An essay-led journal about thinking clearly, building useful things, understanding systems, and becoming more capable in a changing world.

The writing moves between work, technology, ideas and life. The categories are a way to browse, not a promise that the subjects will stay neatly separated.

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Journal

Latest writing

Essays, notes and working thoughts, newest first.

04 September 2026 · Ideas

The Things That Never Became Data

A question about personalised AI, human relationships and the parts of a person that were never captured as data.

28 August 2026 · Life

A Few Days Somewhere Else

Four last-minute nights in Malmö, Copenhagen and Höllviken, and what becomes noticeable when ordinary things work somewhere unfamiliar.

21 August 2026 · Work

I Didn't Put My Screen Up

A reflection on leadership, AI and what happened when I deliberately chose not to take over an internal hackathon.

14 August 2026 · Work

Who Is Allowed to Try?

A field note on why permission to experiment should be designed into organisations rather than depend on finding a permissive manager.

31 July 2026 · Ideas · Retrospective

Why Study Thinking?

Why an offer to study creative thinking made me question how we frame problems, exercise judgement and decide what deserves our attention in an age of increasingly capable AI.

24 July 2026 · Life · Retrospective

After the Disappointments

What watching my son return from disappointment and win a title taught me about persistence, parental pride and the work that success does not show.

17 July 2026 · Life · Retrospective

What England Briefly Brings Together

What watching England in a village pub reminded me about football, friendship, shared optimism and belonging to something greater than yourself.

10 July 2026 · Life · Retrospective

Never Too Late to Make Your Parents Proud

What graduating with a first in the middle of an established life taught me about practical learning, unrealised potential and the enduring wish to make our parents proud.

03 July 2026 · Life · Retrospective

Drawing a Future We Haven’t Built Yet

What drawing a masterplan for our home taught me about sequencing ambition, preserving options and leaving room for a future that may change.

26 June 2026 · Life · Retrospective

The Man Bun Had to Go

What cutting off six years of hair—and finishing Sam Harris’s Waking Up—made me notice about appearance, identity and letting an earlier version of yourself end.

19 June 2026 · Technology · Retrospective

The Barriers Are Falling. The Hard Yards Remain.

What my brother building his own website with AI taught me about technical access, learning things in the wrong order and the persistence still required to make something real.

29 May 2026 · Work · Retrospective

What an Interview Makes You Admit

An interview for a more senior role revealed as much about recognition, ambition and underclaiming as it did about career progression.

22 May 2026 · Life · Retrospective

Not Conditioned for the Distance

What an ultramarathon, an injury and increasingly capable AI revealed about the distance between knowing what to do and becoming capable of doing it.

15 May 2026 · Ideas · Retrospective

What Do We Mean by “Far Right”?

Revisiting Stuart Chase and asking what happens when politically powerful words expand beyond a clear and shared meaning.

08 May 2026 · Life · Retrospective

The House on Both Sides of the Ledger

A reflection on self-building, debt, security and the complicated relationship between a home and what it asks of us.

01 May 2026 · Technology · Retrospective

When a Prototype Becomes a Service

How organisations can enable useful experimentation without mistaking a working prototype for a supported service.

24 April 2026 · Ideas · Retrospective

The Hard Bit After Starting

A reflection on missing the first Friday, the difference between writing and publishing, and why a durable practice needs a route back after life gets in the way.

17 April 2026 · Life

On Building Things That Last

A reflection on gratitude, family, work, and the slow foundations required to build a life that can hold weight.

10 April 2026 · Technology

Service as Software

Why AI may shift the real constraint from tools and output to expertise, culture, and creativity.

27 March 2026 · Life

The Cost of Living

A short reflection on what we mean when we talk about the cost of living, and what gets lost in the language.

13 March 2026 · Ideas

Starting a blog

Why I’m starting a blog about data, leadership, systems, and building things that last.