The home of Chris Kempt and Kempt & Co on the interwebs.
When I was about six or seven, my favourite uncle, who was a proper car nut, came to visit. One of our neighbours owned a Triumph TR7 and I thought it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. Low, wedge-shaped and futuristic, it looked exotic in a way that felt almost foreign [ ]
What happens when conversation stops disappearing? I ve been thinking about what Socrates could have done with a Dictaphone and a PA. He could have sat in that square in Athens having his conversations, recording every single one, then handed the recordings over at the end of the day and got his secretary to, in inverted [ ]
How AI is changing the balance of power between people and institutions The moment I realised I was turning into Batman, but with a pen, was when I realised I was effectively being gaslit by InPost. They d lost a parcel I d sent, and I spent weeks arguing with them about the insurance I d paid good [ ]
Where to start with a series about control, scarcity, change and the strange ways people affect the environments around them I didn’t really set out to write a five-part series about human behaviour. I was trying to make sense of something much narrower, behaviour I had encountered in relationships and at work that seemed contradictory [ ]
This article is part of an ongoing series on behavioural psychology, exploring personality, scarcity, social dynamics and the ways our environments shape behaviour. What abundance looks like when power does not need to be asserted I met a young woman recently who had only been working behind a bar for a relatively short time, but [ ]
This article is part of an ongoing series on behavioural psychology, exploring personality, scarcity, social dynamics and the ways our environments shape behaviour. Why deep psychological change may happen much faster than we think Years ago, in Amsterdam, my ex-wife smoked some extraordinarily strong cannabis and had what I can only describe as a psychological [ ]
This article is part of an ongoing series on behavioural psychology, exploring personality, scarcity, social dynamics and the ways our environments shape behaviour. How scarcity teaches organisations to hide the value sitting directly in front of them When I was about twelve or thirteen there was a girl at school who sat somewhere near the [ ]
This article is part of an ongoing series on behavioural psychology, exploring personality, scarcity, social dynamics and the ways our environments shape behaviour. Why narcissistic relationships become extractive, and what breaks the attachment For years, work was the one part of my life my ex-wife could not really get into. She had gradually isolated me [ ]
This article is part of an ongoing series on behavioural psychology, exploring personality, scarcity, social dynamics and the ways our environments shape behaviour. Or how narcissistic people reveal themselves in plain sight She came at me with a carving knife. It happened after I confronted her about her behaviour. What stayed with me afterwards was [ ]
How a person running on empty turns control into a management style. The Goalposts We all know what it feels like. You reach an agreement with somebody, a date, a number, a plan you can build on, and then at the last minute the goalposts move. Not a refusal, nothing you could quote back, just [ ]