How I doubled my workspace... on a smaller desk.

This is not hyperbole. I recently went from one computer monitor to two and it has changed my life.
 
Because I can flick between windows much faster, it has made working out of multiple documents much easier. Web content in particular is easier to sort out. I have told several people that I don’t think I could go back to having just one screen.

So why has this one simple change made an impact. Very simply it’s because desk-space isn’t workspace. Following two moves in rapid succession around our office, my desk space has shrunk. But I haven’t noticed, because, really, what work does anyone do on a desk anymore?

I can think of two things I do on the desk – if I do a phone interview and am writing notes, and if I print off a large document to proofread. Almost all my other work I do on my screen.

If I’m creating a new written piece I open a new Word doc. If I’m collating research and ideas, then I’m more likely to fire up Google than anything else. If I’m curating content, then I’m looking at on-screen material. If it’s online, then it’s on-screen and most of what I do is online or will end up there. Even documents that we print have an online life and it seems anything with an online life is on-screen work for the most part.

Culturally, we have moved from horizontal workspaces (the top of the desk) to vertical workspaces (the screens on desk-top PCs), but we still don’t think in those terms. I’ve realised that my screens are my workspace, and having an extra screen doubles the space I have to work in, despite having a smaller desk to put them on.

The next step is to add a third screen and see whether I gain the same amount of additional functionality again. I suspect the law of diminishing returns will come into play, with less benefit from each additional screen.

What would that upper limit be? Four screens? Six?  Could I build an in-office IMAX, or will I run out of desk to put the screens on first?

The Hobbit part two, from a disappointed reviewer

SPOILER ALERT – lots of detail from the film included.

The Hobbit part 2 has been out for a while. I saw it just before Christmas. It’s hard really to articulate how I feel. On the one hand, it’s the Hobbit, it’s Middle Earth, I ought to like it, but on the other hand it was long, clunky, and daft.

I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the book of The Hobbit, but I can see how it could translate to the screen as an adventure story. The book is fast-paced, funny, intriguing, and carries you along with it to the final battle. The films so far have lost that sense of pace and fun. There is more danger, and this episode of the trilogy lays on the peril with a trowel, starting with Thorin being told he has a death mark on his head, written in the Black Speech, no less.

The thing Peter Jackson doesn’t seem to get about The Hobbit is that the book of The Hobbit concentrates on, er, the hobbit. That’s the point of the story – it’s about Bilbo being unexpectedly recruited for a dangerous quest and contrary to his own and everyone else’s expectations, becoming a hero on the way.

But the film isn’t about the Hobbit at all. Bilbo seems incidental to most of the activity. Instead we have various sub-plots involving Elven warrior maidens being attracted to dwarves, the return of Sauron in a ruined fortress, and the oppression of the good, honest poor people of Laketown by an autocratic ruler.

The bits of the film that are quite good are the bits that are in the book: the Mirkwood spiders, Beorn, the escape from the Elven kingdom in barrels, and the conversation between Bilbo and Smaug the Dragon. But those bits don’t get much screen-time. In fact, the dwarves’ imprisonment – several weeks in the book while Bilbo figures out how to get them out – is reduced to an overnight stay and Bilbo working out the escape route in a matter of seconds.

The bits between those authentic parts of the story, in contrast, seem to drag. The quest was difficult enough without the introduction of a snarling orc leader tracking the dwarves, for reasons that probably were spelled out at some point, but I yawned and missed it.

There are some good bits – Sauron materialising in Dol Guldur from the pupil of the lidless eye was well-rendered – but they are few and far between. Instead we have a load of sentimental tosh designed to make the story more Hollywood. Tauriel, a veteran Elven warrior, barely claps eyes on one of the dwarves before she is smitten in the most unlikely romance ever.

There are other things that make the film suck too. I’m sorry to do this to Stephen Fry, but his ‘performance’ as the Master of Laketown was one-dimensionally pompous. And the bigger problem is that he was obviously playing Stephen Fry, the QI quizmaster host, albeit with the ‘lovable’ setting dialled down. I was half expecting a klaxon to sound and one of his minions have points deducted for saying something wrong or too obvious.

The film didn’t need Legolas either. Or rather, if you did include him, include him in a knowing cameo inside the Elf citadel, maybe commenting on how he would never trust a dwarf. And then we could all smile to ourselves, because, of course we know what’s going to happen later and the friendship he would forge with Gimli. Instead, he is over-used as a cross between a ninja and the Green Arrow, slaying orcs left, right and centre.

