Most nights we sit down with a tea and watch the last few rounds of the TV quiz show Pointless. One particular round caught my attention when a question stood out as being at odds with what would be considered general knowledge.

The TV quiz consists of teams of two contestants who attempt to provide answers that are not only correct, but also as obscure as possible. On each episode, contestants answer a series of questions that were put to 100 members of the general public. If a team’s answer is correct, they score one point for each participant who gave it during the survey; an answer given by none of the participants is termed “pointless” and adds nothing to the team’s score. The scoring for each question is interesting because, in a crude way, it shows the general public’s level of knowledge about a subject. For example questions about celebrities get much higher scores than politicians which probably shows the power of social media.

The round that caught my attention was called: ‘A’ In Maths, where the teams had to answer maths related questions where the answer began with an ‘A’. They were as follows:

1. Ancient calculating device composed of rods and beads

2. Reference line on a graph labelled X or Y

3. Two-word term for a number that, when added to a given number, creates the sum of zero

4. System where letters represent numbers in formulaic equations.

5. Angle of less than 90 degrees.

Starting with question 1. I have never used an abacas but I have heard about them and they are still used in some areas of Asia. I’m guessing that knowing about an abacus tends more towards knowledge of history and geography rather than mathematics education in the UK and had a score of 65.

The answer to the second question is Axis and is used in drawing graphs. This is something that is firmly the subject of mathematics as well science, engineering, finance etc. It is covered at GCSE level and with a score of 35 it suggest that the word has a more specialised use rather than forming part of general knowledge.

Leaving question 3 which is the most interesting one and moving onto question 4 where the answer is Algebra. With a score of 49 it reflects that algebra is again a specialised word belonging to mathematics. I suspect that the difficulty of learning to manipulate symbols has left a sense of fear in most people and therefore easily recalled! Algebra is introduced at Key Stage Level 2 mathematics and forms a corner stone for future use in GCSE, A-level and degree courses.

With a score of 61 the answer to question 5 is: Acute. Acute is a term that crops up at Key Stage 2 but then disappears for the rest of the mathematics curriculum. The word acute is used in everyday language outside of mathematics, for example we typically hear politicians speak about “an acute housing shortage”. Therefore the word “acute” lives on in peoples minds but with a different meaning and maybe word association was the trigger for an answer.

Now to question 3 and the one that caught my attention. The answer was: Additive Inverse. Yes - Additive Inverse! Nobody answered the question and it was therefore pointless! An additive inverse is when you take a number say 5 and add -5 - its inverse - to give the answer zero ( i.e. 5 + -5 = 0 ). It is a concept that is used in the higher realms of mathematics and therefore is miles away from everyday use. It is a concept that you would find in the first year of a degree course in mathematics and at a push in a science course such as chemistry or physics.

I’m not sure if the team behind Pointless balance the questions against the populations general knowledge so that an entertaining TV programme is produced but the Maths round gives a fascinating insight into the range and types of knowledge in the public domain. When I next sit down to watch an episode of the show I will be looking for questions at odds with the rest and at the same time as marvelling at those who actually get through to the final and win the jackpot!

Dear COP26 Leaders,

Welcome to Glasgow which is a fascinating city, and I hope that in amongst the various speeches, meetings and agreements you get a chance to explore all that the city has to offer. Keeping Covid safe of course!

I’m not sure what happened in the previous COP meetings, but it is becoming clear that whatever it was it is had very little impact, and Climate Change is now a crisis! It is time to take collective responsibility and make sure that our children and their children have a life that they can enjoy.

I am sure that there will be lots of meetings with thousands of overheads about the climate crisis but I would like to add a few pointers as to what I feel should come out of COP26.

First, be truthful and honest about where we are with climate change. Science has cut through the many years of political waffle and has given us a sound bedrock of knowledge. What is needed, is for you to translate the scientific findings into what it means and the actions that we are going to take to initiate change. I can appreciate that it is a very complex problem. But good leaders take complex problems and simplify them enough so that everybody can get behind what is required to resolve the situation. Bad leaders make complex problems more complex! Don’t fall into the later category!

