Two heroes of the hour in UK politics areBaroness Beeban Kidron and Lord Ed Vaizey who voice the utter madness of the idea that ditching copyright - specifically ceding it to Big Tech AI - is fair, workable or good economically or culturally. AI can't be used to steal. #copyrightlaw #copyright #AI

“The history of work and jobs is littered with disruption, change, and we live today as much with the relics of old ways of working as we do the moulds of new forms we are creating,” argues @juliahobsbawm.bsky.social | iai.tv/articles/ai-... Tap the link to read more. #AI #techsky

THE FLEX WORK STRATEGY WORKED - (take note Monsieur Farage) : at a national level being against common sense will not work. Congratulations @AlboMP for putting this policy at the heart of your campaign. ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

Five years ago today Italy became the first country in Europe to lock down. Find out what happened to Italy's world of work in the United State of Work report out tomorrow workathon.io/usw/index.html

What I loved was three different women working the aisles and tills in the supermarket (OK, @waitrose ) shyly wishing me and a girl friend Happy International Women's Day: like it was lovely to hear themselves say it and mean it and be heard. That was lovely.

Go Big or Go Home, they say. Announced today. workathon.io/doc/WORKATHO...

Popular culture should be separate from politics but the medium has been the message for so long. Can Deep Mind resurrect Macluhan just for a day?

Fury! Sharing this apparently elegant debate I did with @ethicistforhire.bsky.social but the quiet fury between us was undeniable. I think you can only apply esoteric philosophy so far in the debate about whether The Global South needs the internet or not. youtu.be/bfW9QYf5M7Q?si… via @YouTube

"the sprint to “delete” U.S.A.I.D. on grounds of waste and ideological bias also sent its own bigger message: that soft power, properly understood, is not really power at all, only a shackle restricting the exercise of the harder and more old-fashioned kind." - David Wallace-Wells @nytimes.com

What did you do when the world stopped working like it ever had in March 2020? And how is it changing now for all of us, 5 years on? Get your free download ordered of The United State of Work, published by WORKATHON on 19 March 2025 workathon.io/usw/

An amazing week here in New York where we found a very *very* warm reception indeed for WORKATHON. People want to connect and meet the challenges of work in a community, a network, and they also want data, research, ideas. We're just getting started and it's - so American - "super exciting"

Incredible, really, to have the President of the nation which has led the world of work for a century spend his first fortnight going to war with his own federal workforce and undertaking a bonfire of DEI in its entirely, even going so far as to blame "it" for the tragic DC plane crash

New York State of Mind. It's cold. But not that cold. Nevertheless it's my Babushka look.

Here amongst the gleaming spires to give a talk @orieloxford.bsky.social. I have to say I love Oxford. It has a studious hush, a lovely light. Have written some of my books here in the beautiful quarters of another college which offered it up as a bit of a writing sanctuary.

My mother's care home with a high Jewish population: I arrive to find them all huddled around watching hostage release coverage @skynewss.bsky.social

This column by Marina Hyde nails it or should I say Neils it. I took part in the original @tortoisemedia.bsky.social podcast which kicked off this story www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"the media organisations, bureaucracies, universities and government-funded NGOs that traditionally delimited public conversation." - Peter Thiel in the FT. Am I the only one to long for a fervent believer in scary stuff who can write eloquently?

Today @thetimes.com asked for my take on work predictions for 2025 and used this matchy matchy photo...An expert’s view on the future of work in 2025 www.thetimes.com/article/e31c...

A cartoon I did for @juliahobsbawm.bsky.social in 2024

Hard at work on this paper - out on 6 March to coincide fifth anniversary of first lockdown - NEW DATA + @rorysutherland.bsky.social @davidmcwecon.bsky.social @benpageresearch.bsky.social Vicky Price, Melis Abacioglu + more in association #workathon #thenowhereoffice

Hard at work on this paper - out on 6 March to coincide fifth anniversary of first lockdown - NEW DATA + @rorysutherland.bsky.social @davidmcwecon.bsky.social @benpageresearch.bsky.social Vicky Price, Melis Abacioglu + more in association #workathon #thenowhereoffice

Work on New Year's Day in cafes in urban areas much complicated by platform economy : physically there's the same amount of staff, same space, just fitting in lots of additional delivery and pickup: the unintended consequences of an internet society number 2025. Happy New Year

I finish the year with a word I think I made up: Workdemic - to describe the multiple effects generated both by Covid-19 and the generative AI on every generation at work. @theneweuropean.bsky.social asked me to write about it in relation to the UK and I did. www.theneweuropean.co.uk/julia-hobsba...

