Brush Up on Your People Skills
AI can help us prepare, remember and follow up. The relationship still depends on listening, making useful connections and doing what we said we would do.
Writing archive
Writing - Page 3
Older essays on agentic systems, governance, operations, incentives, and the work of making AI useful in real organisations.
282 pieces
Essays and notes
Published archive
Page 3 of 12
A 10% Chance of What, Exactly?
Before AI, who put a number on humanity's chances? Nuclear war, pandemics, climate and the algae story, with the outcomes and assumptions restored.
Linux Is My First Choice for Agentic Workers
I still love my Mac. But after setting up two Beelink Linux machines for agentic work, I am no longer buying one for every software worker.
Orchistra Was Meant To Run Everything. I Had To Stop.
The Chief Agentic Officer Briefing was meant to run on Orchistra. After almost four weeks of deployment attempts, I stopped the all-in-one operating-system build and returned to messaging, integrated tasks and work packets.
Could one CEO CF Challenge be worth €20K?
When I joined CEO CF, I was under pressure and short of headspace. Making time to go gave me somewhere to think through the problems I was carrying.
Go Slower Than You Think You Need To
Parallel agents can save time, but human attention still needs room. A researched, practical guide to smaller waves, clear checkpoints and finishing work you can trust.
Are You a Meat Proxy?
A meat proxy forwards AI-generated work without reading it. A funny name, a serious habit, and four questions before you press Send.
How to Get Skilled Up for the Coming AI Change
A practical British guide to apprenticeships, funded training, pay and employers in electrical work, cooling, construction and energy infrastructure. Learn a trade first, then specialise.
How to Bet on the AI Revolution When You Already Have a Trade
Already skilled in carpentry, HVAC, electrical work or plumbing? Keep your trade, use AI to find better-fitting work, and compare the whole offer before you move.
Do We Need an Agentic Quotient?
We talk about IQ and EQ. What about our ability to work with agents? Seven abilities to practise, a fair way to observe them, and why a new score would need much better evidence.
Could AI Make Britain Richer?
AI could help Britain deliver more care, better services and cheaper goods. But saving time, growing the economy and making households richer are different things.
Why Do We Work?
We work to pay for life. But a salary, a sense of purpose and a good life are different things. Could AI help us separate them?
What Does AI Cost This Month? September 2026
Pricing Watch 3: Astra arrives, Sol gets cheaper, and 26 AI model entries are compared with current API prices, GBP costs and careful August-to-September line charts.
When Every Agent Can Write The Proposal, Trust Wins
Public intelligence will make competent work abundant. Private judgement, trusted relationships and accountable behaviour will remain scarce.
Can Competition Save Us From AI Job Losses?
AI productivity can support more jobs when competition turns lower costs into better prices, higher demand and new work, but the outcome is not automatic.
AI Has A Middle-Management Problem
AI can automate parts of organisational coordination, but companies must redesign management roles and incentives before the real productivity arrives.
Your CEO Needs a Room You Do Not Control
Why a confidential peer room can give a portfolio CEO something valuable precisely because the investor is not in it.
You Do Not Need Another Network. You Need a Room That Remembers.
Why a continuing peer group can help a CEO speak plainly, think better and return to what happened next.
No Astra Yet? Excellent. Another Reset.
How OpenAI turned a messy GPT-6 Astra rollout into a useful lesson in product recovery.
Why VCs Should Want Their CEOs in CEO CF
Why I think investors should value the balcony time, fresh perspective and renewed energy their CEOs can bring back from CEO CF.
Why the Facilitator Assistant Is Key to the CEO CF Challenge
The preparation, coordination, live documentation and follow-through that help a CEO CF Challenge run well, and why typing is only one part of the FA’s job.
Why Not Just Record the CEO CF Challenge?
What writing, refining, reading aloud and checking together contribute beyond an AI recording and summary.
Why Two Days Together at CEO CF Are Worth the Journey
Why time together can create room for better questions, continuing conversations and useful relationships, and what the evidence says about learning and memory.
The CEO CF Challenge: A Better Way to Think Through a Difficult Decision
Why I value the preparation, questioning, peer perspectives and follow-up in CEO CF’s Challenge format, and what research can tell us about them.