Manufacturing accounts for 8% of UK economy: should we try & increase this? Yes (imv), but it's important to distinguish some good arguments for this from bad ones (and recognise some uncertainties) my blogpost: softmachines.org?p=3180

Manufacturing accounts for 8% of UK economy: should we try & increase this? Yes (imv), but it's important to distinguish some good arguments for this from bad ones (and recognise some uncertainties) my blogpost: softmachines.org

The Liverpool City Region has been growing strongly in recent years – not too far behind Greater Manchester and third in the leaderboard of Northern productivity growth. But why is this the case? And what can we learn for the UK productivity problem? Short 🧵 1/5

Remembering my mother, Sheila Howell Jones, who died on Friday softmachines.org?p=3177

Reflections on this year's economics Nobel prize, role of innovation in driving economic growth, and UK's changing institutions of innovation since the Industrial Revolution. "the laureates have taught us that sustained growth cannot be taken for granted" softmachines.org?p=3173

Reflections on this year's economics Nobel prize, role of innovation in driving economic growth, and UK's changing institutions of innovation since the Industrial Revolution. "the laureates have taught us that sustained growth cannot be taken for granted" softmachines.org?p=3173

A recent flood of articles suggests that AI is a bubble, with even main protagonists agreeing. Earlier this year I suggested 3 scenarios for AI: 1. Intelligence explosion 2. Excel in prose 3. Crash and burn It's Silicon Valley's belief in 1 that makes 3 more likely My piece: softmachines.org?p=3125

A recent flood of articles suggests that AI is a bubble, with even main protagonists agreeing. Earlier this year I suggested 3 scenarios for AI: 1. Intelligence explosion 2. Excel in prose 3. Crash and burn It's Silicon Valley's belief in 1 that makes 3 more likely My piece: softmachines.org?p=3125

📊 New report by @joshmartinecon.bsky.social and Cliodhna Taylor for The Productivity Institute and @escoeorg.bsky.social tracks UK labour productivity across 184 industries from 2009–2023, more than double the granularity available from official datasets. 🔗 www.productivity.ac.uk/research/lab...

To state what should be painfully obvious, if you want to increase productivity in an environment that's close to full employment, you need fewer people working in hospitality, not more

What sector of the UK's market economy showed the largest productivity growth since 1995? The answer probably won't surprise you...

UK's fiscal difficulties arise, as much because we don't earn enough, as because govt spends too much. Cause is the productivity slowdown - without that we'd all be 36% richer Maybe there's something to learn from Greater Manchester's outperformance in productivity growth

Some thoughts on my five years at the University of Manchester, & the progress we've made working with partners in the city-region to realise the University's potential to support Greater Manchester's economy www.linkedin.com/pulse/though...

Three statements of local ambition stand in Halifax, West Yorkshire: the Town Hall, the Borough Market and the Piece Hall. Such monuments of civic pride still bear the names of farsighted local leaders from past generations. 🧵 1/13

the 'social license' for universities (and the case for a 'national' perspective) set out by @profserious.bsky.social profserious.substack.com/p/on-our-soc...

Some worrying issues in science teaching - continuing shortages of subject specialists (esp for physics), and lower than average retention rates, all adding up to blockages in the STEM talent pipeline

Really interesting "Lunch with FT" featuring physicist turned hedge fund boss J-P Bouchaud. I remember hearing a great talk at the Cavendish by him, visiting Cambridge in mid-90s when he was still a physicist, on Lévy flights ...

Bit of a magical misty autumnal atmosphere in the birch woods & moors above Froggatt this morning

Interesting proposal to build advanced modular reactors at Hartlepool A back to the future element to this - idea of a high temperature, gas cooled reactor with TRISO fuel (graphite + ceramic wrapped UO2 pellets) was developed in UK's Dragon demonstrator, closed in 1976. www.ft.com/content/3999...

Disappointed not to be considered sinister enough to be named as a contributor to the Dept of Business & Trade's "Growth School" series of external speakers in this exposé.

Wisdom at its best here. Very much worth your time reading this. Also the word 'eschatology' is used!

Good FT piece highlighting disappointing progress in AI driven drug discovery. One lesson: finding new drug candidates isn't rate limiting step in developing effective new medicines, as much as lack of screening techniques and disease models that have good predictive power www.ft.com/content/9a8a...

What makes a manufacturing superpower? Some reflections from me on Dan Wang's new book, "Breakneck: China's quest to engineer the future www.softmachines.org/wordpress/?p...

What makes a manufacturing superpower? Some reflections from me on Dan Wang's new book, "Breakneck: China's quest to engineer the future www.softmachines.org/wordpress/?p...

It's worth remembering that the most popular subject by far at UK universities is business studies, followed by subjects allied to medicine. More than half of UK HE students study directly vocational subjects, quite narrowly defined... www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...

Dan Wang's book "Breakneck" is a fantastic & thought-provoking read. This review captures exactly the aspect that jumped out at me - importance of uncodified process knowledge & communities of engineering practise, what Pisano & Shih called the industrial commons, in driving manufacturing innovation

A very good piece, but personally depressing. I spent much time in 00's engaging with the proponents of this vision in good faith & in some technical detail, & I think my perspective has been vindicated by relative progress of this vision and alternative "softer", biologically inspired approaches...

