Welsh advertising executive who writes a fortnightly column in The Spectator and wrote Alchemy: The Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense.
Ogilvy UKInstitute of Practitioners in Advertising
The Wiki Man - Spectator column archive
Alchemy outlived its news cycle as the practitioner's case for psycho-logic over spreadsheet rationality, backed by a thirty-year advertising record.
2 books of their own · 165 articles
Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense | US subtitle differs | 2019 | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | |
Transport for Humans: Are We Nearly There Yet? | – | 2021 | – |
| The Real Cost of the Bureaucratic Mindset | The Spectator | Article | 2026 |
| The Stealth Philanthropy of Buying a Range Rover | The Spectator | Article | 2026 |
| Why Engineers Beat Lawyers | The Spectator | Article | 2026 |
| The 'Airport Effect' That's Ruining Modern Life | The Spectator | Article | 2026 |
| How to Save Britain's Train Stations | The Spectator | Article | 2026 |
| The Real Reason Dating Apps Are So Flawed | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| Throw Away Your Keyboard | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| My Top Tips for Andy Burnham | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| How to Save Britain's Train Stations | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| Make Men's Shorts Socially Acceptable | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| In Praise of Peter Murrell | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| Variety Is the Spice of Evolutionary Life | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| A Foolproof Way to Pick a Leader | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| The Airport Effect That's Ruining Modern Life | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| The BBC's Shameful Treatment of Top Cat | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| The Real Reason We Should Be Burning Our Own Gas | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| Why Engineers Beat Lawyers | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness Is Genius Marketing | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| Does The Spectator Hate the Welsh? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| The Real Cost of the Bureaucratic Mindset | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| The Stealth Philanthropy of Buying a Range Rover | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| The Speed Camera Approach to Government | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2026 |
| Where Are You on the Tightwad Scale? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| AI will take jobs: the wrong ones | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| Could a degree make you less employable? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| Why don't we order houses from a catalogue? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| My portable charger obsession | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| Why men are the disposable sex? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| To win, the Tories should be the party of motorists | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| The customer isn't always far right | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| Why YouTube Premium beats the BBC | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| My plan for a wealth tax with a difference | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| Land value and the somebody else's problem paradox | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| The roundabout is a symbol of British liberty | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| Why driving at 80mph won't save you time | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| The rise and rise of the tantric sector | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| In defence of the Trump playbook | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| A challenge for the electric car sceptics | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| How emotions shape our decision making | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| Texas is the perfect holiday destination | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| The Unsayable Case for Cars | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| Why the Restaurant World Hates Beer Drinkers | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| What's the Point in Spending a Fortune on a Wedding? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| The Case for a Daily Limit on Social Media Posts | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| How to Get Your Husband to Do the Vacuuming | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| Has Email Destroyed Decision Making? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| The Case for Areas of Outstanding Natural Ugliness | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| In Defence of BA's New Loyalty Scheme | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2025 |
| What's Really Killing Business? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| The Ginger Rogers Theory of Information | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Why Forcing a Return to the Office Won't Work | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| How to Buy a House That Isn't on the Market | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Why the Young Are Fleeing to Portugal | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Beware the Sourdough Effect | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| The Mad Men Theory of Drunk Decision Making | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Is Protest Counterproductive? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Lucy Letby and the Problem with Statistics | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| The Myth About Electric Car Owners | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Nothing Beats a 1980s Brick Phone | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| The Myth of Collective Wisdom | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| How Elon Musk Could Solve the Housing Crisis | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| How to Hack Your Summer Holiday | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Why Being Anti-Car is a Luxury Belief | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Harris Tweed: The Miracle Fabric | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| How to Solve Range Anxiety | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Louis XIV Would Envy Your Life | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| There Are Three Sides to Every Story | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| The Case for Driverless Cars | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| The Problem with Self-Checkout Tills | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| A Miracle Has Happened in Britain's Pharmacies | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Why Are Bosses So Suspicious of Remote Working? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| The Insanity of Banning Vape Flavours | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| The Lesson AI Must Learn from Nature | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| The Box Tickers Shall Inherit the Earth | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2024 |
