brands — Everyone invests in how a brand looks.
- 12
How to Read a Company Annual Report
Business — Annual reports are long by design and revealing by accident.
- 13
What to Automate, and What Never To
Technology — Automation is sold as a volume dial: more is better.
- 14
What We Lost With Local Newspapers
Culture — The decline of Britain's local press is usually told as a business story.