We also have a ridiculous escape plan inside the Lonely Mountain, where furnaces that have not been fired for years are lit and instantly produce a river of molten gold for Thorin to ride on in a wheelbarrow. I’m no metallurgist, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how blast furnaces work and it’s impossible to ride molten metal like that. Not only did it not make sense, but it looked like a sequence crafted solely for inclusion in a computer game of the movie. And not even a good computer game. A shitty platformer churned out to cash in on the movie.

Now, I know at this point, you could be forgiven for saying,‘Well, it’s a fantasy movie, it doesn’t have to be real.’ And I’d agree to a point. I can forgive the highly unlikely barrel ride, even though that stretched the bounds of credibility. But the ‘it’s only fantasy’ doesn’t work. If you have created a universe that is supposed to be real, it has to have a certain level of authenticity, otherwise you could just make up any old crap. Why bother with the wheelbarrow? Why not just have Thorin surf the molten gold in a pair of magic ski socks knitted by Beorn from his shape-changing eyebrows? It makes as much sense.

The Hobbit is a well-known, much-loved book, with an existing fanbase that any movie can tap into. So, my main question is, why does Peter Jackson cock this up so badly? I know I’m inviting the charge that I haven’t directed any Hollywood adaptations, so what do I know. But that’s the thing, having watched this, I’m not sure what I could do to wreck the story any further.

The big 2013 Christmas Card Audit

I did this for the first time last year, and that means I can be all uber-geeky and do like-for-like comparisons. I have further subdivided the themes to throw further light on what Christmas means in the minds of the people who make Christmas cards, and the people who buy them.

(Of course, it's not a truly scientific sample as it's based only on the people who gave us Christmas cards. If you're one of them, thank you.)

Total number of Christmas cards: 97 (last year's figure: 104)
Hand-made / home-produced cards: 7 (6) plus two designed by kids and printed by schools
Cards with magnets on: sadly none (last year: 1)

Cards sold in aid of charity: 44 (42)
Of which...
Traidcraft cards: 5 (down from 6 last year)
Oxfam cards: None (2 last year)
Main charity represented: Diabetes UK with 5 cards.
Total number of charities represented: 62 (up from 40 last year). This includes one card that raised funds for 30 different charities.
Marks and Spencer cards (new category): 12

Themes
Religious-themed cards: 33 (down from 37)
Cards featuring the Nativity: 15
The following Christmas story 'characters' appeared on cards too:
Three kings: 5 (down from 9)
The shepherds: 4 (up from 2)
The star of Bethlehem: 2 (up from 1)

Other themes (new categories asterisked)
'Peace': 2 (down from 4)
Santa: 10 (compared to 6 in 2012) plus one that was just several Santa hats
Penguins: 3 (down from 5)
Various cartoon bears: 2 (down from 12 bears in 2012)
Dogs in Santa Hats: None this year! (2 last year)
*Deer/reindeer: 6
*Christmas decorations: 4
*Christmas trees: 5
*Robins: 3
*Mistletoe: 2
*Winter scene/scenery: 7
Messages
Cards that mention 'Christmas' on the front: 35 (down from 45)
Like last year, many of the religious-themed cards don't mention Christmas on the front.

So, that's it. Fewer cards, but more charity fundraising cards - aren't our friends lovely - with a mix of themes. A third have a religious theme and a third mention 'Christmas' on the front, with some overlap, but still the religious elements of the midwinter holiday haven't quite faded away.

Farewell 2013

Normally I wait and do my review of the year in January, but what the hey. These are my personal 'cultural' highlights for 2013.

Best book read
My friend Jo gave me Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck in our book group secret Santa last year, which I loved. It's an account of his road trip around America with his dog Charley. I learned a lot from it and laughed a lot at it. Thoroughly recommended. I've since read two more Steinbeck classics, including Cannery Row, which I found very engaging. It has a large number of true-to-life characters and felt very real, as it described life in the rough end of Monterey down with the hobos and whore-houses.

Other books of note: The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M Banks - the last Culture novel, following Banks's tragic early death from cancer. Not as good as Surface Detail, but I liked it. Trautmann's War by Catrine Clay was an interesting analysis of the rise of Nazism, told through the lens of Bert Trautmann, the Manchester City footballer who grew up in Germany in the 1930s.