| Kitchen Renovations Are a Zero-Sum Game | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Cryptic Crosswords Are Hard But So Is Life | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| We Need to Talk About Cannabis | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| The Beauty of Mid-Range Products | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Are We Asking the Wrong Questions About HS2? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Empathy? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Why We Hate Surge Pricing But Love Happy Hour | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Why Driving Above the Speed Limit Is a Mug's Game | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| What a Full English Breakfast Can Tell Us About the State of the NHS | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| You Won't Know It But a School Trip Will Be the Best Day of Your Life | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| What I Learned from Being Debanked | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Just Stop HS2 | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| How to Increase Your Home's Value with a Sandwich | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Light Bulb Moment: The Flaw in the Petrol Car Ban | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| We Are Experiencing an Unusually High Volume of Bureaucracy | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Property Prices Represent the Real Cost of Living Crisis | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| The Case for Building More Roads | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| How to Bag the Best Spot in the Supermarket Car Park | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| The Case Against Koalas | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Why Are Beds Flat? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| What the British Could Learn from the French | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Why Should Everyone Have an Electric Car? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Private Education's Dirty Little Secret | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| How to Dress for Air Travel | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| How to Outperform ChatGPT | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| What Really Motivates Workers (and It's Not Money) | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| The Dwindling Case for Living in London | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| The Case for Maths to 18 | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2023 |
| Why Work Is No Longer Working | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| Why Should I Be Compensated for a Delayed Train? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| What the Media Is Doing to Our Politics | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Allure of Delight Qualities | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Case for Premium Economy Train Carriages | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Genius of Bottomless Brunch | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Hidden Benefits of Smart Motorways | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| Why We Pick the Wrong Holiday Destinations | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Conservative Case for Remote Working | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| What Bob Dylan Can Teach Us About Economics | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Case for Theft Tanks | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Hidden Benefit of an Electric Car | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Unhappy Truth About Holidays | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| Buying a Brand New Car is the Ultimate Good Deed | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| Working From Home Could Have Been the Reset We Needed | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| Why Sat Navs Are a Conversation Killer | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| My Solution to Unfair Traffic Fines | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| My Plan to Cut Congestion on Our Roads | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| How to Watch YouTube on Your TV (and Why You Should) | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| Should the Young Pay Less Tax Than the Old? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Link Between Motorway Service Stations and Shortages of PPE | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| How to Post a Parcel Without Leaving Your House | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| Why Restaurant Food at Home Beats Eating Out | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| The Myth of the Typical Brexit Voter | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| Is It Really Such a Shock That Some People Drink at Work? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2022 |
| Are Electric Cars a Columbus's Egg? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Everyone Should Be Sick in the Street Once | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Why You Shouldn't Always Follow the Science | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Key to Happiness: Getting Behind the Wheel | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| How Men's Wardrobes Prove Constraints Can Be Good for Us | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Problem with Online Property Searches | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Case for Dodging Cracks in the Pavement | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| How Do We Calculate the Value of a Painting? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Economic Case for Flexible Working | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Why No One Wants Their Holiday to Last Forever | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Why Cocktails Are Superior to Wine | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| What Do Oven Chips Have to Do with Virtue Signalling? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The CV Trick That Guarantees You an Interview | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Why I Won't Buy a Tesla | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Charging Ahead: How to Get the Best Out of an Electric Car | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Taking Charge: It's Time to Buy an Electric Car | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Social Tyranny of Singing Happy Birthday | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Hidden Cost of Free Technology | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Video Calls Are the New Penny Post | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| America Isn't Speaking Our Language | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Genius Branding of the Oxford Vaccine | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Here's a Clue We Should All Be Doing Cryptic Crosswords | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Art of the Public Information Ad | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Economics of Learning Languages | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| The Cult of London | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Hotel Breakfasts Are a Risky Business | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Our Obsession with City Living Is Out of Date | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2021 |
| Will Remote Working Strengthen the Case for HS2? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| Is It Time to Reopen Technology's Cold Cases? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| Will Video Calling Kill Bureaucracy? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| The Surprising Brilliance of Meal Kits | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| The Ludicrousness of Stemmed Wine Glasses | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| My COVID Risk Assessment | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| Why We Should Consider Testing COVID on Prisoners | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| The Case for Road Rationing | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| Have Big Cities Had Their Day? | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| Remote Workers of the World Unite | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |
| The Danger of Following the Science | The Spectator (‘The Wiki Man’) | Column | 2020 |