For years after the global crash of 2008, the International Monetary Fund continued to forecast 3 percent annual economic growth for countries on Level 4. Each year, for five years, countries on Level 4 failed to meet this forecast. Each year, for five years, the IMF said, “Next year it will get back on track.” Finally, the IMF realized that there was no “normal” to go back to, and it downgraded its future growth expectations to 2 percent. At the same time the IMF acknowledged that the fast growth (above 5 percent) during those years had instead happened in countries on Level 2, like Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Kenya in Africa, and Bangladesh in Asia.

Just 50 years ago, China, India, and South Korea were all way behind where sub-Saharan Africa is today in most ways, and Asia’s destiny was supposed then to be exactly what Africa’s destiny is supposed to be now: “They will never be able to feed 4 billion people.”

Historically, humans lived in surroundings that didn’t change much. Learning how things worked and then assuming they would continue to work that way rather than constantly reevaluating was probably an excellent survival strategy.

Societies and cultures are not like rocks, unchanging and unchangeable. They move. Western societies and cultures move, and non-Western societies and cultures move—often much faster.

‘I can’t find the words.’ Right now, there is quite likely to be a conversation you are trying to avoid. It is probably one that is important to you, but it has a quality of discomfort to it. Perhaps the conversation requires sharing of a difficult truth; enquiring about information that may be life-changing; proposing something that risks rejection; discussing a topic that will unleash strong emotions; consoling someone experiencing sorrow. There is a push-pull of commitment: the need to act and yet the fear of vulnerability. Not just yet. Soon, but not just yet: I will call, or visit, or make that appointment. We stand on the brink, unsure how to begin.

Answering to users of UNIX MAN command who notice the command prints "gimmie gimmie gimmie" in 00:30 in the morning The maintainer of man is a good friend of mine, and one day six years ago I jokingly said to him that if you invoke man after midnight it should print "gimme gimme gimme", because of the Abba song called "Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight"