Claire Hartnell
@cjhartnell.bsky.social
Mostly systems thinking, complexity, organisational anthropology but also far too much amygdala hijack stuff
Substack: https://clairejhartnell.substack.com/
Substack: https://clairejhartnell.substack.com/
November 13, 2025 at 7:41 AM
September 28, 2025 at 6:43 AM
It’s selling a brand. It’s all about money. We’ve been diminished into these gruesome attention hustlers. I feel sorry for her - she’ll be discarded once she’d had her 15 mins. To get the attention back she’ll have to become more extreme. This is what we built after 2008. While the Chinese did this:
September 14, 2025 at 9:34 AM
It’s selling a brand. It’s all about money. We’ve been diminished into these gruesome attention hustlers. I feel sorry for her - she’ll be discarded once she’d had her 15 mins. To get the attention back she’ll have to become more extreme. This is what we built after 2008. While the Chinese did this:
When will people understand that Trump wants the Ukraine war to continue so that Europe buys arms from the US & reduces its trade deficit????? It is so OBVIOUS that all the Trump policies are about lowering the deficit through beggar thy neighbour🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
September 13, 2025 at 2:46 PM
When will people understand that Trump wants the Ukraine war to continue so that Europe buys arms from the US & reduces its trade deficit????? It is so OBVIOUS that all the Trump policies are about lowering the deficit through beggar thy neighbour🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Here is a rockpool from my trip to Robin Hoods Bay in Yorkshire last week. A pristine little ecosystem cut into the shale. Is there any better way to remind people that monoculture & AI are not the natural order? The natural order is diversity, adaptation & anti fragility:
September 8, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Here is a rockpool from my trip to Robin Hoods Bay in Yorkshire last week. A pristine little ecosystem cut into the shale. Is there any better way to remind people that monoculture & AI are not the natural order? The natural order is diversity, adaptation & anti fragility:
This is my first in a series of essays that seeks to diagnose the causes of the polycrisis using a systems lens.
I begin by introducing the first character in my story: Maxwell's Demon. This agent of chaos is why we have elephants, PCs, forests & solar systems:
open.substack.com/pub/clairejh...
I begin by introducing the first character in my story: Maxwell's Demon. This agent of chaos is why we have elephants, PCs, forests & solar systems:
open.substack.com/pub/clairejh...
September 1, 2025 at 2:03 PM
This is my first in a series of essays that seeks to diagnose the causes of the polycrisis using a systems lens.
I begin by introducing the first character in my story: Maxwell's Demon. This agent of chaos is why we have elephants, PCs, forests & solar systems:
open.substack.com/pub/clairejh...
I begin by introducing the first character in my story: Maxwell's Demon. This agent of chaos is why we have elephants, PCs, forests & solar systems:
open.substack.com/pub/clairejh...
It's OK - The Economist has a plan! Unfortunately, it looks remarkably similar to the plan that got us here in the first place. I'd explain more but it turns out that while 'Britain is cheap', the Economist isn't & I'm out of free articles.
July 11, 2025 at 8:19 AM
It's OK - The Economist has a plan! Unfortunately, it looks remarkably similar to the plan that got us here in the first place. I'd explain more but it turns out that while 'Britain is cheap', the Economist isn't & I'm out of free articles.
"Britain is cheap - we should learn to love it" says The house journal for untaxed capital. The Economist engages in gaslighting of the highest order exhorting us to 'love' selling off our 'bargain basement assets & labour' to foreign investors. Three cheers for broken markets & foreign landlords!
July 11, 2025 at 8:11 AM
"Britain is cheap - we should learn to love it" says The house journal for untaxed capital. The Economist engages in gaslighting of the highest order exhorting us to 'love' selling off our 'bargain basement assets & labour' to foreign investors. Three cheers for broken markets & foreign landlords!
I don't mind if you ignore what I write but you really need to understand what's happened to our country & Western economies in general. These excellent books are a good place to start. I hope you don't have children (as I do) because this will terrify you for their futures:
July 2, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I don't mind if you ignore what I write but you really need to understand what's happened to our country & Western economies in general. These excellent books are a good place to start. I hope you don't have children (as I do) because this will terrify you for their futures:
The problem here is the law is so badly written that it could cover almost any disagreeable behaviour. ‘Intimidating the public’ is impossibly wide & context dependent. If someone hands out anti abortion leaflets on a train, is it terrorism? What if drivers shout sexist abuse at schoolgirls?
June 23, 2025 at 5:11 PM
The problem here is the law is so badly written that it could cover almost any disagreeable behaviour. ‘Intimidating the public’ is impossibly wide & context dependent. If someone hands out anti abortion leaflets on a train, is it terrorism? What if drivers shout sexist abuse at schoolgirls?
Remember this? We SHOULD NOT BE BAILING OUT THE US WITH YET MORE REGIME CHANGE👇
June 22, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Remember this? We SHOULD NOT BE BAILING OUT THE US WITH YET MORE REGIME CHANGE👇
I think Vincent Bevins’ book is instructive. The problem facing all protest movements during this era is that they had no plan for what came next. Initial spontaneous conflagration appeared powerful & important - but it actually hardened the opposing forces. ‘Rejoin’ is a slogan but not a plan.
