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roved the rows of machines with his micrometre silently assessing your work if the measurements were a tenth of a millimetre out a week s work would be flung into the bin it s one way to set high standards the first anniversary in 1987 was spent wiring toroids i d been placed onto the instrumentation pathway no more metal work just electrical work wires cables circuit boards and out onto site in the test beds with the jet engines checking gauges and meters the workplace was divided into works and staff each with their own toilets i was on a works route overall i was realising that i wasn t heading in the right direction for me although i wasn t sure what i was looking for it felt like there was little room for creativity other than my ever more elaborate logbook illustrations see below so i left in 1989 a month or so before the 3 year apprenticeship was complete memory failure it d be 7 more years including 3 years at university until i found a workplace where i fitted and where managers recognised potential and encouraged me to do a phd that s not a criticism of the system at rolls royce after all a football manager can t be expected to identify a good cricketer i d started on the wrong path and i had to spot that myself while some may recognise difference or not fitting in others if they have the right perspective may spot aptitude careers are rarely planned they are often about moments of opportunity doors that open but that may not lead to a favourable destination i ve given up jobs i wasn t enjoying twice in order to try and open doors elsewhere back to the tin box such manual skills are wonderful to have and develop they still felt of their time in 1986 rather than a craft to marvel over on tv but computers were appearing in the workplace although it d be 1996 until i had one on my desk when new technology arrives it creates opportunities for creative thinking in 1999 a few of us repurposed a sun microsystems sparcstation into a web server to host online course materials for students for all modules by 2000 this was soon followed by discussion forums and the first online degrees undergraduate psychology in 2005 and my masters in ergonomics with a virtual workplace soon after this was acknowledged by the professional body as having transformed student learning in the discipline across the uk and internationally confirming that the point wasn t the technology itself but the improvements it could bring in the early years some wanted to shut down this rogue use of technology but by 2011 it was seen as distinctive and standard setting it was celebrated replicated and claimed people with ideas can be seen as mavericks even problems when they act on those ideas but they can be establishing a prototype that more formal systems can adopt fast forward 25 years the online degrees have been highly successful and ai is presenting similar opportunities for innovation and transformation once again existing systems are challenged and there can be a similar desire by some to hold things back as with the internet it s clear this new technology is here to stay those that adopt it well early can still be front runners decades later back in the late 1990s i also did online research developing some of the first online psychology experiments and using ai to facilitate research has been my focus over the past 18 months or so rather than asking ai to do the thinking for me i ve used it as a research assistant programmer and data analyst one project explored how our relationship with nature has changed over the past two centuries analysing millions of words from digitised books to reveal long term cultural trends and the social factors linked to them an idea quickly became reality whereas previously it would have remained in my mind another involved building an agent based computer model that simulated the lives of thousands of virtual people families and communities to explore how nature connection is passed between generations and influenced by changes in society cities and culture more on that here agent based model from idea to reality what s exciting is that the agent based model was something i d wanted to build for over a decade i could imagine it how people places culture and nature might interact over time but turning that idea into working software always felt beyond the programming skills i had available ai changed that it helped me translate concepts into code test ideas rapidly and create a simple model that behaved as intended that was followed by a second far more sophisticated model that incorporated regional differences cultural trends and future scenarios overall working with ai on and off for eight months from february 2025 i produced four research papers published between august 2025 and march 2026 the latest project has returned to the cultural trends project this time using the rapidly evolving ai tools to automate it i enter the factors i m interested in and it does the rest gathering the data running the analyses validating the findings and drafting the results section a project that took me several days in 2025 now takes a few minutes of my time in the same way that the internet allowed me to move teaching online 25 years ago ai has allowed me to turn ideas into reality enabling me to explore approaches that would previously have remained as sketches in a notebook how many people have ideas talents or ways of thinking that never quite fit the systems around them looking back the most important moments in my career were not promotions or job titles but the moments when someone recognised potential or when a new tool opened a door that had previously been closed perhaps the challenge with ai is the same as it was with education apprenticeships and the internet will it help us spot and develop different kinds of talent or simply become another way of selecting people who best fit the existing system imagination is more important than knowledge for knowledge is limited whereas imagination embraces the entire world stimulating progress giving birth to evolution albert einstein 1931 in cosmic religion and other opinions and aphorisms for me that is where the real opportunity lies not in replacing expertise judgement or creativity but in amplifying them the most powerful use of ai is perhaps not getting answers but helping people build things they could previously only imagine ai is a power tool just like those that enabled me to shape metal in 1986 the craft still matters the judgement still matters the ideas still matter but the right tool expands what is possible forty years after making that tin box i find the same satisfaction in building something useful from raw materials the materials are no longer sheets of metal but data code and ideas posted in uncategorized leave a comment 500 000 views and 12 years of finding nature posted on may 28 2026 by miles may 2026 marks a small but meaningful milestone for my findingnature org uk blog 12 years online and reaching 500 000 views what began as a space to explore ideas and share research around nature connectedness has grown into a global resource with over 279 000 visitors 215 posts and a wealth of shared research practices and reflections to receive the latest blogs into your inbox you can subscribe a journey through the years the first blog post 22 may 2014 looked at two research papers kamitsis francis 2013 on how spirituality mediates the relationship between engagement with nature