Weeknotes 31 January 2020 Some weeks get notes, some weeks don’t. Some weeks are interesting, some less so/ I’m making a big effort to pick up things that I’ve previously started. Time adds perspective/ You need to give yourself a critical break from media cycles and narratives because they certainly won’t give you a break. Practice ‘standing apart’ but... More
Weeknotes 10 January 2020 Where we choose to live is so important if you don’t really belong anywhere. You have no home, no area of belonging you can turn and point at over the canals of time. You might have created a place in the here and now but something is missing and you keep moving, searching for an... More
Weeknotes 3 January 2020 The human is the darkest machine/ Some people have referred to me in the past as a bit of a maverick, but thanks very much Cummings, not that type of maverick/ “The old method for dealing with bad dreams is to tell them aloud above the toilet bowl, and then flush them away.” Olga Tokarczuk... More
Weeknotes 27 December 2019 “Inbetween one place and another place. Inbetween where technology sees me and where I stand amongst the woods.” I can no longer take a gung ho approach to sports and exercise. Eventually your age prescribes preparation. My first experience of heat exhaustion and meltdown by deciding to red route it in the midday sun without... More
Weeknotes 20 December 2019 I have a resolution to start writing again. This format is a good kickstarter. I remember my year-end notes. I liked the one in 2011. My principles for notes: keep it very simple, don’t try to be clever and avoid it being a list of things from social media/ In a search for writing inspiration,... More
Innovation Day I recently worked with David Lowe on running our first ‘Innovation Day’ at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). It is our take on a design sprint very much influenced by The Fix and What Design Can Do (we are both involved in MoJ running the UK version of No Minor Thing next month, details here).... More
Move slower and don’t break things There are laws that govern, or can explain, the accelerated rate of technological advancement. But within those accelerated spaces you don’t have to ‘move fast and break things.’ That’s not an immutable law of technology. You can move slowly and with great consideration from a point of strong ethics and equanimity. It’s important not to... More
Product Discovery Last week, I helped Kate Leto run her Product Discovery workshop as part of the Mind the Product conference. It went really well and I think all of us who were there ended the day with a better understanding of what discovery is and can be It was suggested we shared the tools, resources and... More
The angel of technology The angel of technology whose face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, make whole what has been smashed. But a storm... More
Work (welcome back my friends to the show that never ends) We all have a role in a project, even if we only deliver a small thing. Sometimes the impact comes much later. The thing that was delivered that seemed small, is suddenly much bigger. You can never totally tell. Sometimes what is delivered might seem small at the time, but later on takes on much... More