Hi, my name is Elliot Clowes. This is my blog. I write about productivity, history, books, and film & TV. Learn more about the blog. <p class="section-titl...
Cast your mind back to 2020. Lockdown had shoved everyone in front of a webcam, and we all became unwitting voyeurs of each other's rooms – millionaire actors chatting to Graham Norton, politicians broadcasting from spare bedrooms, theatre companies stitching together productions over Zoom, journalists interviewing strangers. Once you started noticing, the same bookcase kept appearing in the…
My old friend Chris Hannah is trying to cut down his phone usage . I've got a few thoughts. We're living in a world where you're considered to have a pretty good handle on your dopamine addiction if you can sit through a film without checking your phone. That's where the bar is. It's low. But you mustn't feel too bad. You’re at a disadvantage: your brain is running ancient software in a modern…
Welcome to the very first instalment of Marginalia! A new, recurring feature on the blog where I share a curated collection of links, notes, thoughts, and quotes that have captured my attention recently. Before we dive into the interesting stuff... I'm looking for work. The job market is tough, so if you know of an open role for BA, PMO, project management or data analysis – or anything where fast…
I’ve run three blogs before this one and they’re all dead. And all for the same reason: a post became popular, attention arrived, and I froze. For a writer, a hit changes the room. You quickly stop writing for yourself and start writing for an audience (with imagined expectations). You stop exploring and start performing, and that next post can become impossible. You feel you need to match the…
People communicate most honestly through jokes. Pay attention to them. If you can't refuse something, it owns you. Fear of being cringe will stop you living fully. Get over it. Don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from. Expect no applause for telling the truth. Sometimes doing the right thing costs you – friendships, comfort, peace. But always pay the price without question.…
Anthropic asked users their favourite way to use Claude Code : Terminal, VS Code, Desktop App, Mobile, or Web. The Terminal won . Yes, the command line – a plain text application 99% of Mac users never open. No buttons. Just a blinking cursor. Why would anyone prefer it? Because it looks complicated. When Claude Code runs in the Terminal, text scrolls by in bright colours. It looks like The Matrix…
Dr. Dominic Ng wonderfully explains dopamine and why phones are so bad for us and how to learn to pay attention again: Dopamine isn't the satisfaction you feel after a good meal - it's the hunger that drives you to hunt for the food in the first place. Your brain evolved in a world where survival depended on finding things that were hidden. Imagine a hunter-gatherer approaching a berry bush:…
I’m trying to read 25 pages a day in 2026. A happy side effect I quickly learned is that it makes you much more likely to abandon the books that haven’t grabbed you. Most people slog through books that don’t interest them for far too long – myself included. But when you need to reach that goal each day, it turns you into a killer. It’s great.
This is my first post on this blog. And it will be a short one. I have lots to say, just not right now. For now, I just want to say that tomorrow I am changing. Not planning to change. But actual change . I’ve entertained a smorgasbord of bad habits for way too long. But tomorrow I’m going to make change happen. Not all at once – but with swiftness and finality. I’m partly posting this because…