A Useful Chunk
A big project rarely gets done in one move. There is not enough money, people, information, or any way to stop the current work until the new thing is finished.…
Powder metallurgy: where the super stainless steels came from
Powder metallurgy did not appear for the sake of knives and was not solving a knife problem. But it is what shifted the limit that knife steel had been hitting…
Blackmail and Threats
Blackmail works while keeping the secret seems more important than any demand. The first concession rarely closes the matter. It confirms that the lever works. After it the price usually…
Consuming and Creating
The culture of self-realisation sometimes looks at the viewer and the reader as passive consumers of someone else’s life. But a film, a game and a book give real experience;…
Taste Grows Both Ways
Cultural hierarchy likes to divide art into the complex, which develops you, and the simple, which only entertains. In fact complexity widens perception, but by itself it produces no value.…
Love Does Not Have to Be Earned
A romantic plot is often built around conquest: through the right deeds, patience and persistence the hero earns another person’s love. In real life, attention and closeness are not a…