Field Notes Weekly: Clarity, Football and The Ways We Cope

This week’s reflections from Berlin snow to World Cup stadiums

A new habit for Field Notes for Modern Life. Once a week I will send a short round-up of what I have been thinking, writing and noticing. No noise, no hard sell. Just field notes from a modern life that feels stretched in all directions.

This week is about clear thinking, big tournaments, oil, old cameras, restless cities and a country that never gets its own white Christmas.

Thinking clearly when the world is loud

Why It’s So Hard To Think Clearly In 2025
A reflection on what constant noise does to our heads, from news alerts to half-finished thoughts on the commute. I contrast the clarity of briefing rooms and war zones with the scrambled feeling of modern civilian life, and offer a few simple habits to slow down, separate signal from noise, and think like a human again.
Read it here → https://www.fieldnotesjournal.com/introducing-the-clear-thinking-handbook/

Introducing The Clear Thinking Handbook
This is the free guide I have created for anyone who feels overloaded or a bit off-balance. It is a practical companion, not a lecture. The focus is on adversity, uncertainty and those moments when you feel out of your depth, and how clear thinking and small repeatable habits can help you through.
Download and read more → https://www.fieldnotesjournal.com/introducing-the-clear-thinking-handbook/

Sport, money and who the show is really for

World Cup 2026: Who Is The Tournament Really For?
I start in Frankfurt in 2006, in a square packed with England fans, and use that memory to ask who modern mega-tournaments are actually serving. The piece questions the drift towards bloated formats, sportswashing and corporate theatre, and whether ordinary fans are now just background scenery.
Read it here →https://www.fieldnotesjournal.com/world-cup-2026-who-is-it-for/

Christmas lights, fragile comfort and a country in crisis

Spotlight: Christmas, Lonely Venezuela and the Fragile Comfort We Crave
This one opens with a snowy Berlin Christmas in 1987, then pivots to a Venezuela that never sees snow but lives with permanent crisis. It is about how we cling to small comforts while whole nations grind through hyperinflation, repression and quiet despair. The question is how we hold both truths in our heads without looking away from either.
Read it here → https://www.fieldnotesjournal.com/venezuela-and-fragile-comfort-we-crave/

Cities, cameras and the lives we build

A Reflective Look Back at the Analogue World
A small love letter to the analogue rituals of growing up. VHS tapes, Morse code, 35mm film and waiting a week for the photos to come back from Boots. It is really a piece about patience, attention and what we lost when everything became instant and disposable.
Read it here → https://www.fieldnotesjournal.com/when-technology-starts-thinking-for-us/

London Culture: Insider Field Notes From The Vibrant City
An ongoing notebook from a city I have walked for years. I draw a few parallels with Berlin, wander along the Thames and drop in on places like HMS Belfast and the Tower of London as more than just tourist stops. The promise is simple. London as a living, changing place, written from the pavement rather than the guidebook.
Read it here → https://www.fieldnotesjournal.com/london-culture-insider-field-notes/

Energy, oil and uncomfortable truths

Energy Transition and Our Quiet Dependence on Oil
Sparked by watching Landman, this essay sits in the slightly awkward middle of the energy debate. I argue that our lives are woven through with oil in ways most people do not see, and that shouting slogans about Net Zero risks ignoring the behaviours and systems that keep us hooked. It is not an easy-read polemic, more a Field Notes attempt to be honest about trade offs.
Read it here → https://www.fieldnotesjournal.com/the-myth-of-the-simple-transition/

Before you go

That wraps up this week’s Field Notes for Modern Life. If one of these pieces lands with you, pass it on to someone who might find it useful. Quiet recommendations from real people matter far more than any algorithm.