Best film
Two great animated films came out this year, Monsters University and Frozen. Monsters U is a prequel to Monsters Inc, which I have loved since it came out a decade ago. I thought it was very clever and there were several curveballs throughout that I wasn't expecting. The ending was very mature as well, with the main characters having to live with the consequences of their actions, rather than a Hollywood 'all is forgiven' restorative ending. Frozen was excellent too, and probably edges it. Again, there is quite a mature ending around the definition of an act of true love. Plus one totally stand out song sung by a snowman brought to life by magic, which made me laugh out loud.

Other films of note: Philomena was a tough watch, but a very powerful story with interesting things to say about institutional religion and genuine forgiveness. Girl Most Likely was a quirky Indie offering with some great performances that had an emotional resonance.

Best music
I was fortunate to see my favourite band, The Tragically Hip, live twice in London in July. But the best gig I went to this year was seeing The Avett Brothers live in Manchester in February. we discovered the Avett Brothers in the most bizarre way - Cathy saw them on the TV show Ace of Cakes, listened to them on Spotify and we have subsequently bought most of their albums. They were excellent in concert, with a livelier, rockier feel than I was expecting.

Other music of note: On our summer holiday in Cornwall we went to the organ concert at Truro Cathedral. There was one piece, called Fiat Lux (Let there be light), which gave me synaesthesia - by which I mean when I closed my eyes I could 'see' lights and movement, as if the stars were appearing.

Best TV
There has been only one show for me this year - Elementary. Johnny Lee Miller is brilliantly dark, comic, and tragic by turns, as Sherlock Holmes recovering from addiction in modern day New York. Lucy Liu is understated but never underplayed as his sidekick. The show can be slightly formulaic at times, but steers away from the worst of American drama clichés. Introducing Rhys Ifans as Mycroft Holmes in the second series has been a good move as well. It is the only show I make a point of trying to watch on the night its aired.

Other TV of note: I haven't watched much else, really. I found Doctor Who disappeared up its own backside too much this year, although the 50th anniversary special was good, but that's mainly because of John Hurt. The final IT Crowd episode was quite funny, but didn't really hit the heights of some of the early episodes.

Best place visited
There have been a few new places this year. I enjoyed going to both Truro and Wells Cathedrals. I also went with my friend Connor to the British Museum in-between Tragically Hip gigs, where we visited the Coins in the Bible exhibit, which I found fascinating. I learned where the term 'Widow's Mite' comes from. On our holiday in Cornwall we stayed in Flushing, near Falmouth and visited several places we had never been to before. The absolute highlight was visiting a lighthouse that was used as the external location for Fraggle Rock!

Best toy / model / collectible
The Boba Fett collection has expanded to over 50 figures now, and the Black Series 6" figure I bought just before Christmas is probably one of the nicest action figures I've ever bought. However, my toy of the year is the Lego VW Camper Van that Cathy and I bought and built on our wedding anniversary. It took us over six hours and the resulting model is a thing of beauty. I blogged about it here.

So, on the cusp of 2014, that's not a bad year, really.

Creative writing - list of stories and other stuff I've written

I have decided to chuck all the links to my creative writing in one post, which I will update as and when.

Short stories

Welcome to Chillsville

Beckham TM

Lost in Splott

Family Ties

Seasonal

Christmas Journey

Angel's Delight

Zodiac Team extracts

Victorious Earth (Background)

The Beginning

Scorpio's Story

Meeting in the Mess

Poems

All or Nothing

Winter Morning

Angel Voice

Big fat film review - 7 films. I'll be brief I promise.

Here are some thoughts on 7 films I've seen recently. There are mild spoilers throughout.

The Way, Way Back
I went to see this at Chapter with my friend Nigel. It's an American family drama about a boy called Duncan who goes on holiday with his mum, his mum's domineering new boyfriend, Trent, and Trent's daughter who is a couple of years older then Duncan. Steve Carell plays Trent. It's a straight role, and I wish he played more 'straight' roles because he is excellent in this as a passive aggressive bully who lectures Duncan on how relationships are founded on respect while at the same time belittling him.

Duncan then ends up at a run-down water-park away from the beach when he meets Owen played by Sam Rockwell, who doesn't take life too seriously. At first the wise-cracking Owen seems like one of life's wasters, but then as the film wears on, it becomes apparent that he has more depth to him, and through offering respect to Duncan is a better role model than Trent. The acceptance and trust that Owen places in Duncan transforms Duncan from a shy teenager to a young man.

The film has moments of real quality. There is a strong supporting cast including Toni Collette as Duncan's mum, Alison Janney and Amanda Peet.

