Things I’ve been reading during work hours

I found this research by the American Not For Profit, ‘Beyond Conflict‘, to be in equal parts illuminating and reassuring. Published in 2020, the research looks into political polarisation and how members of political parties see themselves, as well as how they see others. 

They asked participants their view on topics that are generally considered politically divisive, such as gun control and immigration. What the research found was that the perception of disagreement was significantly greater than the actual disagreement and there is more common ground across the political ‘divide’ than we believe. 

Not only does the research provide a level of reassurance that we can find common ground if we try and look for it, it also shows how using spectrums to categorise people’s opinions can be far more powerful than using binaries (yes/no) .

Things I’ve been reading after hours

I’ve always loved speculative fiction that reads like it’s been extrapolated from the present. Works that take current trends, ideas and people and just give them a nudge towards a particular, and sometimes peculiar outcome.

In this vein, ‘The Future‘ by Naomi Alderman is not necessarily that futuristic. In fact, it could be set in a place just five minutes from now and the lead characters could easily have been named Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman. And although it’s called ‘The Future’ it’s also about the end of the world… which given that it could be set 5 minutes from now might be cause for concern.

Simon