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Jonathan Rowson

@jonathanrowson.bsky.social
1.4K followers 107 following 127 posts

Writer, Speaker, and Publisher. CEO at Perspectiva (but personal posts here). Scottish Londoner and dad. Erstwhile chess grandmaster.

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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Sad and troubled to see buildings near Glasgow Central in flames. Already huge losses, but I hope the statiom survives. So many paths of my life have passed through that junction.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
At times like this, I watch Aljazeera, which is currently doing an exclusive interview with Iran’s foreign minister.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
“I know the idea that the next UK General Election will be primarily a battle between the Greens and Reform seems far-fetched, but I think it would be wise to act now as if that could be the case.” open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
I know I’m a bit late to this, but I’ve started watching The Sopranos…
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Since the USA now faces a full blown “constitutional crisis” and we’ll all be hearing this term a lot, I thought it might help to reflect on what crisis means. (From *Prefixing the World*: open.substack.com/pub/perspect... )
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
I’ve discovered a hitherto unsuspected connection between the stag and the potato.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Enjoyed a couple of days off in Cambridge - “the other place”.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Saw Kyoto tonight in London. It’s a play about the beginning of the UN climate regime from c1990 to 1997 when the Kyoto protocol was agreed. Most of the drama and comedy is about the construction of inertia. It’s excellent, Intense, funny, gripping.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
I’ve been listening to Rory Stewart’s political memoir and just finished this morning. I had high expectations. It’s generally very good. He has chosen the “show don’t tell” strategy, but I was hoping for deeper analysis of sclerosis and delusion and grew weary of the accents and the biscuits.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
On the way home to London. Enjoying the snow capped vistas of Goatfell in Arran, as seen on the train from Troon to Glasgow. Snow is always a kind of magic.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Bye for noo, Aberdeen. And thanks for the snow. Off to see my mum in Troon.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Glad to be back in my home town of Aberdeen. I lived here from roughly 0-10 and 12-19. My dad and extended family still live here. I usually visit every year but had forgotten how beautiful it can be. Today I walked roughly three miles from King street to Union Grove via Union Street.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
I just passed through Edinburgh on the way from London to Aberdeen to be with my dad for the bells. 🔔 🥃 I had half an hour between trains so peeped up to street level to capture Scotland’s capital in all her seasonal splendour. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ❤️ Happy New Year 🥳
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
The day after Christmas is such a relief that I’m celebrating with what is left in the fridge. It would be a shame to let it go to waste. Here’s to making the most of the next 300+ days or so before it all kicks off again 🥂 #boxingday
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
Happy Christmas.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
“One-off my many fantasies is to write a book about sauna conversations…” open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Tonight my organisation Perspectiva did an antidebate with students at UCL. It’s a three hour collective inquiry process, with more details here if you’re interested: youtu.be/_jI5JdlZSXE?... The first of 3 parts is mostly about agreeing on a statement to explore, and here’s what the group chose:
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Gratuitous Christmas photographs. 1. D.I.Y fairy for Wandsworth Park. 2. Black reindeer painting (Vishnu, 9) 3. Christmas Tree on Putney High Street. 4. Christmas greetings in an unidentified Indian language from Brandlehow school reception.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
I loved the first Moana film & found it deep and meaningful. The sequel has a powerful central idea - reviving the commons- but sadly it doesn’t believe in it enough to allow it to carry the film. Instead we get morally ambiguous coconuts, a cute younger sister, and gratuitous special effects. B+
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
I’m an analogue Grandmaster and I accept that these guys are under geopolitical pressure and that they know more about chess than I’ve forgotten… Even so! Guys! We can definitely do better than an Exchange French! Would it be too much to ask for a little complexity in a World Championship Match?
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Enjoyed re-watching Thirteen Days with family, the year 2000 movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. In 2002 I was a student at Harvard and attended an amazing 40 year anniversary event. How close we came to nuclear war. Or as McNamara put it at the event: “We lucked out.”
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Ding just retreated with Ne1 and part of me is hoping he gets time for the double retreat, and then to play f3, Kf2 and then Nd1-b2-d3, but I suspect Gukesh will make it difficult for him.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
This sign made me smile because it reminded me of a term of art from my work: *The Impossible We*. The way we use ‘we’ often ignores varying perceptions, competing interests, power dynamics and thereby obscures the nature of the work that needs to be done. www.whatisemerging.com/opinions/the...
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
My brief thoughts on the World Chess Championship match that starts next week are exclusively available in Kerala. I assume you read Malayalam? This is in today’s Malayala Manorama and written by P.K.Harish. I’m holding a feature article about me and family visiting Calicut in April 2023. 🙃 🇮🇳
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Shetland season 9 (!) is excellent so far. I just watched episode 3. The dinosaur detail is exquisite. 🦕 Every season lulls the audience with landscape and the presumption nothing can happen in such a remote place. Before you know it, it’s the epicentre of emotional and geopolitical intrigue.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Amusing moment an hour or so ago. I was heading home on the London Underground while listening to my colleague Ivo Mensch give a talk about metaphysical priors (time, causation; Bayes, Friston etc). The slide “stack of priors” shared my phone with modern capitalist habit energy and infrastructure.
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Jonathan Rowson @jonathanrowson.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Heading home after a couple of days in Paris. Such a beautiful city. I was speaking at an academic seminar at Sciences Po, but it wasn’t too difficult to remember to enjoy myself too. 🇫🇷❤️
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