Essential Idea
The Benefit of the Doubt
When was the last time you gave someone the benefit of the doubt — and were glad you did?
1 MINKnow this→
Topic Hub
Decision Making for Professionals
Decision making for professionals — how to decide well under pressure, spot the traps, and know when to trust the data and when to be sceptical.
Good decisions are not the product of more information. They are the product of better questions, healthy scepticism, and the humility to admit when the pattern might be a coincidence.
We live in an age that prizes data. Dashboards, models, ever more powerful systems. Yet the people who stand apart are not those with the most information but those who know when to be sceptical of it. The Texas Sharpshooter fires first and draws the target afterwards. Survivorship bias whispers that the visible are the wise. The planning fallacy convinces us that this time, surely, it will take less time.
The best decision-makers are not the ones who never make mistakes. They are the ones who build systems that catch errors, who ask 'what would change my mind?' before committing, and who know that a confident answer is not the same as a correct one. Giving up requires a sense of futility, and futility requires a self — even a chess engine can teach you something about knowing when to stop.
This hub gathers our briefings and articles on decision making — from cognitive traps to the wisdom of proverbs — for professionals who would rather decide well than decide fast.
AI at Work
Human judgement in the age of artificial intelligence
Our collection on working intelligently with AI — judgement, creativity, context and the skills that become more valuable as machines improve.
Explore AI at Work→Questions this hub explores
- how to make better decisions at work
- cognitive traps in decision making
- when to be sceptical of data
- decision making for professionals
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Tell the Concierge how long you've got. Decision Making is already preselected — change it if you'd rather.
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Take the Reset →Essential Ideas · 60-second reads
3Essential Idea
The Texas Sharpshooter
How do you know whether the pattern you've found is real — or a coincidence with a story attached?
1 MINKnow this→
Essential Idea
The Third Option
When you're trapped between two bad choices, who says there are only two?
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Articles & reading recommendations
33ArticleFree · 6-minute read
What Did You Want to Be When You Grew Up?
Tell us what you dreamed of doing as a child and what your working life looks like now. We'll look for the surprising ways your younger self may still be at work — a three-minute childhood dream job quiz.
24 September 2026
ArticleFree · 7-minute read
Britain Owes Nearly £3 Trillion. Manchester United Owes Millions. Is Debt Actually Bad?
Governments borrow. Businesses borrow. Football clubs borrow. Most of us borrow. An ancient idea about cancelling debts might help us ask a much better question about what we owe — and what we're leaving for tomorrow.
24 September 2026
ArticleFree · 5-minute read
Which Jane Austen Character Are You at Work?
A psychology-inspired personality quiz based on five Jane Austen characters — Elizabeth Bennet, Elinor Dashwood, Marianne Dashwood, Emma Woodhouse and Anne Elliot.
18 September 2026
ArticleFree · 6-minute read
Tom Holland Is Having the Best Year of His Life. Why Success Still Makes Us Want to Disappear for a While.
Getting what you wanted can be surprisingly exhausting.
1 September 2026
ArticleFree · 9-minute read
The Most Important AI Skill May Be Knowing When It's Wrong
As AI gets better at producing polished, competent work, the scarce skill moves somewhere else — towards judgement. Knowing when something is technically fine and somehow not quite right may become the most valuable thing a person can say.
1 September 2026
ArticleFree · 10-minute read
London vs New York: Who Has the Better Commute?
The Tube and the subway move two global cities every morning. The similarities end considerably later than either city might like to admit.
1 September 2026
ArticleFree · 9-minute read
Manchester and Chicago Have More in Common Than Either Would Probably Admit
Two great second cities, two working mornings — and the peculiar pleasure of not living in the capital.
1 September 2026
ArticleFree · 9-minute read
Birmingham vs Houston: What Happens When a City Expects You to Drive?
Two major working cities, two very different scales — and a morning journey increasingly shaped by the car.
1 September 2026
ArticleFree · 10-minute read
Liverpool vs Philadelphia: The Cities You Commute Through, Not Merely Into
Ports, sport, music, industrial memory and the strange importance of travelling through a city that feels like yours.
