In praise of private dining rooms and outwitting AI  

1.   
We start this Sunday with a thank you to all those readers who took the time to drop a few encouraging words of support and additional ideas off the back of last week’s column. In case you missed it, you can read all about my take on continuing education and the importance of doing a stint in the military or hospitality here. If you’re still in a state of confusion and despair, then might I suggest you enrol your son or daughter in the SFS? While it might sound like an elite, heavily armed sibling of the UK’s SAS or SBS, this SFS is a far more rigorous and perhaps essential institution in today’s challenged workplaces. Officially launched at the Kulm Country Club in St Moritz several weeks ago, Sagra’s Finishing School (SFS) is designed with a clear and simple mission – to ensure your offspring have qualifications in a manual service such as plumbing, upholstery or carpentry, or help them become a master in a craft like hand embroidery or dog manicures.

Based in London with roots in Galicia, SFS encourages both parents and children to recognise that a degree from Princeton or McGill is something to be rightly proud of but, when entire business strategies and court arguments can be cranked out by one of Anthropic’s services, there is an urgent need for a plan B that involves rolling up sleeves, dirtying hands and delivering a product or service for which consumers will increasingly pay luxury margins. If you’d like an introduction to the SFS, drop a note to info@monocle.com.

2.   
Speaking of initialisms, I have three more for you that defined my past week in the UAE.
 
NPO (Nissan Patrol Office). This is what you get when you cross four Monocle staffers with a busy schedule, a hundred kilos of print and a fresh-off-the-lot 2026 Nissan Patrol. Laptops and smartphones might be essential tools for daily business but when you need to make calls, turn up looking sharp and stay secure on the Sheikh Zayed Road, there’s nothing better than a solid set of wheels. Having a driver with an eye for Gulf modernism also helps.
 
PDR (private dining room). Standard in so many corners of the world but still so rare in corners of Europe and the Americas. Just as restaurants need to have enough emergency exits and accessible bathrooms, there should be a code demanding that all proper establishments have PDRs for emergency summits with Australian clients who demand special previews of large-format printed work at the end of an evening.
 
MMM (Martin’s Midnight Majlis). This is a new organisational tool that we employed all last week while in the UAE. It involved six colleagues assembled for nightcaps led by Martin, who ran down the diary for the next day and ensured that there were enough NPOs for people to get from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and PDRs for top-secret meetings.

3.   
And no, I’m not stuck in the UAE. Thankfully the NPO got all of us to the airport before things kicked off in the Gulf and I’m tapping out this column under a very sunny Lisbon sky. That said, closed airspace has prevented one colleague from getting back from Tokyo but she’s found some more business in Hong Kong and, of course, we’ll have full coverage of the conflict on Monocle on Sunday, live at 10.00 CET. Finally, if you happen to be in Taipei this coming Thursday, drop us a note and we’ll send you an invite to a little cocktail reception that we’re hosting for our loyal Taiwanese readers and anyone who happens to be in town. I look forward to seeing you then.

Enjoying life in ‘The Faster Lane’? Click here to browse all of Tyler’s past columns.