Consulting Swordsman
The trumpet-blast of the Star Wars theme when that logo hits the screen transports me instantly back to the age of 11. Everything onscreen after that gets absorbed with the absolute trust and lack of cynicism that you’d expect of a person who still maybe sort of believes in Santa Claus. It’s magic, pure and … Read more
Who am I to be writing this blog post? Nobody. I’m sure there are a thousand people out there who would do it better. But a friend of mine asked me, not them, so here we go. First, I’ll define my terms, so we can get a good look at the beast before we kill … Read more
Hypocrisy is deliberately saying one thing and doing another. Pretending to be something you are not, or pretending to believe something that you do not. Lecturing others on family values while cheating on your spouse, for instance. The problem with having values is that sometimes you fail to live up to them. This is normal, … Read more
As our community grows, it seems to be following the completely normal progression of human tribes: what began as a couple of hundred folk who were so overwhelmed with joy to find other people who really like swords that most other considerations just fell by the wayside, has now grown like a bacterial culture: groups … Read more
I’m in the process of recovering from a nasty injury. Why am I telling you this? Because shit happens to everyone, and I thought it might be useful to you to see how I deal with it. This is not my first training injury, and I’d be very surprised if it was my last. My … Read more
I remember the Cold War, when we were taught that the Russians were the bad guys, the Americans the good guys, and it seemed impossible that they would ever communicate across the deep political, doctrinal, and cultural divide. And yet, as Sting sang in 1985, “But what might save us, me and you,/ Is if … Read more
This article by Claire Dederer raises an interesting question. What do we do with the art of monstrous men? In other words, does knowing that the artist is a horrible person invalidate their art? She addresses Woody Allen as her primary monster, for his appallingly disgusting sexual antics (such as having an affair with (and … Read more
You’ve probably heard phrases like “Information wants to be free”, or “What gets measured gets managed” before, usually to justify a particular political decision or business process, but they have slipped into more general use. Here’s the problem: both of them are incomplete. “Information wants to be free” comes from Stewart Brand. Cory Doctorow tells the … Read more
You will never be ready. If you wait until you feel ready to be a parent, or change careers, or take up swordsmanship (I had to sneak that in somewhere), or attend your first event, or write your first book, then you will never do it. In any area worth considering, you become ready by … Read more
At first glance this is a restaurant review, but bear with me: I’ll get to the martial arts point in due course. I was in London this week on my way home from teaching in Germany, and my kind brother in law David* took me out to lunch to a restaurant run by his kick-boxing … Read more