The death of deference seems to be general at the moment, so everybody has to earn their reputation and trust all over again. You don't just get it by virtue of being a professor or a politician or anybody else.

Lots of people in the open system are very determined to try and strengthen evidence-based policy.

Until you have looked in depth at the system and found out where women in Egypt are not being cut through female genital mutilation, or where kids in Vietnam are not malnourished, or where hospitals in America are getting rid of the superbugs anyway - unless you have that level of curiosity about what's going on without you, you will always come in with your great new recipe and just ignore what's going on, and that will make you much less effective at what you're trying to achieve.

Somewhere like Russia or China, decision-makers have far fewer constraints on acting than in more open systems.

I keep coming back to the phrase "Dance with the system" - not just march onwards no matter what happens.

The death of deference seems to be general at the moment, so everybody has to earn their reputation and trust all over again. You don't just get it by virtue of being a professor or a politician or anybody else.

Floundering around, learning by doing but also by failing, is not only good but inevitable.