Author Archives: Ranil Dissanayake

Hi all, I’m going to try and avoid turning the links into the Coronagloom Weekly, but inevitably the virus will be a part of these emails going forward. I will not focus on ranting about bulk buying (beyond this: wtf, … Continue reading →

Hi all, I’ve had a few text messages in the last week using some formulation of the phrase: “is it time to panic yet?”  For avoidance of doubt, the answer to this question is always no: panic is inherently unhelpful, … Continue reading →

Hi all, No sooner than I speculated on what a self-quarantine period might look like than I received actual data – a friend of mine has had to self-isolate her entire family on their return from a holiday. In what … Continue reading →

Hi all, I was thinking about a minor aspect of the Coronavirus outbreak today. What would you do if you had a 14-day self-quarantine period (don’t worry, anyone I’ve seen in recent days – I don’t, this is a pure … Continue reading →

Hi all, Imagine how it must feel to get robbed twice, on national TV no less. Yet this is what Aaron Gordon must live with: the knowledge that this was not sufficient to win the dunk contest; a mere two … Continue reading →

Hi all, The All-Star Weekend is upon us. For the uninitiated, every year the NBA breaks for a few days to have a massive jolly, with semi-competitive games, prize-giving, and absurd skills tasks – basically, it’s a village fete, attended … Continue reading →

Hi all, You know, for all the pearl-clutching about how AI is coming for all our skills – beating Grandmasters in chess, solving Go – I can’t really find it in myself to worry when I see the results of … Continue reading →

Hi all, Normally this intro paragraph is the hardest thing to write each week, but today there’s almost too much to say. The 2010s took a whole load of my cultural touchstones away – there was a two or three … Continue reading →

Hi all, Last week, I was doing rather a lot of navel-gazing as I wrote a presentation on being wrong better, but it turned out to be one of the most illuminating exercises I’ve undertaken. Thinking through the things I’ve … Continue reading →

Hi all, I’m giving a talk on How to be Wrong on Monday, a topic I know intimately. The idea behind the talk is simple: most of us are wrong about most things for a large chunk of our lives, … Continue reading →