Mr Heretic is a magazine with a staff of one. It publishes long pieces on things its author has an opinion about: research and marketing, business and work, technology, drug policy, history, and the curious ways in which sensible people talk themselves into nonsense. Sometimes a post starts because something was interesting. More often because something was wrong and nobody seemed to mind.
Why a heretic? The word comes from the Greek hairesis, which meant a choice before it meant a crime. A heretic, originally, was simply someone who chose for himself. That is the whole program here, with one extra rule the old heretics didn’t always follow: if you choose differently, you have to show your working.
Sections
- Research & marketing
Market research, surveys, advertising and the metrics people hide behind. Written by someone who still believes asking people questions can be done honestly. - Business & work
How companies are run, how people are worked and where honor ends and stupidity begins. - Technology
Gadgets, platforms and hype cycles, judged after the press release has worn off. - Society & policy
Drugs, laws and public policy. What the numbers say, and what the people in charge would rather they didn’t. - Thinking
Critical thinking, gurus, self-help and the art of changing your mind without losing it. - History
Forgotten episodes, islands at the end of the world and the people who tried to change it. History without dates to memorize.
House rules
Opinions are signed. When I write “I think”, I do. When I give a number or a quote, I link where it came from, so you can check it and, ideally, prove me wrong.
Old posts get revisited. The world moves and so do the facts. When a piece grew out of something I first wrote years ago, it says so, and it says what has changed since.
Old addresses are kept. Some addresses on this domain go back to 2009–2011 and are still linked from around the web. Where that is the case, there is a new article on the same topic at the same address, and a note at the top says so.
No doctor, no adviser. Posts about health, drugs, money and law are arguments and experience, not advice. For anything serious, see a professional, even one who agrees with the establishment.
Sponsored means labeled. If a post is ever written in cooperation with a company, it will say so at the very top. So far, none has been.
Letters to the editor
Corrections, objections and topics I should take on are welcome at [email protected]. I read everything. Disagreement gets a faster reply than praise.