Stand-out scene: Owen intervenes when Trent verbally assaults Duncan, simply by standing between them. Trent, a bully by nature, isn't going to get involved in a fight he might not win, so backs off, revealing his true cowardly nature.
Rating: 7/10

The Adjustment Bureau
This is a couple of years old and Cathy and I watched it on TV. Matt Damon plays David, an aspiring politician who meets a professional dancer, Elise, played by Emily Blunt. They fall for each other, but mysterious 'agents' of the 'adjustment bureau' intervene to keep them apart. The bureau exists to make sure that people adhere to the plan for their life.

David and Elise are not meant to be together and the agents track them to make sure they don't meet up. It's a weird concept and there are plenty of interesting points to make about fate, love and choices. If David and Elise stay together they will miss out on their destinies to become President and a world famous dancer, respectively. What choice will they make?

I could see how the metaphysical questions would put many people off. I thought it was fascinating. The film is excellently shot and Matt Damon and Emily Blunt are both brilliant in it. Yes, the story is weird. All was almost explained though when 'Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick' came up at the end.

Stand-out scene: David is told humans were given the freedom to decide their own fate and it all went horribly wrong. So 'The Chairman' (a thinly veiled reference to God?) retook control.
Rating: 8/10

Philomena
I went to see this with Cathy - she got free tickets, somehow. It's not a film I'd have gone to see otherwise, which would have been a shame. Steve Coogan stars as real-life journalist turned spin doctor Martin Sixsmith, reeling after being sacked from his job advising the government. Trying to get back into work, he takes a 'human interest' story when he is introduced to Philomena Lea, played by Judi Dench.

Philomena was 14 and pregnant in mid-century Ireland. As a result she was sent to live in a convent, where she had the baby and worked in the laundry to earn her keep. When her boy, Anthony, was three, the nuns sold him to a childless couple from America. She asks Martin to track her down.

It's safe to say the nuns do not come out of this film in a good light. Obsessed that Philomena 'enjoyed her sin' they with-held all information from her for years, destroying their records so that she and other women wouldn't be able to trace their children. A trip to America uncovers Anthony's life, but the story's resolution is, amazingly, back in Ireland.

Considering the story is based on Martin Sixsmith's real-life experience of investigating what happen to Anthony Lea, he is remarkably honest about his own flaws. He doesn't come out of the film as the hero. Steve Coogan plays the role dead straight and is very, very good. There's an emotional punch at the end that I found very hard to take.

Stand-out scene: Philomena watches home movies of Anthony's life and we, the audience, discover the lies she has been told before she does.
Rating: 8/10

The Eagle
I watched this on TV. It was dreadful. Channing Tatum stars as a Roman general who wants to find out to his father's legion that went missing North of Hadrian's Wall twenty years or so previously. Setting off with his British slave, Jamie Bell, they travel to Scotland to recover the 'Eagle' - the standard of the missing legion, that is now in the hands of the savage natives.

I reckon whoever acted as a historical advisor on this should hand their money back. It was obtained under false pretenses. Apparently druids rode chariots into battle and Scotland was inhabited by 'painted people' who look more like Mohicans or the weird Mayan remnant in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Stand-out scene: A panning 'map-shot' or Roman Britain included Viriconium - now known as Wroxeter and about 15 miles from where I grew up. Seriously, that's the only bit worth watching for.
Rating: 2/10

Mean Girls
We watched this on DVD after being leant it by our friend, Clare. Lindsay Lohan plays Cady, a girl who is suddenly dropped into high school after years of being home educated on the African Savannah. There's some play there on how high school is a more hostile environment.

I'm sure everyone reading this will have seen Mean Girls. The main plot point is that Cady is adopted by the superficial queen-bitches of the school, known by their detractors as The Plastics. Initially intending to bring the Mean Girls down, Cady slowly morphs into one of them, until she realises what she has become.

With strong support from other great teen actors and Tina Fey as a teacher (she also wrote the screenplay), Mean Girls has a lot to say about the tribalism and sheer ferocity of school life. There are also a number of unexpected moments, most memorably involving a school bus.

Stand-out scene: The incident with the bus near the end.
Rating: 6/10

Thor: the Dark World
The Marvel / Avengers franchise spins on its merry way with this sequel to Thor. Much has been said on the film forums about Chris Hemsworth's (Thor) lack of charisma. Cathy argues that this works though, because in her view, most of the 'big gods' in the old pantheons were a bit dim anyway. Tom Hiddleston excels as Loki, the trickster and Thor's adopted brother, while Natalie Portman, as Thor's human love interest, Jane, had very little to do in the film, really, but did it quite well.

