Thought for the day: Andy Murray

I don’t normally write about sport (or indeed, anything, these days) but I thought this was worth a moment. The BBC is reporting today that Andy Murray’s defeat in the Wimbledon final was his “biggest disappointment yet” because he played better than ever before. And I have no doubt he feels that way. That’s our culture that does that, not logic or common sense: the better you do and the harder you work, the bigger a disappointment it is when you fail. Why? Is this a good thing?

69 Love Songs and the working day

69 Love Songs and the working day

As an extravert1 I find myself in situations at work where interactions with others dominate my day. Whether it’s meetings, asking people questions, answering other people’s questions or simply reading and sending emails, there’s always some interaction going on. I really love that aspect of my job, which means it’s somewhat frustrating during those times when I have to sit down by myself and work alone, which do happen quite regularly. When I have to work alone, I find that listening to music, especially music I know well, allows me to concentrate by providing a backdrop that goes some way towards replacing the interaction that drives me. And this is where 69 Love Songs comes in. The 1999 classic by Stephen Merritt, aka The Magnetic...