The Long View
Essays on motivation, intelligence, statecraft and the pursuit of power
These essays are about how people and events from long ago shaped the world we live in now. They are for the curious who enjoy the mental expansion that comes from shifting perspective, zooming out from our daily lives to marvel at the panorama of history and the world.
It gives us meaning if we can see ourselves as part of a larger picture.
And if we realize that men and women have always wanted and feared the same things and had the same desires and motives as we do now then we can learn from them and take comfort in knowing that we are not the first.
Ancient Egypt - Lessons in Leadership (Maxim 1)
The Instruction of Ptah-hotep lays out how to relate to your superiors and inferiors with advice that holds true through the ages
Skrælings and Smallpox
Why the Viking landing in Vinland failed when the European landing in North America succeeded around 500 years later.
From the Spear to the Server
For most of human history, the balance of power between ordinary people and the elites who ruled them came down to a simple question: who could afford the weapon.
Three Spymasters and Downing Street
George Downing, Reinhard Gehlen, and Hossein Fardoust all served intelligence services that collapsed beneath them and all three survived, though Fardoust not for long.
The Statute, the Harem and the Regent Mother
Queen Elizabeth I of England, Sultana Safiye of the Ottoman Empire and Catherine de Medici were women in power in an age of men - this essay looks at how they acquired it.
Living Is Not For The Weak
Roman Emperors, blog writers and super heroes all have to find the values they live by somewhere - Marcus Aurelius, Mark Manson and Oliver Queen (The Arrow) tell us where.
Spies, States and Secrets: Intelligence from Moses to Stalin
How different kinds of intelligence such as human, signals, geographical, imaging, cyber intelligence developed over time and shaped history.
Caesar, Turing and Satoshi
A brief overview of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography as practised by myself, Caesar, Turing and Satoshi.
How to order beer in Prague (if you are not Czech)
The evolution of English from Caedmon to William the Conqueror, Chaucer, Shakespeare, the internet and a riverside bar by the Vltava river in Prague.