June 8, 2025 at 8:07 AM
I think Vincent Bevins’ book is instructive. The problem facing all protest movements during this era is that they had no plan for what came next. Initial spontaneous conflagration appeared powerful & important - but it actually hardened the opposing forces. ‘Rejoin’ is a slogan but not a plan.
… also do a race to the bottom on corporation tax, subsidy etc; & stop investing. The entire system flipped in the 70s - beautifully illustrated in Matthew Klein’s chart here. You can see pre: 70s smallish gov, lots of investment (by businesses) & high savings (from wages). A thriving …
May 30, 2025 at 7:49 AM
… also do a race to the bottom on corporation tax, subsidy etc; & stop investing. The entire system flipped in the 70s - beautifully illustrated in Matthew Klein’s chart here. You can see pre: 70s smallish gov, lots of investment (by businesses) & high savings (from wages). A thriving …
Oh, what’s this I see? CEO pay not correlated with performance🤔 Surely not?
workingcapitalreview.com/wp-content/u...
workingcapitalreview.com/wp-content/u...
May 13, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Oh, what’s this I see? CEO pay not correlated with performance🤔 Surely not?
workingcapitalreview.com/wp-content/u...
workingcapitalreview.com/wp-content/u...
I can’t believe you’ve posted this as a riposte to Glasman? Their worldview is identical? Because Rutherford communicated it in softer tones, he is portrayed as ‘less mad’! This is establishment pushback 101. It’s like screwing a lid on sourdough starter. The critical point👇
May 4, 2025 at 9:06 AM
I can’t believe you’ve posted this as a riposte to Glasman? Their worldview is identical? Because Rutherford communicated it in softer tones, he is portrayed as ‘less mad’! This is establishment pushback 101. It’s like screwing a lid on sourdough starter. The critical point👇
April 10, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Ah, I missed the flag! Look I suspect deep down, we have similar values. But this thing about trade is tricky because it is literally never discussed in the press. I only found it out myself by listening to Steve Keen (an economist) then reading these two books. They explain why this is happening:
April 9, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Ah, I missed the flag! Look I suspect deep down, we have similar values. But this thing about trade is tricky because it is literally never discussed in the press. I only found it out myself by listening to Steve Keen (an economist) then reading these two books. They explain why this is happening:
… on this suggest things like taxing capital inflows, de-dollarising trade, agreeing global rules on surpluses, reducing inequality through fiscal transfers to drive up domestic demand. It is extremely complex. Two books will help you understand it (politically diametric but the same story):
April 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
… on this suggest things like taxing capital inflows, de-dollarising trade, agreeing global rules on surpluses, reducing inequality through fiscal transfers to drive up domestic demand. It is extremely complex. Two books will help you understand it (politically diametric but the same story):
From the bad place via Substack:
April 3, 2025 at 8:53 AM
From the bad place via Substack:
It *is* large firms!! Frontier firms eventually hit diminishing returns. Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet are no different from Intel 50 years ago. In a market uncorrupted by money printing & with stronger anti-trust, these companies would be broken up & we'd have 20-30 small players competing to ...
March 17, 2025 at 10:43 AM
It *is* large firms!! Frontier firms eventually hit diminishing returns. Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet are no different from Intel 50 years ago. In a market uncorrupted by money printing & with stronger anti-trust, these companies would be broken up & we'd have 20-30 small players competing to ...
They are almost there on this. Gig economy contracts are a step towards an end state where private equity owns smaller universities, outsources teaching to low paid freelancers, sells off & leases back buildings, before eventually collapsing the broken husk down for parts. I give it 10 years.
March 12, 2025 at 4:16 PM
They are almost there on this. Gig economy contracts are a step towards an end state where private equity owns smaller universities, outsources teaching to low paid freelancers, sells off & leases back buildings, before eventually collapsing the broken husk down for parts. I give it 10 years.
My very bad parenting skills on display here in 2022. What can you do when your 80 your old mother is setting the tone🤷🏻♀️
March 6, 2025 at 7:20 AM
My very bad parenting skills on display here in 2022. What can you do when your 80 your old mother is setting the tone🤷🏻♀️
ChatGPT now has a 'reasoning' button. I clicked it & asked for a 10 point summary of stg I wrote. It was PAINFUL. 27 lines after emphasising brevity, it gave me a horrible summary that was the definition of OVER-THINKING. Like a minion over-complicating a master's need to avoid causing upset.
February 3, 2025 at 11:45 AM
ChatGPT now has a 'reasoning' button. I clicked it & asked for a 10 point summary of stg I wrote. It was PAINFUL. 27 lines after emphasising brevity, it gave me a horrible summary that was the definition of OVER-THINKING. Like a minion over-complicating a master's need to avoid causing upset.
Extraordinary🤔 This is an article about the effect of the NI hike on business. We have entered a strange new world where businesses must not just be subsidised, bailed out, propped up, zombified & coddled. The state is now responsible for maintaining distributions to shareholders?? And should …
January 21, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Extraordinary🤔 This is an article about the effect of the NI hike on business. We have entered a strange new world where businesses must not just be subsidised, bailed out, propped up, zombified & coddled. The state is now responsible for maintaining distributions to shareholders?? And should …