Beyond the event horizon

The other week, I was asked to review a scientific article, providing a topic explanation all the way from high-level concepts to the latest cutting-edge research. As is often the case with these things, it became quite technical by the end, with plenty of references, footnotes, and citations crediting information gathered from elsewhere.

Outside the topic itself, the arc of the explanation was also interesting. It followed an inverted pyramid shape—starting with general, well-known concepts, before delving deeply into specific topics.

The nature of the references also changed. For high-level, established concepts, the information could easily be found in newspaper articles; for more detailed ideas, in specialist press and textbooks; and for cutting-edge research, you are wading through pre-print papers.

The Rising Cost of Knowledge

This is, of course, what you would expect. However, what struck me was how dramatically the amount of time needed to find and extract the required information increased.

The generally known and accepted information was easy to access and digest, often available for free online. By the time you get to the more complex and specific details, however, you are sifting through a large volume of documentation—much of it not specifically relevant—just to uncover that nugget of knowledge you’re looking for.

As things get more advanced, the cost of gaining knowledge rises… dramatically. This holds true for workplace best practices too.

Most of us are striving to improve our processes, become more effective, or simply more efficient. We’re looking for that edge that can make a real difference in our lives.

There is no shortage of ideas out there: newspaper articles, industry trade sites, news feeds, webinars, events, conferences, and countless opportunities for discussion.

Yet, just as in science, as you get closer to cutting-edge best practices, more time and effort are required to find those new ideas. You may need to attend an entire day of a conference to stumble across that one transformative idea or unique insight. Or meet countless people before finding that one opportunity or role you’re looking for. These discoveries may not happen immediately, perhaps on the third or fourth attempt, it’s rarely a linear process it seems.

Why Exploration Matters

Especially when we are under pressure, these exploratory activities can feel like a waste of time or money. You may hear comments like, “Why would I attend? Most of the information is the same,” or, “It’s too busy to fit into my diary.”

However, just as in science, the simple fact is that all these activities increase your surface area of interaction, which in turn raises the probability of finding that transformational nugget, idea, potential future sale, or indeed, a new role.

So, it may not feel like these efforts add much at first, but the probabilities add up and the act of searching is intrinsic to finding that value.

Far from being activities you can skip, these are essential if you want to access cutting-edge ideas. To avoid them is to resign yourself to thinking like everyone else, following the herd, and operate at an average level.

So, that is my resolution for 2025: to get out there and explore even more new topics, hopefully discovering fresh ideas. I’ll, of course, share what I find, and you’re more than welcome to follow along… although what would be even better is to see you there in person!

Have a great week, everyone.


[oh and if all this talk of event horizons makes you think of black holes, check out this video simulation from NASA of what you would see if you fell into one – link . Attending events is much safer btw!]

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Outlandish Predictions 2025?

After New Year, but before that first Monday back at work, we enter a twilight zone. There is nothing more to celebrate… the mince pies, still stacked high, are on sale… and it can be easy to be just kicking around the house.

For many, of course, this is a great time to get out, head to the January sales, do jobs at home or even dare I say some DIY.

Others are happy to get the jump on work, head in and start work early… you can always tell those that do by the way, they are the ones that don’t start their emails ‘Happy New Year’ next week… no they are not grumpy, they just did it already!

Then for some, it is a good time to trawl through the myriad of predictions for the year ahead, even come up with some of our own too. (I do quite enjoy these I have to admit). So here goes.


Is all this real insight or just a large example of groupthink? Both indeed may be true and still fun to think about… so here are a couple of less-than-outlandish predictions for 2025 from my perspective.

  1. We are going to hear a lot less about AI. This is already true, I have already stopped trying to talking about it so much… although have failed here. The reality is it is being accepted and already getting rolled into products and process, some places we don’t even notice, it is not going anywhere, we are just going to hear about it less. No doubt we will be exploring use cases a lot.
  2. The call for more regulation, more oversight and more control will get louder. With great technology comes extra capability flexibility vs control split is going to get ever harder to navigate. We need to be ready and stay ahead. Evidencing, data and reporting will be top of mind.
  3. 2025 is the year the rubber hits the road on Consumer Duty in the UK. Yes, I know it is already launched, but it feels like we will see much more regulator activity and action this year. This is going to generate a lot of discussion (and activity I suspect).
  4. Economic outlook... not wanting to sound like Nostradamus on this one, but not great. My view prepare for a storm, and if it doesn’t happen you can laugh about it… if it does you are ready. We know what to do here, but time to take action.
  5. Lastly I am optimistic however around medical advances… this would be great too, so will be watch this space.