I'd like to see Natalie Portman actually lead a blockbuster. She has been a key figure in a few, but like the Star Wars prequels, her main role seems to be to give the hero something to think about and relate to. She's a better actress than that, but isn't given the space to show it.

The film is basically about the re-emergence of the Dark Elves, who want to destroy all nine worlds of the known multi-verse and re-establish the primordial darkness that existed beforehand. Thor and Loki have to team up to stop him. It fits nicely into the Marvel Avengers story arc and includes plenty of references to the other films, along with plenty of humour. There's also a marvellous cameo from one of the other Avengers.

Stand-out scene: Thor busts Loki out of the Asgardian prison, and one-by-one all his friends tell Loki that if he betrays Thor they will make him pay.
Rating: 7/10

The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
Bit of an odd one this. I went with my friend Ollie to Chapter to see it, at his suggestion. It's basically two hours of philosopher Slavoj Zizek deconstructing the 'ideology' that infuses our world (i.e. capitalism) with the aid of clips from famous movies.

It starts with clips from John Carpenter's 'They Live' to illustrate how ideology isn't a pair of glasses we put on. We actually have to put the glasses on to see the ideology that we don't otherwise notice. It then jumps incongruously to clips from the Sound of Music and and interesting critique of Catholicism as an institution, not as a faith.

I would probably have found this easier to watch in 15-20 minutes sections as I found my brain couldn't keep up with all the ideas knocking around in it. It is very cleverly shot, with Zizek 'inhabiting' various movie scenes to explain the ideology they contain. He confirms my disgust at The Dark Knight's nihilism, pulls apart the upper class parasitism on the working class as evidenced in Titanic, and uses long clips from Nazi and Soviet propaganda films to make further points.

Well worth a watch, but not an easy one. It left me with an awful lot of questions. I didn't really get the bit with the Kinder egg.

Stand-out scene: Using Willem Defoe's performance as Jesus in Martin Scorcese's Last Temptation of Christ, Zizek argues that the only path to true atheism is through Christianity, because in dying on the cross, Jesus set humanity free from dependence on God, and therefore humans are free to determine the meaning of their lives and actions. Big stuff.
Rating: 7/10

What we did for our 15th Wedding Anniversary

I know no one will really believe me when I say this, but this was Cathy's idea.

We had talked about maybe going away for a couple of nights, or a day trip to Hay-on-Wye, but then the weather was awful, so we went for plan B - Cathy's suggestion.

We went into the Lego Shop in Cardiff and for less than a night away at a fancy hotel, bought ourselves the 1,334-piece expert modeler VolksWagen Camper Van. Then we spent about six hours together building it! We punctuated our quality couple time with a meal out, which was just as well because after the first few hours we definitely needed a break. The build got quicker as time went on as we had fewer pieces to rummage through to find the ones we needed.

It was a great way to celebrate being married and actually spend time together doing something we enjoy. We discovered afresh the importance of clear communication in a marriage ('Ooh, you need to find a really peculiar looking piece, now.'). And we had the wonderful feeling of 'Look what we did!' at the end.  

So, here's a photo stream of our anniversary project.

All the bits!

All the bits sort of sorted!

The engine - this is visible when you lift the rear engine housing door on the finished model

The chequerboard floor

Bodywork starts to take shape

That seat in the back folds down into a bed :-)

More bodywork built

Cab door added

Windows. The curtains were a bit fiddly

Close up of the dash

Roof on

Demonstrating the pop-up roof sleeping area

The iconic front end

Six hours and the bus is complete!

Fairy Hearts for sale - gendered marketing meets meat

I spotted this shopping in Asda Cardiff Bay, and am quite proud that is has since been added to the Sociological Images pointlessly gendered products pinterest board, after I tweeted the pics.

But more to the point, isn't there something deeply disturbing in encouraging little girls to eat fairy hearts? What images does that conjure up? Fairies being farmed intensively in large barns full of glittering cages, fattened up and cruelly murdered so that little human 'princesses' can gorge themselves?

It reminds me of the horrible scene in Stardust where the witches are going to murder Yvaine so they can eat her heart and have their youth restored. Is that what Asda think they are doing by selling these?

In a way, of course, that is what they will achieve. The 'princessing' of little girls is one of the most powerful programmes for infantilising and disempowering women in our culture. Making little girls eat fairy hearts is part of a much wider scheme to dress them all in pink, and limit their dreams to wishing they were pretty enough to win the heart of a prince, instead, of, you know, getting out there and kicking ass.

