Why Uncommon Sense exists

Something has shifted in the world - and we’ve been pretending it didn’t.

Since the financial crash of 2007–08, progress has felt slower, politics more brittle, institutions less trusted and public debate more polarised. Add technological acceleration, geopolitical realignment and the erosion of shared facts, and it’s no surprise that many intelligent people feel disoriented.

There’s no shortage of information. What we’re suffering from is a shortage of connection.

Most media explains events in isolation, blogs amplify personality, while social media rewards certainty and outrage.

Uncommon Sense exists to do something different: to connect economics, politics, technology, human psychology, culture and power - and to explain how they interact.

It does not aim to win arguments: it aims to clarify the systems we are operating inside and identify how we can improve them.

If the world feels unstable, this is an attempt to understand why.

How to read Uncommon Sense

The monthly Uncommon Sense newsletter is not designed to be skimmed between notifications. Articles highlight an issue and identify connections across domains, leading to greater understanding.

Articles will identify a central question, trace root causes (rather than symptoms), connect developments that appear separate, examine how power structures work (and don’t) and acknowledge uncertainty where it exists.

You don’t have to agree with every conclusion. In fact, you shouldn’t. The goal isn’t agreement: it’s sharper thinking.

It does its job if you finish reading a piece with a clearer mental map, fewer assumptions and better questions than you started with.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Because news explains events, not systems.
    Uncommon Sense explains how events connect, why they keep repeating, and what structural forces are driving them.

  • It is analysis-first.
    Where judgement is offered, it is grounded in evidence, incentives and historical context - not tribal positioning.

  • Neither - and it challenges both.
    Uncommon Sense is sceptical of market fundamentalism, authoritarianism, culture-war simplifications and techno-utopianism alike. If a narrative is too neat, it gets interrogated.

  • Think tanks usually:

    • Start with conclusions

    • Defend institutional positions

    • Serve funders or ideologies

    Long-form journalism usually:

    • Goes deep on one story

    • Stays inside a single domain

    Uncommon Sense:

    • Starts with questions

    • Crosses domains deliberately

    • Focuses on connections, not silos

  • No.
    It will help you think better — by exposing assumptions, incentives and blind spots.

  • Less time than trying to piece together the same understanding from:

    • multiple articles

    • podcasts

    • contradictory expert takes

    You get the synthesis without the scavenger hunt.

Who it’s for (and who it isn’t)

Uncommon Sense is for people who value depth over speed, are sceptical of neat explanations, feel underserved by mainstream commentary, want to understand systems (not just headlines), and use judgement as part of their professional or personal life

It will resonate with professionals working as writers and editors, analysts and strategists, policy and research thinkers, and curious generalists.

It’s not for people who want daily news updates, prefer ideological reinforcement, expect certainty from complex problems, or see politics purely as a tribal competition.

There are plenty of outlets expressing outrage and affirmation. This isn’t one of them.

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About the editor

Craig Thomas has spent more than 30 years as a journalist, editor and editorial consultant across print, digital and brand content. He has worked in newsrooms, magazine editorial departments and as an independent consultant to organisations that need to communicate complex ideas clearly and credibly.

Uncommon Sense is a direct expression of how he has always worked: starting with questions rather than conclusions, looking for the connection that specialist thinking misses, and holding the standard that clarity is not the enemy of complexity: it’s the point of it.

He is also the founder of an advisory practice working with organisations on two distinct challenges: finding and developing the generalist talent that most organisations say they need but systematically fail to keep; and helping teams use AI tools for written communications without losing the editorial judgment that makes their work worth reading.

Both strands of that work grow from the same root as the newsletter. Better thinking leads to better outcomes. Not a slogan: a working method.