Climate crisis is frightening. As an individual, I am trying my best to change the way that I live but it feels that I am fighting against an unstoppable force. As leaders, you must help me and everybody else find hope that solutions are achievable. You must give me the tools to make the changes whether it is moving to a plant based diet, reducing household waste or buying local. But what must come through from you is that by making these collective changes we will reduce our effect on the environment. We need to all row together if we are going to reverse climate change.

Now for the tough bit. Working together! We all know of the differences between countries - we see it in the media every day. These differences need to be put to one side and plans must be developed collectively with the single aim of reducing our impact on the environment. This has never been done before. But as our leaders, you must lift our horizons from the local to the global in such a way that we all feel part of something bigger and more long term.

If the Climate Crisis is not checked then it will continue to have a dramatic effect on my life whether it is unbearable hot weather, damaging floods, increased air pollution or the extinction of wild life that I ultimately depend upon. So COP26 leaders - this is it - time to act!

The rise in global temperature started in the early 1970’s and has now reached a point where it has created a crisis in the climate. One of the contributing factors to this temperature increase has been political short-termism. Can political short-termism ever be overcome in time to save the planet?

Problems have been building up in the environment for at least fifty years. To give the timescale some context it is between two to three generations or approximately ten changes in government. With each new government there are changes in policy that feed through into the way that we live. These changes are usually to address short term problems for example capping energy prices to meet affordability needs. This political short-termism fails to balance solutions to the short term problems against the long term objectives such as reducing climate change or other long term problems such as poverty.

Some solutions to combating political short-termism are being developed. For example a Future Generations Commisioner has been created for Wales whose role is to “ … be the guardian of future generations. This means helping public bodies and those who make policy in Wales to think about the long-term impact their decisions have.” Pressure is mounting on the UK Governement to create a similar role. But this is a form of ‘soft power’ which uses persuasion rather than having the power to change policy. This role should be at the Minister of State level with enough resources to make sure that government policy has clear targets so that they can be held accountable in improving the lives of future generations.

Politicians and the political process never gets a good press. They overpromise and under deliver. But ultimately the decisions that they make affect our lives. Therefore we need a new generation of politicians who can hold an on-going discussion with all levels in society about the changes that we collectively face both for the short and long term.

It must start with education. As part of my secondary education I completed a course called Modern Studies. It used a multidisciplinary approach to introduce contemporary political and social issues in local, national and international contexts. We studied different political systems from communism to democracy as well as the people who shaped those political systems. It gave us the skills to interpret and possibly participate in the social and political processes that could encounter in our lives. This is the sort of course that should be made available to all students at secondary level. An even more radical thought would be to give 16 year olds the vote after they completed the course - after all they are going to inherit the planet!

When we look back over the decades it is clear that political short-termism has played a part in the Climate Crisis and in other long term problems such as poverty. The challenge is to refresh the political process by getting people involved who are committed to taking both a short and long term view in addressing the major problems that we face. This is something which has never been done before. But we have never faced a climate crisis before!

It was very interesting listening to Ben Todd, the Founder & CEO of 80000 hours, describing the support they gave to people at the beginning of their careers. But what about us who are moving towards the end of our career?

80000 hours^[1] provides an ethical careers service whose aim is “ … to help people tackle the world’s biggest and most neglected problems, and our advice is aimed at people who have the good fortune to be able to make that their focus, as well as the security to change path. Due to our limited capacity, some of our advice focuses on a narrow range of paths, and is especially aimed at talented college students and graduates aged 18-30, though many of the ideas we cover are relevant to everyone.”

80000 hours approach in finding the neglected problems has three elements: find a problem that is great in scale, area of that problem that is neglected, and one that can be solved. They quantify as much as possible so that it can guide their career advice and support. There are many large scale problems ranging from climate change through to poverty where people who are starting their careers can make a difference. But what about those of us who have burned through more hours than we can count on our careers - can we still make a difference?

For most of us who are at the end of our careers we can look back over a wide range of training and experience. In amongst the different threads that have made up our career there is formal education including further education. Then there is training gained during our working life on a wide variety of subjects. We will have developed a vast number of networks of friends and acquaintances who can help in whatever next step that we would like to take. Add on top of all of this is ‘life experience’ gained through career setbacks, moving jobs and most importantly bringing up a family.

