It’s time for a new story
Well, two new stories. The truly important one needs to be authored by us, humanity, if we are to avoid ecological collapse on the planet we share. An act of unity that seems...
Simon Hertnon's Upstream Philosophy Blog
Farewelling William Henry
If you’ve read my article Introducing William Henry, you’ll already know about the genesis of my fiction pen name. I used the name for my debut novel (The Julian Calendar) in honour of...
Introducing William Henry
More than ten years before I published Clear, Concise Compelling and Endangered Words, I attempted to establish myself as a novelist and screenwriter. I was in my mid-20s, gorging on novels (like The Crow...
Where are we?
Where are we? Thankfully, we’re at a publishing crossroads. The article below was first published by New Zealand Book Month in August 2008, the month after Endangered Words was first published (with the title From Afterwit...
Simplifying the goal of optimal performance
Wanting ourselves and others to perform optimally is a common goal, but achieving the goal remains a rarity. Below, Simon introduces a 16-word Optimal Performance framework he has developed through his work educating knowledge workers...
Good health
It’s the festive season—a time to gather with friends and family to celebrate the year passed, a time to toast one another’s good health. Health. Such a deceptively dull word and yet the...
Inspiring quotations
We quote others because their words resonate and reveal, often capturing a liberating truth or ‘bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester’ (Sydney Harris). At times quotations shock or provoke...
Jimmy Carter said it in 1979
I was only 10 when Jimmy Carter delivered his ‘Crisis of Confidence’ televised speech to the American people. So his words were new to me when, earlier this year, I heard parts of...
Fictional dreams
I mentioned in my last post that, despite having written three non-fiction books, my first love is fiction. The very first piece of advice I received about writing fiction was that I needed to...
And the Word Olympics winners are…
I am a firm believer that all words are not equal. Just as some athletes are able to out-perform others, some words majestically out-perform other words and I think it is both helpful...
Capitalism, we have a problem
There is a teeny-weeny problem with capitalism: it’s fundamentally flawed. There, I wrote it. I hope I won’t get thrown in jail. Something about capitalism (defined as ‘an economic system based on private...