People often ask me how a life like this is possible. How can you travel so much, they ask? My former headmaster recently asked my parents what it is that I actually do. So I thought I’d put an explanation here.

It’s difficult to give one single reason, but, if pressed, I would have to say the root cause is that education, in spite of the huge effort and resources that are put into it, fails to adequately direct young people into the world that they will experience once they leave it.

Children have to go to school because they need to learn to read and write and do basic maths. But that isn’t enough to occupy them until the time they enter the workforce. They still need to remain in education, of course, because they would atrophy if they just spent their teenage years at home playing computer games. So they should keep attending an educational establishment and so some sport and more studying. But that studying in most cases doesn’t have much to do with how they will earn a living. So there’s one problem which is that there’s a disjunct between education and employment that has to be negotiated. So they are not given direction. And I would also argue that too much education, at too high a level, can be harmful. I did very well academically. I think I was the only pupil in my year at school to get straight As at A level and distinctions in S level. But I then experienced significant difficulties in gaining employment. It was a bit of a shock. It wasn’t what had been promised to me.

I think that the issue is that employers actually have quite a few reasons not to employ the brightest:

  1. A lot of work is repetitive, and the brightest may get bored. Maybe this is just an unavoidable fact;
  2. People work in teams, and it’s easiest for an employer if the members of that team are similar. If an individual in that team is brighter, then he may come up with clever ideas for how to do the job better, but that can be disruptive and difficult to manage. The employer’s focus is more on just getting the job done;
  3. Job interviews are often conducted by potential colleagues. Anyone who might outshine them is a threat; and
  4. A lot of businesses operate in ethically grey areas (or worse). Examples of this corporate impropriety come to light all the time. I think we can be fairly sure that what we see is only a fraction of what actually goes on. This makes the ideal employee the one with the ability to do the work, but not necessarily understand the reasons why it is being done. And as well as perhaps understanding too much, an intelligent employee might also wish to make his way in life based on his ability, out of self-respect, rather than by cutting corners. So he has too much integrity.
  5. Unconscious bias. Recruiters recruit people who are similar to them. They want people who "click". The brightest are in a minority, and we are well aware of how minorities suffer from unconscious bias.

Of course, an employer seldom says any of this directly, and may not even be aware of it. There is always a more appropriate sounding reason that can be put forward, if indeed one is needed at all. I got told:

  1. “The trouble is, in a way, that your thinking is too far advanced”;
  2. “We’re not taking it any further, and this is the view of both interviewers, but he is too pleasant”;
  3. “There’s a lot of grunt work in this job. Do you think it’s suitable for someone of your (evident) abilities?”;
  4. “We can see that he would be very good at his job, but we have decided we want someone more senior”;
  5. “The brighter graduates are, the more difficult they are”;
  6. By a family member, “Everyone’s afraid of you, because you use your brain as a weapon”; and
  7. That I was "Not quite right in terms of fit."

And there have been numerous instances of silences, or replies arriving out of the blue months later. I found it impossible to reconcile comments 2 and 6, and impossible not to conclude that I was simply being fobbed off. So I rather lost interest in applying for jobs. I started working on a technological idea. But it proved too ambitious and the demand for it wasn’t that clear. But life carries on. So, to answer my headmaster’s question, I now spend my time travelling, as you can see, working on my two websites, living healthily, and studying yet more subjects. And I do apply for jobs from time to time, but without success. I have also discovered a bit of a knack for gambling, so thank you to my school for the basic algebra that I was taught. Maybe that’s not what my education was supposed to achieve, but achieve it it did, like it or not.

Finally, when I was Called to the Bar a couple of years ago, Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, said in his address “Do the right thing in life, and you will be alright.” It’s an optimistic sentiment, but I don’t think it’s really true. Do the right thing, and you risk being marginalised. It’s not all bad – maybe even it’s good – my freedom has given me the opportunity to do lots of wonderful things. But it is the case. Young people need to take words like this with a pinch of salt, and understand that the society that they will have to look to fit into is far from perfect.

13 March 2025