and psychological wellbeing and a study on meaning in life nature connectedness and well being by howell passmore buro 2013 the blog has evolved steadily since then with interest building year by year peaking in 2022 when a retweet by greta thunberg led to the busiest day and month in the site s history that single most popular day was 11 august 2022 when twitter became x a main source of referrals 7752 faded to 617 in all of 2025 and views have levelled out around 60 000 to 70 000 per year from around 40 000 unique visitors views and visitors since 2014 what people read most the most visited pages reflect a strong appetite for both theory policy and practical guidance on nature connection with the top post being the launch of our first policy briefing in 2020 the biodiversity stripes in 2022 were also popular thanks to greta so the widely used research into the pathways from 2017 only make it to 3 rd next up is the practical guidance and the launch of the nature connection handbook in 2022 the top 5 is completed by another research paper this time signalling the start of my shift to looking at nature connectedness as a societal issue as much as an individual trait a new relationship with nature what it means and what we can do 23 911 views biodiversity stripes a journey from grey to green 21 122 views beyond knowing nature 5 pathways to nature connection 16 728 views the nature connection handbook 11 648 views applying the pathways to nature connectedness at societal scale 10 698 views a resource hub for practice downloads from the resources section have been a major part of the blog s impact the nature connection handbook alone has been downloaded 100 000 times with other guides postcards and handbooks reaching tens of thousands more this suggests the work is not just being read but actively used in organisations communities and education a global reach while the uk leads with over 266 000 views the blog has found an international audience with views from 218 nations there have been over 100 views from 93 nations it s encouraging to see ideas about nature connection travelling so widely how people find the blog search engines overwhelmingly google account for the largest share of traffic 139 800 views but social platforms have played a key role noting that linkedin took over as the leading referrer since 2023 x twitter 34 659 linkedin 16 987 facebook 10 426 academic and institutional links e g journals and research platforms also feature strongly reflecting the blog s connection to research and practice when people visit thursdays are the most popular day 17 of views with 2pm the busiest hour it seems many readers are engaging during the working day perhaps reflecting the blog s use in professional and academic contexts looking ahead half a million views is a moment to pause and reflect but also to look forward blogs on my research papers published in 2026 have received a couple of thousand views so far but the 2017 pathways blog is still in the top 5 the practical guidance remains popular with the various handbooks and guidance reaching another 14000 or so downloads this year the mix of research and application is still key thank you to everyone who has read shared downloaded and applied these ideas over the past 12 years the journey continues posted in uncategorized leave a comment foundations of mental health economics and a life close to nature posted on may 20 2026 by miles my latest research in the journal of environmental psychology explores how everyday life conditions have shaped mental health discourse and prevalence over the last two centuries mental health difficulties have increased across many societies and this suggests that mental health is not just a condition of mind but also a condition of life it is shaped by a complex interplay of structural and cultural factors economics matter education matters urbanisation matters so do technological change social exclusion and the physical environments in which people live over recent decades psychology and public health have steadily widened their lens to recognise these broader determinants of mental health yet despite this broadening of scope one foundational aspect of human experience remains largely absent from how mental health is usually explained the human nature relationship this omission is not trivial for example the american psychiatric association s task force on the social determinants of mental health makes little reference to nature at all this matters as in this latest research across this long historical view two foundations of good mental health stand out the importance of economic conditions reflected in how much cultural attention is given to issues of work income prosperity and insecurity a close relationship with the natural world reflected in how much cultural attention is given to nature together these factors appear to explain long term mental health trends a trebling since the 1950s and doubling since 1980 more so than many of the determinants that are mentioned more often what did the study do the study took a long historical view examining how often mental health related terms have been used in english language works over more than two centuries 1800 2020 large scale word frequency data was used as a proxy for societal concern stress and broader mental health trends a carefully selected set of mental health related terms was compiled from five historical eras statistical techniques were used to ensure these terms reflected a coherent underlying concept rather than shifts in language fashion or diagnostic systems each era was equally weighted so that no single period dominated the index preserving long term comparability is word frequency data a useful proxy for mental health prevalence language is not the same as prevalence but it reflects reality what societies talk and write about indicates topics that matter these language trends were therefore tested against real world indicators namely mental health related hospitalisation and social security records and showed strong alignment across time see the chart below the use of mental health terminology matched actual prevalence well the study reveals a marked and accelerating rise in cultural attention to mental health across two centuries particularly from the mid 20th century onward with a trebling since the 1950s and doubling since 1980 this pattern closely matches real world prevalence indicators such as mental health related social security claims these results suggest that word use trends can serve as a reliable proxy for societal concern and potentially for underlying prevalence opening up new possibilities for tracking population mental health over time which life conditions best explain the rise in references to mental health since 1800 the core aim of the work was to test whether macro level life conditions also measured using the word frequency approach could explain the long term changes in mental health discourse eight factors were included six established mental health determinants plus human centred values and the human nature relationship economic environment e g unemployment capitalism economy urbanisation e g urban cityscape housing technology e g computing digital social media data environmental stressors e g pollution landslide global warming social equity e g exclusion gender discrimination education e g university curriculum literacy human centred values e g autonomy ethics individualism human nature relationship e g bud d...