Even before I was a vegetarian I would never have touched processed meat garbage products like this. But sadly many parents will, and in reinforcing the cultural conditioning of princessiness, this disgusting looking meat isn't the only crap they are forcing down their daughters' throats.

Film review - Girl Most Likely

We got free tickets to a screening of this film that I probably wouldn't have bothered to go to otherwise. I do tend to judge films by their posters and trailers and in this case neither have appealed to me.

Which is a shame, because I found this funny and highly enjoyable, even if it is only scoring less than 6 on IMDb. It's feel-good movie with some stand-out performances from Kristen Wiig in the lead, Annette Bening, and particularly Matt Dillon, playing a guy who might be a total flake, or might not. My favourite character was Ralph, played by Christopher Fitzgerald. Glee fans will also enjoy Darren Criss's performance.

The plot is fairly simple. Wiig plays Imogene, a playwright who never lived up to her potential, whose life comes unstuck. She winds up in a psych ward and gets put in the care of her mother who she has been estranged from for years. To make matters worse, this means she has to leave her 'successful', cool Manhattanite life to slum it back in her hometown on the New Jersey shore. But that forces her to confront her own failings and discover her family aren't all they seem after all.

So far, quite predictable. But there's more to it than you'd believe from my rubbish precis in the previous paragraph. It's a coming of age tale for a girl in her 30s taking stock of her life, and maybe that's what chimed with me, being a guy in my 30s reflecting at present on what I want to be doing with my life.

The jokes are reasonably sophisticated and aren't belaboured. In fact it's the throwaway prop gags and references that made me realise this was a better film than many. Stuck back in New Jersey with just the clothes she left behind when she left in the 90s, Imogene ends up wearing a Friends t-shirt. I thought that was funny and, in a way, authentic. That's just one example.

There are also some touching moments. Ralph makes a sheet-fort as a makeshift bedroom for Imogene, as her room is unavailable to her. There's also a moment later on that made the audience go 'Aw!', again involving Ralph. But it doesn't lapse into ridiculous schmaltz, although the ending felt a bit sudden and too perfect. Still, that's a minor gripe.

It's a feel-good movie and it made me feel good. So, job done.

Rating: 8/10

The science behind successful communications

My colleague Chris (who is a senior comms bod) challenged my previous assertion that communications is essentially a science.

He tweeted: “Good stuff. But science can be challenged especially when it relates to comms.” And then after we discussed it “But tested knowledge often doesn't apply if the personalities, time, timings and environment differ a bit.”

He has a point, of course. Depending who you have in the experiment, and where you do it, changes the experiment. And I would go further and say it’s not that the science can be challenged but it should be challenged. We always need to test it – does this rule or law still hold true? How can we refine it? Do we need to redefine it?

But I still think my basic point holds. If the comms activity has been researched then there will be one way of doing it that’s better than the other. We may want to continue testing it, but we can’t just ignore it. Unfortunately, in my experience, people have chosen to ignore the science, either because they prefer to go with their gut instinct, or they think their idea is brilliant, or whatever.

To take a field that I write about quite frequently: healthcare. There is a real battle in ensuring that the best practice in any given clinical discipline spreads everywhere. It takes 20 years or so for better, safer procedures to become standard. That’s a very slow adoption rate.

Why is the adoption rate so slow when the benefits have been researched and proven? I don’t have the science on that. It would be a fascinating project. The suggestions people have made to me is that people don’t see the need to change, or they don’t believe that the change will be an improvement, or they don’t think the science applies to them.

That final point crops up a lot. A very senior healthcare leader once told me that every doctor thinks they have a uniquely difficult case-mix and that what works for other people won’t work for them because their patients are different. As an argument for maintaining the (unsafe) status quo, it’s very hard to disprove.

I remember an argument with a different manager about including a P.S. on mailing letters. All the research shows this is one of the most likely things to be read in a letter, and so you should repeat your big offer there with an exhortation to take up the offer ASAP. You shouldn’t introduce new information in the P.S.

My manager said he didn’t see the point of repeating information and we should ditch the P.S. His comment was ‘It makes us look like we’ve forgotten something.’ He didn’t realise that was probably why people are more likely to read a P.S. than other parts of the letter.

I lost the argument (seniority again). We dropped the P.S. The mailing flopped. We reverted to the older version of the letter for the next mailing, with the P.S., and it performed better.

I’d take the credit for that, but it wasn’t my research. I didn’t do anything other than read what other, brainier, people said worked for them, and then applied it. But that moment is when I became a believer in the science of comms.