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Advisers who think that they are very clever while all around them are a bit thick, and that all the problems of the world would be solved if the thick listened to the clever, are liable to be disappointed.

Geoff Mulgan

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Geoff Mulgan
Age: 63
Born: 1961
Born: January 1
Economist
Writer
Thinking
Disappointed
World
Clever
Problems
Advisers
Bits
Adviser
Around
Liable
Problem
Solved
Would
Listened
Think
Thick

More quotes by Geoff Mulgan

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A lot of people in government don't really read books at all.
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Britain is rich in radicalism, and anyone who says that our society has drifted into fatalism and apathy should get out more.
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One of the lessons of history is that even the deepest crises can be moments of opportunity. They bring ideas from the margins into the mainstream.
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Big business increasingly likes to portray itself as socially concerned, adopting the style of civic action through 'campaigns' of varying degrees of cynicism.
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The longer you commute the less happy you're likely to be.
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Economies are complex beasts that need people to do an extraordinary range of tasks.
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The biggest barrier to dealing with climate change is us: our own attachment to habits that are hard to shift, and our great ability to park or ignore uncomfortable choices.
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Societies advance through innovation every bit as much as economies do.
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With a fractured sense of self, we come to depend on what people feed back to us - often mediated through social networks - not what we are. We have complex identities but may become less able to act as a subject - confident in what we really are.
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I'm not saying [economic] growth is wrong, but throughout the years of growth, many things didn't get better. ... If you look at America, the proportion of Americans with no one to talk to about important things went up from a tenth to a quarter.
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All innovation is about letting go, saying goodbye to things to create space for the new.
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The central position of finance capital is going to come to an end, and it's going to steadily move to the sides, the margins of our society, transformed from being a master into a servant, a servant to the productive economy and of human needs.
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By international standards, many of the U.K.'s policies for civil society are exemplary. However, there are concerns about constraints on civil liberties - particularly restrictions on free assembly and about the rising tide of everyday regulation has seriously impeded community activity - from organising street parties to helping children.
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As the Internet of things advances, the very notion of a clear dividing line between reality and virtual reality becomes blurred, sometimes in creative ways.
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Lots of creativity is and should be solitary.
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Spreading an idea is hard work.
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The most important innovators often don't need any technologies - just imagination and acute sensitivity to people's needs.
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The City of London has never been known for understanding technology and has never matched Silicon Valley's tradition of knowledgeable investment in technology start-ups, just as the U.K. government has never matched the vast investment made by the U.S. government.
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In every capitalist economy there are anti-capitalist movements, activists, and even political parties in a way, that there are no longer anti-democratic movements, activists, and parties.
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All of nationalism can be understood as a kind of collective narcissism.
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