Today is the day Christmas recedes. The tinsel starts to itch and the twinkling lights are a chintzy bore. Roll on 2025!

A #booksky shoutout for my own latest, an uncomfortable glimpse at middle class London..💙📚 "Immersed in – and blown away by – One Woman Crime Wave!" @juliahobsbawm.bsky.social "A fantastic novel about fractured families, class and the politics of parenting." @liznugent.bsky.social

My mum used to love Christmas but now she doesn't know it's Christmas at all. One reason why despite loving the carols and the schmaltz I find myself well, a bit sad too. Certainly reflective. Full of love and the utter poignancy of the one time of year we all get abit emotional in public. X

A warm discussion of the great Charles Handy’s life and legacy with @juliahobsbawm.bsky.social and @stefanstern.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Tonight in London my eldest son is taking me to see one of the best "office" movies ever: The Apartment with Jack Lemmon (1960). I would say some other brilliant office films include Office Space (1999), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and. Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Is I know hardly any of you know Kentish Town, a small area in London but I like this post about the tube/subway escalators and how they, well, *work*

Anyone who left X to avoid Elon Musk is realising he has declared himself World Leader of media, politics & tech: and he may be right

Gisele Pelicot is on my mind today. She walked into court to shouts of "Bravo". Bravery is an understatement for a woman like her. May justice be served.

This post is important but the comment threads on the uneconomic economics of farming are interesting too

Good morning. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Desperate measures in Tokyo for falling fertility and an unexpected boost for the 4 Day Week: @fortune.com asked for my comment! fortune.com/2024/12/07/t...

One of the world's greatest management philosophers, Charles Handy, has died at home in London surrounded by his beloved family. Aged 92. Prescient, his books and work live on. May His Memory Be A Blessing. Goodby my dear friend and inspiration xx

Hybrid Winters, AI Winters, Property Envelopes, 4 Day Week, immersive tech, climate risk and why RTO may not be the office story in 2025 - end of year global workplace trends with @JLL corporate real estate giant Peter Miscovich- out now on The Nowhere Office pod open.spotify.com/episode/1kFq...

The end of the car as we know it. That's the story of 2024 in business. Coming next: the end of the driver as we know it.

Very sorry that the reputation of Tim Ferriss' classic book The Four Hour Work Week has been tarnished by association in the Goodreads choices of the self-styled modern Unabomber assassin Mangione. Yes it's a total bro book but a classic of its kind ushering in today's era.

Desperate measures in Tokyo for falling fertility and an unexpected boost for the 4 Day Week: @fortune.com asked for my comment! fortune.com/2024/12/07/t...

May 2020: Some guy in a basement claims that offices will be in trouble in 2024.

What a piece of footage. What a moment in history.

Much that is touted as miraculous AI assistance fills me with anxiety. Not the same as generative AI synthesising and summarising or enabling young less qualified workers to know stuff quickly. But the promise of volume being magically reduced etc? Surely more hype cycle than anything strategic.

Mocked and derided at the time but the political phrase which resonates most today was made by the late Donald Rumsfeld jn a speech to the Pentagon in 2002: "Known Unknowns".

Whats the airline equivalent song of "Driving Home for Christmas" and here's hoping it's not too bumpy a landing through storm Darrogh in the morning. It's been - as ever - en epic American trip and I'm full of optimism about working with my US colleagues and network in 2025 as Workathon takes off.

I have become the person who turns up at Soul Cycle on 77th and Broadway on a waitlist whom. It's 8.30am...#bittenbythebug

In a land where they say "Happy Holidays" every five minutes this absolutely beautiful @coldplay video directed by Spike Jonze is a joy and captures a working life too in all its glory www.bbc.com/news/article...

Etymology of the day is ‘jargon’, from the Old French ‘jargoun’, meaning the ‘chattering of birds’.