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@ngruen

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29.09.2024
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Latest posts by @ngruen

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The great British electricity puzzle It turns out that making the transition to clean energy while keeping the price down is hard

"Between 2012 and 2022, UK territorial emissions fell by 31 per cent. But the emissions embedded in its consumption fell by a mere 10 per cent. In effect, the UK has shifted emissions elsewhere far more than it has reduced them."
@MartinWolf_
www.ft.com/content/86fd...

03.03.2026 05:22 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Note to self.
After everything I say, no matter how bizarre or nonsensical say
"Let that sink in".
Let that sink in.

03.03.2026 02:26 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
The Anti-Dictator Playbook | That Trippi Show
The Anti-Dictator Playbook | That Trippi Show YouTube video by Lincoln Square

A radical strategy to assert democracy against the dictatorship.

But from the centre!

Great discussion with my friend Joe Trippi

@joetrippi.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6ZV...

03.03.2026 02:16 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
The Anti-Dictator Playbook | That Trippi Show
The Anti-Dictator Playbook | That Trippi Show When politics feels broken, polarized, and paralyzed, what’s the real solution? In this episode of That Trippi Show, Joe Trippi sits down with Nicholas Gruen to discuss an idea that could fundamentally reshape American democracy: citizens’ assemblies chosen by democratic sortition — randomly select

Watch the full interview with Joe Trippi here:

28.02.2026 13:45 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

yes and thank you for the excuse to share one of my all-time favorite tweets (from @longwall26.bsky.social)

02.03.2026 21:47 👍 4785 🔁 947 💬 84 📌 29
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Most people think democracy is just about voting, but there’s a "depolarisation machine" hidden in our history. By bringing back the jury-style model of representation, we can finally reduce the power of lobbyists and special interests. It’s time to balance the stool again.

02.03.2026 19:50 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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Ever feel like politics is just one big, exhausting culture war? Belgium tried something radical by letting 50 randomly selected citizens call the shots on the issues that actually matter. See why they're focusing on real life issues instead of just trying to get in the headlines

28.02.2026 13:44 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
The Anti-Dictator Playbook | That Trippi Show
The Anti-Dictator Playbook | That Trippi Show When politics feels broken, polarized, and paralyzed, what’s the real solution? In this episode of That Trippi Show, Joe Trippi sits down with Nicholas Gruen to discuss an idea that could fundamentally reshape American democracy: citizens’ assemblies chosen by democratic sortition — randomly select

Watch the full interview with Joe Trippi here:

01.03.2026 13:26 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Do you ever feel like a fool for still believing in our political system? We’re so used to the contest that we’ve forgotten how to actually talk to each other. Here's why the secret to saving democracy isn't about winning an argument—it’s about changing the DNA of how we disagree

27.02.2026 12:49 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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Dr Oliver Hartwich The Temptations of Unfreedom Revisited In early 2004, a struggling German graduate contacted Lord Ralf Dahrendorf for guidance, leading to opportunities that highlighted Dahrendorf’s commitment to intellectual integrity and resistance a…

"Consider what conservatives and classical liberals said they believed before 2016. … "

oliverhartwich.com/2026/02/27/t...

28.02.2026 05:54 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Swimming with narcissists: What power looks like up close Like any workplace, politics rewards ambition. Particularly in major parties, the incentives are clear: rise through the ranks, secure influence, accumulate power.

"If they seem awkward, slightly uncomfortable, even imperfect, you may be surprised by how warm they are in real life. It’s not a universal law, of course. But it’s not a bad starting point."
Bang on
Politicians' humanity is usually marked by their awkwardness
www.crikey.com.au/2026/02/25/j...

25.02.2026 02:52 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Wikipedia works because it is a meritocracy, unlike politics or business. We confuse competition with merit. Competition gives us great tennis players, but does it give us the best leaders? Let us rethink what winning means for society.

21.02.2026 16:19 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

This was before the great enclosure, when all the colleges' quads were open to the public and the backs!

Sic transit gloria mundi

21.02.2026 07:37 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

This 6 min video from 2018 contains two stories from our history which should be up in lights and which virtually no one knows.
youtu.be/5cR96KesAMQ

21.02.2026 07:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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You wouldn’t let a tennis player call their own lines, so why do we let politicians set their own rules? This is the simple umpire fix that could restore trust in our institutions. It’s time to change how the game is played. We need independent truth, not more partisan fighting.

