Ben Werdmuller

Category: General

  • Should everyone learn to code?

    I posted this the other day, blissfully unaware of how contentious it would be: “Learning to code is non-optional in the 21st century.” It’s a piece of hyperbole, of course; learning to code is perfectly optional. Nobody’s pointing a gun at your head and forcing you to do it. But here’s what many of my […]

  • Disrupt the mainstream

    “Mainstream culture,” as a concept, needs to die. A little pre-history. The Diamond Sutra, a sacred Buddhist text and the world’s oldest surviving printed book, was produced in China in 868 AD. It took another couple of hundred years before moveable type was invented, and another four hundred years for the printing press to be […]

  • Which side are you on?

    I grew up in a culture of counterculture politics. My parents met in Berkeley during the early seventies, which should tell you pretty much everything you need to know; they were, separately and together, involved in Vietnam protests, equal economic and political rights and liberties, tenants’ rights, and the environmental activities around Peoples’ Park. It’s […]

  • Why 2012 was the best year ever – and how 2013 can be even better

    The Spectator explains why 2012 was the best year in the history of the world: It may not feel like it, but 2012 has been the greatest year in the history of the world. That sounds like an extravagant claim, but it is borne out by evidence. Never has there been less hunger, less disease […]