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Our image of liars is so negative, our sense of their motives so dark, our presumption of their primal sinfulness so unyielding, it’s no wonder that we generally go around denying the possibility that we might in any way be one. But it would be a great deal more honest…
Without us perhaps quite noticing, much of what we place our hopes in will be ready for us in a very a long time indeed, in months or even decades from…
When we think about children living under the shadow of a parent, we tend to imagine the offspring of especially distinguished, notorious or wealthy people, children who – whatever they might…
It’s a rather simple question that quickly gets to the core of someone’s sense of well-being and legitimacy: did your childhood leave you feeling that you were – on balance –…
One of the reasons why our lives might be less than they should be is that we have missed out on an awkward-sounding but critical art (whose absence we may until…
One of the more surprising and yet effective things we might learn about ourselves is that we are, and perhaps have always been, masochists – an idea as controversial as it…
One of the more shocking and difficult emotions one may feel towards one’s parents is anger. It might have been acceptable, as a toddler, to have had the odd tantrum in…
One of the reasons why our lives are harder than they might be is that most of us have not got a firm handle on the art of mature self-assertion; that…
Technically, most of us leave school at 18 – an event that tends to be vividly etched in memory and surrounded by considerable ceremony and emotion. And yet, rather oddly, despite…
In 1905, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto noticed a detail about the peas in his garden: 20% of the pea pods seemed to be responsible for yielding 80% of the peas.…
Almost half of us will suffer from depression at some point in our lives, but the condition remains badly misunderstood and therefore often poorly treated. At the heart of our collective…
In every life, we are constantly confronted with situations where a stranger will do something acutely irritating or discomforting: perhaps they’ll turn up their music too loudly on the train, or…
One of the inevitable duties of parenthood is having to induct our beloved child into the reality – and horrors – of existence. Starting with homework. It’s been a difficult evening;…
There few things more appalling for the parent of a grown-up child than the realisation of just how much one has, over the years, deeply hurt the person one most loves…
Some things are awkward to say not so much because they require a particularly deft or careful choice of words but because it’s difficult to get into the frame of mind…
A deadline is looming and a member of your team hasn’t made much progress on the crucial part of the task that’s been assigned to them. You feel like going up…
Some of what makes office life awkward is that it asks us to tread a fine line between being, on the one hand, efficient and focused, and on the other, genial…
We tend to have a pretty confident attitude towards the technical failings of the people we work with. These failings may be maddening, but we know how to put them right;…
One of the greatest problems of our working lives is that we lack any experience of, or instruction in, the essential art of failing well. Because our efforts are focused on…