Society | youaskedwhat?

19 questions

Society5 May 2026

Is meritocracy a useful lie, a harmful lie, or just a lie?

The idea that outcomes reflect effort and ability is powerful, popular, and largely unsupported by evidence.

Society5 May 2026

Is being "kind" often just being conflict-averse with better branding?

Society5 May 2026

Is it socially acceptable to pretend you've seen a film you haven't?

Society5 May 2026

Did you know copyright was invented to control ideas, not protect artists?

Society5 May 2026

What if every country adopted a universal basic income tomorrow?

UBI is either the most humane economic idea of the century or a guaranteed route to inflation and dependency. The answer depends on what you think work is actually for.

Society5 May 2026

Has social media made us more ourselves, or just louder versions of who we thought we were?

The tools were supposed to connect us. The question is what they connected us to.

Society5 May 2026

Why does the last biscuit in the tin feel like it belongs to everyone but you?

There is a biscuit in the tin. It is there for the taking. Nobody takes it. Somebody should explain this.

Society5 May 2026

Why do we wave back at strangers who weren't actually waving at us?

They were waving at someone else. You waved back. The moment lasted two seconds and will stay with you forever.

Society5 May 2026

Is the morning commute secretly good for you?

The commute is routinely cited as one of the worst parts of modern working life. But evidence on forced transition time — the mental gap between home and work — suggests we might be too quick to want it gone.

Society5 May 2026

What if money disappeared overnight?

Not hyperinflation. Not cryptocurrency collapse. Just gone. The thought experiment cuts through every assumption we have about value, work, and what we actually owe each other.

Society5 May 2026

Why does queuing feel like a moral act?

We wait in line for coffee with the same righteous energy other people reserve for jury duty.

Society5 May 2026

Has working from home changed us, or just revealed us?

The great experiment of 2020 told us something about work. It's less clear whether it changed anything.

Society5 May 2026

Is the idea of a "self-made" person a useful fiction or a harmful one?

Every self-made person had a great deal of help. The question is whether the story they tell about themselves matters.

Society5 May 2026

Why do we tip in restaurants but not in supermarkets?

It seems obvious until you think about it, at which point it stops making any sense at all.

Society5 May 2026

Why do we break into an awkward trot when a stranger holds a door open for us?

You were walking at a perfectly reasonable pace. Someone held a door. You sped up. Nobody asked you to. Here is what is actually happening.

Society23 Apr 2026

What if the NFL came to the UK?

American football already plays games in London. But a few games and a franchise are very different things. Would Britain adopt it, adapt it, or politely ignore it?

Society23 Apr 2026

America is hosting the World Cup. Most Americans still call it soccer.

In 2026, the USA hosts the biggest sporting event on earth for a sport most Americans treat as a curiosity. This is what happens when the world's game lands in the one country that built a different one.

Society23 Apr 2026

Why do we find it easier to forgive strangers than people we love?

The people best positioned to hurt us are the ones we've let closest. That creates a particular problem.

Society23 Apr 2026

Did you know the 40-hour work week was invented by Henry Ford?

The standard working week wasn't handed down from nature or decided by workers. It was invented by a car manufacturer in 1926 for reasons that had nothing to do with your wellbeing.