1945.

You're in your lab fiddling with radars, and the chocolate bar in your pocket melts.
First thought?

“Oh God… I hope that’s only chocolate."

Percy Spencer asked, ‘Why?’

Popcorn followed. Then an exploding egg. Eventually: the microwave oven.
Saviour of students, drunk people and anyone eating lasagne at 2 a.m.

Ask AI the same question today?

“Sounds like you have a very warm thigh. Want some advice for cooling down?”

Answer given, mystery solved, and cold 2 am lasagne. Forever.

This happens in conversations too.

Recently, I was telling a client about a hidden art museum I found in Hokkaido, packed with Picasso pictures.
Her phone appeared under the table…

“They’re prints, not originals.”

Correct. And…story over.

Her reflex: see a gap and immediately close it.

Curiosity needs that gap between wanting to know and finding out.
That's where the brain gets ready to make connections and memories.
Close it instantly, and you keep the fact but lose everything around it.

That's where good conversations live too.

The wondering and wrong guesses. The strange side paths. The moment two people reach somewhere neither expected (especially at 2 am over reheated food that’s only hot in the middle).

So resist the urge to identify, verify, correct or prove immediately.

Stay in the gap.

Ask:

Answers can wait.

Connection usually won’t.

💡 PRO TIP: Someone reaching for their phone? Try: “Wait. Let’s see if we can figure it out first.” (Prepare for scowls. Keep it cheery).

⛔ DON’T SAY: “Hang on, let me just check.”
(The conversation has already started packing its bags.)

“Curiosity is the lust of the mind.”
(Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher, 1588–1679)

👇 Answer at the end

The first rule of Smell Club?
You absolutely talk about Smell Club. Constantly. That's the whole point.

No wine terroir to fake. No book you never finished. No wheezing through the park with strangers in a pair of shorts.

Just show up and sniff.
Not to ask, “What is it?”
But curious enough to ask, “What does it remind you of?”

“I’m getting… cedarwood… wet pavement and… difficult childhood.”

Fragrance clubs are appearing from Los Angeles to Shanghai, with blind-sniff meetups, scent swaps, workshops and even perfume picnics.
One subscription service, Ffern, charges $129 a bottle and still has a 500,000-person waitlist.
(Heading to my balcony now. Scorched rosemary, fake grass and notes of neighbour’s laundry.)

No homework, jargon, or possible sniggering when you hold the glass wrong.
A more laid-back experience.
And as smell is tied closely to memory, describing one often leads somewhere personal: your grandmother’s kitchen, school changing rooms, childhood holiday, or that petrol station you enjoy far too much.

It stops being about the fragrance and becomes about the people.

Smell turned social.

So, easy on the body spray.

Turn headlines into talking points.

Everyone else has been curious about Japan for decades.
Japan has only just decided to return the favour.

For 80 years, it has had intelligence units, but no centralised CIA or MI6 equivalent. Instead: scattered ministries, quietly curious about each other’s paperwork.

Meanwhile, Russian agents reportedly pour into Tokyo. Chinese spies smuggle drugs and semiconductors. North Korea does… North Korea things (steal crypto, shoot missiles).

Researchers had a name for Japan’s weak defences:

A “spy paradise".
(Not a good look.)

So, Japan's building its first centralised intelligence agency since WWII — a National Intelligence Council and Bureau, styled on the CIA, with the US, Germany and Australia offering pointers.

There's still no anti-espionage law. So technically, you could still stroll in and start snooping.

But I wouldn't. The queue's probably long enough already.

💡 PRO TIP: Treat geopolitics like espionage: gather intelligence before revealing your position.

💬 FOLLOW-UP: "Do you think you would make a good spy?"

⛔ DON'T SAY: "Japan already has ninjas." (Sigh).

You don't have to scroll every AI thread, track every new tool, or watch every demo. 

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Not originally, it didn’t.

Back in 1598, the expression was:

“Care killed the cat.”

Care meant worry or sorrow, not poking your nose into things.

Curiosity only took the blame centuries later, when the modern version appeared in the 1800s.

Nobody knows exactly why.

Guessing curiosity was found loitering near the scene.

💡 PRO TIP: The comeback, "but satisfaction brought it back", is newer still.
(Although I rarely hear people say it.)

Japanese scientists have built a soft, helium-filled companion robot inspired by Tinker Bell and Studio Ghibli.

No propellers or angry drone buzzing.
Drifts silently, like a tiny whale cloud.

Just a silent balloon-creature floating around your home, delivering reminders, offering company and probably getting chopped up by your ceiling fan.

Comforting?

Or like being haunted by a very needy balloon?

💬 FOLLOW-UP: “Would you want a robot companion to look human, animal — or obviously artificial?”

For when your brain needs a biscuit.

A good girl. A leather-jacketed bad boy. A summer romance. Singing, dancing and 30-year-olds playing teenagers.

💬 YOUR TURN: What’s your favourite musical?

🥚 Mayonnaise — creamy perfection (42%)
🍅 Ketchup — classic (8%)
🤠 Ranch — America’s liquid heaven (24%)
🔥 Hot sauce — bring the pain (8%)
🫘 Soy sauce — salt fixes all (0%)
🧪 Something else — reveal your secret weapon (16%)

💬 Your Two Cents

C: “Soup”
P: “Mayo + ketchup mixed.”
C: “I am shocked that you have never tried ranch dressing.”
S: “Daddies Brown Sauce – sounds revolting, tastes divine!”
S: “Always felt very European when we were young (mayo). Commonplace now.”

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