`No mouse interceptions.

Robin refers to the original Frippian purpose in dairying. I am not sure this always uppermost but � yesterday I bought the Economist. I used to read it a lot about 20 years ago but I have taken it up recently because it is an easy overview of the world situation. There�s a good article in it about management in the public sector � how difficult it is and indeed how bad a lot of it is. I could recognise everything said it and go on (if anyone wanted) to show how antithetical to creativity so much of it is. I was lucky to have about seven years where there was quite a big creative element to what I was doing � big publicity programmes and then working at the college. It was during this time that I started writing � using computers � and then performing again � in some instances using computer generated tracks.

The next seven years were much more negative in terms of integrating creativity and paid employment � with one exception, I suppose � that when I got to putting Serious Music together I was able to raise quite a bit of money from my colleagues in sales

. I had an interview with an occupational psychologist last year � and she seemed to be suggesting that as I had let my creative side grow I had become less employable. In fact the Economist has a couple of articles on the sorry state of the entertainment industry and amongst its many troubles is its failure (despite everything) to have found a way of managing creativity. Or maybe it had a method at some point but has lost it in recent years.

Driving back on Thursday there was a radio documentary about Ealing Studios and the way it operated on the basis of employment rather than hiring in. But the director who had produced what is thought of as one of the best films � Kind Hearts and Coronets � couldn�t handle a disappointment on his next project and this more or less killed him.

A lot of the surroundings or context to creative endeavour is severely practical � Robin talks about prolonged problem-solving � something I can�t get into too often.

There�s always an issue about what to do next � whether to follow one�s intuition � which may lead anywhere or whether to use a more systematic approach. And on some metrics I have quite a low systems preference. Following one�s intuition is much more likely to lead to apparently �random walk�.