Years ago, a friend of mine began his successful career as a software engineer by laughing at a guy’s t-shirt at a gig. It had a coding joke on it. He got an interview, proved his skill, and a few days later he was employed.

He now earns significantly more than any new graduate I know, despite being around the same age and, crucially, not a graduate himself. True, he has changed jobs a few times in between, but the point still stands —

He doesn't have a degree, he's just good at what he does, and that makes all…

In clinical terms, ‘high-functioning depression’, or just ‘functioning depression’, is not an officially recognised diagnosis. However, the phrase has nonetheless been widely adopted to describe cases of depression that appear, at least on the surface, to have no significant external effects on the sufferers’ day-to-day life. Those with so-called ‘high-functioning depression’ often seem to be in good spirits, have success at work, and generally appear to have what might be reasonably described as a ‘good life’. This can make sufferers of high-functioning depression incredibly hard to detect unless you know what you are looking for.

So, let's take a look…

Most of us want to win at life, right? Whether it professional triumph or social achievement, winning can take different forms for different people, but everyone wants to move forward somehow. It’s an integral part of being human. It’s why we like competitive sports and video games. The feeling of having succeeded over the odds is one of the more intoxicating sensations available to our hormone soaked brains.

Failure, on the other hand, is pretty damn unpleasant. When dreams die and hard work goes unrewarded, the emotional toll can be enough to drive people insane. As a species, we are…

Editing is a fact of life for writers. There can be no writing without editing. It is the ever-present spectre of our chosen profession, looming over our every word and sucking the joy out of creative souls.

Most writers are perfectly capable of delivering 1000 words with relative ease, stream-of-consciousness style. That's the fun part, the part where we let our talent run wild as words pour from our blurred fingers onto the waiting page. When you really get into the flow, time stops and the world goes hush. It's just you, the page, and the words.

Then you hit…

A while ago, I heard about a man in his 80’s who had decided to take up skydiving. My reaction to this news was a curious mix of disbelief and awe. On the one hand, I had to wonder if the man had utterly lost his marbles, but on the other hand he immediately became my octogenarian hero. Here was a man 4 times my age still grabbing life by the short and curlies at every turn, quiet retirement be damned.

Awesome.

Our intrepid hero didn't just give me something to smile about when he plunged through the troposphere, he…

The LGBTQ+ community is nothing if not diverse. We contain within our ranks multitudes of humanity that span a shockingly broad set of identities and presentations. The only thing that truly binds us together is the fact that we exist outside cishet norms. Almost by definition, this means that members of our acronym will have wildly varied experiences of and opinions on many issues. This, I would argue, is not a bad thing.

A variety of opinions and viewpoints allows for robust debate and discussion on important issues. It’s the cornerstone of the democratic process and it’s a pretty solid…

Amazon doesn't sell stuff. At least, that's not their primary source of revenue. Jeff Bezos is not one of the wealthiest people in the world because he sells books and baking trays. My local supermarket does that.

The main thing Amazon sells, the magical fairy dust that they sprinkle over everything they touch, every industry they conquer, is ease. Ease of browsing, ease of purchase, ease of payment, ease of delivery. Everything about the Amazon experience is designed to be easy.

In an accelerating world, where companies come and go in the blink of an eye and technology is obsolete…

Yes, you.

The collective you.

Recently, I’ve learned a lot from articles on this publication and beyond, works that many of you may well have contributed to. Special mention, however, must go to theoaknotes and Till Kaeslin for their role in this particular case of ‘the thoughtfulness’ regarding gender and identity, in all of their forms.

Let’s get right to the point. I think gender’s a load of crap, peddled by a society that doesn't even know where the bloody idea came from in the first place. …