That’s it I think… all the best for 2025, lets see how it all plays out.

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Looking back, looking forward

For many of us, there is a lull between Christmas and New Year. It may not have the festivities of the holidays themselves, but equally, there’s none of the pressure. The equivalent of the Thursday night out vs the party on a Saturday.

Of course, if you work in travel, retail, or hospitality, it’s still a busy time (no doubt there is some similar joy in the low season!), healthcare too, but for many industries, it’s fairly quiet.

In many ways, I used to enjoy working through this period… finally completing that mandatory training that I had been putting off all year, setting goals, maybe even sorting through the files in the desk or on the computer… a great time to get organised.

However, busy or not, now is traditionally a good time to reflect on the year: What happened, and what was learnt that can be useful for next year?… yet rather than run through history, I thought I would share a few interesting observations instead—those that never made it to the blog.


Speed Up or Slow Down? When you’re on the motorway and lanes merge, do you speed up to let the person in behind you, or slow down to let them in front? It feels like there are two different approaches to life here… what is better, being a speed-up or slow-down kind of person…

Sending Cards. Christmas cards are fading, even more so this year (more email and social media), but what happens when you receive a card from someone new? Normally there is a bit of social panic as you hastily write a card in return.

Sure it is better to be sending good wishes first… but how early, and how to best handle?… How often you find yourself responding to others rather than sending first… certainly seems like a good KPI!

Juggling Too Many Things. Despite our own self-belief, humans are not good at multitasking. Every task has a cognitive load, and switching between tasks takes effort taking time to get back up to speed. The more frequently you switch, the slower progress generally becomes.

This year, I seemed to discover another effect: even if I separate tasks and tackle them in order, the fact that they are still there, hanging over me in the mental to-do list, still seems to slow progress. Some of the mental energy needed elsewhere is absorbed… and it does however seem to be getting worse in our hyper-connected, multitasking orientated world.

Now maybe this is a function of the tasks themselves, lack of sleep or even age..! but there needs to be a list or technique to compartmentalise and close them off. something to find in 2025.. being aware of this dynamic mind-you is a good first step!

Concentration Takes Practice. I don’t know about you, but it certainly feels like attention spans are shortening, with the rise of AI summarisation only making it worse.

I mean, why read a whole book or article when I can plug it into AI, get it summarised, and then ask the detailed, targeted questions I want or think I need to ask? This year it has certainly allowed me to cover more ground. However, it has also become a bit of a bad habit, after all reading the whole book can lead you into areas and questions you might not have considered.

Long form reading takes practice and time… so something for the 2025 resolutions. Time to get book reading-fit again.

But… are Business Books Too Long? To completely contradict my previous point… sometimes it does feel that many business books are written to meet a publisher’s target of length.. which is based on our perception of how long a book should be to be of value… rather than valuing the information with it. The number of pages, it seems, is a mental shortcut we use at the airport or station when browsing.

How many times have you ploughed through a 300-page book, all to explain an idea that really could have been covered in 15 PowerPoint slides or less. This is frustrating.

I do wonder, with the rise of LLMs/AI, if we will start storing information, currently in books, in a different form. As data in the background, it could be served to readers customised based on their interests and knowledge level, with of course recommended questions or prompts from the author. Maybe a project for 2025… could this even work for fiction or a whodunnit..!

Travelling is Good for the Soul. I know we’re all online these days, and many can work from almost anywhere. However, I am always struck by how rewarding it is whenever I’m in the office with others.

New ideas get formed and I often return with refreshed outlook and inspiration, which contributes to heightened productivity once back worked remotely again.

It really is not one or the other, but a hybrid approach that works really well… so hopefully more of the same for 2025.


So, as the year wraps up, the mince pies come to an end, and the Easter eggs start to appear (apparently)… I hope 2024 has been good for you. However, whatever it brought, I also hope next year is better.

Wishing everyone a fantastic 2025. Best wishes, everyone.

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