For Michael Raupach, 1950 – 2015. Climate scientist, inventor, humanitarian and musician. A true friend of the future.

The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake. Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness.

When a friend of mine took a new job in a CBD office tower, I thought she would soon be telling me how many seconds she was shaving off the time it took her to climb the stairs to her floor. A fitness fanatic, she had the body of marathon runner.

Instead she told me how fast the lift was, and how much it cost to park her car in the multistorey facility adjacent to her office tower. I had expected her to park on the city fringe for free, and enjoy the brisk twenty-minute walk through the parklands morning and evening. She explained that the lift and car park saved the time she needed to get to the gym after work. Continue reading In Praise of Inconvenience →