Of course as we move towards the end of our careers it is time to explore the areas that we didn’t have time to during our working lives. There may not be many hours that we are willing to use on ‘making a difference’. But with the hours invested in our careers we will have gained a lot of knowledge about how to be effective. Using the criteria that 80000 hours use and a bit of searching on the web and using our contacts, then neglected but solvable problems can be found. We can get involved with the problem at different levels whether it is donating money, mentoring those who are working in the area or rolling up our sleeves and getting involved. If nobody is working on the neglected area then with our skills and experience it could result in starting a campaign, or even a company, to solve the problem.

80000 hours offers a great service and if I was starting out on my career I would certainly get in contact. But for us that have used up our 80000 hours but still want to make a difference then we need to apply ourselves differently. We have to be like a Judo expert where they take all their skill and experience to pin point their opponents weakness and with a slight move they send them crashing to the floor! In a similar way we have to use our background to target the most effective solution to have the greatest impact on an important problem. Then give it a go!

[1] The number - 80000 hours - used as the name of the company is arrived at by assuming that a person works for 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year for 40 years.

The Climate Crisis has now reached ‘code red for humanity’ and we are left with little option but to dramatically change the way that we live. But there are certain aspects of the way I live that I will find difficult to give up.

A future without many of the things that I take for granted looks very daunting. The thought of a self-sufficient life brings back images of Barbara and Tom, from the TV series The Good Life, but a life wearing welly boots and wandering around with a wheelbarrow is not lifting my spirits for the challenge ahead. Then there is the practicalities of billions of people going ‘off-grid’, and images of an existence of minimal creature comforts seems depressing as well as impractical. I still enjoy many things that are not helping with the climate change, whether it is visiting places in my car, to cooking with ingredients that come from abroad. The image of living in a wooly jumper to keep warm and boiling water in an empty bean can over an open fire is starting to look dire.

What is needed is a design revolution, a movement to develop new products that are sensitive to their impact on the environment and gives a sense of optimism in reversing climate change.

Many of the design movements from the past have left an everlasting impact on the way that we live. The Bauhaus concentrated on function rather than form and influenced everything from architecture to fabrics and produced many sought after design classics. Their near abstract lines can still be seen today.

 

Wassily Chairs by Marcel Breuer

 

Another influential design movement was the Arts & Crafts who concentrated on making things by hand as a reaction to mass production and the industrial revolution.

 

Newcomb Pottery Vase

 

My own favourite is the short lived Memphis Group where it used glaring colours and asymmetric shapes design which gives their products for the home a sense of fun.

 

Carlton room divider by Ettore Sottsass

 

Scratch below the surface of any product currently on sale and you will find the influence of one of these design movements.

Over the years, the products that we used have separated us from the environment and desensitised the impact that we have on it. In the case of cars, we are couched within a box that isolates us from the pollution that is produced. Fast fashion with its ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ is rapidly filling up landfills. Food is conveniently brought to a shop or supermarket and increasingly to our doorstep. This has separated us from the way that food is produced and with powerful marketing techniques our attention is directed on consumption rather than how we leave our mark on the environment.

The overarching theme for a revolution in design is to reconnect us with the environment but in a way that enhances our lives. We don’t want to use, or look at, something that looks as though it has been produced by Scrapheap Challenge!!

When using the products we must be made aware of its impact on the environment whether it is a positive or negative effect and feel that we are contributing in an improvement to the environment.

Another aspect is to take into account the life cycle of the product and its impact on the environment. There are already many ideas that range from recycling to the broader ideas of the circular economy. These ideas must move from the fringes into mainstream production techniques. The new products must be affordable for everyone. We cann’t wait for those with the most money to buy the latest technology and then let the economies of scale reduce the price for the rest of us to buy the products. This trickle down approach is too slow. Electric cars and heating systems for the home need to be affordable to everybody from day one!

So, calling all designers, and budding designers, why don’t you come together and start a movement that will make the world a better place and recover the environment through your innovative products!