1 September 2026
ArticleFree · 11-minute read
The British and American Commute Is Almost Exactly the Same Length. So Why Does It Feel So Different?
The average British and American commute is remarkably similar in length. So why does travelling to work feel so different in the UK and US?
30 August 2026
ArticleFree · 11-minute read
Your Boss Wants You Back in the Office. But Do They Know Why?
The return-to-office battle is being fought over days, desks and attendance. But the more interesting question is what happens between human beings when they are actually in the same room.
26 August 2026
ArticleFree · 8-minute read
Why the New Football Season Makes Us Want a Fresh Start at Work
What the Premier League can teach us about resetting after summer, changing one habit and returning to work with fresh energy.
23 August 2026
ArticleFree · 12-minute read
Why Do We Procrastinate Even When We Know What We Should Do?
The deadline has been sitting in your calendar for three weeks. You know what to do. You're not doing it. Here's what's actually going on — and one thing to try on your next commute.
21 August 2026
ArticleFree · 11-minute read
Why Are Meetings So Exhausting? The Psychology of the Modern Meeting
A one-hour meeting with ten people isn't a one-hour meeting. It's ten hours of human life. Here's what makes meetings so draining — and a five-question test to decide whether the next one is worth attending.
21 August 2026
ArticleFree · 14-minute read
Why Intelligent People Make Bad Decisions
Intelligence isn't the same thing as good judgement. The smartest person in the room is often the one most at risk — because their intelligence can talk them into things their judgement should have talked them out of.
21 August 2026
ArticleFree · 13-minute read
The 10 Books I'd Give Someone Starting a New Career
Not the usual business book list. Ten categories that actually matter when you're starting out — from understanding people to staying curious — with books worth carrying into the first year and beyond.
21 August 2026
ArticleFree · 10-minute read
Why Your Brain Hates Being Interrupted
You're on the train. You're reading something good. Your phone buzzes. You check it — just for a second. That second costs more than you think. Here's why, and what to do about it.
21 August 2026
ArticleFree · 7-minute read
What 10FOOT Knows About Being Seen
The graffiti writer who turned six characters into part of London.
19 August 2026
ArticleFree · 12-minute read
What AI Thought a Coffee Table Looked Like
In the spring of 2025, while other people were using AI to improve productivity, I asked it to make coffee tables. The experiment became a book — and a record of the moment we stopped being astonished and started asking better questions.
4 August 2026
ArticleFree · 8-minute read
Say Less, Mean More: The Claudia Winkleman School of Office Communication
What Britain's most distinctive television presenter can teach us about clarity, timing and the strategic use of a raised eyebrow.
4 August 2026
ArticleFree · 9-minute read
Idris Everywhere: Three Things Britain's Most Ubiquitous Man Gets Right
The actor who can voice a buffalo, sell you business software and solve a murder before breakfast may have something useful to teach us about modern work.
2 August 2026
ArticleFree · 14-minute read
What Britain Googled in July: Ten Searches That Explain Us Better Than We'd Like
From BBC News to Rightmove, the nation's search box reveals a country that is anxious, curious, house-hunting and still pretending Wordle counts as intellectual exercise.
1 August 2026
ArticleFree · 6-minute read
The Bourne Odyssey
I finally watched The Odyssey this week. What stayed with me wasn't an historical detail — it was a feeling.
29 July 2026
ArticleFree · 9-minute read
Why Your Office Is Basically Ancient Athens with Wi-Fi
Beneath the screens, spreadsheets and passive-aggressive calendar invitations, much of office life would have been instantly recognisable to the ancient Greeks.
27 July 2026
Train ReadFree · 3-minute read
Before I See The Odyssey
Going to see Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey prompts a confession: I have never properly read Homer. So before the lights go down, here are three books about journeys worth taking — Homer's Odyssey in Emily Wilson's translation, Amor Towles's The Lincoln Highway and David Grann's The Wager.
24 July 2026
Train ReadFree · 5-minute read
Three Summer Reads Worth Missing Your Stop For
Summer reading lists can become strangely intimidating. You begin by looking for something agreeable to read beside a pool. Twenty minutes later, you…
24 July 2026
ArticleFree · 4-minute read
Naming the problem
Our readers have a curious habit. They quote us in meetings — then neglect to say where they found the line. We have decided this is the highest compliment we will ever receive.