That all-important judgement- is G'=G'' yet? Soft matter physics is everywhere - but especially making plum jam

Excited at arrival of this book - anyone who has followed Dan Wang's work will be expecting from it exceptional insights on China's recent economic growth, as well as on the importance of manufacturing and infrastructure for innovation and growth more generally

V good on long term effect of the 2008 global financial crisis - plausibly at root of pretty much everything that has gone wrong with our politics & economy, but importance under appreciated "Events as dramatic as the 2008 crash don’t emerge from nowhere" - understanding its origins important too

Eyam, Derbyshire - plague memorial service at Cucklet Church. Hathersage Band accompanying.

Generative AI is 1st new tech marketed in post-Moore's Law era. In previous decades, if new digital tech needed more or cheaper computing power to work & make economic sense, a few more years of Moore's law would solve. But exponential growth in transistor density is stalling now...

Generative AI is 1st new tech marketed in post-Moore's Law era. In previous decades, if new digital tech needed more or cheaper computing power to work & make economic sense, a few more years of Moore's law would solve. But exponential growth in transistor density is stalling now...

Interesting big study looking at the geography of public R&D funding in 200 regions across 22 European countries. It supports the @tomforth.co.uk @richardaljones.bsky.social argument that R&D policy can often act as a form of anti-regional policy www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

If we're looking for the source of our current economic woes, the plot makes clear the pivotal event was the late 2000s financial crisis Understandable & correct to identify suboptimal & counterproductive fiscal, monetary & political responses since then, but they weren't the primary cause...

Surprised by a number of replies to this thread on the other channel asserting that there is plenty of North Sea gas left, and that simply increasing North Sea production would solve our energy security problem and reduce our energy costs. Some even suggested a conspiracy to deny this. My replies:

Who/what to blame for current state of UK? Nigel Lawson, imo, not blamed enough for 3 policy doctrines which caused long-term damage: 1. Energy is just another commodity that can safely be left to the market 2. Financial services industry should be deregulated 3. The trade deficit doesn't matter

Blackpool's rate of new business formation (5.6 per 1000 people/yr) exceeds Oxfordshire's (4.2 per 1000 people/yr) It's that greater degree of entrepreneurial spirit that must account for the fact that Blackpool is famously more prosperous than Oxfordshire.

Not where I would have chosen to spend my Monday morning. But my thanks to staff of East Midlands ambulance service & Sheffield Northern General for my mother's prompt and caring treatment.

Blackpool's rate of new business formation (5.6 per 1000 people/yr) exceeds Oxfordshire's (4.2 per 1000 people/yr) It's that greater degree of entrepreneurial spirit that must account for the fact that Blackpool is famously more prosperous than Oxfordshire.

"Britain needs to unleash the spirit of entrepreneurship", by Camilla Cavendish Could have been written any time in the last 20 years, & would have been just as cliched and vacuous. www.ft.com/content/9c32...

Thanks for sharing these. Partly in response to you question on inequality in Manchester,... yes I do think we'd expect to get more unequal as it got richer. That would bring down UK inequality. Here's the maths from way back in 2016. tomforth.co.uk/themathsofin...

I think it's more useful to think about productivity than wealth. And yes, very much a UK second city problem, as this plot I've pinched from @tomforth.co.uk makes clear

Is Manchester really turning into London? No. London is a very unequal city, but Manchester is both more equal than London, & significantly poorer. A plot comparing spatial inequalities in household incomes (after housing costs) in GM and London (inspired by an earlier version by @tomforth.co.uk)

Is Manchester really turning into London? No. London is a very unequal city, but Manchester is both more equal than London, & significantly poorer. A plot comparing spatial inequalities in household incomes (after housing costs) in GM and London (inspired by an earlier version by @tomforth.co.uk)

The life sciences sector plan is now out, part of the wider industrial strategy. Lots in there, but I think interesting to see how it illustrates how the Science Minister’s “three buckets” doctrine of science and innovation policy might play out... www.gov.uk/government/p...

Finished @adambecker.bsky.social's "More Everything Forever"; really excellent, I wish it wasn't so timely. The belief package it describes & criticises seems so bonkers that I think many commentators don't take it seriously - but it's held by some of the richest & most powerful people in the world

Finished @adambecker.bsky.social's "More Everything Forever"; really excellent, I wish it wasn't so timely. The belief package it describes & criticises seems so bonkers that I think many commentators don't take it seriously - but it's held by some of the richest & most powerful people in the world

Looking forward to reading this contrasting pair of books. I met Josh Hall a couple of times in context of nanotechnology debates 20 yrs ago. Interesting that he's now apparently influential amongst Silicon Valley elites.

Martin Wolf stating what should be obvious - at root of UK's malaise is a failing economy; most fundamental symptom a collapse in productivity growth since 2007. All else follows from this: stagnant/falling living standards, inability to fund public services, sour politics www.ft.com/content/8a49...