Finding Soho

How does one manage biographical confusion?  The past is a different country - they do things differently there. LP Hartley was absolutely spot-on.  It can be difficult to explain biographical transitions and new roles - at what point did one stop working on one thing and then start on another? How did that come about? When did one start to retrain? These are all difficult to encapsulate in a brief profile.  In the past, people's career choices rarely evolved. Now, changing career or disciplinary pathways appears to be quite common. But one has to manage this well because the confusion that may be generated may be quite detrimental to one's interests.  I don't think that anyone needs to explain why they shifted gears. Everyone should have the freedom to shift gears when they are able to do so and do it at their own pace. But it can be challenging to rationalise this for others.  There are so many people today who are retraining later on in life. They may have al...

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life in a lot of ways. Its impact on a lot of people's lives has been enormous.  A lot of people are in distress. A lot of people are angry - angry about the pandemic's effects on their lives, and the restrictions that have been imposed.  And some of it is, seemingly, being channeled into aggression against random strangers in public places.  While it's neither particularly important, given all that's happening right now, nor something that can be quantified, there is some palpable aggression in the air and this is sometimes manifesting as racially-charged aggression.  There was some media coverage of racist incidents in various places, including Melbourne, early on in the pandemic. Since then, there hasn't been much information about such incidents.  However, I have seen some (what I suppose is) racially-charged aggression.  I've come across racist graffiti and vandalism.  I've come across some road rage that may pote...