20 July 2026
Train ReadFree · 4-minute read
What Andy Burnham Should Read on the Train
The nicest thing about trains is that they give you permission to stare thoughtfully out of the window while doing absolutely nothing productive.…
19 July 2026
Train ReadFree · 4-minute read
What Keir Starmer Should Read on the Train
Prime Ministers don't get much uninterrupted thinking time. Someone is always asking for a decision, a photograph or an opinion on something that…
12 July 2026
Train ReadFree · 4-minute read
What Richard Osman Should Read Before Writing His Next Bestseller
Richard Osman has performed a minor miracle. He's persuaded millions of people that retirement villages are considerably more exciting than most…
11 July 2026
Train ReadFree · 4-minute read
What Kemi Badenoch Should Read on the Train
There are two kinds of people on the morning train. Those who stare silently into the middle distance, contemplating the meaning of life. And those…
21 June 2026
ArticleFree · 6-minute read
On collecting ideas rather than books
A shelf of briefings is a record of the ideas a reader has actually finished.
14 June 2026
Train ReadFree · 4-minute read
What Brian Cox Should Read Between Galaxies
There are few people who can make you feel simultaneously tiny and enormously privileged. Brian Cox is one of them. Spend an hour listening to him and…
30 May 2026
Monday Briefings
10Your Office Has Political Parties. It Just Doesn't Call Them That.
Party conference season is over. The lanyards have been packed away. But every workplace still has factions, tribes and rival ideas. When does disagreement make an organisation better — and when does it simply divide the room?
12 October 2026 · Free · 7-minute read
Why My Team Wins When I Stop Watching
Lucky socks, England scoring seven when I wasn't looking, and the strange possibility that sometimes the best way to show up is to get out of the way.
5 October 2026 · Free · 7-minute read
What Gets to Change You?
Andy Burnham, the Great North Run, and the quiet business of staying yourself.
14 September 2026 · Free · 8-minute read
What Murdle Knows About Monday Morning
The week ahead may look rather different once you find the puzzle hiding inside it.
7 September 2026 · Free · 7-minute read
The People Who Turn Up
Why the worst moments can reveal a larger world than fear allows us to see.
31 August 2026 · Free · 8-minute read
Apparently We Can Now Forecast the Weather a Year Before It Happens
What the Met Office's El Niño warning can teach us about probability, preparation — and what Erasmus knew about acting before certainty arrives.
24 August 2026 · Free · 8-minute read
When the Government Makes Your Phone Scream
Wildfires, air-raid sirens and why Epictetus might be more useful than Orwell.
17 August 2026 · Free · 7-minute read
What Spain's World Cup Victory Can Teach a New Prime Minister
Britain has a new Prime Minister. Spain has a new World Cup trophy.
20 July 2026 · Free · 6-minute read
Everyone Wants Certainty. History Has Other Plans.
The trouble with modern life is that we're all expected to have opinions before breakfast.
13 July 2026 · Free · 5-minute read
The Meeting That Wasn't
A tech company cancelled all recurring meetings for a week. Productivity rose. So did complaints. Both are instructive.
23 June 2026 · Free · 4-minute read
From the imprint
5Think Smarter Than Your Brain
The Hidden Psychology Behind Five Everyday Sayings
Kindle ebook · £4.99 · Behavioural Science
AI and the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy
Why New Knowledge Needs Old Wisdom
Kindle ebook · £4.99 · Decision Making
The Nun Who Knew What AI Never Will
Hildegard of Bingen on Staying Human at Work
Kindle ebook · £4.99 · Future of Work
AI Knows the Notes. You Hear the Music.
Ten Tests of Taste, Timing and Meaning in the Age of AI
Kindle ebook · £4.99 · Decision Making
Three Dead People Who Understand Your Workplace
What Elizabeth I, a Medieval Monk and an English Cowherd Knew About Conflict, Comparison and Confidence
Kindle ebook · £4.99 · Workplace
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Monday BriefingFree · 7-minute read
Your Office Has Political Parties. It Just Doesn't Call Them That.
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