18.02.2026 17:57 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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We force leaders to play a brutal power game to win elections.

When Joe Biden stepped down, we missed a huge chance to change the rules.
Imagine a system that ignores campaign speeches and uses a Venetian merit system to pick the best candidate.
It is time to end this circus.

19.02.2026 19:01 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
13. Why Wikipedia works and social media fails
13. Why Wikipedia works and social media fails By every rule of logic, giving a global army of volunteers the power to write an encyclopaedia should have resulted in total chaos. Yet, the miracle of the early internet was that it didn't. In this video, I argue that while we are mesmerised by the radical openness of platforms like Wikipedia, we a

Find this video on youtube here:

14.02.2026 11:20 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
When Nietzsche Wept | Full Romance Drama Movie! | Romance Central
When Nietzsche Wept | Full Romance Drama Movie! | Romance Central YouTube video by Romance Movie Central

I came upon this quote

"Sometimes I simply remind patients that sooner or later they will have to relinquish the goal of having a better past.

Irvin D. Yalom"

I found the film of Yalom's novel

When Nietzsche Wept

It’s a fine film.

Watch it. Watch it now!

youtu.be/du_8b_Ch2aA

28.09.2025 13:10 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Michael Polanyi coined the term "tacit knowledge," which is the idea that our most fundamental wisdom comes from striving to make life better. You’re building a pathway in the multiverse every single day without even realising it.

12.02.2026 19:30 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
13. Why Wikipedia works and social media fails
13. Why Wikipedia works and social media fails YouTube video by Nicholas Gruen

This video has gradually picked up steam since posting. 80 likes and lots of nice comments - all organic.
Please check it out for yourself - and remember

#likeShareSaveTheWorld
@thesharedcentre.bsky.social

youtu.be/XGCxuMBqTuI

16.02.2026 03:48 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Why are teams with expert bosses significantly happier and more productive? We’re losing our way with "careerism," and it’s making our institutions less healthy. Watch to see why the "general manager" myth might be the biggest mistake in your organisation.

03.02.2026 18:25 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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When McKinsey brought corporate metrics to British Intelligence, truth became a secondary concern. Discover how a "point system" for senior readership incentivised agents to sensationalise reports, leading to one of the biggest intelligence failures in history.

31.01.2026 16:23 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
13. Why Wikipedia works and social media fails
13. Why Wikipedia works and social media fails YouTube video by Nicholas Gruen

This video has gradually picked up steam since posting. 80 likes and lots of nice comments - all organic.
Please check it out for yourself - and remember

#likeShareSaveTheWorld
@thesharedcentre.bsky.social

youtu.be/XGCxuMBqTuI

16.02.2026 03:48 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Pretend is never good enough. Except in electoral democracies

19.01.2026 04:28 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

It defuses itself and packs itself away. It's an uncanny process, never in fact seen.

21.01.2026 04:47 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
LinkedIn Login, Sign in | LinkedIn Login to LinkedIn to keep in touch with people you know, share ideas, and build your career.

Will Mr Market come to the rescue?
www.linkedin.com/feed/?highli...

21.01.2026 04:46 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Pretend is never good enough. Except in electoral democracies

19.01.2026 04:28 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Free speech and garbled-speech And other things that coursed through my tiny mind this week …

Free speech and garbled-speech
This week's substack together with the first of the second tranche of videos in the Shared Centre.
open.substack.com/pub/nicholas...

17.01.2026 04:03 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Tom Stevenson | Don’t crack your teeth The US desire to annex Greenland is traceable to at least 1867 and the ambitions of the secretary of state William H....

"In 1968, a US B-52 carrying four nuclear bombs crashed in Thule harbour [Greenland.] Three of the bombs were recovered but one was lost."

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ja...

17.01.2026 12:25 👍 0 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
The Shared Centre | Nicholas Gruen The Shared Centre is a book-sized idea, told through bite-sized videos by Nicholas Gruen. Featuring new music by Brian Eno.

Visit our website to learn more and join our mailing list:

07.01.2026 15:42 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0