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Showing posts from January, 2021

The Decline of Big Institutions and the Rise of Sovereign Individuals

As term starts with remote learning instead of masses of students returning to their educational institutions, it's hard not to notice the changes happening all around us. As industries change and develop, there is always a mass movement away from what was once generally accepted as the norm. When mp3 came about, there was a giant exit away from the record industry. As streaming services became available, no longer did listeners 'own' the music they listen to, but nor did they need to. Accessibility is now greater than ever before. More choice, more freedom, more autonomy? Brexit is another example. Better together, or better on our own? Most people have already made their mind up about this one, but time will tell.  Online Learning platforms such as Udemy and Coursera have existed for a while. They are an exit from universities and have millions of users gaining qualifications already. Udemy alone has over 35 million students and 57,000 instructors teaching courses in over

Taking Advice

Who would you rather take advice from - someone who has succeeded in life or someone who has failed? This, of course, depends on your own definition of success and what you value more than anything. However, more often than not, those who have gone to the top of their field, gained the most recognition, or made the most money are deemed the successful ones. They are the ones given the platform to speak and advise those aspiring to emulate them. This does not necessarily mean that they are best placed to be giving out advice. Perhaps it's the ones who have failed in their endeavours that possess the best advice, knowing what they did wrong and what they would have done in hindsight, in order to not repeat the same mistakes. They do say that failure is the stepping stone towards success, and that you learn more from your failures than your successes. Successful people may be completely ignorant to how easy they made it look, just like the maths professor who can no longer empathise w