As I open each mediation session I remind everyone that the mediation is “confidential”, “without prejudice”, “off the record”. I acknowledged that these three concepts don’t mean precisely the same thing at law but that for practical purposes it is our common intention and agreement that “what’s said here, stays here.” I know there’s more…
This blog is inspired by a page from Monty Python’s ‘Big Red Book’ entitled ‘Why Accountancy is Not Boring.’ (Apologies to those who have not come across the Pythons’ rather English form of humour – for the original piece see http://arago4.tnw.utwente.nl/stonedead/publications/sketches/accountancy.html) Apologies too to accountants everywhere who, in the 1970’s, were probably as easy a…
How good are the decisions you make? Are they free from error? From unconscious bias? Are they consistently the product of careful reasoning? Before you answer yes, consider the following questions: 1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?…
This morning I was greeted with the news that Julian Barnes’ The Sense of An Ending had been named this year’s winner of the Man Booker Prize. A wonderful read, in part about how our memory deceives us, it struck me as an appropriate point of departure for this blog post. Like Barnses’ narrator, “I…
Plastered onto the rear fender of my next-door neighbor’s Honda is a bumper sticker that asks, “If you can’t change your mind, are you sure you still have one?” It’s a cheeky question perhaps, but nonetheless a relevant one. With an election year coming up in 2012, the American presidential campaign season is in full…
