Nobody watches robot archery
An archer's job is to be a robot, yet nobody would watch a machine do it perfectly. The test for what to automate: does anyone value watching a human do it?
Writing
Thoughts on AI, transformation, leadership, and the craft of getting things done.
We can be human again
When machines take the machine-work, the human-made becomes the premium one. Why the most valuable work of the next decade will carry human fingerprints.
Card Stash: Building a Loyalty Card Wallet That Never Phones Home
How I built a local-first, encrypted loyalty card wallet for iOS and Android - barcode scanning, on-device OCR, payment card rejection, zero network calls.
It started with a muddy stick
How a hand-written scavenger hunt with a muddy stick became Peekabout, the iOS and Android app for parents who want their kids to look up.
The Coffee Link
A teenager downloading freeware in the 1990s wondered who clicked the PayPal coffee links. Twenty-odd years later, I built an app and put one in.
Sunlight: One Design System, Many Surfaces
How a shared set of design tokens powers a Flutter app, a personal website, and a smart mirror — and why changing a single variable updates them all.
I Built My Family a Chief of Staff. It Runs on a Raspberry Pi.
A smart mirror that pulls from eight data sources and uses two AI models to surface what matters before you think to ask - for about 16p a day.
Building Your Future in the Age of AI: A Practical Guide for Young Professionals
Entry-level UK roles have fallen by a third since 2022. Young professionals need AI fluency and critical thinking to navigate a rebuilt career ladder.
From My Grandmother's Workshop to Publishing's Future: The Enduring Craft of Special Editions and Direct-to-Consumer Publishing
From a grandmother's bookbinding workshop to leading special editions at Hachette - why demand for handcrafted, direct-to-consumer publishing is growing.
An Elegy for the Em Dash—and the Human Writer
There is a piece of punctuation that breathes. It is not a full stop, which ends a thought, nor a comma, which suggests a gentle pause. It is the...