Rachael McKelvey

• Real life Succession
• Reluctantly accepting we are “worse off”
• Why good leadership matters
• Every now and again something reminds you the world is mad
• Avoiding the world

Real life Succession
Absolutely no spoilers about the fate of Waystar Royco but it’s hard to say how much more the Murdoch Empire can withstand, and while I desperately wanted to see Dominion Voting Systems squash Fox News like a tiny little bug in open court, I can understand why they took the settlement, you’d like to think truth was an open and shut case, but we live in interesting post truth times. I’m also not sure as a shareholder following the offer of £631 million ($787m), a life changing amount of money for a business, that I wouldn’t have also voted to take the deal.

The only other upside to this was that Tucker Carlson has stepped away by “mutual agreement” after saying he would see everyone on Monday…the market reacted in the only way the market can, by dropping 3% of the share price only to recover it pretty quickly, do not let the door hit you on the butt on the way-out Carlson. I think the greatest irony is that right now the biggest existential threat to the Murdoch Empire is Prince Harry and the irony being that if Prince Harry had done literally anything else you know the Murdoch press would have slapped it over every single one of their front pages and have as the flagship story on all their new channels. Grab some popcorn and settle in.

Reluctantly accepting we are “worse off”
On todays episode of I’m rich you’re poor how is reluctantly accepting that, “yes, we’re all worse off, and we all have to take our share” working out for you? Against a backdrop of continuing strike action, a decline in public services and the inarguable statistic that the richer have in fact got richer how is being poor working out for you?

This week England’s top Economist spoke on Columbia Law Schools Beyond Unprecedented podcast which is all about the economy in a post pandemic world and having listened to the episode, in the context it is in and very objectively if we were looking back at this as a historical event it’s potentially not an unfair comment, but it definitely feels a little off the mark outside the podcast.

It’s the comment about taking our share that sticks a little with me, because we all know that those share’s are not equal and disproportionately impact those who suffer the most at times of high inflation.

Why good leadership matters
I think the state of British politics right now is the perfect example of why good leadership matters, because look what happens when the leadership you have is average at best and well beyond hideous at worst.

The fact that the resignation of Dominic Raab has more people talking about civil service reform rather than ministerial behaviour is astounding, off the back of a resignation letter that might as well have just been a post it that said ‘sorry not sorry’ and while I don’t think anyone would disagree the civil service needs some reform, at this moment in time its not that and that not even where the conversation is going.

LinkedIn is awash with people don’t quite bad jobs they quit bad managers and there is a reason it keeps doing the rounds, its true, but also not everyone has the luxury of quitting and some bad managers never leave, you just have to look around bad organisations to see it, the good people go and those that are left are bad people and hostages and so the cycle continues.

Every now & then something reminds me that existence is mad
For me it is Moore’s Law, what is yours? The hypothesis being that for the next 10 years from 1965 onwards that the number of transistors on computer chips doubles approximately every two years…and it has been right for over half a century!

For decades people think this will be the year Moore’s law becomes obsolete and here am I just thinking everything is mad because how can we put a billion of anything on something as small as a microprocessor and how do we use those exceptionally tiny things to do millions of different things. They basically keep all this *gestures vaguely around* going. It’s absolutely mad to me.

If you haven’t stopped by Our World In Data may I highly recommend that you do, there is a brilliant article on Moores law with some interactive charts and some other interesting charts on other examples of exponential growth in technology.

Mad little planet we live on.

Avoiding the world
Last weekend I spent 3 nights in a geodome in a field in the middle shires, it was glorious. I went all in and turned off my mobile data the minute I grabbed the last bag from the car. I was in two minds, I had a charging block that would have lasted me till the Monday, there were mod cons, this was not wild by any stretch of the imagination, but electricity from solar panels and hot water from a calor gas boiler and the other method of heating spaces and water was burning wood. It was glorious and I didn’t miss the scrolling or the contact.

Reunited this week with a friend who’d spent 10 days in Bali, also relatively off grid without wifi connection and we compared notes, it was surprisingly easy to drop into presence and gratitude, both commenting how nice it was to just use our phones as cameras, check in only if necessary and feel like there was enough time. I found that I didn’t spend more time reading but the time I spent reading was more intentional and the by the time I was home to my own bed on Monday evening I had finished a book I had only started at the bedtime on the Friday by the light of the fire.

Current watch:  Unstable – Quite literally a father son comedy about the interesting family dynamic when you are just opposite ends of the spectrum, an eccentric genius in bio tech and his shy socially awkward son who both need each other to survive in the wake of the loss of their glue, their wife and mother.

Sian Clifford plays the part of CFO in the middle of these two, one who adores being the centre of attention and the other who just doesn’t. It’s a very watchable, very relatable and sometimes really silly look at a father son dynamic. Made only greater by it being John Owen Lowe and Rob Lowe playing the roles, John Owen Lowe is his fathers biggest troll on Instagram and the world loves it.

Current read: Damage by Josephine Hart – In advance of sitting down and watching the Netflix series, this has been in my TBR for a while and boy am I glad I picked it up, I rarely read non fiction but when I do it has be a page turner and this did not disappoint. I couldn’t put it down, part car crash part absolute fascination. This is an incredibly well written portrayal of betrayal and obsession at all costs, it is cleverly written and compels the reader to read and think between the lines, right until the very end. In the novella class this definitely deserves a hot drink of choice and an afternoon of no plans.

Most Impactful Listen: Word of Mouth – Psychiatrist and Patient – Michael Rosen speaks to Neuropsychiatrist Anthony David about the dialogue that takes place between him and his patients. I found myself stopped in the supermarket a few times to concentrate and want to listen better. It was fascinating to hear about the experience from the opposite chair in the room. Rosen is his usual insightful and useful voice, this as with most other episodes so far are well worth your time.